No Time For Sergeant Zimmer
Chapter 1
Fort Lewis Washington, 1945
Private Raymond Keyes was up at as the first note of reveille sounded over the PA system. He shaved, finished packing his duffle bag, and stacked his sheets and blankets on the foot of his bunk ready to be turned in to the supply room as soon as it opened. Today was a special day, his twenty-first birthday and the last day of basic training. Actually they had finished basic on Tuesday, but for reasons known only to the Army, they were not scheduled to leave until Sunday. That had been the plan until Ray received a letter from his mother saying that his sister’s wedding had been moved up a week and she was to be married on Monday. She wanted to know if he could come home a day early. After reading the letter, Ray went to the bank of pay phones outside the barracks and called home.
"Our orders are for Sunday and its two days on the train, there's no way I get there in time," Ray said.
His mother explained that Connie’s fiancé, who was in the Navy, had been placed on stand-by and might have to ship out soon. Ray had meet Gerry a couple of times, and liked him. He was in the Seabees stationed in Port Hueneme, which was only a few miles up the coast from their home in Santa Monica.
"But our orders have already been cut, and they're not going to make an exception just for me."
"But you have to be here, you have to walk Connie down the aisle. You're the man of the house now that your father is gone."
Ray could tell she was upset. "All right Mom, I'll see what I can do," he promised. It had been a year now since Ray's father had died, and his mother was still grieving the loss. She couldn’t seem to get over it, and the family was beginning to wonder if she ever would. He couldn't bear to hear her cry, and wished more than anything that he could be there with her, but he knew the chances of getting off base before Sunday were slim and none. Ray decided to take his mother's letter to Sergeant Ward, his platoon leader. Ward was Regular Army, a career soldier, GI all the way, but a fair man. Ray hadn't expected him to intervene in any way, just hoping for some advice on how to go about making the request. Ward read the letter, looked at Ray and read the letter again.
"I'll take this into the old man and see what he says."
Later that afternoon Sergeant Ward handed Ray a copy of his travel orders with Saturday as his departure date. "THANK YOU SARGE!" Ray was bowled over.
All he had to do now was to turn in his bedding and rifle and he would be on his way. If he could get off the base by 8:00 he could catch the 9:45 to L.A.
Hopefully Cpl Jacobs would be on duty in the supply room and not Sergeant Zimmer, who could be a real prick when he wanted, which was most of the time. He was a crabby-ass loner who didn't have a friend in the world. Being a staff sergeant in the Army gave him some stature that he probably would never have attained in civilian life; and he seemed to take sadistic pleasure in making life miserable for new recruits. Somebody said that Zimmer never went to the NCO’s club or associated with any of the other Army staff because none of them would put up with his shit. But as luck would have it, Zimmer was standing behind the counter as Ray walked in with his rifle slung over his shoulder and his arms full of blankets, his cartridge belt and several other items that had to be checked in. He laid everything on the counter and handed Zimmer a copy of his orders, pointing to the CO's signature at the bottom of the page. Zimmer tossed the blankets into an open bin and reached for the rifle. Holding it in his right hand he slid open the chamber with his left, peered into the breech for not more than a second, then shoved it back into Ray’s hands.
