Kemper Names

38 yrs ago I was exposed to names of people that were vastly unfamiliar to me at that time and now are part of the blood that runs through me. Alzheimer’s would be a living Hell.

There was something called a ‘sound off’ for cadets. You were given a sound off, so when your name was yelled to sound off, you did. It would have gone something like this;

‘Herring Sound Off!’

“Sir my name is Herring; I am full of ball bearings, sir!”

A brother of mine in the same platoon, whose last name was Tandy, has to sound off with ‘bbzzzz-bzzzt. Tandy Corporation owned Radio Shack. Radio Shake sold electronics, so…

Then there was Woodle. Tracy Woodle. Young kid;7^th or 8^th grade. Short. Glasses. And a talker. His sound off was “Sir, Woodles wobble but they don’t fall down.”  Remember the toy Weebles? Their saying was Weebles Wooble, but they don’t far down.

I remember he roomed with Stuart Inglish and was 2 doors down from my room when I wa sin Delta Co.  I remember him telling us about his dad in the Army. He was going to fly down here in his helicopter to deliver his trombone. Us New Boys in the same platoon just looked at each other, like ‘yeah right.’

Being a New Boy didn’t leave you a lot of options on the weekend. I think it was like the 4^th or 5^th weekend, a lot of us were watching an evening movie in the auditorium when we heard a loud thumping. It was getting closer. It kept getting closer and closer. Everybody piled out onto the court when we were struck by a light from the sky. It was a UFO!

Nope. It was an Army Chinook helicopter coming in for a landing on the west parade field; traveling east to west. I can remember this like it was yesterday. It got lower and slower and did a slow rolling touch down. It was loud, and the search light and blinking red and green lights cast weird colors and designs. Suddenly a short kid ran out towards it. One of the crew, dressed in a green flight suit, helmet and carrying a trombone case jumped out of a side door. He met the small form, gave him a big hug, handed him the trombone case and then turned, ran back to the copter and the green machine slowly started to rise. It easily cleared the trees and hill and continued on its way west. The whole thing couldn’t have taken two minutes and the motor and blades never slowed.

That’s when I learned that just because something sounds impossible does not mean its not true. Woodle got a bit of street cred after that. Unfortunately Woodle was only at Kemper for one year.

Another thing; we called each by our last names. Even amongst your closest friends. At least until you got a nick name bestowed on, or sometimes your first name just felt right. Like Speidel. He could be Spidey… naah. As a New Boy he was Spediel. Later, when he became family he was George. Now remember the cartoon with the abominable snowman and “I will call him George and love him and squeeze him…”  At least for me, that’s how I started calling him by his first name

But what do you do when you have brothers going there? Simple. One was Big Kipper, the other was Little Kipper. And Karlskint, became ‘Skint.  Or you middle initial, couple that with your prowess with the ladies earned you ‘Luscious.’

And then there were just the plethora of names, that to my ears were exotic and memorable. Kahli, Tua, Hennefent ,Lowe, Lamb, Suarez, Selfridge, Kresin, Shehorn, Ulloa, Eehl.  Or you were just called by a rank. Captain, Sergeant-Major, Colonel. Maybe L-T or ‘Lootenant”.

At one reunion, the kind where we could actually go into the buildings and walk around the court, this man looked at me sidewise and sidled, sorry, that is literally the only way I can describe how he walked up to me, and started, “I bet you don’t know…”

I said, “Hold on.” I looked at him and said, “Reuben Makekau.”

He was like “Wow, even the first name.”  I told him there were some people who make a lasting impression; you just never forget, even after (at that time) 25 years.