James stole a fridge
Posted by Michelle on Jun 21, 2003 in Michelle
The latest from Robert in Iraq:
In my office, we have an E-4 named James Thomas. He is a great guy and
a good soldier, who has a terrible story. He has been in the Army
Reserves for like 10 years. James basically had a slack unit and just
went when it suited him. He never cared about promotions or anything
like that, so he would show up to drill when he needed some extra cash
and wouldn’t go on months he didn’t need it. This actually happens a
lot more in the Reserves than you might think.
James is actually a very intelligent man. He has a masters and a good
job at a hospital as a counselor. Well, one day James is in his office
with a couple of clients went the phone rings. He answers it and the
voice on the other end asked for “Specialist James Thomas.” He said he
just froze and told the person (which turned out to be SSG Hager, my
NCOIC) to hold on. After considering hanging up and running to Mexico,
James answered the phone and identified himself as James Thomas. Hager
told him that he had just been cross-leveled, which in the Army is akin
to a professional athlete being traded. He was to report to Garner, NC
in two days. Being from Atlanta, GA, he had never heard of Garner. But
two days later, with a look of shock on his face that cannot be
duplicated, he was in Garner. He actually had a great attitude the
whole time, in spite of his situation. Oh yea, I forgot to mention, he
got married the day before he left.
Well, anyways, even though James is a lowly E-4 and I am a powerful O-3,
he has a way of finding the hard to find items, all the time. There are
often times me and the Major are drinking piss hot water, because the
unit said that there was no ice, and James will stroll in with a glass
of ice water. He is the guy to go to for stuff like that. He has the
enlisted connection going on all the time. Yesterday, we were suppose
to work out at 7:00 pm. He never arrived. So I am sitting out back on
my porch (the ghetto porch), when James comes out of the back of the
tent. He tells me he is too tired to workout, but to come and see why.
James found and brought back to the tent a refrigerator. It is damn
near a full sized one. A number of them had apparently been sitting in
a Conex for the last month (while we drank the piss hot water I spoke of
earlier). He was there when it was opened and he snagged us one. He is
my new hero. The only problem is it runs on 220 power and our plugs are
110. We need a converter. But I am not worried. I put James on the
job.
