The beginning of the end started with my "card reading". Somehow, the story got out to the officer in charge of the unit (who we rarely saw) and he decided to come meet me and see if what he had heard was true.
Unfortunately, when he arrived it was well after hours and even though I was not supposed to be off grounds, I was nowhere to be found. After a brief search they found me with a couple of friends tripping behind the unit fence, laying on the ground laughing. When he walked up to me I couldn't really respond to his orders so he just walked off mad. It was after this that it was decided that we would be required to wear, what they thought of as a mark of shame on our shirts.
We had to stencil "191" on the back, so that everyone on base would know who we were. We loved this idea! We already considered ourselves special, so labeling us with that number was even better. Without the Chief in charge knowing, we decided to take it a little further and put the nicknames that we used for each other on the back, but down far enough that when our shirts were tucked in all the way, no one could see it.
The name that everyone called me was "crazy", although I have no idea why.
We each paraded around in our newly customized clothes that night, excited to try them out the next day. Of course, it didn't take long for the Chief to find out, but like he had done a hundred times before, he just gave a deep sigh and went back to his reading. I can only imagine today what he must have done to get put in charge of a bunch of "hippys", whose only care in life was to get back to being full time space travelers. But, he was one of the good guys also, always kind to everyone, even if he always had that bemused look on his face.
Our shirts did not go over well, probably because some of us were a little too obvious in letting them get untucked, so of course another stir was created. The good thing about the service is that it takes awhile to order any new changes , so I figured I'd be long gone before I saw the officer in charge again.