Continuation... The United States Boot Camp Navy does not believe in sleep. It is akin to ice cream and salaries; only to be dished out in small scoops as a sweet reward. The typical boot camp night gives the common sailor about four to five hours of sleep; sometimes less. To make sure a sailor never sleeps the Navy has watches. It has compartment watches, perimeter watches and head watches. A head watch is where the young recruit gives up two hours from the already lean sleep schedule to watch the bathroom. The young recruit arms his or her self with a bucket of bleach water and a brush. Every time a sailor takes a head break the head-watch scrubs the commode to kill crabs. Crabs are a big problem when you put eighty-four human beings in the same small compartment. I bet the Navy recruiter didn’t tell you and your little recruit that, huh? “Remember ma’am, if Johnny joins the Navy it’s not just a job it’s an adventure! He’ll see the world, earn college money and probably learn how to scratch a crab as it takes a big long hike across his pubic region. Good times. Good times, ma’am and he may even get killed or wounded for life. Where else besides a Columbian coal mine could he get all that at such a young age?” But avoiding crabs is a good skill and still today when I use a public toilet or one at a friend’s house whom I know to have more fun than the average married man I kick the seat up and let it slam down to cause the crabs to scurry. If the young recruit is especially vociferous in his or her objections to the maltreatment of others, like say Kevin Derr, then the Navy has a special way of handling it. More watches. It was not uncommon after I had opened my big, opinionated mouth to be assigned a two hour compartment watch followed by a two hour head watch all in a five our night. After a while, I grew so tired I could have cared less if they plucked the fingernails out of my weakest shipmates or, even worse, made them Marines.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 23:26:05 +0000