Gas Chamber in Basic Training

"Knocked Up" has been on TV a number of times recently. Isn't that why we have and pay for cable? To see the same shows over and over again? Anyway, in this show the lead character is shown smoking dope using a gas mask. It brought back memories of the Gas Chamber in Basic Training. For some idiotic reason I couldn't wait to do that. The more they talked about it the more excited I got. Stupid huh? Anyway, that day came. We had a great meal brought out to the field that day and right after eating that meal we were lining up to go in.

You know, growing up I had heard and saw on TV of how one takes many breaths filling up their lungs with oxygen and that allows one to hold their breath for a long time. Well as a kid I tried it and it worked. I was always the winner at the pool for those contests when you see who can stay underwater the longest. So, my plan was to do this at the Gas Chamber.  I didn't know what to expect and just thought I'd be choking from the gas or whatever. As I walked in I realized my mask wasn't sealed, no problem, I was trained to get that sealed and got that done. Soon we had to take off our masks and this damn gas burned my eyes and they were tearing up and it penetrated the skin on my face from the morning shave. This was not expected, but I held my breath. I was watching as everyone else was choking and gaging. We had to walk around the room and then head for the door. I was almost there, shit this is going to work. Then I hear "Drill Sergeant, Mahoney isn't breathing." from a guy in my platoon. That's all it took - as the Drill Sergeants made the target and made sure I had plenty of time in there and really got some good lung fulls of the tear gas or whatever that was. Once that was done I exited gagging, trying to catch my breath and soon throwing up. I looked down at that puke and thought, shit - that was a good lunch too. (I think it was good on purpose just with them knowing it would be thrown up.)

We had one more training session that day while under barbed wire with smoke pouring over us so you would not know when they popped open the gas and we had our masks off. When you started to experience the effects of the gas, you could then put your mask on.

Well, at the end of the day the guy who yelled out I wasn't breathing got some grief/ribbing from others in my platoon. But mostly it was just a group of young men laughing at what had happened that day and what we had experienced. But, beyond the laughing there was also the quiet conversations that was serious on whether or not we will experience a gas attack while on duty and just how serious an attack could be. It really made us think.

And shit, that was a good lunch too.