This Is a True Friend.

It was June 18th, 1980 and I was stationed at Ft. Jackson, SC Prior to
getting here, let me see... I just came off a 12 day leave, prior to
that, I went thru truck driver school at Ft Dix, NJ for a month and a
half. Prior to that, I was on 62 days leave cause I just had re enlisted
for the truck driver school,AND I spent 3 whole years, without seeing
the United States in GERMANY !!

Ft Jackson is a training post, basic training and advance idividual
school. 50,000 basic trainess. Was assigned to The 342nd Transportation
Company, combat ready, 5ton and 2 1/2 ton trucks. In the messhall is
where I met her, Elaine.

Elaine was one year younger than me, and she was a civilian working
cleaning up the messhall. When I saw her, all I did was stare. To this
day, I don't know how I introduced myself to her, but after 3 days she
was my girlfriend.

I'm 20 years old right, and I got all this energy. Here I was on the
post with so many females all around...I thought I would go crazy. But
Elaine kept me head on the ground. Everyone knew we were a couple. You
saw her, and sooner or later you would see me. Females weren't allowed
in the barracks, and rules were made to be broken. I went from a 4 man
room to a single room, Elaine spent many nights with me.

Ok, since I wasn't from the South, I didn't know how these southern guys
acted, operated. One guy in my squad, Butler was a pain in my ass.
Elaine had a thing for him for alittle while, but she found out he
wwasnt shit, and she stuck by me. But that didn't stop Butler from
trying, and he always did.

I did my 3 years, and I left for New York City. After being home for 2
days, I went back down there to see her. Yep, she hooked up with Butler.
I told her give me 2 weeks with me in NYC, and she did. My family loved
the hell out of her. See, Elaine knew who I was, let me explain.

The Army does things to you. It...well, friends are friends. Soldiers
that are friends, that's a whole different subject. Put it this way. If
I borrowed 2pp dollars from one of my soldier friends in my Company,
they NEVER asked where is their money. You had my back, I got your back
DOUBLED. Anything you need, you got it. If I tell you to meet me
someplace in 15 minutes, best believe they were there 5 minutes ahead of
time. Need to borrow my car, sure. I don't care if you bought it back on
empty, and there was a full tank of gas when I gave it to you, that
doesn't matter. I GOT YOUR BACK.

Try finding friends like that here in NYC, or anywhere. We all don't
have good days, and you have to know when a person is having a bad day.
People I know here don't understand the iddea about good/bad dayys. Me,
I could blow up on you, and in the next 5 minutes come back and say I'm
sorry.

Which brings me back to Elaine. I miss her. Well its been over 30 years
since we last saw each other, but I miss her and the times we had. She
taught me how to have friends. She taught me how NOT to hold things
against people. She taught me how to be honest to myself.

When I went to South Carolina, I didn't fly, I took Grethound. On my
last trip down there, I sat next to this white girl. As we were coming
up on the entrance to this Horse Farm, she told me that she lived there,
it was her parents. The name of the farm...Chappell Farms.
--michaelchappell