At Kemper we had the Officer of the Day. That was one cadet, usually an officer or high ranking NCO who was in charge of an NCO of the Day and two Pvts of the Guard. They were the main cadets, besides the cadet leaders, responsible for making sure Kemper ran. If someone needed to be found, they were the ones to do that. They answered calls, rang bells, and were responsible for a lot of what happened at Kemper. Later, under different administrations, Kemper streamlined that with automatic bells, and etc. I thought that was bullshit, as being an OD, you had a lot of responsibility.
I got picked to be a Pvt of the Guard early on at my time at Kemper. One of the few good thing when you are a Pvt of the Guard, is you didn't have to brace or sit up, as you were too busy.
But one of the bad things, you usually got one of the crap shifts at night. You see, OD Duty ran for 24 hours straight. Usually the OD would take the early or late shift so he could get some uninterrupted sleep. The Sgt would usually get the next best one. So being one of the low men on that totem pole, you got either the 12-2 or 2-4shift. When you got off duty you could go back to your room and sleep until it was your turn to be up and then someone woke you up. You could have stayed in the OD office, there was usually a bunk bed there (which I thought was a good idea), but usually someone else had claimed them. It wasn't so bad duty, unless you were new, and couldn't exactly remember which was your room. A dark hallway with all the rooms looking exactly the same didn't help. They didn't issue flashlights (which is the one thing I thought they should have. That was one of the first things you ordered from the Cav store when you could; a goose neck OD flashlight with the different filters) and you didn't dare turn on any lights. So what do you do?
If you are a scared, homesick kid, you wander around the admin building, as it was deserted. What some would call an 'honor hallway', to us was just halls with pictures of famous alumni on it. It had wooden benches there and it was all wood and very old school. Talk about being connected to the school. The Admin building was the oldest building on campus, so it was the true heart and soul of the school. All cadets at one time or another was in that building.
In any case, there were some lights left on, so it was dimly lit. I remember finding the picture of my grandfather there (he had been a State Representative for Missouri at one time, besides being a big to do farmer). I remember trying to curl up and cat napping there, waiting for morning so I could see better, find my room and then take a shower and get back to duty (OD duty ran 5pm - 5pm).
As I sat there in the semi darkness, the faces of Kemper's past sons looking down on me, I felt an incredible sense of security and peace. Some might call it being protected. Yeah kinda. But they way they say 'protected' is not exactly the way I mean. Yes, the ghosts of Kemper past would have protected me against something bad, but not in the sense that I couldn't fight my own battles.
See, what a lot of people never understood about being a New Boy - every Old Boy had to do the same thing. Didn't matter who you or your family was, what color your skin was, what religion you were. You were a New Boy. A piece of worthless shit, lower than whale shit. You got shoved around, screamed at, scared shitless. You cried into your pillow at night and prayed that God would take you away or that this was a mistake or some terrible dream. And guess what? You woke up the next day and had to grow through the same thing. But you weren't alone. Your squad, platoon, company was there. You drew strength from them; you felt that bond between you grow like vines between each other. And when something bad happened, it tested those vines. More often than nought, the vines held and grew even stronger until they were no longer just vines, but steel cables that connected you to a group of people that nothing could ever break. How can you describe that to the people in your life who weren't there and don't understand? How these people, these few, these precious few, are bounded to you in a way that no parent, no lover, no spouse could ever be. Men and women in combat understand that. You stand alone, but together.
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