Chapter 6-The Sergeant

I mentioned that I was radar section chief for several months. There came a day when a new radar sergeant arrived. To describe him physically describe him would be to say he looked like Sergeant Snorkel in the “Beetle Bailey” comic strip. In fact, many sergeants of that era looked like Sergeant Snorkel. I won't use his real name. I'll just call him Sergeant Henry. (You know the line,”The story you are about to hear is true but the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”)

A little background on Sergeant Henry. He was from Tennessee. Memphis I think. Nothing wrong with that. Just background because he claimed to know Elvis. “Me and Elvis are buddies.”, he would say. My view of Sergeant Henry was that he was the epitome of one who couldn't make it in civilian life. Loved to read comic books-a personal monument to his own intelligence. Literate though he might have been, he was not blessed with either humility or sensativity.

On humility, he had several claims to fame. One was that while stationed in Korea, he had stolen a staff car, wrecked it and sold the tires to some Koreans. “Gooks” he called them. Of course he was arrested and spent eighteen months in the stockade. He said he “beat the rap”. He came out of the stockade with full back pay and even a one stripe promotion. And since he kept his rank while in the stockade, he was made prisoner “First Sergeant”. In that position he was responsible for leading the prisoners through several hours of their daily physical training. Because of that physical training, under that “Sergeant Snorkel” appearance was one very strong man. In fact, on his way to dinner one evening, he entered the weight room in that long hallway to the power plant. Several guys were working out. He paused and made references to the lace on their underwear.

One of the guys was Felix from Brooklyn. Felix took offense to Sergeant Henry's remarks and said, “Alright you fat S.O.B., lets see you do any better.” Off came the parka and the arctic mittens. Sergeant Henry went over to the weight box, put every weight he could find on the barbell. He lay down on the workout bench and asked a couple of the guys to hand him the barbell. They picked it up and put it in his hands to bench press. As Sergeant Henry paused to inhale, everyone thought that he couldn't lift the weight. As they started to laugh at him, Sergeant Henry lifted the bar and bench pressed it ten or more times without any strain whatsoever. He then tossed them onto the floor and stood up. “Any more of you #$%^& 's have anything to say”. He redressed and went to dinner. Word spread quickly about the incident.

On sensitivity, Sergeant Henry was the crudest. He enjoyed needling people in the worst possible way. One day, while going through the serving line in the mess hall, he asked the sergeant in front of him, “Who do you think your wife is shacking up with while you are up here?” Of all of the places NOT to play mind games like this, Thule was surely one of the severest. The other sergeant took offense to Sergent Henry's question. As he was about to react physically, Sergeant Henry grabbed the other sergeant's shirtfront and literally “shot put” him across the mess hall. Several of us came out of our chairs to go after him. He looked around and said, “Okay, who's next?” Again he had his way.

One thing that gave me pleasure was playing pool. You had to get good to stay on the table. Or play in the early hours of the morning when most people slept. By playing early in the morning, I was able to improve my pool skills to the point that I could hold my own-sometimes better than others. It turned out that Sergeant Henry claimed to be an Army (like 8^th Army or 5^th Army or such) Eight Ball champion. He was very good. Knew lots of trick shots as well as how to shoot from most any position and hit the target ball. One night he got into a Nine Ball money game. He was playing for twenty five cents on the five ball and fifty cents on the nine. So if you sunk the five or the nine, the other player would pay you the money, (I am assuming that non-military people may not know the game so I am explaining it. Everyone knows that ALL military personnel are capable pool and ping-pong players.) So when my turn came up to play Sergeant Henry, I had a “Hot Stick” and ended up winning Thirty Five Dollars from him. It really angered him to lose to me so he cussed at me and when I responded, he came around the table after me after turning his pool cue to make it a club. It was at that moment when our Lieutenant came into the room and stopped Sergeant Henry. Who knows, he might have saved the life of one of us. The Lieutenant also told Sergeant Henry that he was aware of all the crap Sergeant Henry been dishing out to me and ordered the sergeant to cease doing it. The Lieutenant also told me that I was to report any breach of that order. Needless to say, I was stuck with every dirty detail that came up after that. And although I have joked about officers at times, I was able to have met several really human ones. Our Lieutenant being one of them.

Dealing with Sergeant Henry had its lighter side. You now realize that I had no respect for Sergeant Henry. You may also realize that he was not a man of high intellect. Then there was Johnny White who was not only a practical joker at the spur of a moment. He was also a careful planner (or should I say “schemer”) if need be. With me having been the radar chief for a while, whenever Sergeant Henry would tell Johnny White to do something, Johnny would turn to me and say, “Is that alright with you?” While this would momentarily put me on the spot, it would really make Sergeant Henry steam. So much so that he would stutter and stammer and curse and glare at me. I would usually shrug my shoulders and make a defenseless gesture. Johnny would do as he was told but he had gotten his licks in much to the chagrin of Sergeant Henry.

