Open doors
Boy do I ever need to blog. The pace has slackened a little bit so there should be more coming soon. In the meantime...
I had my first guard duty the other day. It's simple but I still had to get a lot of equipment together and at the last minute I found I didn't have a labeled headband for my kevlar helmet. So I was scrambling around buying up the last things I needed for the day and trying to get a little breakfast so I wouldn't pass out during my shift.
After all that charging around I found that I did in fact have a few extra minutes before I was to report to the arms room. Despite knowing better, I decided to go to the exchange to look around. This was the day after Thanksgiving so there was a huge crowd naturally. I looked especially out of place in my camos carrying around a huge rucksack. So after nearly knocking down 2-3 racks of clothes (can you say Bull in a China shop?) I made my way to the restroom.
After finishing my business and re-rucking my mind was still going pretty quickly, but not too fast to notice that there were ladies voices coming from outside my stall. It actually took me a moment to realize that this probably should not be happening in the men's bathroom. I quickly rewound my brain to try to remember if urinals were a part of the bathroom layout when I entered. Hmm. Yeah, I'm in the wrong bathroom.
So...what to do? And how did I end up in here anyway? But mostly, what to do? I hid in the stall till things cleared out a bit. It took a while because there were 3 or 4 ladies in the group. I think they realized what was going on too. Anyway, I finally made it out alive and saw the group of ladies and went over and apologized. They had a good laugh about it. I'm not too proud to say I can't laugh at myself on this one.
So how did I end up in the ladies bathroom? Well, being a busy day for the store, they propped the doors to the bathroom open to allow for quick flow in and out. The signs are only on the door and my mind was on autopilot. Instead of being stopped by a nice sign that said "WOMEN" I just breezed in an open door and used the toilet.
"Well, this sure is a heck of a way to start out the morning!"
posted by Sam G. @ 11/27/2005 02:47:00 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Thanks for a very nice belly laugh!
Why do you have to wear a ruck for guard duty?
Funny story, Sam. What was your first guard duty like?
-Andy
Oh that was a good laugh.
I've made the mistake took only when a woman makes it they may find a man in their path sooner than they'd like!
Yikes!
Su mi mas sen
I'll say it again: that was funny.
My favorite personal "bathroom story" took place in the restaurant I worked at for two years. I was training a new guy on how to clean bathrooms (fun) and we happened to be in the men's -- with the door propped open, of course. I was explaining to Josh how to change the toilet paper rolls, or something (IN a stall) when a man came in, shut the men's door, and went to a urinal. Josh and I looked at each other for a split second, then shut my door as fast as we could. Josh told me when it was safe to come out and we laughed for the rest of the night. It still makes me laugh when I think about it.
The couple of questions about the actual duty. I'll try to answer them, but if my answers seem obtuse it's because of a little thing called opsec (operational security) or the whole "loose lips..." saying if you prefer that one. Does it really matter for the few posted here at Camp Zama? Not really, but it's still a good discipline.
I feel safe in saying the following:
1) We don't have to wear our rucks for duty, but we're supposed to have all MOPP gear (chemical/gas suits) and wet weather gear readily available. They sit in the ruck which sits in the shack (that Jack built).
2) We act as more of a back up security force than the main guys. The actual gate guard duties are done by our JGSDF (Japan Army) buddies (I believe, they may actually be security contractors).
3) The shifts aren't too long, but they get boring really quick.
4) We are encouraged to talk to any Japanese that walk by the outer perimeter. We look like big scary Americans with weapons, but if we smile and give a friendly Konichiwa, it goes a long way to helping our image.
I admire your courage in finding the ladies afterwards and apologizing. I would have been so embarrassed that I'd probably have covered my face and walked out of there as fast as possible.
I'm sure you'll laugh at this someday like the rest of us are now...
I *finally* placed that quote! Good ol' PD and Q.
Thanks for the description of guard duty, Sam. It was interesting to hear about.
Andy
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