Gray Girl (5 page)

My
first West Point class: Running 101.

The Company had been dismissed when
Jan returned to The Plain.
 
She
pinged to the barracks.
 
Speed
walking at four times the normal pace while keeping arms straight at the sides
and body erect caused many shin splints in new cadets.
 
Jan could already feel the effects of
this unnatural gait upon her leg, buttocks and arm muscles.

She entered the barracks, immediately
turned right until she came to a wall,
then
turned
left and pinged up the first set of stairs lifting her arms parallel to the
ground. “Squaring off,” another plebe requirement, meant turning at every corner
of the stairwells or rooms.
 
She
entered the hallway at the fourth floor, pinging along the wall to her room.

“Miss, HALT!”
 
She recognized Jackson’s voice and
stopped immediately.
 
He approached
and stood only inches from her face.
 
“I don’t tolerate Stragglers in my platoon.”
 
She wished he had brushed his
teeth.
 
“If you fall out of another
run, you will be on my remedial running program.”
 
He leaned in closer, now only about one
inch from her face.
 
“Do you
understand me, Miss
Wishart
?”
 

“Yes, Sir.”
 

“Good.
 
You now have five minutes to shower,
change and stand tall at my breakfast formation.”
 
He lowered his
voice,
“I suggest you get your fat ass in gear.”

“Yes, Sir.”
 
At
least I don’t have camel breath.
 
She
continued pinging toward her room.
 

She was ten minutes late to
formation.
 
Fortunately, Cadet
Jackson was hazing someone in the First Squad.
 
But
Dogety
stood in front of the last man in the Fourth Squad line until Jan fell in next
to him.
 

“
Hambin
,
what’s the menu for breakfast?”
 
Dogety
asked her squad mate while staring at Jan.

“Sir, for breakfast we are having
French toast with syrup, sausage links, home fries, hard boiled eggs, fresh
fruit, orange juice and coffee.”
 
New Cadet
Hambin
seemed the most squared away
so far in Fourth Squad.

Dogety
stepped in front of Jan, looking her over from cap to shoes.
 
“
Wishart
, look
down at your gig line.”
 

A gig line ran all the way down a
cadet’s torso from neck to crotch.
 
The buttoned edge of the shirt was supposed to line up with the outer
edge of the belt buckle and the outer edge of the fly of the pants, creating
one straight line from top to bottom.

Jan dropped her head but didn’t see
the problem.
 
It looked fairly
straight to her.
 
She lifted her
face back up.
 
         

“Do you see what I’m talking
about?”
 
Dogety
asked.

“No, Sir.”

“
Wishart
,
your shirt is puffed out.
 
It
doesn’t lie flat.”

“Yes, Sir.”
 
It
might have to do with boobs.

“I want you to fix it,” he
commanded.
 

Right
now?
 

“Did you hear me,
Wishart
?”

“Yes, Sir.”
 
Jan began to tuck her olive drab (OD)
fatigue shirt in her pants, more than it already was.
 
She fiddled with it while
Dogety
remained facing her.
 

Then Jackson walked over. “What’s
going on here?”
 

“
Wishart
is
straightening her gig line,”
Dogety
explained.
 
Jackson walked around to her backside.

“Sam, have you seen this
dress-off?”
 
Jackson asked.
 
“It looks like mashed potatoes.”

Jan stared at
Dogety
while he responded, “I was getting to that, Cadet Jackson.”
 
He turned his focus back to Jan, “Are
you done, Miss
Wishart
?”
 

“She can’t possibly be done.
 
Her dress-off is non-existent,” Jackson
barked.
 
“
Hambin
and
Wishart
, left face!” They both turned
simultaneously to the left.
 
“
Hambin
, give your classmate a proper dress-off,” Jackson
ordered.
 

With
Dogety
now at her right side, Jackson at her left, and
Hambin
behind, she had only one route left open—forward.
 
Jan unlatched her black, webbed belt and
unzipped the olive drab fatigue pants.
 
Then she slid the pants slightly down over her butt while
Hambin
grabbed each side of her shirt at her waistline,
pulling it tight.
 
He folded the
extra shirt fabric back, holding it firmly in place, while she lifted her pants
back up over his fingers.
 
She
re-zippered and re-buckled while
Hambin
carefully
withdrew his hands.
 
If done correctly,
the shirt would lay completely flat across the back with only two hospital bed
folds at the sides.

“Okay, Cadet Jackson, I’ll take it
from here.”
 
Dogety
sounded annoyed and his eyes tracked Jackson as he walked away.
 
