My First trucking Company (A Tale Of Times Past)

Stolen is such an ugly word I prefer reassigned it has a nicer ring to it.Adapt and overcome that is what they taught us you where just living up to the code.Later

 

I think I've met your twin brother. He's ex-Field Artillery, and he's just as crazy as you are. You guys have matching sets of brass ones.

 

Great story

 

Your story sounds entirely plausible.

I've been in the military and met many enterprising young men, such as you, who knew how to take advantage of the opportunities the military offered.

There is probably more than one trucking company in operation today that began with enterprising young men such as you.

Your story explains why satellite tracking has become so popular. The guys who started many of these companies do not want others to do to them what they did to someone else.

I've known more than one person who hauled a load for the owner and then hauled one for himself (at the owner's expense).

But, that was back when people used cash and satellites were something that existed only in science fiction novels.

Great story.

 

More than a few years ago, I was a reservist U.S. Navy Seabee Equipment Operator doing a short stint at the Stone Bay Ranges of Camp Lejeune, outside of Jacksonville, NC.

The primary goal of our work project was to rehab the barracks at Stone Bay. When we got there, we found that there was basically an old abandoned gas station available for our use as an office. Nothing inside, mind you. So, our Construction Electricians set about to turning on the electricity and getting some lights going, the Construction Utilitymen got the water running, others comandeered tables and chairs, a fan, etc.

Our work crews were ready to go, but someone failed to properly schedule the asbestos removal - so here we are, with nothing to do.

The Chief asked around and got lists from everyone at Stone Bay of things that needed repair. Lists of things that hadn't been fixed in 2 or 3 years. Like the gang showers in the barracks that backed up to ankle deep water whenever you tried to use them. And light fixtures that flickered all the time because of bad ballasts. And doors that wouldn't close because of sprung hinges or out-of-kilter door frames.

So, a day-and-a-half later, those lists were whittled down to half of one page! Now what to do?

Well, they had us going over to Courthouse Bay to update our medical records at the Medical Facility there. Word got out that we were looking for work to do, and Courthouse Bay gave us a few things to work out for them. Then there was the morale, welfare and recreation request - they wanted to know if we could make up a couple picnic tables for them to sit on when they went outside on breaks.

That was a challenge, as there wasn't much in the way of excess wood to be found on Base. I was one of the truck drivers and one of my buddies had just arrived the day before the request. So off we went.

Our Utilityman had already gotten a couple refrigerators for us at the used appliance shop just outside the gate, and not to be outdone, it was up to us to find lumber suitable for picnic tables.

As we drove around looking for stray lumber, we ran into an area that had been recently hit by tornados. Sure enough, there was stray lumber around. Ooops! What have we here? A small outbuilding had been knocked down. Well, time to break out the wrecking bar, hammers and such.

We showed up back at Stone Bay with a load of wood, planks and boards free from nails. Everyone was amazed, even the Chief! He made the mistake of asking us where we got the wood, because it was such a sought after commodity around the base.

We handed him the building numbers from the dismantled outbuilding and told him they could retire those numbers. <grin!>

The next day we delivered picnic tables to Courthouse Bay.

End of this sea story!