He Just Didn't Understand

I got another weekend pass and headed back home –er, I mean –to my barracks. Some of the guys were so far from their units they couldn’t leave for the weekend. I was fortunate to be at Division Headquarters so my barracks was just down the street.

The barracks was far from home but it wasn’t school either and my roommates and I actually liked each other! I could even wear civilian clothes. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was hanging around the barracks and who should I see? Staff Sergeant Newsome! I was torn between wanting to run up to him and hug him (I was sooooo sooo very happy to see him) or ignore him –like he had ignored me the weekend he was supposed to come pick me up.

He was glad to see me too, I could tell by the look on his face (which melted my heart); his eyes were bright, his smile wide and sincere. Desperately trying to contain myself and hide my excitement to see him, I walked up to him and told him I had waited hours and hours for him to pick me up my first weekend pass and he never showed up, like he promised he would. He just looks at me and said, “I DID come for you! I waited and waited! You never came out so I hung around the post and kept checking back for you. I figured you must have lost your pass or got stuck with duty or something so I finally left ---but I did wait for you. I sat in that parking lot and kept coming back every 30 minutes or so.” Still trying to pretend that I was very upset with him (I wasn’t) I said, “Then why didn’t you come look for me at the barracks Saturday night or Sunday? You knew I had a pass, you knew I’d be back.” He explained he didn’t know I had a pass and after waiting and waiting for me, he assumed I got my pass pulled. He said it wasn’t until Monday, after I had been back to school, that he found out I had been “home”.

So it was all one big misunderstanding? I was so glad because I wanted to stop pretending to be mad.

We spent the rest of the afternoon together and I unloaded on him everything happening in PLDC. I told him how much I hated it, how hard the course was, that I was one of only a few females, etc. etc. I told him about the shower and that I was going to be Platoon Sergeant and how I had to run my Platoon for the 5 mile run and and and –MAP READING!!! He didn’t react to any of it, much to my disappointment. It was weird because at least about the shower I wanted him to get upset and protective and angry –but it was almost as if this was all old news to him.

But that wasn’t all that strange –most of what I did or said about Army stuff to Newsome was old news. He certainly had far more experience and knowledge than I did. He had seen and heard it all. He encouraged me and gave me some pointers but for the most part, he acted like it was no big deal. He really didn’t want to talk about PLDC. In a way it disappointed me. Didn’t he understand how hard it was for me? Didn’t he understand I needed his help and expertise? He acted like it was all no big deal but he didn’t understand it was a big deal to me! I didn’t have his strength, endurance, knowledge, skill –oh sure, PLDC is child’s play to a Staff Sergeant ex-Drill but to me?

He just didn’t understand.