Jackson was a country boy. He did not want to be in the Army, did not want to be an Army trucker, did not want to be in Germany, and did not mind telling anyone who would listen all about it. He bunked under Johnny, a totally opposite type of person, adapted into the Army and its environs and so fully assimilated into German lifestyles that when he was on pass in town people were always mistaking him for a German. But this is about Jackson.
Jackson spent an awful lot of time in bed. He kept a log of how many hours he slept and how many hours he stayed in bed. I asked him about it one day and his explanation was priceless. He was beating the Army out of half of his hitch. He figured that if he spent 12 hours a day in bed, he would beat the Army out of a year of his two year tour. I pointed out that he couldn't sleep 12 hours a day when we were in the field or when he had duty or when the platoon sergeant decided we needed to spend all night cleaning the hallway or any of a number of other situations. That is why he kept the log. He made up lost time on weekends and holidays. I pointed out that the Army expected him to sleep 6 hours a night anyway so he shouldn't be allowed to count those hours. He stared at me with hateful eyes...then he turned without another word and got out his log and began to refigure. He didn't talk to me again for days. Then one afternoon on the way to the mess hall for dinner, he caught up with me and told me that after all the refiguring and counting his 60 days of leave time, he could still sleep away more than half of his two years by the time he was ready to get out...we were buddies again.