“
Hambin
and
Wishart
, right face,” he said quietly.
 
The new cadets turned back to face
him.
 
“
Hambin
,
from now on, you will report to
Wishart’s
room before
every formation to give her a proper dress-off.”

“Yes, Sir,”
Hambin
said.

But Jan didn’t like it.
 
“Sir, may I make a statement?”

“What is it,
Wishart
?”
 

“Sir, my roommate can give me dress-offs.”
 

“Not good enough,
Wishart
.
 
Your roommate is Third Squad scum.”
 
Dogety
nodded
at
Hambin
.
 
“Fourth Squad takes care of its own, right
Hambin
?”

“Yes. Sir,”
Hambin
popped off.

5

Thursday,
May 6 1982

1930
hours

The stenographer scowled as Jan walked to her seat in the windowless
room.
 
The two women sat in silence
waiting for the males to arrive.
 
Jan wondered how different her Honor Board would be with an all women
jury.
 
Can’t think about that.
 
Just pray some of these guys will see
the forest through the vines.
 

Jan mixed up clichés all the time.
 
She felt it showed she was a big picture person who didn’t get bogged
down with all the details.
 
Yet, she
needed to focus on the details now in order to find a way out of this
mess.
 
The details might make or break my case.
 
There, I got that one right.

The men entered the room and took their seats.
 
Conrad cleared his throat.
 
“All right then, let’s pick up where we
left off.”
 
He looked to the witness
chair.
 
“Cadet Jackson, I want to
remind you that you are still under oath.
 
Now, tell us what transpired after you and Cadet
Dogety
confronted Cadet
Wishart
in the CQ office?”

Jackson leaned forward in his chair.
 
“She refused to admit any blame for the switcheroo.
 
She told us she kept the routing
envelope with her at all times between trips from Third to First Regiments.
 
She used the latrine on two occasions
and stopped in her room two times where she spoke to Cadets McCarron and Trane.
 
But she was adamant that neither of
those two touched the envelope.”

“Did you feel that Cadet
Wishart
was being
truthful at that time?”
 
Conrad
asked.

“No, I thought she was lying.
 
But I couldn’t prove it.
 
I
figured someone else probably knew something that could show Cadet
Wishart
was lying,” Jackson said, never looking at
Jan.
 
“So, we dismissed her and
decided we would verify her story with Cadets McCarron and Trane later.”

“Why did you think she was not being truthful at that point?”
 
Cadet Gaskins, Second Regimental Honor
Captain asked.

“Because she was sweating, shaking, acting all nervous and stuff,”
Jackson said.

Cadet Tourney asked, “Do you think she could have been nervous for any
other reason?”

“No, not really.
 
We have had
many…uh…encounters with Cadet
Wishart
.
 
She never acted like that before.”

I just spent the last couple
hours
running back and forth between your rooms, I had no
idea how the new note got in the envelope, and you had me alone in the goddamn
CQ room!

“Okay, what else did you tell Miss
Wishart
before you dismissed her?”
 
Conrad
asked, keeping on track.

“I told her to report to my room at 0500 hours the next morning.”
 

“Didn’t she report to your room enough already?”
 
Cadet Leavitt asked.
 

Jackson replied softly, “Yes, of course she did.
 
But you have to understand.
 
I figured she was lying about the
envelope.
 
I also felt she deserved
some sort of punishment for messing with our correspondence.”
 

Tourney spoke up again.
 
“Wait
a minute.
 
You had already decided
to do an informal honor investigation when you decided to add a punitive
exercise?”
 

“Yes.
 
In hindsight, we should
not have added this extra requirement.
 
But I did tell her to report to my room at 0500 the next morning.”

And that’s when the shit really hit the fan
blades!

“What exactly did you plan for Miss
Wishart
at that hour of the morning?” Conrad asked.

“I was just going to have her spit shine my
shoes.
 
I figured she’d finish by
0530, giving her plenty of time to get back to her room and get ready for breakfast
formation,” Jackson replied.
 
“But
Cadet
Wishart
arrived to my room late, about 0515.”

“And then what happened?”
 
Conrad again.

“I chewed her out for being late and told her
to take my shoes with her to spit shine and return them to me by 1600 hours.
  
She acted extremely insubordinate
to me at that point.
 
She threw one
of the shoes at me and called me a ‘f-
ing
asshole.’”
 
Jackson paused before continuing.
 
“I reprimanded her for disrespecting a
superior officer, but she just rolled her eyes and generally blew me off.
 
