PLDC Continues

The building PLDC was located in was an old WWII barracks.  I wish at the time I was mature enough to appreciate all of the historical significance that surrounded me but such as it were, to me at the time it was just an old Army building.

As stated in an earlier post, since there were so few females in our class we had to share a bathroom with the males on our floor.  We were given a certain time frame --like say, between 7pm & 8pm the female soldiers use the bathroom.  We got a shorter time slot since there were fewer of us than the males.

The bathroom was huge.  When you first walked in there was a long row of sinks and across from the sinks, a long row of stalls. To the right was a doorway leading to the the locker area and from there, another doorway and when you walked into that there was a huge cement room with shower heads lined up on two walls facing each other.  The floor was slightly slanted towards the middle were there was a drain.  There were no curtains or partitions of any sorts.  The room was quite large; I'd say maybe 35 feet x 30 feet, roughly.  There were no hooks on the walls or shelves or anything so you couldn't even bring a towel in with you because the only place to put it would be on the floor and it would get soaking wet.  I did have two towels but my hair was so long I needed one to wrap my hair in and one to dry off with so risking getting one soaking wet wasn't an option for me.  The ceiling was quite high, making the room very echo-y and loud and once you started the water, you couldn't hear much else, just water splashing and old rickety pipes.  It smelled like mildew, old paint, cleaning solution, rubber, metal and locker room nastiness.  There's nothing about the bathroom that made you want to be there or linger in there --get a quick shower and get out.  That's it.  Standing in that huge echo-y room made you feel so exposed, literally and figuratively.

The females had all discussed using our bathroom time wisely.  Trying to give each other some measure of privacy, we tried to take turns in the bathroom but since we had such a narrow time slot for the bathroom, sometimes complete privacy just wasn't possible.  We did try to respect each other as much as possible.

One particular night during the first week of class I decided to take my shower early as I discovered you'd have a better chance of being alone going early than late because as it got close to the end of our bathroom time, everyone tried to hurry and rush in.  This night I was in the middle of my shower and I could faintly hear some voices and shuffling around but nothing that was too clear.  I just figured some other females had come in to get an early start too.  I then looked up and standing in the doorway were two males.  They both had a towel wrapped around their waist but other than that, they were both completely naked and I uh well, so was I --but without the benefit of a towel!

I immediately screamed, very loudly, but it wasn't like I had a towel to grab or door to hide behind or anything.  What I'm sure was only a few seconds, seemed like an eternity as the guys stood there frozen.  I think all three of us were in shock.  I kept screaming over and over, "GET OUT!  GET OUT!  GET OUT!"  They hustled out of there and I remember thinking how trapped I was.  I couldn't run to my towel as they were there.   I couldn't hide.  I couldn't do anything but stand there naked and wait (and hope they would) for them to leave.  Well, thankfully they did high-tail it outta there pretty quickly.

When I was certain they were gone, I went back to the locker area and got dressed, I didn't even take time to dry off --I just threw my clothes on.  I was so over taken with complete embarrassment, shock and humiliation.  I walked out into the hallway with no particular plan of what to do next.  As soon as I exited the bathroom there were quite a few people that had gathered to see what all the commotion was about.  They all just stood there staring at me and I was angry because I felt like I was some side-freak show.  I yelled very loudly --and if you know me you know that I have a very loud voice and I can speak very loud but when I say I was yelling loud --I mean it was loud!  I screamed, "I WANT THE TWO SOLDIERS THAT WERE JUST IN THE BATHROOM TO REPORT TO THE COMMANDANT'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW!"  I just remember standing there yelling, as if I had any sort of authority, and really, I was only making matters worse as now an even larger crowd had gathered.  There I stood, wet clothes all clinging to me, long wet hair dripping all over the place and me yelling and demanding things.  I don't think I would have done that had there not been a crowd gathered but when everyone was staring at me I felt like I had to do something.

By now some of the instructors had arrived on the scene and in all the commotion they were trying to figure out what had happened.  They finally called for the two soldiers to come forward, who by now were completely dressed.  They both sheepishly emerged into the crowd with their heads hung down.  I actually felt sorry for them.  The instructors told me to go back to my room and then they escorted the two soldiers away.

When I got back to my room of course my roommates wanted to know what happened, so I told them the story.  They were all in disbelief, as I was, and seemed in support of me --except for the girl with the long brown hair, who sat on the floor shining her boots listening to my every word but not making eye contact with me or any comments.

I could tell she was annoyed with me --and I had no understanding as to why.  This happened to me and I did nothing to make that happen.  So after all the talk had settled down and the room got quiet she said to me, but again not looking at me, "So two guys walked in on you taking a shower --big deal!  You're acting like you got raped or something."

I'll never forget that feeling I had then --it was as if what she said and how she treated me was worse than the incident itself.  I felt like a victim being victimized yet again.  Worse yet, not one other female in that room spoke up.  Everyone just got quiet and pretended they were busy with their things.

After that night I hardly spent any time in my room other than to sleep.  This is when I began going down to the basement hall each night until just before lights-out.

About 20 minutes or so after the incident, a CQ  Runner came and knocked on our door and said I was to report to the Commandant's office.  I had to be in full uniform to do so and I was so mad!  I just wanted the whole thing to be over and forgotten and getting into full uniform was such a pain, especially this late at night; lace my boots up, put my hair up . . . . everything seemed to get worse and worse . . . . .

As I walked down to the Commandant's office, which required me to go through much of the barracks, I could feel the stares and looks I was getting from other soldiers as if to say, "Oh SHE'S the one, she's the one some guys just walked in on . . "  Some guys would look right at me and smirk and others would quickly look away as if to pretend they didn't even see me.  Once again, I was thankful for the no talking in the halls rule because had they been allowed to speak to me, I can't imagine what might have been said.

Either way, it bothered me.  Once again, all the humiliation of what happened was fresh upon me and I had no idea what the Commandant was going to say to me or do.  I just knew I wanted to leave PLDC and never ever return.