Carl: Did I tell you about my combat duty in California? No, I'm not joking. I got to ride in blimps to survey the Pacific coast for Japanese submarines. I got the little ribbon for combat duty (points to left side of chest to indicate where the ribbon was to go). All I did was sit in a blimp and drink good coffee. Still, if things had gone differently I suppose my blimp might have been shot down. If the Japanese hadn't miscalculated at Pearl Harbor-- they thought all our aircraft carriers were there, you know. If they'd destroyed the whole fleet, things might have been very different. And then at Midway, six months later-- if we hadn't been successful there, who knows what might have happened? But as it was, combat duty for me was just drinking coffee.
I don't know if I ever told you about the demerit I got at OCS. You had to be very careful-- if you got too many demerits, out you went. Well, reveille sounded, I think it was at six. Taps was at nine, and you went to bed then. But when reveille sounded (mimes playing a bugle and sings reveille quite loudly, oblivious to the fact that we're sitting in Ruby Tuesday), you had maybe ten minutes to get up and ready for inspection. I tried to get myself together every morning, but-- you know. Ten minutes. You were bound to forget something.
So one day I went out there, and they said, "Garter inspection!" (mimes pulling up pants leg) You know what garters are? I don't guess you would. Men used to use them to hold up their socks. Well, I was fine otherwise, but I'd left off my garters. So I got a demerit. The first and last time there was ever a garter inspection! But it was the only demerit I ever got.
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