Category: Rats!

My apologies for not running a cartoon last week. I ended up leaving a day earlier than planned for a trip, and did not manage to get the cartoon scanned in and uploaded because of that.

Anyway, here’s this week’s cartoon, which would have been last week’s. This is another one of those cartoons inspired by a phone call from General Musser’s secretaries. Apparently he won the lottery, and I got called down to the office and was told to make a funny cartoon about it. I’m not sure this is what they had in mind, but I tell you, if I could have requested a loan to pay for Military Ball tickets and my dress, you better believe I’d have done it in a heartbeat.

I’m not going on any more trips for a while (I hope!), so there should be no further interuptions to my weekly schedule. Again, my apologies. I really didn’t expect to have to leave so soon for karate camp last week, and I had to scramble to get out the door.

To all you new rats out there, I hope you’re having fun at Virginia Tech!

Someone please tell me that the disgusting habit of dip is no longer practiced by 99% of the male cadets in the VTCC. I swear, there was nothing more disgusting than watching a guy spend all day spitting icky brown gunk into a paper cup. How did these guys ever convince any girl to kiss them when that had that crap swilling around in their mouths? Blech!

But beyond that, this is a bit more of the story line I started last week. I loved drawing Kitty Siam. She was the quintessential female upper classman, attractive but very restrained with her hair pulled back into a tight bun and her grey skirt. You can tell by her rank (cadet corporal) she’s a sophomore, and by Claw’s rank (cadet 1st sergeant), he’s a junior. And judging by everyone’s shirts, it’s got to be winter. Grey shirts were only worn in winter, with ties mandatory for formations. I think I tied my tie once and then just loosened and retightened it every time I had to put it on after that.

I hope all you new cadets are surviving your first week with the corps. Fun, ain’t it? Getting up at the butt-crack of dawn, running in formation until you puke, dropping to the ground and doing push-ups until you think your arms are going to fall off. And the marching drills! I did so many marching drills during my new cadet week, I could barely stand up when I got out of bed every morning. Yep, those were the days! Be sure to memorize your new cadet knowledge, and remember there are only four correct answers to a question – “Yes, sir/ma’am!” “No, sir/ma’am!” “I don’t know, sir/ma’am!” and “Request permission to speak, sir/ma’am!” At least those were the only answers we were allowed to give when I was a rat.

Oh my, someone’s in love. Romantic relationships in the VTCC were always interesting to watch. If you were a female cadet involved with a male cadet, it could be very damaging to your reputation. I remember on female spring rat who was accused of joining the VTCC simply because she wanted to be with her boyfriend, who had joined at the beginning of the year. You better believe I thought that was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard of. The girl in question went through all the same basic training with all the other spring rats, had to drag through the halls and speak up, suffer through inspections and initiations and all the other “joys” of being a rat, and people honestly thought she was only there for her boyfriend? Give me a frikkin’ break.

Guys could also suffer a hit to their reps if they were involved with a female cadet. Having a civilian girlfriend was one thing, but having a cadet girlfriend might make them seem soft or whipped for some reason. I never understood that one either. Regardless of all that, male and female cadets still got involved with each other, and I can recall some pretty strong relationships in the Corps while I was in. I even dated another cadet during my freshman year. It didn’t last, thankfully, because I met the man of my dreams my senior year. My husband was a civilian student at Tech, majoring in aerospace engineering. Two years after we first kissed, we were married. 17 years later, we have a house, two kids, two cats, two cars, etc. I’m very happy with the way things turned out.

But back to today’s cartoon. I got a bit of flak from some people when I decided to start a “story-line” in the cartoon, which was about a budding romance between Irwin Rat and Kitty Siam. I think today’s episode was the start of all that. Apparently some folks thought the whole story thing dragged. I did it anyway though, because quite frankly, if you draw a cartoon twice a week, every week for nine months of the year, you take all the ideas you can get and use them because you have a deadline to meet!

Did we have rats like Irwin, who did needlepoint and wooed the upperclassmen girls? Not exactly. We certainly had rats who didn’t fit the stereotypical mode. Yours truly is probably the best example of that. In any case, I think it’s safe to say that every cadet marched to the beat of a different drummer (when they weren’t marching in formation, that is).

