The last event in our port visit to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, was a formal reception hosted by the Navy and the US Ambassador. There were probably fifty American civilians, fifty Navy and Marine officers and SNCOs, and a hundred Cambodian visitors. A live band, fresh catered food, and a substantial selection of ethanol-based lubricants completed the picture. It was all held down in the hangar bar, and off limits to hoi-polloi such as your humble author. My staff sergeant was "voluntold" to attend, which he did with poor grace. Apparently the food was good, but the lines to the bar were very long.

Although I couldn't go to the party, I did have a funny encounter. I was going to the evening maintenance meeting, in the squadron ready room. That's where flight briefs are held, so it's full of comfy furniture. Anyway, I walked in, and there was a Marine major and a lady. The Marine was a groundsider, so he didn't have any business in the ready room. The lady was probably embassy staff, and young and lithesome. I gave them the eye and said "Can I help you, ma'am, sir?" The major gave me a gimlet glare and said "We're fine, corporal." Then the lady asked why I was wearing a colorful patch on my uniform, and hey, I need to be polite and answer. I started with a simple explanation of it as a squadron symbol, but the glare of the major was amusing me, so I extended into a discussion of unit pride and the organization of naval aviation. The major was transparently desperate to get rid of me, and the lady seemed amused by that. By the time I wrapped up my exposition, the other guys were arriving for the meeting, so now there were twenty Marines and a couple of senior staff NCOs in there, giving these two the hairy eyeball. The meeting was about to start, so I wrapped up, thanked the lady for her time. She thanked me politely, the major thanked me rather impolitely, and he dragged her away. I even invited them to watch our meeting.

I guess I'm a small-souled and cruel person. But the way I read it, that officer was trying to use our squadron ready room as the site of an assignation with a cute civilian. And if I can't get any on this boat, I'll be damned if I make it easy for some groundpounding officer to borrow my spacees to get his!

Posted by: Boviate at 11:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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