54 Years Ago Today

54Years ago today I raised my right hand and took the oath to defend our country in the US navy. I had no idea what I was doing. The recruiter was so nice beforehand and after we lowered our hands he knew he had us and things changed immediately. We had 5 minutes to say goodbye to those family members who came to see the ceremony and we were handed train tickets to Chicago for basic training. The train ride was my first and the meal served was quite good as I remember. There at the train station a navy bus picked us up and took us to Great Lakes naval training station. We arrived after midnight and a surly petty officer led us to a gymnasium where there were dozens of bunks set up and told us to hit the sack. At 5 AM, 0500 an angry navy chief started banging on the trashcans to wake us up and start our training. We were rushed out onto the grinder (a parking lot) to start our first marching to the galley for breakfast. At the galley we were lined up to go in, after he had us lined up (to quote his words asshole to bellybutton) Our only uniform at that point was a watch cap (navy blue stocking hat). After breakfast we went to the barber shop at the navy exchange where they shaved our heads and made us look like dorks and actually charged us for the job. We did not know that until our first meager pay came in. $74 a month and they took out the charge for our haircuts and razors, toothpaste and toiletries. Later that day we were issued uniforms and sea bags and then things went downhill from there. We were moved to an old wooden barracks that had been slapped together during World War Two. The bathrooms had about 20 toilets all in one open room, privacy was not an option. There were washrooms there, not for bodies, for washing clothes by hand with a fiber brush. We were introduced to navy showers, rinse, shut off the water, soap, rinse again and done. No water more than one minute at a time. It was good training for the future aboard ship when the water was always rationed. There were times when the water distilling plant on the ship broke down and the showers were turned off and we got a single lavatory basin to shave and bathe in and that was it.