+1
I had to wait about an hour just to see anyone at all. My back was hurting the whole time and I was planning on going to sick call after my talk with the C.O. So my patience was wearing a bit thin. I could hear the Captain in his office yakking on the phone about golf so I knew he was just making me wait without any reason. The secretary was a bitch. Sorry if that sounds crude, but that’s how I felt at the time. I told her my problem about the money not being received by my wife and she had the nerve to tell me that I should have planned better with my finances. How to you plan your finances when you do not get a paycheck? I left for my training three weeks earlier at the request of my recruiter so he could get me in on that quarter’s quota. I had to leave my current job without giving notice and the deal was that I would get an advance on my first two paychecks. I explained this to her and she just scoffed and had me take a seat. It took her fifteen minutes just to let the C.O know I was here, and all I heard her say to him was that there was a trainee whining about pay wanting to see him. As I waited stewing my negative emotions I was thinking about what had just happened with McOwen and the scuffle. I was pondering the idea of reporting it, but I figured to let it go. Unfortunately I found out later that day being quiet does not pay off in the military. Finally the company’s executive officer called me into his office. At the time I did not even know who he was or what his job entailed. Oh it sounded important, but all he really did was take care of the menial things; such as a “trainee whining about pay” I was not technically a soldier yet so I did not have to go through the rigors of announcing myself and my intentions and saluting him when I entered.
“Have a seat.” He said without looking up at me when I walked in. I knew immediately he was one who was going to play mind games with me. That was okay, I like mind games. He sat there reading something waiting for me to fidget or say something first. I knew I was not to say anything until asked, I learned that lesson the hard way from the Duty sergeant back at the barracks. I really waned to get this taken care of and get back to other things. For the most part at the reception station our time was ours. We were not officially in the Army yet and as such we only had a few small duties required of us: Cleaning the grounds, pulling fire watch, K.P. now and then. That was it, but I had a lot of personal things left to do, like get my back looked at. But I was in the game now, the mind game that is played on all enlisted soldiers during their training. The game varied from person to person, but they all played it; try to make us break down and lose it. There were many ways one could “lose” it. You could break down crying, you could fly into a rage and hit or threaten to hit an officer, you could just go into a trance, and the list goes on. Basically if you lost your cool you were broken. Two things happened if you lost it. You were sent home, or you were labeled and the rest of your training was hell. Although I was impatient when I had walked into his office I was now ready to put Job to shame. I folded my hands in my lap and let my daydreams take over; I could do this for a very long time I thought. As time went on and my thoughts were visiting the day my son was born Lieutenant Boles finally looked up from his paperwork and acknowledged me.
“So you are having money problems?” he asked matter-of-factly.
“Yes sir.” I stated. He asked a question so now the door was open for me to say anything I wanted in relationship to his inquest.
“You do know that you are not officially in the Army yet and due to this fact you should have planned your finances better until your pay becomes regular?”
“Yes sir, but I have an early entrance agreement to receive and advance on my first two paychecks due to the fact that I left early at my recruiter’s request.” I handed him the paper work that was given to me from my recruiter Sergeant Jennings. He took it without even looking at it; he knew what it was as I am sure he had seen them many times before. Talking to a few of the other guys I knew it must have been a common thing to request advance pay because a good percentage of them had done so. Unfortunately I seemed to be one of the few who had not received it yet. Without saying anything he picked up his phone and made a call. He looked straight at me then as he was testing my patience. The call he made had nothing to do with me. It was something about ordering supplies for the medical unit that took care of all the trainees. He proceeded to make two other calls and take his time talking about unrelated issues. The last call was to the Captain in the next room of all things. He was talking about his leave time coming up as he looked at me with that sneer of his that I had grown used to over the last thirty minutes. I focused my eyes on his and just smiled a crooked grin to match his; it scares me presently to think of how cocky I was back then, but at least I never “lost it.” He finally finished his Bsing and hung up the phone.
“So what is the problem exactly ummmmmm Elliott?” He asked as he looked at the paperwork I gave him to help his act of forgetting it as if it was not important. He had made a mistake in the game. He asked an open ended question. Had he asked, what exactly is the problem with your finances , I would have been required to mention only things directly related to that. It was his time to wait. Wait while I told him everything that I had a problem with. Sure he could have told me to be quiet, he could have just told me to leave, but that would have meant that I had not lost the game. It sounds a bit childish when I think back to it, but I was a young man with a family who needed money to make it. I did not have much going for me but I had a little pride for myself left and a whole hell of a lot of pride for my family. When he saw me smile he knew he had made a mistake, but I have to hand it to him he did not play a cop out, he listened.
“Well let me first say sir that I know you think I have skirted the chain of command, and you are right. I did not however bypass the First Sergeant by choice; he made that choice for me. I asked him to speak with him and he said he would talk to me later when he had time. That was six days ago sir and in the meantime my wife is washing dirty diapers in the bathtub and has a cut off notice for the electricity and the water. I am stating these things as fact and not to sound disrespectful, but I have a few other things to say that I think you should be aware of.” His sneer had turned to a frown and his eyes were quite wide. “Go on.” He said, although I know he would have rather told me to shut up. Just then the Captain walked in and stood in the doorway, I turned my gaze to him and saw that it was going to be two against one. Good I thought, I wont have to say this twice.
Last edited by 7thson; 11-19-05 at 01:27 PM.