A story from the past, thankfully I didn't take part in the "festivities" but those that did were OOC for more than a few hours.
Some of you may recall the Cuban Missile Crisis that took place the Fall of 1962. I was stationed at a SAC base, Loring AFB, Maine and my wife had left just a couple days before with the girls, headed for her home in the Chicago suburban area of Downers Grove. We decided to let her drive back ahead of any bad weather and I moved into the barracks for the last 2-3 months of my hitch. When the crisis hit, we were all restricted to the barracks & allowed to only leave for duty stations. Plus, we were only given a limited amount of time to report there. Things were so tight it squeaked.
Fast forward a couple weeks and things relaxed a bit, we could hit the BX, cafeteria, gym, etc. but couldn't leave the base unless we lived off base. They also opened the base to deer hunting with bow & arrow only and only within certain sectors, plus you had a number of hoops you had to jump through before being allowed to hunt. At the time I was on a shift that lasted until 0100 which actually was better than sitting in the barracks every night. One Friday night as I was walking back to the barracks, trying to decide if I wanted to hit the chow hall before bed and chat with the cooks for a time(had a good rapport with all of them...another story). When about a half block from the barracks I could hear the guys yelling and singing...not exactly the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, so I decided to check it out since they all were having a great time doing something.
Turned out the "choir" was pretty drunk, having filled a huge pot from the chow hall with all sorts of soft drinks and liquor from the NCO Club across the street. You could smell it the minute you opened the door...YUK! That wasn't the worst of it. Seems a couple guys had gone deer hunting and had been successful. They brought it back to the barracks, hung it by the hind legs, shoved a couple trash barrels under it and first tried to bleed it out, then gutted it...all going into the barrels. This was all done in the latrine where the floor was like an ice rink by the time I saw it. They conned a couple cooks to come up to our floor with some hot plates and they cooked up fresh venison. Between the liquor and fresh venison, you can imagine the effect on those that took part. The entire floor smelled of a mixture of blood, booze, raw meat, & puke. Although rather chilly outside, my roomie and I locked the door, shoved a chair under the door knob and opened a couple windows. The next morning, Saturday, the 1st Shirt came strolling through and decided to knock on our door. When I opened it he just chuckled and said "as I expected, you weren't involved" and moved on. He put everyone on notice..."I'll be back in two hours" and left. Needless to say, the place was clean by the time he returned although the odor lingered for a few more days. Some were so sick from all of it they spent a couple days in the infirmary. I suppose that gave them something to tell their kids and grandkids, however I like my version more...I didn't take part so didn't miss work and have those days charged against accrued leave.
