Twilight zone

So my tour with Patrol Squadron 17 (VP-17) at the Naval Air Station Barbers Point Hawaii was a lot like waking up in my personal episode of the twilight zone every morning.  Because there was so much bizarre stuff going on.  Bizarre enough stuff that I seriously question how it is possible to have so much bizarre events happening to and around any single individual.  If it hadn't happened to me personally, I would question the sanity of anyone who claimed all this stuff actually happened to them.  Sometimes you hear someone say fact is stranger than fiction.  And I say all the stuff that happened to me is a case of fact being stranger than fiction.  And especially the 3 years I was assigned to VP-17.

There were 2 disbursing clerk billits in each of the 5 VP squadrons homeported at NAS Barbers Point.  VP-1, VP-4, VP-17, VP-22.  So I check into VP-17.   DK1 Greg Davis was on his way out.  I was in effect his replacement.  And DK2 Willie Simon would be the other DK.  And all of the squadron DKs were TAD to Personnel Support Detachment (PSD) Barbers Point.  And we were a detachment of a parent command.  Personnel Support Activity Hawaii.  Which was 16 miles away at Pearl Harbor.  Simon is a black guy.  And I am 100% sure he didn't like mr because I was white.  He treated me like shit the whole time.  And at one point was trying to get me kicked out of the Navy.  And would have if he had an actual reason.

So this was going to be the first real navy disbursing office I had ever worked in.  And this particular disbursing office was way undermanned.  And had a real bad reputation as being really screwed up.  Of course the reason for it being screwed up was it was really undermanned.  That was proved before I left 3 years later when there was at least twice as many DKs there as when I arrived.  And was no longer screwed up.

It is a common practice in the Navy for a commanding officer to be able to request a senior enlisted person they believe can help them accomplish their commands mission.  And this had happened right before I arrived at PSD Barbers Point.  The CO, a felmale captain, and in the Navy a captain is an O6.  Full bird.  Not an O3 like in the Army.  The Navy calls it's O3s Lieutenants.  So this captain had asked for DKCM (E9) Leo Silvano to square away her screwed up disbursing office at the Naval Air Station Barbers Point.  Silvano was a power drunk little Phillipino.  A screamer.  More on him at a later date.  He was a major part of my personal twilight zone.

So Greg Davis called over to the hanger, and got a VP-17 Airman (E3) named Ron Brown to show me around the base.  So Brown shows up.  And be leave PSD.  From the start Brown starts quizzing me on per diem rates for various localities.  And I had never worked a single day in a travel section of a disbursing office.  In Browns mind he was testing me to see if I knew what I was doing.  Since I had never actually worked a day in a disbursing office, I knew next to nothing.  I knew the handful of things taught in my payroll clerk school at the Naval Air Station in Meridian, Mississippi.  And that had been a year and a half before.  Due to my tour at the Navy Finance Center in Cleveland.  So I tire of listening to Brown quiz me on per diem rates, and go to my room in the barracks, and keep him out.  So he goes back to disbursing and whines to Davis.  So I get a phone call to return to disbursing and have to explain why I ditched Brown.  They seemed to understand when I asked a 2nd class DK (female) named Terri Lange, how she would like to be quized on per diem rates.

Even DKs in a travel section don't keep more than a few per diem rates memorized and they are subject to change every 3 months.  So they usually just keep an up to date list at their desk to refer to as they need them.

Ron Brown wouldn't have understood that even if you explained it to him.  So he starts going around VP-17 telling people I didn't know what I was doing.  And I guess there was some truth to that as I was reporting to my first disbursing office.