Lost in the shuffle

'A' school is what they called it.
As I was being processed out of boot camp I got into a line in the company barracks to see what my next duty station was going to be. Some guys had it all arranged, they joined with a contract. They would get a certain type of training and do that job while in the navy. I didn't have such an agreement. I told them to do with me what they will. So I had no idea what I was going to be. The guy in the office said "Seaman Apprentice Whatsyername, 'A' school, Data Processing Technician, San Diego". I said, "What's that"? He said "Computers, I think".

I went there. Sure enough, long white coats, chairs with wheels and guaranteed air conditioning for the rest of my working life. Cool.

So there I was in 'A' school having a ball. We attended classes with girls. Back then girls weren't easy to find in the navy. And there were absolutely none in the fleet. But we attended class with them, mustered with them and partied with them. Guys lived in the guy's barracks and gals in the gal's barracks and seldom the twain did meet, as far as I knew. But we did have a very fine time in 'A' school.

I recall one night when a bunch of guys gathered in my room. A room had two? Three? guys living in it. Some desks to study on and some beds and some closets. There weren't bathrooms because that stuff was kept down the hall in one common area. No telephones because they were out in the hall. There was recreation area with pool tables and a nifty vending machine that gave you cold cans of beer.

Well these guys gathered in my room with their vending machine beer and a little bit of California's finest smoking material. We had a great party. Everyone left. Next morning I found a ditty bag that was left behind by someone. A ditty bag is just a small vinyl bag used to carry your toothbrush or shaving cream or, in this guy's case, your stash. Well I didn't want to get in trouble for having somebody's stash in my room so I opened up the bag and checked it out. There was nothing in it so I tossed it into my closet so that I could find its owner later. We went to class.

Sometimes they gather you up from class and march you back to your rooms. They did that on this day that I'm talking about. They marched us to our barracks and had us all stand outside while the dogs went sniffing through our rooms. The dogs stopped at my room. At my closet. I was called in to the room. "What the hell is this, seaman apprentice"? "Dope I guess". I guessed that dusty looking stuff tucked into the seam of the ditty bag was pot. Days later they confirmed it.

So I went to mast. That's what you do in the navy when you do something wrong. You go to captain's mast. You are judged there and they mete out punishment to you. I got a strongly worded reprimand. They ordered that I should be confined to base for 30 days and I should be busted in rank, fined some money (forgot how much) and I had to attend a drug rehabilitation class.

After the mast the 5 of us who were convicted gathered into a room with a chief. He explained to us that, since school was nearly over, and since we were all going to be travelling to our next duty stations soon. He was not going to enter those papers that recorded our captain's mast into our personnel folders. They were in transit already so he couldn't do that. He looked at us sternly and said that he was "...ordering you to take this paperwork and deliver it to your next duty station C.O. and if you don't do that I'm going to travel there and find you and stomp you until all your stuff squirts out".

When I left 'A' school in California I stopped in Tulsa on the way to Florida, where my ship was. I left that paperwork at home. Haven't seen it since. Never heard a word about it either.