Basic Training Story 4638

It's week 8 or 9, about to graduate, we're in our bunks after lights-out. DS O is on CQ for the evening, and he delights in smoking us if a single private is up even a minute after lights-out. Wouldn't you know it, PVT L is taking a shower? Wasn't it enough that DS H hated him? I close my eyes and try to fall asleep, knowing it was only a matter of time....The door opens: DS O. Talks to fire watch, hears a shower running. As he walks in the latrine we prepare for PT. Suddenly we hear it: "Private L! Why are you up showering?" (pause) "Why are you at parade rest NAKED, Private L?!"We're trying or hardest to control our laughs, especially imagining PVT L's usual stupid grin he could never quite hide.

DS O emerges from latrine, turns to fire watch, and I hear PVT M suggest ever so quietly, "Where's your shower buddy, L?"As the overly careful one, I'm convinced this chiming-in is it for us, we're doomed. DS O turns on his heel, marches to the showers, and we hear "WHERE'S YOUR SHOWER BUDDY PVT L?! You're going to slip and die, and no one would ever know! If you're dead in the showers, you won't graduate!"We hold our composure until the bay door closes behind him and completely lose it.Despite that night and many more "incidents" through BCT and AIT, PVT L is now a bona-fide 13-banger. No one, himself included, knew how he made it.