So I Live in the Past Part 9

Basic Training: Easter As some of you may already know I served our country in the US Army Reserves and yes there are some classic Basic Training stories. Here's one...It's Easter Sunday and the Drill Sergeants announce that the Morale and Welfare people of Fort Jackson are putting on a concert for the recruits of our Batallion and we are all going. They also tell us that there will be candy and soda there and that we are not to think about partaking in those treats. So we march in formation to a football field that is on post and there is a stage set up and a band is up there playing cover tunes and there are many female recruits. the Drill Sergeants give us final instructions and we finally break formation and enter the festivities. Not having seen any females for about 5 weeks now...I'd say my standards may have lowered a bit. So I find what I describe as an "Army Cute" girl and ask her to dance as there are many male soldiers and female soldiers dancing. "Army Cute" means that she is pretty in comparison to what else is there. We dance to some Earth Wind and Fire, Commodores and other dance tunes. I look over and see many of my friends sitting on bleachers with dear in headlight looks on there faces. Many of them are from parts of the country where maybe they dont get out too much. Shining Star comes on and Im thinking this girl wont want to dance to a slow song...so I turn to walk away and she just grabs me and gets real close....Im thinking this is cool.  So we bump and grind for awhile and that was the last song of the day...the whole concert lasted for maybe an hour and a half. We all get back into formation just outside the gates and the Drill sergeants march us back to the barracks. We are standing in front of the barracks in formation when the sergeants tell us to get in inspection formation and to take out or cantines. Inspection formation is where they have room to walk by and inspect each recruit. As they walk by they tell each recruit to dump the contents of the cantine....water....water....water...I dump mine I had water. They get tto the last row and I'l never forget the words I heard next.... Drill Sergeant: "WHAT THE HELL JUST CAME OUT OF YOUR CANTINE"? Pvt. Eschelman- (Sheepishly) Soda Drill Sergeant!! I cringed because I knew we would all play for his mistake. Then we were told to turn our pockets inside out....and out of Eschelman's pocket came Snickers and some other chocolate bars. As well as from the guy next to him. The Drill Sergeants just walk back to the front and yell out calmly..."HALF RIGHT FACE!!"...."FRONT LEANING REST POSITION" move....thats the position to get into for push ups...they have us do several push ups and then get on our backs and have us do flutter kicks....flip back over...push ups....back to the other side flutter kicks. Needless to say the rest of us aren't very happy. After what seemed like an eternity...the drill sergeants finally order us to get up and get back into formation....by this time we are sore as hell and a little pissed. We all get inside and the four squad leaders along with the platoon leader ask Eschelman what he was thinking....he just said he was hungry and he wanted soda. We all decided on an appropriate punishment....he would have to do every one of our work details for the rest of the day. He wound up doing the work of 29 other guys...while we all relaxed.