Special Delivery

When you serve in the US Armed Forces, a sense of watch out for your buddy, and he'll watch out for you is instilled in you all throughout your service time. I can't think of any other place where you could make a better friend. Time and time again GI's make countless sacrifices for one another.

Even after being discharged from active duty, this sense of sacrifice and duty to a fellow service member carries on. As a former service member, I was no different, and I was always determined to help a fellow service member whenever I could. But my sense of commitment to a fellow service member got me involved in the most comical of situations.

I was working the night shift at a US Postal facility. The job I was doing required two workers. My partner was a former service member and I was glad to have someone that I could shoot the breeze with about my old Navy days. We were working great together and having a lot of laughs. After a while we went on our lunch break. I headed for the cafeteria, and my partner said he wasn't hungry, but was going to get a little shut eye.

When I returned from lunch, my partner still had not yet returned. I figured that he would be a little late and just started without him. When a supervisor noticed that I was doing two jobs at once all by myself, I simply told her that my partner was in the mens room and would be right back. After working all alone, and killing myself for about two hours, someone told me that there was a telephone call for me in the office from someone claiming to be my brother.

Of course, I didn't have a brother, but I played it cool figuring that it might be my partner on the phone with an explanation of what happened to him. I figured he may have met his girl friend or something and lost track of the time. But, then of course, being in the heart of Manhattan at that hour of the night, I suppose that just about anything can happen.

It was my partner on the phone, as I expected, but what I didn't expect, was him telling me where he was and what had happened.

"You've got to cover for me," my partner said in a voice of desperation.

"Where the hell are you,? I said quizzically.

"I'm in Connetticut," my partner answered.

"What the hell are you doing in Connecticut,?" I asked.

"I climbed into a BMC to sleep and they rolled me out to the truck and shipped me to Connecticut," my partner sighed.

"Great, I'm working in Manhattan with a partner that's in Connecticut. I've been killing myself for hours now trying to cover for you. What should I do,?" I asked.

"If you could cover for me just a little bit longer, I will climb into another BMC that's going back to Manhattan," my partner said.

"Okay, just don't try to stuff youreself into a mail box or something. I'll just say that you're sick in the mens room with a 24 hour virus. But please try and stay awake in the truck. I don't want them putting you on a plane to California or something," I said.

"Thanks buddy, you're the best, and I owe you one for this," my partner exclaimed.

After about two hours after the phone call, my partner returned from Connecticut at last. I was exhausted and was glad that my partner could give me some help at last. But just as my partner was about to start working, a supervisor came over to our work station.

"Iv'e heard that you've been sick all night with a bad virus. You shouldn't come to work when you're that sick. But because you're such a trooper, I'm sending you home early," the Supervisor said to my partner with a big smile.