Category: Rats!

I vaguely remember having to be Officer of the Day once or twice for my battalion. Vaguely. I think I was up most of the night waiting for something to happen but nothing ever did. I have a clearer recollection of being Staff Duty Officer while attending OBC at Fort Eustis, and that was another all-nighter where once again, nothing ever happened. Thank goodness for quiet nights.

Claw would probably quite happily squash a dozen underclassmen and find it relaxing. He’s that kind of guy. Irwin (and later Ivan) would probably be much more hyper about it, both relishing in the power to punish others and fearing having to do so. I was always more like Irwin and Ivan, never like Claw. The military was never an easy fit for me, and to this day I’m surprised I got through 11 years in the Army Reserves.

I believe the school year is winding down at Virginia Tech. All the cadets must be getting ready for exams by this point. Good luck to all you guys, and to those of you getting ready to graduate and be commissioned into the military. Enjoy your last days of college while you can. It all changes drastically after that.

It’s absolutely hysterical for me to read this particular comic and compare it to my life today. Most days I’m up around 5AM. My wardrobe consists of what I call my Mama Geek uniform – funky t-shirts and recycled jeans skirts. As for the hair? I dyed part of it blue. You see, you can dress strange and still be responsible!

I wish I knew what pen I had used to draw this cartoon. The cartoons from this period have stood up very well to the test of time. The ink has not faded nor turned blue. The lines still look very crisp. Honestly, this is some of the neatest drawing I did on “Rats!” Over the four-year period that I drew this comic, I frequently changed pens and drawing pads, which led to some inconsistent results. I chalk it up to being a poor college student who could never find the same art supplies twice at Mish Mish.

By the way, does Mish Mish still exist in Blacksburg? I’d be curious to know.

I’m putting this up real quick before I have to run out the door today. Let’s just say being a sophomore cadets kind of sucks. You’re no longer a rat, but you don’t have any real power. You just end up being the dopey sidekick to some junior. I never liked the sophomore cadets when I was a rat, and I hated being a sophomore cadet later on.

Got to run now!

When I was a cadet, I got into trouble for a lot of things I didn’t even do. It’s just the way it is sometimes.

‘Nuff said.

I think I’ve blogged about shirt tucks here before, but for those of you unfamiliar with the topic, let us just say that a shirt tuck is the most painfully self-induced wedgie one can give oneself, all in the name of a wrinkle free uniform shirt.

Sorry today’s post is up late. I am currently recovering from Girl Scout Cookie season. I was cookie coordinator for the Princess’ Brownie troop this year, and it was… interesting. I turned in all our money and paperwork yesterday, and today am in the process of slowly reclaiming the rest of my life. The house is a shambles, laundry is piled sky high, my inbox over-floweth with email, and I am behind on a number of projects.

So I’m going back to work now. See you later!

I have been remiss in getting back to posting “Rats!” on a regular basis. I apologize for that. It’s just been a case of “if it could go wrong, it has gone wrong” around here. I am slowly starting to recover from everything that’s been going on over the last six months – my father-in-law’s death, a deluge of work, Girl Scout cookie sales – and will hopefully be back on track soon.

Anyway, here is a guide to the various classes in the VTCC. Right now, I feel like the Junior, with tendencies toward being a senior. Seniors were either so busy they never left their rooms, or they were so slack they never bothered to show up for anything. I could fall into either category right about now.

I’m headed out for EPICon today, and I intend to take the slacker approach to the entire weekend. If you’re there, you will probably find me in the bar or lounging around with my iPad being entirely shiftless. I’ll get back to work next week. I promise!

Ah, nothing makes you feel powerful and important like a brand new rat speaking up and calling you “Sir!” And I was just about always called “Sir!” in spite of the fact that I have been a “Ma’am!” since the day I was born.

Being in charge is both great and really scary, I think. It’s great because you get to make the decisions and call the shots. It’s scary for the same reasons. If your decisions result in a successful outcome, everybody pats you on the back and declares you a hero. If your decisions lead to, shall we say, negative consequences, then you’re pretty much screwed because you were the one in charge.

I have screwed up more times when I was in charge than I care to remember. When I left the Reserves, I breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that my days of being in charge were over. And yes now I find myself once again the one in charge. Of Girl Scout cookies, this time, not of millions of dollars of military equipment and hundreds of people’s lives, but still, I’m in charge and I’m on the hook should anything prevent the successful delivery of several hundred boxes of delicious cookies to our very hungry customers.

The thing is, once you’ve been in charge, you never stop being in charge. Doesn’t matter if you suck at it, you still wind up being in charge again and again and again. Because you have experience, even if it’s only experience at screwing things up.

Have fun this week!

Ah, the terrible things that power does to people. They get a little taste of it and they go crazy, meting out such misery to the poor people stuck beneath them. I don’t recall any of my classmates turn into complete jerks my sophomore year, thankfully. I think we all knew we’d get into major trouble if we pushed things too far. But I have to admit, we were all eager to see someone else go through the agony of being rats, if only so we could point and laugh and say, “Do you remember when we had to do that crap?!”

Other thoughts on today’s cartoon. This reminds me very much of the trips I made from home to Blacksburg and back again. I must have put thousands of miles on my poor little car, driving through all those mountains. I almost always drove by myself, and it’s a wonder I’m alive today. I can’t imagine making that trip now without a full night’s sleep and a cell phone on me in case there was an emergency. But back then? Eh, grab a couple hours of shut eye, through your gear in the back of the car, buy coffee on the way out and just drive! Those were the days.

So this is the start of the cartoons for the second year. I’ll have to count to see if I’ve got 50 cartoons for this year as well. I was in my senior year at this point, had just completed Camp All American at Fort Bragg and gotten through it by the skin of my teeth. I sucked so badly at ROTC, it’s a wonder anyone gave me a commission. That summer was also the year when Iraq invaded Kuwait. I was at Ft. Bragg then, doing CTLT (Cadet Troop Leadership Training) after having finished Camp All American. I remember that one evening we went to bed, everything all sane and normal in the world, and the next day we woke up and we were at war. Scary as all get out, driving around the post, seeing armed guards all over the place. I spent most of my last 2 weeks at Bragg running around getting dental records and helping soldiers fill out family care packages and powers of attorney for the families they were getting ready to leave behind.

Anyway, I did my time at Ft. Bragg, then returned to school. A lot of cadets who’d been upper classmen when I was a rat had already been sent off to Kuwait. It was a strange time to be a senior cadet. Of course, by the time I graduated, got my commission and finished Officer Basic Course, the Gulf War was over. It would be 10 years before I’d end up actually doing anything overseas during a wartime operation. And even then, I didn’t do all that much. That’s the way things work out sometime. To those of you currently serving overseas, I wish you the very best, and I hope you come home safe and sound sometime very soon!