Herman by Jim Unger for February 11, 2019

…and tell him to go via train./s

Back in 1980, I was one of three Air Force personnel stationed in Diego Garcia along with (then) about 5,000 sailors. For those of you who do not know where Diego Garcia is, it’s about 1,000 miles south of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean, about 7 degrees south of the equator. It is quite close to the middle of nowhere. The joke was that there was a woman behind every snow drift.

My job along with the two enlisted men was to work the airlift in and out of the island. The aircrews would stage from there. So it meant that they would have to stay overnight in Navy quarters which are not as luxurious as the 4-star accommodations that they are normally used to.

Although there isn’t a lot of things to do on the island, it is a tropical paradise at least weather wise. It’s hot, but there is always an ocean breeze.

I knew that I would have problems with the crews that would come off the plane grumbling. On the other hand, there were the crews that come off the plane already in shorts, sunglasses and flip-flops with fishing gear.

The Navy was good at providing “party rations” which basically was all the fixings for an on-beach barbecue picnic (sans beer :( ) which many of the crews opted in lieu of a chow hall visit.

I know Williams fished; is this lacking punctuation to make it more understandable?

He just broke the message bearer’s heart.

Sir, I just changed my name to Williams. I will tell him.

All dressed up and nowhere to go..

The advantage of selling your home in an upmarket is the disadvantage in buying back into it.

Not what he was expecting?

I’ll be sure to tell him. I’ll call him as soon as I get there.

I thought Tell, William was an archer, not a fisherman…