Birth of the Blue Missile

PART 6
Because the war was raging and the military was looked upon as equals to the Fuzz, we were as a rule not liked by the “Townies”, at least the guys. They called us the “River rats” and generally harassed us when we were at the mall or if caught not in a group at the beach. What they didn’t understand was that we were for the most part not in favor of the war and we were just as stoned as they were but we had crew cuts. I was also told that besides the war issue there was the fact that when we were in town the girls seemed to like the “clean cut “ boys in uniform. This didn’t sit well with the locals.
There was an incident where the anti-war crowd decided to protest our presence in their town. I seem to remember one Saturday morning seeing a small group start to gather at the front gate with some sort of signs, which were way to far away to read with the naked eye. I don’t think I was on guard duty but for some reason I was up front in the guard shack. Probably waiting for the bus to the beach. By the time it was time to go there was quite a few people there. I remember driving through the crowd as we left the campus. When I came back for lunch, they were still there and their number had swelled significantly. There were actually guards posted at the entrance to open the front gates, which had been closed, and there were protesters climbing the fence, not trying to get in but just climbing for the sake of something to do. It wasn’t long after lunch that the commandant had called the local police to disperse the crowd. The cadets had assembled on the balconies of the main building to watch the show. Little did we know that the show was not yet over. The next weekend during the night, someone in a white van drove through the alley between the outlying barracks and threw rocks through some of the windows into the rooms. It all happened so quickly, and there was no one hurt, so a response never occurred. The next weekend the same van, drove between the barracks again. But this time they tossed a Molotov cocktail through one of the windows. As it happens the occupants were partying in another suite so they were not hurt this time either. The fire department was called and since the barracks were made out of concrete and there was little to burn in the room so there was only minor damage.
After this action, a response was truly called for. So in the words of the great philosopher Bugs Bunny “This means war!”
That up coming Friday night we posted cadets on the roofs of the barracks either side of the alley, they had sealed 55 gal drums of water ready to roll into the alley and on top of the van if it should re-appear. The object was to do damage and to immobilize, so as to give the police time to respond and put these dirt bags in jail. For the record they never came back.
The commandant also hired a couple of rent-a-cops to patrol the campus at night.This presented its own set of problems. While all of the cadets were cool the rent-a-cops were not and getting busted for smoking dope was not on the agenda either. So they needed to be dealt with as well. While we did everything to make them feel as unwelcome as possible, this only seemed to anoy them. So Earnest came up with an idea of his own and executed it solo as well. He went up to the roof of the three story main building and took one of the acid/baking soda fire extinguishers with him. This was one of those two foot tall, seven inches in diameter silver extinguishers that were filled with liquid and used everywhere at the time. He then waited for one of the rent-a-cops to walk under his position and proceeded to drop the extinguisher about five or six feet behind him. It burst upon impact and scared the hell out of the cop. He quit that evening, and his partner didn’t last much longer as well. I guess they got the message that we really didn’t want them on the campus.
Now as I mentioned, there was a parade field that we used every Sunday. One side was the actual traffic circle and the other was the fence at the edge of the campus. In spite of the some of the Locals hate of us there was a fair amount of spectators parked at the edge of the road at every parade. We would form up by companies and then with the drill team and flag bearers at the front march up and down the field a couple of times. After which we were dismissed to relax the rest of the day. Now one Saturday night some one got the brilliant idea that if we all flushed our toilets at the same time it would blow the main water line coming into the campus which was known to be located in the middle of the parade field. So it was decided at the highest level, that at the first bell for breakfast formation, everyone would flush. The next morning we flushed all together, and low and behold, the main burst right in the middle of the parade ground. Since breakfast was only a couple of hours before parade there was no time to fix it and dry out the field so parade was canceled. Now that’s the way to have a relaxing day!
The only other thing I remember that stands out, is that I got busted with someone else breaking barracks to go to a concert at the Hollywood Sportatorium. We got picked up by the Hollywood police hitchhiking west on the Blvd trying to get to the concert. We were in civilian clothes but the crew cuts gave us away and they picked us up and returned us to the guard station. After that all my free time in Florida was spent on the bull ring. I finally got done with my “Penance” back in Georgia.





Hey Guys

are you still reading this or should I not bother any more?
Andrew