It all seemed very reasonable to me...and even now I still don't think the punishment fit the crime..It was just one of those days.

Wednesday Morning and the school is out for a fire drill on the blacktop behind the gym..It is Fire Prevention week and the Fire Department was there with several trucks and Mr. Fairlie had us Boy Scouts there to give a demonstration of semaphore message sending. Well, I was at the far end and was signaling to Bill Cohea I believe, and nobody was paying any attention so I sent him a message remarking about the ancestral history of the donkey and Mr. Riley, school principal. Something to the effect that there was a definite relationship, perhaps physical..Unfortunately, the Girl Scouts had also been learning this flag message system and had a US Navy Officer, from one of the visiting destroyers in RT showing them.

Well, without me seeing it, several bright and very helpful young ladies read the message, went to the Officer and he went to Bill Cohea and had Mr. Riley and Bob Long and Mr. Fairlie watch.. They made Bill ask for a repeat and so I sent it, with some colorful elaborations and some very physical embellishments.

I understand the Officer was translating aloud and evidently Mrs. Riley was close by and passed out....I still say it was the heat..I heard later that Bob Long and Mr. Fairlie were planning some real evil for me and that in my after life I would still be talking about it. I, blissfully unaware of all this started signaling a few choice thoughts about Debbie Dirr and certain physical characteristics that I greatly admired. By now I had the attention of most of the school and some unhappy adults. This officer was a lot of help by making sure even my mis-sent words were written down for Judge, Jury and execution.

Bill signaled that we could stop. My next position was to be at one of the fire trucks and assist, for a merit badge I might add. They had this hose which we connected to the fire hydrant and then to the truck. On this particular truck they had two huge wheels with hose, like a garden hose reel. Well, I thought it would help to pull out a length and did so.. In the meantime Mr. Riley, already having written my epitaph, Bob Long, Mr. Fairlie and the Fire Chief and the Naval Officer are all coming for me, without my knowledge. I was on the back side of the truck.

The Fire Dept. started a small fire and what I didn't know was that if you pulled the hose, it would trigger the pump and start the water. So I had the vicious end of a hose that suddenly came to life with 500 pounds of pressure, a hose I later learned was supposed to be held by three full grown men.

As is my fate, around the truck comes this group of killers and I flat out bowled them down with the water stream.. I was airborne from the pressure and wasn't aiming, but managed to get all of them. It was like being on a huge Cobra. Whipped the hell out of me..They cut the water and I'm standing there, the adults are soaked and getting up off the ground, I see what has happened, still unaware my death was already a certainty from the messages, and run for the nearest truck. Right at that moment the Fire Department decides to put out this gas fire they had started and used the foam cannon on top of one of the trucks..I ran right thru the stream and to the crowds delight the fireman turned the foam away from me and caught Mr. Riley and Mr. Fairlie, Mr. Long all over again, as they were in hot pursuit of me. Only this time with heavy foam. Down they went.

I ran to the school, and down into the locker room to change, out the front and was negotiating with a Dhow to go to Bahrain when Aramco Security got me...

I'm not sure how long I spent in various offices around town the next few days, but punishment upon punishment was the norm..I had to paint fire hydrants, wash commodes at school, was restricted from recreation for life and came close to getting run over by Mrs. Riley later on. Did make friends with Debbie tho...So all's well that ends well, or in my case, looking up from the bottom of a well.

Michael Crocker(DH 65)
Nacogdoches, Texas

" By the Brats, Of the Brats, For the Brats"
Date: Mon, 03 Jun 1996 10:20:05 -0500