Hawaii

     We landed at Hickham AFB about the same time we left Vietnam. Guess that was a result of the way the British drew all those lines around the planet and it created a problem they never could figure out how to correct. If you lived right on the line and bounced back and forth it'd be possible to live two lives at the same time. Or none, I guess. Screwier than all get out but then, we were landing in Hawaii just like we'd said back when the Army gave us sunglasses back in AIT. Heaven and Hell. According to the clock, at the same time.
     In my case, all because of showing up at Oakland Army Base three days late. Fate or dumb luck? Guess I'll never know the answer. Only bad part was still bein' in the Army. 'Course I wouldn't have been there without the good ol' Army.
     The air smelled like flowers. Really it did. Dong Tam had smelled like burnin' shit and diesel fuel. The Delta like a swamp in July. Mostly 'cause that's what it was all year long. Most any other place would've smelled better than the place we'd left but not like flowers. If there's one thing I'll carry to my grave about Hawaii, it's the fragrance. Says, "Aloha," in the nicest possible way.
     No hula girls with leis to greet us. No stoppin' at the bar for a mai tai. No rent-a-car or hotel but at least there was a bus to cart us up and inland to where Schofield Barracks lay waiting.
     Schofield Barracks, damn. Imagine that. If you've ever seen the movie From Here to Eternity you know what Schofield looks like. Almost expected Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift to be there watching Deborah Kerr walk over to the Buick, skirt swayin' in rhythm with her hips, "Sheesss."
     Ever since I saw that movie as a kid Schofield held a special place in my mind. Since those days I've read the book seven or eight times. Great story. James Jones, the author, did his time there before the start of the war and later at Guadalcanal. Private Prewitt and First Sergeant Warden, the main characters, two sides of the same coin. Back when I was a kid I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted to be. Didn't really matter, both of them, each in his own way, pissed on the system that was the U. S. Army. Didn't know it back when I was ten but that was my destiny. System Pisser First Class with two Oak Leaf Clusters. So I got the best of both, or worst depending on your point of view.
     Deep down inside I couldn't see any point to being in the Army after leaving the Nam. Hell, I was just drawing pay and filling a hole that didn't need to be filled. Sleep, eat, shit, wear green clothes and then do it again tomorrow.
     The base sits at the bottom of the Ko'olau Mountains more or less at the foot of Kolekole Pass (you'd think spell check would know what the hell that is but it sure doesn't). That's where one of the Japanese Zero flights came through during the Pearl Harbor attack.
     Across the highway on the other side of the base sits Kemoo farms on the edge of Wahiawa (I have to tell you, spell check's never been to Hawaii). Inside the base on the Kemoo side there sits the Offices Quarters slowly being eaten up by cock roaches and termites, married enlisted quarters being eaten up by bigger cock roaches and termites, a golf course, open fields, rifle range, PX, beer garden, headquarters buildings, a stockade and the quads.
     The quads were just that, four concrete and stucco buildings surrounding a large grassy drill field. Don't know how many quads there were. Enough to house a small division I suppose. Each quad was its own little world. Held a battalion of Infantry and whatnot. Like I said, from up on the third floor it looked just like a movie. Except all of us were really in the Army. The pretend Army that played war but mostly cleaned shit.
     But it was still Hawaii and I doubt anybody in the known universe would say it was anywhere near as bad as Vietnam. So I'll bitch a lot about my time there but really don't have much reason to.