ARMY DAYS
It was a typically hot day at basic training. I was still basically a horny teenager, as were most of the others at basic. Long, steamy nights in the barracks were often punctuated with the louder hackers as they got close and relieved themselves. Nobody bothered anyone else for taking care of what needed taking care of, just a lot of boots and hollers when a loud jacker did the deed. The showers were typical gang showers, the kind we were used to in school. The rigors of basic and the oppressive summer heat made showering more of an exhaustion relief than a testosterone-fueled buddy fest like school sports meets had been. Still there were random boners and plenty of teasing when they happened. It happened to all of us - and a lot of the time the teasing was rebutted with the occasional challenge to “come on over here and take care of it” or the like. One late afternoon, after a ten mile run, my platoon was in near collapse in the tepid water afterward. I didn’t even re...