I arrived sometime in September of that year, and had to wait for my class to begin. Even when we were in training, we still had to pull normal army details, such as KP. One day in late November, or early December, I was tagged for KP.
The day arrived, and along with it, the first big snowstorm of the year. Needless to say, no one was prepared for that. We had not been issued our winter gear, and had only minimal clothing to wear that day. The field jacket was enough for a blustery fall day, but was no match for a snowstorm.
On top of that, the heat on post was not turned on yet, so there was no heat in the mess hall. The temps inside dipped into the low thirties. We had to go into the milk cooler where the temps were in the forties in order to warm up.
I, with my usual good luck, was given the duty of 'outside man'. The outside man is the poor schmuk who has to hose down the garbage cans that are filled and emptied during the course of a day. The tool used was a steam hose, no less.
Needless to say, my boots, pants, jacket, hands, whatever, were wet all day long. Not only that, but my clothes literally froze on me when I was outside, thawing only went I went into the cooler to warm up.
The result was pneumonia, and a two week stay in an army hospital, so close to Christmas I did not think I would be able to return home for the holidays.
While I was in the hospital they brought around a young man who was training to be a medical corpsman. They had decided to draw some blood from me, and he allowed the trainee to do it. Bad decision. He didn't have any trouble finding a vein, but once located and pierced, the trainee pulled the plunger, or whatever they call it, rather rapidly. As I swooned and almost passed out I heard the trainer say, "WHOA! Slow down! This is 50 cc.s, not 5!"
I lived. And, I was able to make it home for the holidays.
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