Blown for Good - Marc Morgan Headley [100]
After dragging the wet tent out of the grass and packing it up, we were greeted by another security guard on a motorcycle. Of course, Jon Stumbke and the other two guards were sleeping in their warm beds somewhere and would not be here to rouse us this early in the morning. I am sure we were each thinking that exact same thought as we saw the new guard pull up. Anyway, he told us to run over to the garage and take showers there.
We were given 10 minutes to take a shower and be back outside ready for our breakfast. Most of us just washed our hands and face and went back outside. The water in the garage was freezing and by the time the water was hot enough, it would be time to go. We were told to run over to the galley and see the cleaner in the kitchen. She would give us breakfast and tell us what was next.
We got over to the galley and there was the cleaner. It seems everybody loves it when they are normally the lowest person on the totem pole and they get the chance to boss someone around. The cleaner told us that she had some bread and water for us. We were supposed to eat in five minutes and then get to work. It seemed that no sooner than we saw her leave, she was back telling us that breakfast is over and handed each one of us a toothbrush. She informed us that she and the rest of the galley staff were taking the day off since it was Sea Org day. We were supposed to spend the entire day scrubbing the galley floor tiles with our newly acquired toothbrushes.
You have never felt pain until you have spent sixteen hours on your hands and knees scrubbing floor tiles with a tiny toothbrush. Lucky for us, we got 10-minute meal breaks for lunch and dinner. Because most of the Int Base crew were off for the day, not that many people were around to see us scrubbing the floors. It was humiliating enough that we had the cleaners bossing us around. We looked like utter crap from not having slept or showered.
By the end of the day, we were all nearly physically incapable of doing anything besides sleeping. We were made to run out to the area where we had slept the night before. Knowing full well that the sprinklers had been reprogrammed to coincide with our sleep time, we moved our location out of their range and we had each smuggled large plastic trash bags out of the galley to use as sheets to sleep on. We at least knew how the tents went together, so setting them up did not take as long. We were able to get to sleep around midnight. For the first night in many nights we would get a full night of sleep, or so we thought.
At around 3:00 a.m. we were awakened by another security guard. We were told that we were not allowed to sleep on the grass since we were being punished and making amends and did not deserve such luxury. We were told that we had to break down the tents, carry them over to OGH and rebuild them there. It normally took 20 minutes to walk to OGH from where we were. Getting over there with the tents took a good 45 minutes. Everything around OGH was dirt. There was no grass anywhere. We looked at the bright side, no grass = no sprinklers. By the time we made it over there, we opted to lay the tents on the ground and sleep on top of them. This would give us a little more time to sleep and we would not have to break it back down in the morning either.
Day after day, week after week, we followed the same routine. Not allowed to talk with other staff, not allowed to go back to our own homes or berthing. Not allowed to see our spouses. Out of the six of us, four were married and had spouses who also worked at the Base. Two weeks in, we did get a surprise;