I’ve heard from more than a few people who are about to start their freshmen year with the VTCC. Thanks for all the feedback and comments guys! My apologies for not responding yet. I just got back from vacation in Toronto and am trying to catch up with a lot of work. I wish all this year’s incoming rats the best of luck with “Cadre Week” (that’s what it was called back in my day), and just remember, be careful how you do your shirt tuck. You don’t want to give yourself a nasty wedgie.

See? I told you there’d be a Rats! cartoon today.

I must have drawn this one about the time our rats were going through initiation for the VTCC’s local chapter of AUSA (Association of the United States Army). There was a time during the winter each year when there was a big push to get the rats to join one military organization or another. The Ranger Challenge team was the hard core Army ROTC club. Of course, I was about as far from hard core as you could get, so I obviously wasn’t joining that. I think I joined AUSA under duress. I don’t recall ever getting any big benefits from it beyond a cord to wear on my wool blouse during parades. Needlepoint, on the other hand, I could have used.

Hope you’re all enjoying the summer. It’s August now and in just another couple of weeks, new rats start showing up at Virginia Tech. Have just a little pity on them, if you were a rat once. But not too much 😉

My apologies, folks. This was supposed to go up yesterday, but I’ve been up to my armpits in alligators for the last couple of weeks. First there was the trip to North Carolina last weekend, and now we’re heading out to Toronto for a week’s vacation. I’ve been busy finishing off paying work, and something had to slide.

This is another one of those cases where I must have been called down to the general’s office by his secretaries and told to “draw something funny.” I don’t recall General Musser becoming a grandfather, but here’s the cartoon just the same. I think at this point we really start to see how different Irwin (who was really just me in cartoon form) was from all the rest of the VTCC. However did I manage to survive four years in the Corps? To this day I’m still scratching my head over that one.

I’ve sworn off all my other blog posts for next week, since I’ll be in Toronto. However, since I’m at my desk right now, I will promptly put together the next Rats! post for the upcoming Thursday, just to make up for being late this week. That’s right, nothing else may go up next week, but Rats! will be there on Thursday. I’ll go set it up right now!

I barely remember Capt. Cuneo. He was big, I recall that. Not big as in tall, but as in so wide across the shoulders he had to turn sideways to get through the door. He was part of the staff for the Army ROTC department, I remember, and he was an Army Ranger. That last means I probably had very little contact with him, seeing as how I was about as far from Ranger material as you could get.

This was another comic done on request, although I can’t recall who requested it. Someone on the Army ROTC staff, I suppose. Beyond that, I couldn’t tell you. By now, Capt. Cuneo’s kid is probably in his early twenties and in the Army himself. Good luck to him wherever he is. I’m sure he’s making his dad proud.

Gotta love Military Ball. This was an annual event for the VTCC, a formal affair where the cadets wore uniforms or ball gowns, depending on whether you were male or female or a practical joker. General Stanton Musser (I think that was his name) made it mandatory my junior year, and there was some howling over that. A lot of people were either not keen on dressing up in the monkey suits or weren’t happy about the prospects of finding a date. I can’t recall who I went with my junior year, the year this particular strip would have been drawn. I wouldn’t be surprised if I went with JP, my dyke (one of the terms for a freshman sponsered by a junior). I know JP was my date for Ring Dance, which was also another formal affair for cadets, though as I recall, the civilian student body also participated, just not to the extent that we did (presentation of the date by an escort, presentation of the ring, sabers, uniforms, etc.). I do remember my date for Mil Ball my freshman year, and of course my date for Mil Ball my senior year was my future husband, Michael. And I didn’t go my sophomore year. But for the life of me, who I went with the year it was made mandatory is beyond me. I may not have had a date at all and just gone stag with some of my buds.

General Musser was interesting. He was a great guy, retired Air Force if I recall correctly, and popular with the VTCC. He was also aparently a fan of the Rats! cartoons. I know because I got a note from his office saying so, and because I got called down to his office one day with a request from his secretaries to draw a cartoon about the General. “Draw something about General Musser! And make it funny!” Noooooo pressure there!