So then, I told her to get the hell out
of my room and that I didn’t want to ever see her again in B-1.”
 

“What time did she leave your room?”
 
Gaskins asked.
 

“She left no later than 0530.”
 

Conrad asked, “Were there any witnesses to
this encounter with Miss
Wishart
, Markus?”

“No, my roommate moved to the regimental staff
rooms at the beginning of this semester, so I have the room to myself.
 
Unfortunately, no one else witnessed
Miss
Wishart’s
insubordination.”

“Was your door open while Cadet
Wishart
was there?”
 
Tourney asked.

“I believe
Wishart
left it open when she entered the room,” Jackson said matter-of-factly.

Conrad went through his file of papers again,
pulling out another clump.
 
He
removed a large paperclip and passed a stapled section to every cadet on the Honor
Board.
 
Major Hastings handed Jan
two pages stapled together: Exhibit B.
 

Jan read the honor Investigation form
202-10.
 
After the usual
information: name, date, location, time of alleged offense, there was one single
succinct statement, “Write a summary of the alleged honor violation in the box
below:”

Cadet
Wishart
told several lies on May 2nd and 3rd to both Cadet
Dogety
and me.
 
On the night of May 2nd,
she denied having knowledge of how the contents changed in a routing envelope
that was in her possession at all times.
 
And on May 3rd, Cadet
Wishart
knowingly lied
to Cadet
Dogety
about events that transpired in my
room that morning.
 
I request Cadet
Wishart
be investigated for Honor Charges in regards to
both of these incidents.

Respectfully submitted,

Cadet Markus Jackson

Company B-1

Another attached sheet detailed Jackson’s
allegations against Jan.
 
The room
quieted while everyone read the full report.

After a few minutes Conrad said, “Let’s take a
short break, use the latrine, get a coke, whatever.
 
I need everyone back in
their
seats at 2130 hours.
 
Cadet
Wishart
and Major Hastings, please stand fast.”
  
Everyone stood up, even the
stenographer, and left the room.
 
Only Jan, Major Hastings and Conrad remained.
 
“Miss
Wishart
,
I have just realized that there has been a slight oversight.
 
You may not have been informed, but you
are allowed one cadet of your choice to be present during these proceedings.
 
Like your JAG counselor, this cadet
cannot speak during the Honor Board, but he or she may take notes and provide
advice.
 
Do you have someone in mind
whom you would like to have as your supporting cadet?”
 

Jan wondered why no one mentioned this before
now.
 
She silently hoped it might be
worthy of a mistrial, if there was such a thing for cadet Honor Boards.
 
She cleared her throat.
 
“Sir, may I have ANY cadet?”

“Yes, as long as they agree to it.”
 

“Then I’d like to have Cadet
Dogety
.”

“Oh, sorry, no, you cannot have witnesses or
anyone who might testify during the Honor Board,” Conrad clarified.

Damn.
 
That rules out Kissy
and Angel.
 
I can’t very well call
on SKIP because I have no idea who he is.
 
Drew is not an option either.
 
Her short list of friends was getting shorter all the time.
 

“Sir, I would like to ask Cadet Trane
then.”
 

“Miss
Wishart
, I
just said you cannot ask anyone who might testify and Cadet Trane is on the
list,” Conrad said.

“Sir, I don’t mean Cadet Angel Trane.
 
I mean Cadet Bill Trane.”
 

“Your Company Honor Representative?”
 

“Yes, Sir.”
 

“Well, that’s…unprecedented.”
 
Conrad paused to think it over.
 
“But because he was not involved in the
events, other than the initial investigation, I suppose he can be
allowed.”
 
Jan figured he gave in
easily to make up for the hard line he took earlier over
Dogety’s
non-statement.

At 2130 hours, Conrad convened the Honor Board again announcing, “We are
adjourning early tonight.
 
Miss
Wishart
has not chosen a supporting cadet to participate in
these proceedings.
 
We will meet
here again tomorrow morning at 0800 hours to give her time to ask someone of
her choosing.”

Did he just make it sound like it was my
fault?

“Remember the confidential nature of this Honor Board.
 
No one is to say anything to
anyone.
 
Am I clear?”
 
There were general nods from the panel
of cadets.
 
“Dismissed.”
 

Jan turned to Major Hastings. “Any advice for me now, Sir?” she asked
hoping he might prove helpful after all.

“Nothing yet.
 
Just try to
look innocent and maybe a little vulnerable.”
 

Oh
Jaysus
.