In my last installment I detailed the mechanism by which my personality was burned to the ground. I had been reduced to the mental condition of a newborn living in an adult body and stayed that way for many months. Then along came Brandy.

            Brandy was a private assigned to my platoon (not my squad) as a 96D imagery analysts while I was working. Tall, (6’0”) dirty blonde, blue eyed, 18 years old from Dallas, Texas.  Worse yet she seemed to think I was funny. This was very much like a cruel joke from God at this point. You see in the Army as an NCO I was not allowed to date anyone I could have a direct effect upon and I was a Flight Instructor at this time. This mean that I would be directly responsible for Brandy’s progression in the unit. Bad news.

            Throwing caution to the wind I made my (clumsy) play nonetheless. We “dated” for a very little while with her showing an increased interest for a time before she backed off without warning. I was (of course) caught completely off-guard by this withdrawal and followed up with a series of attempts to figure out the whys and wherefores of my rejection. It didn’t take long for it to become apparent that she actually preferred women over men! Not to exclusion mind you but certainly had a preference.

            There were some good times with her however and I bear her no ill will.  I remember being quite charmed by her country girl attitude towards Korea. On her first night in Anjung-ri (pronounced an-jung-nee) I recall her drunken observation that this tiny Korean ville was “just like Dallas!”

            Finding this out actually allowed me to move on and stop pouting. Yes, I pouted. I would go so far as to leave Companions when she would enter for a while. Once I ascertained that she didn’t prefer another man to me I felt a lot better about it though. This sort of led me to believe that dating lesbians was a safe bet. I mean even if they dump you it is far more likely that they will leave for a woman and not another man right?

            Of course my mental stability at the time was less than perfect (or even functional) so I did backslide and actually dated a Korean girl named Pom (means spring in Korean (the season not the coiled bit of metal you ass) ) While Pom certainly had the dyke look (short hair and man pants) she absolutely was straight. After this relationship also went down in the flames of her infidelity I had become convinced that only lesbians would do though. In particular I had my eye on one lesbian… Courtney… (aka SPC Strappy)

            Strappy was the typical man-hating lesbian. She had serial girlfriends (one of whom was Brandy which is how Strappy came to Companions and attracted my attention), dressed like she was the centerfold for women’s prison monthly (old jeans, spiked belt, bandanna), and drank like a trucker who just lost his job. At the time I thought she was perfect.

More later……