Anyway, I don’t know if Military Ball is still mandatory or not. If any cadets or recent graduates are reading this, leave a comment and let me know. I’m always curious about how things have changed in the last 20 or so years…

20 or so years?! Jeeze, I’m getting old.

Beware the dreaded Freshman 15! I actually did not gain much weight while I was in college. Maybe a grand total of 5 pounds over the course of 4 years, which really isn’t much at all. It was all that running and those early morning PT sessions, plus spending all day hiking from one end of the Virginia Tech campus to another that did the trick. These days I’m not nearly as active, unfortunately, though I try.

Some cadets I knew, however, did manage to pack on the weight, which made life interesting when their uniforms started to not fit. It didn’t happen to people often, but when it did, watch out! You could lose an eye when a shirt button popped. Plus, sometimes uniforms shrank. They were made of wool, after all.

I’m still trying to get back on track after the weeklong deadly stomach virus I had last month. I’m almost there, but just when I think I’m about to catch up, something happens. More work comes through the door (paying work is good, but it keeps me hopping!), or one of the kids gets sick, or we go on a trip… Honestly, life was much easier when I was a cadet. Seriously. To all you college cadets out there reading these cartoons, appreciate the life you have while you’ve got it, because when you have a spouse and kids and a house to take care of, things get a little more complicated. Trust me on this.

I read an article a couple months ago that said the military is having problems recruiting because many teens these days flat out don’t meet the height and weight standards, and are in no shape to meet the physical demands of military life. Personally, I was in no shape to meet the physical demands of military life when I was a cadet. Yeah, my height and weight were peachy keen, but before becoming a cadet, I’d never done push-ups, sit-ups or run for any lengthy distance. I took a lot of dance classes in my early teens and was in the marching band in high school. But that, ladies and gentlemen, was the extent of my physical fitness preparation for becoming a cadet. Needless to say, I did a lot of puking at the end of company runs when I got to Virginia Tech, and I suffered all through college trying to do decent push-ups.

However, I made it through, and to this day, I still try to stay fit. I’ve started to get back into running after some time off, and I also do swimming, water aerobics and karate. The Hubster and I are testing for our 3rd degree black belts in August some time, so I must be doing something right. I try to do push-ups and sit-ups, but I’m not sure I could do enough to pass an APFT these days. Guess I better get to work on those!

Hope all you cadets who are reading this are having a great summer! And be sure to mention to these cartoons to next year’s rats. They’ll probably enjoy knowing they aren’t the only ones who have ever suffered through their rat year.

Yet another item that got derailed last week, thanks to the stomach bug. I try to get all my blog posts for the week, including the Rats! posts, done by Sunday evening. And I was just getting ready to head up to the office and scan this in when I realized what I really wanted to do instead was puke in a bucket. Life’s funny like that, you know?

Anyway, here is a scene that happened all too often when I was a cadet. I’d be right in the middle of something like a shower, dying my hair, writing a paper, etc., and someone would burn their popcorn badly enough that the fire alarms went off and we all had to head outside. Fun.

The interesting thing to note about this image is that all the rats in the last panel are named. These were the rats in Hotel Company my junior year, when I first started drawing the Rats! cartoons. I think they may have just completed company initiation, an event where new cadets are run ragged before being formally accepted into the company. As I recall, this was something that usually happened in November, prior to Fall Break. My own company initiation two years earlier was a real hoot. After spending several hours on Friday combing every last inch of the campus to find the company guidon, we were given pass for the rest of evening, with orders to be back in bed by midnight. I know once I got the sand out of my shorts (they made us low crawl through the sand traps of the campus golf course), I basically said, “Screw the pass, I’m going to bed.” Others, however, went out and stayed out. I think at least one cadet came back very late… just in time for the upper classmen to come banging on our doors at 5AM and yell at us to get into our dress uniforms for another round of torment.

Fun times, people. By the way, the best way to get a drunk rat through the hallways is to sandwich him or her between two sober rats as they drag through the dorm. Just watch it on those 90 degree turns. You might accidentally tip your buddy and send them crashing to the floor.