You're in the Navy now (maybe)

The naval base at Bainbridge was old -- built before World War II.  When I was there a large part of the base was condemned and off limits. The entire facility was soon closed.  I know because my sister enlisted in the Navy shortly after I got out and she went to basic training in sunny, hot, humid Orlando, Florida (there is more to come about the differences between her experience and mine).  One section of the base at Bainbridge was cordoned off for basic training use only.  The few other parts of the base that were still usable were for schools, regular enlisted barracks, the dispensary, officers' quarters, commissary and all the other things you normally find on a military base including an enlisted men's club with 3.2% beer and music.  Of course, anything not on the basic training facility was off limits to recruits.  We were restricted to our specific area except for meals. There was one mess hall for everyone on base, though there was a section of the mess designated for recruits only.  We were forbidden to have any contact with anyone not attached to the basic training command, and specifically we were NOT to speak with any male personnel, at any time, for any reason.  Men were to be considered trees, and people do not talk to trees (I have been known to talk to houseplants).  It was necessary for me to talk to a male doctor while I was at the dispensary, but that was a most unusual circumstance.  On the recruit training sector there was one new building.  It was a four story barracks, fashioned after some college dorms, in which there were cubicles with four cots and four lockers rather than a seemingly endless row of bunkbeds on each side of a long narrow passageway.  After two weeks in the old barracks, our company moved to the new building.  


The recruit training system usually brought in another 70-75 women each week for basic training.  Once every six weeks they would bring in 150 or so and train two "sister" companies at the same time.  My company had a sister company.  That may seem like a lot, but the attrition rate was astronomical.  Of the 73 women who started basic training with me (this does not include the 70+ in our sister company), only 58 made it to graduation.  Some were allergic to wool, some were unable to adjust, some were held back because they just didn't get it, one was discharged when she was caught in an off limits area with a tree.  Of the 58 who made it to graduation, there were only three of us still on active duty at the end of our three year enlistment.  For a woman in the military in the late 1960's through most of the 1970's, it was a simple matter to get discharged.  Many women joined the military to find a husband.  I know how that sounds, but it was true.  One of our first nights as a company, we were called together to introduce ourselves and explain why we had joined the Navy.  Our Company Commander specifically told us we were not to say we joined the Navy to find a husband.  Several girls stumbled and mumbled through spur of the moment explanations, because they were making it up as the went along since they had been forbidden to give the real reason.  A few girls had fathers in the Navy and were following the family tradition.  One girl said, "Well, I actually joined the Navy to find a husband but since I can't say that, how about I joined the Navy to see the World?"  Once a girl found a husband, pregnancy was not far behind (often for those without husbands too).  Military women were not allowed to be pregnant.  I know that rule has changed, but when I was in if you were pregnant, you were out.  You could also get out by crying a lot.  If you just wanted to go home, all you had to do was appear to be having a breakdown and you could get a general discharge and be on your way.  It was way too easy to get out of the military if you were a woman.


I had four really close friends while in boot camp:  Mary Bisulca, Norma Hinchey, Rosie Lippincott and Libby Noga.  Mary was a full blooded Penobsc0t Passamaquoddy Native American from Maine.  She joined the Navy because there just weren't a lot of choices for her on the reservation.  Norma came from Boston and had the thickest Boston accent I have, even to this day, ever heard.  Rosie came from either Washington or Oregon and was just as sweet and shy as her name implies.  Libby came from somewhere in the northeast (I think Pennsylvania) and though she was not really outgoing, she was hysterically funny when she let herself go.  One of these girls tried to kill herself because training for her rating (military ratings are your job) once she completed boot camp was very intense and she felt overwhelmed.  One of these girls stole money at the duty station where she was billeted after boot camp, then she went AWOL.  When she was caught, she was sent to court-martial and received a dishonorable discharge.  I don't know what happened to the other two but they were gone by the time our three years was up.  We had been tight as ticks in boot camp (although I loathe ticks and include them in my vermin category), but we were all assigned to different bases for our schooling or first duty station and we soon lost track of each other.  One thing you learn in the military is to not get too attached, because sooner or later everyone gets new orders to a different duty station.  Military people come and go so rapidly it is almost impossible to form lasting bonds.


Once we moved into the new barracks, it seemed as if we became a "real" company of recruits.  We all had proper uniforms, we could march and sing at the same time (well, I have never been able to sing, but I can call cadence which is sorta sing-songish), we knew how to salute (though some of us required special saluting classes),we knew how to shine shoes, fold clothes (there is a special way to fold every item and I still fold them the same today), stow our gear in the proper way and appropriate place so as to pass inspection, polish floors until you could use them as mirrors, and countless other mindless chores recruits are expected to learn.  We even had a girl in our company who knew how to blow a bugle. Instead of having someone scream "reveille" every morning to wake us, the night watch would wake her five minutes early.  She would take her bugle and go to the center of the building and blow "Reveille".  It echoed throughout.  We had many friendly competitions with our sister company.  We were Navy and we were proud!
  
And once again I have prattled on and we are still in the first few weeks of basic training.  Ah well, I didn't realize how much I actually remembered.  It was an exciting time in my life, an experience I will never forget, and I'm having a lot of fun sharing it.