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I only had to answer the phone, if it ever were to ring, and I can't remember if it ever did. I took it in my room and could sleep, and could take it to the movie theater, so I didn't mind pulling Charge of Quarters at all. I could go to chow at the mess hall; I just had to call CQ up at mountain top HQs, and tell them where I was and call again and tell them I was back.
This got me in trouble one time. I called in to Lieutenant Quaker on duty that-night. Going to chow. When I got there, chow was over. They had moved it up an hour and nobody told me. They said "kitchen is closed" ! Absolutely. "You knew", they said. They intimated I was trying to be a special case. I had to call back to Quaker, I'm back. It was the law. "What's for chow", he asked. "I don't know", I said. "What do you mean you don't know?" "I didn't eat." "Why didn't you eat?" "The kitchen was closed." I didn't-know.
When I went for breakfast the next-morning it was the usual "How you want your eggs ?" asked the cook. "Over-easy". "Oops I left it on too long - hard, is that O kaaaay?" No matter which cook it was, the same story every morning until after a week or two, I quit going for breakfast. The other meals were not personalized, and I was treated like everybody else, but with maybe dirty-looks. I didn't get it. They had a problem. I never guessed that Lieutenant Quaker went down there after my call-in, mandatory bomb disposal policy; to answer the phone if someone phoned in a bomb emergency; a whole procedure for calling everyone in, and secondary backup plan in triplicate; they all had to rush to the base load-up and go.
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