Kickass and shut downs

Kickass, the doorstop dog, gives the floor—and the couch, to the keeper to recount his experience when the government shut down Camp Atterberry in Indiana where the keeper was impatiently riding out the post-Korea part of a three-year enlistment.

At the request—order—of the colonel, the keeper’s very temporary duty was to manage the NCO club which had experienced some chaotic events that annoyed the colonel.

Directly across the street from the NCO club, which conveniently had personal living quarters for the keeper, was a barracks that was used to house young female civilian telephone operators, attractive Hoosiers recently free of family constraints and on their own.

The set up was not exactly hazardous duty—a detail to fill the beer coolers, a combo band to play music for the dancers out on the dance floor that was lighted by one 40-watt lightbulb, and the keeper free to spread goodwill and pretend to keep order when the telephone operators wandered over from across the street for fun and games.

The keeper may have even entertained fleeting thoughts of reenlisting.

But then it all went away in a senseless government decision to shut down the camp, leaving the keeper facing the prospect of leading close-order drill for a bunch of stumbling recruits or some such unpleasant duty..

The keeper has, of course, regaled Phyllis with countless Army combat stories, but he may not have told her about the Camp Atterberry closing and the telephone operators. Maybe it will help her sense the impact that a government “shut down” decisions can have.