So after the long grueling trip back from Kuwait, my platoon arrived back onboard KMCAS Hawaii and we were shown to our respective barracks. It was zero dark thirty and nobody was around as we observed that our rooms had combo locks on the doors. Every single one of us Marines had a room awaiting us with an unknown combo lock keeping us from the comfort of a bed. Something long dreamed of. We had just spent several months in the desert mostly sleeping in the pits of sand we dug for foxholes. Dreaming of bowls of milk and cereal, the comfort of a bed and a cold beer among other things.
After what we'd been through, I thought the moment so odd and stupid that I actually yelled out ,"This is bullshit!" into the darkness. There had to be something I could do. So I calmed myself down and took a good look at the combo lock on the door of my room. It was a pushbutton combo with 5 buttons. I grabbed a pen and my notebook out of my pack and started working on the math for number of potential permutations . Then I realized that once a button was pushed, it couldn't be used again within the same combo therefore knocking the potential for finding the correct combo in my favor.
As I figured out the possible permutations of the combo, I drew up a chart with the first several hundred permutations using the sequence I figured out. I quickly went to work on my door combo using my chart. Meanwhile, there were others in the platoon having their own personal fit, shouting into the darkness. I could totally understand, we were too tired and worn down to be dealing with the situation. Within minutes of working on my combo, I was in my door. A huge grin came across my face as I greeted my new room and bed. Meanwhile some of the other Marines saw I had somehow got into my room. All I wanted to do was fall in that bed and sleep, but I had to help my brothers out.
I took my chart to the next door combo to crack. I explained the process to several Marines standing around watching as I worked on the lock. There were a couple of nay sayers standing about kinda jaw jacking my efforts. Within minutes once again, I got the door open and nobody else said shit. Everyone else in my platoon made it in their respective rooms that night and my chart made it into the hands of several other platoons who were successful as well. Many in the company though slept just outside their doors waiting for the morning to arrive for whoever was in charge of divvying up the combo codes.
It was a good night.