Ever have an incident so crazy that you say "if someone wrote this as a sitcom script, nobody would believe it!"? In 1987, I was leaving the army, and experienced that very thing.
I'm getting out of the Army. It's a Thursday. Snowstorm closes the finance office, so I cannot out-process. It's closed Friday, too. Snow melts Saturday, but they're closed on weekends. More snow Sunday night. Monday morning, finance is closed again because of snow.
Monday afternoon, finance opens, they out-process me by 4:30. I load stuff from my barracks into my car. When almost done, I realize I don't have quite enough hands to carry last load, so I leave one item in room. On way back from car, fire alarm goes off. Fire trucks come. I'm prevented from entering building to get my one last item and heading into civilian life.
An hour later, firefighters call it a false alarm, let me in to get that one thing. I load up. It's 6:00. Rush-hour traffic in DC area is always bad, but especially bad today. My car has no heater. After freezing myself in car, in traffic that is basically standing still, I check into hotel, 40 miles from where I started. I finally depart for home Tuesday morning, 5 days after I thought I would.
I'm getting out of the Army. It's a Thursday. Snowstorm closes the finance office, so I cannot out-process. It's closed Friday, too. Snow melts Saturday, but they're closed on weekends. More snow Sunday night. Monday morning, finance is closed again because of snow.
Monday afternoon, finance opens, they out-process me by 4:30. I load stuff from my barracks into my car. When almost done, I realize I don't have quite enough hands to carry last load, so I leave one item in room. On way back from car, fire alarm goes off. Fire trucks come. I'm prevented from entering building to get my one last item and heading into civilian life.
An hour later, firefighters call it a false alarm, let me in to get that one thing. I load up. It's 6:00. Rush-hour traffic in DC area is always bad, but especially bad today. My car has no heater. After freezing myself in car, in traffic that is basically standing still, I check into hotel, 40 miles from where I started. I finally depart for home Tuesday morning, 5 days after I thought I would.
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