Month: March 2011

I had a very small apartment and one night after we had been drinking all day we went to my place. It was winter and the place was really cold. Maybe -5 inside when we got there. I had a stove that used granulated coal but it took awhile to get it going. I also had a kerosene heater that worked pretty good so we fired it up. I was pretty drunk, as was everyone else. There were 4 of us. I told the other guys ” Dont leave the heater on if you go to sleep “. I had a single 75 watt light bulb for light. I went to sleep and when I woke up I could barely see the light. WTH? The heater had exploded and was pumping out black, oily smoke. We were all sleeping on the floor and that is the only thing that saved us. I crawled over and opened the door to the outside to let some of the smoke out. I was able to awake on of my friends and we drug the other 2 outside. I really thought they might be dead. We all were black and looked like coal miners. It really messed up the but the others chipped in and helped clean it up. Had to replace all the tatami mats, and I hired some people to finish cleaning it up. We had to go back to the post and it was a week day. We worked shift work so we had the day off. We went to the buss stop to catch the buss and it was full of sargent and officers coming from chitose 1. They asked” What happened to you guys?” I told them that We had a part time time job working in a coal mine. I thought it was pretty funny until a day or so later I had to explain it to the First Sargent. The dumb asses turned us in for working for the japanense with out a permit . LOL

Here is couple of pictures of the Operations building. At one time I am sure they would have been classified. It may look small now, but it really seemed big back then. Times change. The Army Security Agency worked with the National Security Agency but was supported by the US Army. In some ways we were immune to some of the BS that the regular Army had to endure. But not all of it. Many of our Sargents had re upped into the Agency. To say they were not very smart would not be nice. Let us say they were different. Sometimes they had to do the actions that came with their jobs. Some of their actions were just mean and stupid. There was a big problem in ASA. We worked for the most part National Security Agency. When we were in the Operation building they told us what to do. What reports to send and when to send them. I am not going to talk much about what we did. Working in Operations was not a game. It was damn serious work and was very demanding. No windows, No real break room, no reading material other than official papers and books. I was a Radio Traffic Analyst. Usually there was only one of us on a shift. If your relief was sick or was running late you had to work till some one could relieve you. I took my job very serious. I was not a good solider but I was a damn good TA guy. I worked with a room full of 058(Morse Code) guys. They had to copy what was assigned to them. It was hard work but they were very very serious about what they did. This is a close as I am going to come to talk about Operations. But sometimes you could see history being made. Our unit has the ability to get a message to the white House in less than 15 mins. Not a small feat 50 years ago. When you spend day after day, hour after hour in a fairly small room with 20 or so other people, you really get to know them very well. Not only did we work together, we all lived together. After a year or so you really got to know each other. It was a strange type of bonding for me. You knew who you could trust and who you could not. My fellow workers were the only reason I made it. They helped me when I was sad, wrecked, drunk, Etc. I am not a drama queen, we all had problems and helped each other. Maybe I helped a few others, I dont know, but I hope so. Here is where the real issues start. After 10 to 12 hours in a high pressure environment you finally get off work. I guess it was a mile or two from Ops to the Barracks. We rode buses back forth to work. Well surprise, surprise Someone thinks today is a good day for a room inspection. Most lifers did not work shift work so 8 to 5 was a good time to jack with the troops. Remember you can not say anything about what you have be doing all night. I guess some of them thought we just sat around drinking coffee. It was mostly BS because the house boys took care of that stuff. But you still got bitched at about pocket being unbuttoned, scuffed boots, hair too long any thing trivial. Some of the trick Sargents would stand up for us. But there only a few that did. I worked with a lieutenant He was a damn good guy. He was tough guy but he was fair. He also worked at Ops so he knew what we did. One day when I was getting off work the Lt was just coming to work. He was looking all over his desk looking for something. He saw me and asked ” You getting off work?” Yes sir was my answer. “let me borrow your belt I left mine in the BOQ” Sure thing. I was going to put my field jacket on so you could not see if I had a belt on or not. I gave him my belt and everything was cool. Well Almost. As the day shift crew came in, one E7 Sarge spotted me. This guy really did not like me. I stayed away from him the best I could. He was a real dumb ass and mean as a snake. He noticed I dont have on a belt as I have not put on my jacket because of a last minute issue. He goes crazy. He decides to make a major issue of it. “Shift guys being out of uniform” He is really showing his ass. Red face, arm waving like I have craped on the floor. The LT gets up and everything gets very quiet, they think he is going to join in on busting my ass. He takes off my belt and hands it to me. You have your name printed on the back so every knows if it is your belt or not. He says ” Sorry I will go get mine, I guess it is a big deal” The ass hole Sarge got me later but I dodged it that day. LOL Most of the time I got in trouble was at the end of the Mid night shift. Daylight came and you had a few days off, time to party. Time to get a quick bite to eat, change clothes , go to the EM club get a few drinks and get ready to go down town. If you got off at 7am it did not take much to get a good buzz on by noon. Booze+ Enlisted Soldiers+Money+time off=Trouble. Some guys just could not drink very well. It was pretty funny to watch someone fall out of their chairs or drop their food in the Mess hall. Smart move was get your pass and get the hell off the post quick. Sometimes easier said than done. So there you have it. It was a kind of them versus us. To tell the truth I liked that way.