Military Mis-Adventures
It was on November 21 when I boarded a flight to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma for my military training. I enjoyed all the special skills we learned with M16s. The only bad part was that at that time of year Oklahoma was very cold. We froze our butts there.
Graduation happened on my birthday - February 8. From there I was sent to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland for Advanced Individual Training. I spent 13 weeks learning to be a 63W Heavy-Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic.
It was mid-May 1996 when it was all done. And the military then sent me to Alaska to my Guard unit in Wasilla.
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I spent the summer in Alaska, but requested a transfer to California because my sister invited me to come stay with her. I was happy to go to San Jose and give it a try living there. But through no action of my own, a week later I was summarily thrown out and sent to my grandmother’s home in Palo Alto. I was a bit mad at this. But I did not make an issue of it.
I worked at the Sharper Image in the Stanford Shopping Center nearby. Once a month I had to spend a weekend in San Lorenzo for Guard training. It was really bad, they were all overweight, one NCO was very pregnant which made it difficult to maintain sanity there.
In December of 1996 I had experienced enough of California and contacted a regular Army recruiter for a change to active duty.
In January 1997, I was sent to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. The 101st Airborne. It wasn’t bad, the barracks were quite old, and my room leaked constantly. We ran 5 miles per day, at nights we had drinking parties that became excessive. Life was good for the next six months until they discovered my marijuana usage and set out to give me administrative punishment.
Me and another Army friend got together that night, he too was facing similar punishment for a drinking and driving incident. So the next day we went to work as usual. With a plan to get a rental car after work and flee. Which is precisely what we did.
The two of us spent the next three months on the run. We spent the first two weeks in a trailer court literally across the street from the 101st. We gave up the rental car, and purchased a $400 1972 Chevy truck that was incredibly rusted. The two of us added a few fluids to help keep the beast running. And we then embarked on a journey to California.
There were several minor breakdowns along the route we took on I-40. But they were easy fixes. We were both pleasently surprised when we pulled in to Palo Alto. The city that I started from months before. At that point we had no money. So I began going into a local grocery store, and pilfered an astonishing amount of goods. In my good fortune I never got caught, despite the fact that on two occasions I walked out with two full shopping carts. We lived by using the shower in a large office building nearby and sleeping in nearby parks. We weren’t easily recognizable as homeless people.
October came and this lifestyle was going to become difficult in the winter time, the bay area does get some moderate doses of cold weather.
I negotiated airfare back to Alaska from my father. It was October 20 when I landed in Anchorage. I was in Palmer for a mere three days when I was stopped by a police officer and asked for ID. Busted. My at-large status was discovered and I was promptly placed in the local jail. I was there for three days, then the military police arrived from nearby Ft. Richardson to take me into custody. I sat in a post jail for two days, and then was flown to Ft. Sill of all places to be processed out of the Army. Much to my great surprise there was an entire company of people caught for being AWOL there.
It was an easy week, and actually quite relaxing. We sat and watched troops in basic training marching by. None of us envied them.
The Army gave me an Other Than Honorable Discharge and actually told me that I could return to the military after two years. I then boarded a flight from Oklahoma City back to Alaska. While I sat on the plane I reflected on my recent past. And pondered the future.
Author : sean sandvik
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