In 1979 I was an E-1 waiting to be picked up for electronic school at 29 Palms. Each morning after roll call we’d be released to the barracks to be picked up by working parties. I figured out that nobody cared about whether we made it back to the barracks or not, and the small base library was just a few streets down. SO I’d make my way down there and plunk myself in the comfortable seats and read. Books, magazines, and I really enjoyed the LA Times. It was a nice few weeks. I remember I got through Steven King’s “The Stand” which was a bible sized book. I’d read all morning, have chow, then back to the library until later on in the day when it was safe to return without being noticed and asked questions. In the library it was easy to nod off whether one was escaping the desert heat, or the winter cold which was biting there. So I did. With my reading material in my lap. When I felt a tapping on my shoulder I looked up and saw a silver eagle (or two) on the collars of a very big full colonel. “What are you doing?” he asked and all I could stammer was the truth. “I nodded off while reading sir.” “What unit are you with?” B Company Sir.” He then made his way to the marine (who had learned my routine somehow) and asked him the same questions. B Company again. And then he left without a word.
The next morning at company roll call it was announced that the library was closed to B Company marines until evening hours. I cringed and thought how lucky I had been. Not the way to meet your first colonel. My marine dad had try to teach me lessons that for the first year of my 4 years I just couldn’t get. “You never get a chance to make a good first impression” he’d say. But anyway, it led to some serious “skating” whenever I could figure out how.