The_Chieftain, on Jun 27 2015 - 19:37, said:
"Housemouse"
No, I never did. I saw what happened to others who did, mind.
"Combat-Ready"
We too had a "Mouse" ...
That photo of the Drill and the open lock is priceless ...
One day, I was omitted from the Guard Mount roster - and I didn't point-out the oversight.
I had more than 24 hrs of relative freedom in the company area, but I stayed in the barracks and looked through the FM library in the Day Room (which nobody otherwise had time to use).
The first six hours were otherwise incredibly boring. I clearly needed something else to do and since we were near the end of the cycle, I thought I'd give rest of the platoon a leg-up on the final GI, so I commenced to cleanin' & polishin' ...
Sometime around 0200, the battalion SDO dropped-by to investigate lights and movement in an otherwise empty building - I cannot recall that there was a charge-of-quarters present, but the SDO asked me some polite questions and left. About an hour later, my platoon Drill dropped by to follow-up on my absence from Guard Duty. He must have been satisfied with my answers and what I was doing - on his way out the door, he told me to keep a low profile and carry-on.
When I was satisfied that the place was inspection-ready, I opened my locker and fished-out the new tank battalion test manual I had discovered in the day room and stashed for later. Not wanting to ruffle my bunk, but to be on-hand when the platoon returned, I sat on the floor with my back up-against the wide-open locker with the FM in my lap and opened to a page somewhere in the middle. I promptly fell asleep.
I can no longer recall how it all unfolded, but my Drill and a fellow Private walked into the barracks together sometime around 0700, but not accompanied by any of the rest of the platoon. The Drill immediately took note of the wide-open locker and my level of consciousness was elevated by a couple of expletives. As I was still in a state of half-sleep, I had not yet opened my eyes when I heard some determined boot-heels digging into my freshly buffed floor and stopping short in front of my position. About the moment I did open my eyes, the Drill was wheeling about and headed for the door with an order to my fellow Private to "Wake 'im up and get 'im to chow" ...
Nothing more was ever said about it.
I was also left alone at the tank range one day, but that's another story ...