That night as per usual, I went to bed at midnight. Piss call at two. The green marmite cans, followed by aluminum bowls used to whisk scrambled eggs, mix pancake batter, and concoct hamburger and white gravy on toast, i.e., “shit on a shingle.” There were frying pans from the officers’ mess filled with crusted egg, bacon and sausage grease, empty pans of biscuits ’n’ gravy, and an endless supply of hot greasy bakery trays the size of solar satellite panels. There were large ladles, spoons, carving knives, and peculiar little dagger utensils that looked like Pygmy spears. Then came the marmite cans again and the beginning of the lunch mess. If you were lucky and you really hustled you could squeeze in a piss and a cigarette about three in the afternoon. The heavy shit came down after that—the supper mess was worse than both the breakfast and lunch jobs together. Mess Hall Number Three was feeding a couple of thousand men a day. We were doing double duty since the Fifth Regiment was ready to ship out to Vietnam and their chow hall was already secured. Mess Hall Number Three was feeding those troopers as well as our own. Still, the Marines working the scullery could clean up the mess hall exactly two hours after the last Marine was served chow and they could go back to their barracks, smoke cigarettes, and grab an hour of sleep before reporting back. They could take a shower or have a game of volleyball. The action in the pot shack, however, was unending. I began to fantasize on the various ways I would like to murder Captain McQueen.

To the Marines pulling mess duty in the scullery, Mississippi and I became objects of mystery, fascination, and much speculation. We looked like a couple of Haitian zombies, only we moved faster. Even the worst of the shitbirds were never condemned to more than three days in the pot shack. Geneva Convention. Soon I was pushing my second straight week and Mississippi, I don’t know how long. There was no salvation from Sergeant Myers and of course, no intervention from that wonderful, talented, and elegant entertainer, Ms. Baez.