There came a day when we were all assembled in the radar shack for our scheduled twenty four hour duty cycle. Sergeant Henry was a little late. It seems that he had been down to the base exchange on the main base and bought a wrist watch. Now this wasn't just any wrist watch. It cost fifty dollars in 1958 at a tax fee military store. It had a jeweled face, a flexible band with lizard skin inserts in the first two links on either side of the face. With cigarettes at ten cents a pack and beer at fifteen cents a can, you see what a fifty dollar watch means.

Well, Sergeant Henry, his humble self, finally made his grand entrance at the radar shack. He immediately announced his purchase of the watch. He showed it to the two Billy's who mumbled a half hearted “wow”. He showed it to Joe Gornick who expressed his approval. To me. The to Johnny White. “Uh huh.” said Johnny. Of course Sergeant Henry beamed at his magnificent purchase and mumbled something about Johnny White have no appreciation for the finer things in life. Johnny White already had a careful plan starting to gel even before Sergeant Henry had finished showing his prize. Later that day, as we began to leave for dinner, Johnny quietly told each of us to “go along” with him later. You could see by that previously mentioned “twinkle” in his eye, that Johnny had some sort of mischief up his sleeve. It turned out that Sergeant Henry would stay at the radar shack while the rest of us went to dinner. It also turned out that Johnny White was the last to return from dinner.

In my description of the AADCP complex, I mentioned our own PX and theater. Since we were isolated up on a mountain our little PX gave us a place to purchase some of the things we needed. Toiletries, cigarettes, writing paper and the like. This little PX also had a small display of five dollar Timex watches. Johnny White purchased a five dollar Timex after dinner. The plot thickens. With his new Timex on his wrist, Johnny returned to the radar shack.

Everyone else had already returned and had resumed whatever they were doing when Johnny White entered. He walked over to Billy Arata and extended his arm to show off his watch. “How do you like my new watch?”, Johnny asked. “Wow. What a watch. That must have set you back plenty.” replied Billy Arata. Billy Roberts said, “That's a really great watch. Wish I could afford one like it.” Sergeant Henry looked over his comic book and frowned. Johnny showed his watch to Joe Gornick and me. We both expressed praise, approval and awe at his new treasure. That was all it took. Sergeant Henry threw down his comic book and said,”Let me se that @#$^%&^ watch.” After looking at Johnny's watch, he said, “Thats not much of a watch. This here's a real watch.” And he thrust his watch into Johnny's face. “I'll bet you my watch is better than yours.”, said Johnny. “I'll bet you $5 mine is better”, said the sergeant. “Make it $50 and its a bet.” Johnny handed me the $100 to hold while they settled the bet.

“How are we going to prove it?”, asked Sergeant                                                  Henry........................................Johnny said, “Lets throw them at that wall.” He motioned toward one of the radar shack walls. Sure enough, they each tossed their watches at the wall. As the sergeant's hit the wall, one of the lizard inserts flew off. Both men picked up their watches and noted that they were still working. Johnny said, “Lets back up and throw again.” They did. Another lizard insert flew off. But both watches still worked. On the first throw, they had been in the center of the radar shack about twenty feet from the wall. On what would be their third and last throw, they had moved all the way to the opposite wall and threw their watches overhand. Johnny's hit the wall on its edge and fell to the floor. Sergeant Henry's watch hit the wall face first and shattered. Springs and gears went one way. The crystal and case went another. All of us gathered around as the two picked up their watches. It was obvious that Sergeant Henry's had failed. All that remained was to see that Johnny White's watch was still working in order to settle the bet. It was extremely quiet when Johnny turned his watch over and looked at it. First a frown. Then that twinkle as he turned it for us to see. As we saw the second hand sweep around the face, we let out a cheer and collective, “Yes!”

As Sergeant Henry mumbled something about getting his money back for what was obviously a defective watch, Johnny White grabbed the $100 from me and excused himself to go back to the barracks to recover. I found him about half an hour later virtually in convulsions from laughing so hard. Tears on his cheeks but still that twinkle in his eye. You know, its really true, “Timex takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin'”.

Once again word of this incident spread rapidly. After Johnny White left the radar shack, the rest of us had to stay with Sergeant Henry and maintain control over our emotions. Except that I snook out to go find Johnny White. Johnny White became sort of a folk hero. As for Sergeant Henry, seldom a day went by that someone didn't yell, “Hey Sarge. What time is it?” What a morale lift.