Dreams

I am reading Oliver Sacks' book, "Hallucinations", for our July book club meeting. That has got me to thinking about my dreams; not that I believe my dreams are hallucinations. But they do have recurring themes or things that appear in most of them.

Most of my dreams consist of me doing some kind of military activity. It is not a war or fighting; usually just some kind of training exercise. It usually takes place in some unidentified location that looks like a military post with many barracks. Several common threads are running through each dream: running late, not packed for wherever I am going (and I am always going somewhere), and being out of uniform.

I see myself rushing to catch my train - my usual more of travel in my dream. If not a train, then it is a military jeep. I haven't packed well. Sometimes I am carrying my suitcase bulging with clothes hanging out, not zipped closed, and I am struggling to hold on to it as I run to get on the train. 

When I travel by jeep, it gets dangerous because I am usually not driving and the driver is speeding and reckless. 

I often do even get that far. I've got my gear laid out on my bunk and haven't even begun to pack when someone runs in and tells me to hurry or I'll miss my ride. I look at myself in the mirror and see that I am out of uniform. It's always BDU's. Never a dress green uniform. That's interesting in that I seldom wore anything BUT my greens for the last 11 years of my active career, and that continued for 17 years while teaching JROTC at Xavier. 

Sometimes though, the dream takes place at Xavier where I taught for 17 years. When that is the case I do seem to recognize people who I worked with at the school, but not their faces or names. I just know they are not strangers.

When I am at Xavier, I am in the building and running through the halls and different floors. I don't go outside.

I usually wake up before I get to where I am going.  

Andrew

I have been spending some time this month online looking for old friends who served with me in the military. This all started when I got a daily notice on FB for who's birthday it was. It was my first platoon leader, Sonny, from Vietnam in 1969. I happened to remember him posting a couple of years ago about having cancer from Agent Orange. So I went to his post to see what his status was.

The first post I saw was "Happy Birthday in Heaven". I didn't have to read more. I knew he had passed away. I read a few more and then decided to look at his friends' list. I found my second platoon leader, and through him, one of my medics. I have found five so far from Vietnam. I decided to look for more.

I had gone to a British Army school in England in 1971 for 13 months. It only had 30 army officers in my class: 24 British, 3 Australian, 2 US, and 1 Canadian. One of my friends I always remembered well was an officer in the Household Cavalry. This is one of the mounted units that protected the Queen. Andrew was a captain and belonged to the Life Guards. This unit wore bright red tunics (the Blues and Royals, the other mounted unit wore dark blue).

When I googled his name, it was a hyphenated name, I found him quickly. He had evidently died in 1985. Searching a little more I found that he was murdered in a botched robbery attempt in his house where he lived in Zimbabwe. He discovered the burglar, shot at him but missed. During the ensuing fight, the burglar wrestled the pistol from Andrew and shot him twice. A trial two years later found the man guilty and he was hanged for Andrew's murder. 

I plan on writing more about Andrew in the future, but for now here are a couple of photos that show him in our class. Not the best but the only ones I have. He is in the upper right corner.

As you can see, the Household Cavalry soldiers were selected for their height as well as other attributes. A lot like our own Old Guard who guard the Tomb of the Unknowns.

More later.