We were broken up into different companies and then platoons. It seems our company had buildings for three platoons, but because of the influx of new recruits we had to make a fourth platoon. I was in the fourth platoon. We were called the fucked up forth platoon. We had to make our barracks in some old airplane hangers about a half mile away from the rest of the company. They were full of dust and looked like they hadn't been used since the early 70's. Many hands make light work and we had the place spit shined in no time. We had two hangers with two rows of bunk beds in each hanger. The drill sergeant told us where we would bunk not knowing he had a hidden motive. We were told to move the wall lockers 3 feet from the wall and this made a wall with three feet of space behind them. This seemed like a waste of space, but again there was a hidden motive. My training seemed normal enough and I was pretty oblivious to what was happening around me. I was just trying to make it through.

Here is where things get weird. One day my drill instructor asked me, "How old are you private?"

I replied, "Seventeen."

"Oh you're jail bait" he replied.

I wasn't sure what he was talking about. It just didn't compute. I'm a guy how could I be jail bait.

Even though I was oblivious and in a constant state of nervousness induced by basic training I began to notice a pattern. About 10 minutes after lights out drill sergeant would come around. He would flash his flashlight through the dark and behind the wall lockers and he would catch some soldiers behind them.

I guess I was naive because I never even thought to myself what were they doing behind the wall lockers. Then I began to notice another pattern. On Sunday mornings after our shower drill sergeant would call some private into his office, usually not dressed from the shower yet. Not sure what was happening and frankly not caring cause I had enough to worry about. Then Shilo the private in the bunk next to me got caught behind the wall locker. He was a young looking white kid. Very similar to my looks. He was kind of girlish looking. I had noticed that some of the males of the platoon were attracted to him and me. Like when we were doing calisthenics early one morning and drill sergeant told us to swing our hips around to stretch and some of the guys started groaning and whistling. Gross right. Well anyway Shilo got called into drill sergeants office after his shower the next Sunday. Then when I was in church I was sitting next to Shilo and he was crying. Me not knowing what was happening tried to comfort him. I told him we all miss our families and it's not so bad.

He replied ," You mean you don't know?"

"know what?" I replied.

He never answered but he got real angry at me. From that point on I became the focus of his anger. From that point on I was on every shit detail that there was. Poor Shilo never got a brake from drill sergeant after that. Seems he was the most attractive choice the drill sergeant had for Sunday shower activity. Shilo needed me to take over. I was the only one the drill instructor was interested in.