[Trombone-l] New place, old desires

[Wayne Dyess]

The only musical opportunities we had at Orlando was to sing in an all  
male choral group.  They were pretty good, but my company  
"commander" (actually a Navy Chief) frowned heavily on those who  
volunteered for that duty.  I elected to stay in the regular routine,  
and ended up being a rifle squad leader.  I worked hard, however, and  
was voted by the unit as Outstanding Recruit at the end of the boot  
training.

My week of duty was not in the mess hall, thankfully.  I was assigned  
to the Shore Patrol.  I was put at a gate and had to salute stars  
(officers and their wives) cars as they entered and left the base.   
Our unit had ONE day of R&R toward the end of the camp.  Our Chief was  
a Viet Nam veteran, and he let the guys vote between two options:  (a)  
a day at DisneyWorld, or (b) a day at the beach.  You can guess what  
the guys voted for.  Yep---the beach.  We spent our day off ON BASE,  
overlooking a lakefront property -- with nothing but guys around.

That guy was a sumbitch.

W



On Mar 8, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Phil Burton wrote:

> I was in Navy boot camp in San Diego, in 1964, was fortunate enough  
> to get into the Drum and Bugle corps.  That got me out of a week of  
> working in the mess hall, doing all that lovely KP stuff, and the  
> rest of the 'wonderful' experience.
>
> We spent our days practicing, marching, and playing shuffleboard on  
> the concrete wash tables behind the barracks.
>
> Also got out on a few extra trips to participate in parades.
>
> I was sooooo happy to get away from all those push ups etc....