Radioman (A 2/19th Spinoff) - Complete

From the New World to the Old

"Private Foster," Sergeant Gloss snapped. I paused in what I was doing, which was jamming the last of my possessions into a dufflebag. Gloss wasn't a drill sergeant, he was a drill instructor. He didn't wear the "brown round" hat, which reminded me of a State Patrolman's hat, but instead he wore a striped helmet with his rank painted on it. I had learned that instructors were going through their own training, Basic Non-Commissioned Officer's Course that they had to go through when they got their E-5 to improve their leadership skills and learn advanced job tasks.

I idly wondered as I turned around if I'd ever go to BNCOC.

The Sergeant was smiling at me, trying to look compassionate and failing, and I smiled back as I jammed my field jacket into the duffle bag and clipped the hasp shut.

"Yes, Sergeant?" I asked him.

"Congratulations of your class ranking," he told me. I could tell that it was said grudgingly even though not a hint of it showed on his face or in his voice. He had been screwing one of my classmates, a brunette girl from Florida who I couldn't stand. He knew that I knew, and he'd acted badly toward me since he figured it out.

"Thank you, Sergeant," I said. I'd made Distinguished Honor Graduate, which Private Spanks had been eyeing. When she found out I'd beat her out for it, despite her spreading it for Gloss, she'd broken down and cried then tried complaining to the Senior Drill.

I was still DHG, she was being held over for unknown reasons.

"Your bus is waiting. You'll be going to Germany," he told me.

"Thank you," I told him. I didn't mean it, but going to Germany meant I'd be just that much further from home, and that was all I asked from the Army. "I thought I was going to Fort Lewis," I told him. I didn't really care. Germany was further away from Kansas than Washington State, so I'd take Germany. When you got right down to it, I'd take Vietnam if the war was still going on.

He shook his head. "Your orders were changed this morning, during the parade review."

Spanks was going to Lewis too, something I wasn't looking forward to. I was suddenly reminded that Gloss talked a lot about being at Fort Lewis, working a lot of First Special Forces. It suddenly dawned on me that he didn't want me around the two of them.

"Let's go, Private," he told me. It was funny, he had spent the least several weeks screaming at me, calling me names, making me do pushups whenever he thought he could get away with it. Now that I had graduated he had to give me some respect, and I knew it was rankling him.

Who cared? I'd never see him again anyway.

I followed him to the bus, largely ignoring everything. When I saw Private Donahue I waved and the big Samoan waved back. We'd become good friends during Advanced Individual Training and I'd miss the big man's sense of humor and practical jokes.

I was the only one heading to the airfield, but not the only one on the plane. A lot of guys from various Military Occupational Specialities were on the plane. The propellers were loud, but the drone put me to sleep pretty quickly. I slept for most of the flight, and while I was awake I just sat there, staring at my feet.

Gail had called twice, both times calling my chain of command to try to force me to talk to her. She was still claiming I'd knocked her up, but I'd called a friend of mine one day after dinner and asked if she was showing.

I had been gone over three months, she would have to be four or five months along, but she wasn't showing at all.

Still hanging out with Dave, who spent every night at the trailer that I'd driven away from.