(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/American_soldier_in_Vietnam.jpg)<br/><strong>Name:</strong>Randy James "R.J." Johnson<br/><strong>Position:</strong>Grenadier<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Somewhere in the smelly bowels of the<em>USS Tulare</em><br/><br/>*******<br/><br/>"Fuck!"<br/><br/>After standing in line for almost an hour just to get a little breakfast, RJ had just made his way back to the crowded smelly hole in the ship crammed with canvas beds on aluminum frames stacked five high the sailors call "troop berthing" when the announcement was made to turn his happy little ass around and head back to the place he just came from.<br/><br/><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=175864.msg8338241#msg8338241">Quote from: AlexStone on 04-06-2013, 04:14:39</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote"> Troop A: The Fantail.  Troop B: Enlisted Mess.  Troop C: Forward Cargo Hatch.  Troop D: Port Boat Deck   <br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>At least it was a place he knew how to get to.  The "fantail" he wasn't sure of, but he guessed it was on the ass end of the ship (not a boat, as he quickly learned at the beginning of the voyage) and the forward cargo hold was forward, and a cargo hold, which wouldn't have been his first choice for a meeting room.  He still didn't get that port and starboard thing, one more reason to be glad he wasn't assigned to D-Troop.  (The other reason was their new First Sergeant was more of an ass than he really needed to be to get the job done.  He and RJ had gotten into it a couple of times when they were closer in rank.  Now RJ was back down to Specialist, while that kiss-ass<em>fuck</em>had gone up two grades in the same amount of time.)<br/><br/>When the new assignments were first posted, RJ had made a cursory attempt to find someone from his squad, or at least his platoon, but to no avail.  After a while, he gave up.  Besides, he was working on a plan of his own he wasn't going to bother running up the chain of command.  The plan was that as soon as the ship landed (or whatever it is ships do) then he and a couple of his "home boys" from Oklahoma would head home on their own.  It wasn't like America needed an army now that its out of the war, right?<br/><br/>In Europe it hadn't taken them long to quit listening to the rumors about what was happening back home.  Civil war in America.  America was split into four different countries, or was it a dozen?  Or did each state became its own country.  One rumor had the Russians taking over California and the Mexicans taking over Texas.  The other rumor had the Russians taking over Texas while the Mexicans took over California.  The guys from Texas said neither rumor could be true, but belived the one about the President still alive and hiding out in a missile silo in Montana.  But, now that they were going home, the rumors seemed more important.  It was important to figure out which ones were true and which weren't.  After all, if every town had its own militia that wouldn't allow anyone else to pass through the town, how were he and his two buddies supposed to make it all the way to Oklahoma?<br/><br/>He was early, one of the first to arrive on the mess decks, so was able to get a good vantage point to see everyone else as they entered.  Finally, from among the teaming masses of people on the ship wearing all manner of patches, he could now see who was going to be in his troop.  As members of the newly reconstituted B-troop of 4/4 Cav drifted in, RJ saw a lot of faces he'd seen before, but no one he knew very well.  All that was left now was to see how long it would take the officers to get their shit together and get things organized.