#86 - Mottos and contraband

Awhile back when I was platoon guide, I had to come up with a motto. I had about 5 minutes to do so, and came up with this:

"In the dark of the night
Under the moon
Hey Charlie Rock
It's first platoon

Nightstalkers
Put to the test
Nightstalkers
Best leads the rest
Hoooah!"

It was pretty lame, but relatively short (short is good, as you have to sound off with these mottos several times a day). Someone came up with another idea for a new platoon motto. I think it is based off the tune of a popular song, but it's not anything I'm familiar with:

"Cocked, locked and ready to rock
Pain and death are what's in stock
Through the night we'll stalk you down
Your blood and guts upon the ground
Oooh
Hold up... hey hey
1st platoon's gonna bring you so much pain
Nightstalkers are gonna go all the way
Hey 2nd, 3rd and 4th will be ashamed
We're disciplined as hell
Hey, hey, hey, hey nightstalkers don't play"

Lol...I find these platoon mottos very entertaining. Sometimes I have a difficult time cueing in to the cultural references promulgated by the youngsters around me. Yeah, I know, I must be old... or out of touch... or something! When someone does something wrong, for instance, they apologize by saying, "My bad". What is that? My bad self? My bad attitude? My bad mistake? My bad incompetence? They say "my bad" instead of the proper "I am bad" or "I am sorry", but no one seems to know where the phrase originated.

It is Sunday, and I am in the barracks. The teeming masses have returned en masse from a church service, and the bay is again noisy with the shrill competing voices of 99 girls. It was just so quiet a little while ago... ahh...

...

After lunch, I worked on a detail picking up trash around the company area. At least the weather was somewhat pleasant. Afterwards, we continued with "barracks maintenance". In the past I've always done other things like sweeping the hallway or cleaning the latrine, but today I mopped our bay room for the first time. It quickly became apparent that none of the girls who had previously done this had done a very good job... eck. Most of these females are very young, and maybe haven't had to really clean before. Don't folks help their parents at home anymore? A lot of people here have seemingly never had a broom nor mop in their hands before they enlisted in the military.

We just had a formation. It sounds like they are finally easing up on some of the restrictions here. After chow, we have been tantalized with prospect of a 5-minute phone call. The Drill Sergeants are also going to set up DVD players in two of the platoon classrooms so that folks can watch either 'Gladiator' or 'Band of Brothers'. Everyone here is so starved for entertainment that the air is tinged with a palpable excitement. The females are very giddy right now, and everyone is in a good mood. Hopefully the company won't do something stupid to screw it up by pissing off the DSs. I know that some girls here are taking contraband from the DFAC into the barracks. We eat three times a day... always. Though the actual dining experience (if you want to call it that) is only a few minutes in duration, most times it is possible to eat enough. I don't know why people feel the need to squirrel away all this other food for a later time. Some girls have muffins, apples, pears, granola bars, MRE items, and all kinds of stuff in their lockers. They are going to get caught, sooner or later.