The Water Closet

I was marching along with my new platoon when our drill sergeant, Sergeant Montoya yelled, “I don’t know but I’ve been told….”, I was already thinking that if I ever heard that cadence call another time, I would scream like a little girl!

In the last few days I  had to endure things that I had never experienced before. Our living accommodations were World War II vintage barracks which had an open living area on both floors lined with rows of bunks. My bunk was about midway down on the far side of the building.


At one end of the barracks was two small rooms which turned out to be bedrooms for the drill sergeants when they spent the night with us. At the other end was a stairway that went upstairs to the second floor. Also the latrine was located on that end of the building.

Our platoon was on the ground level which at least made it easy to “fall out” into platoon formation. Some things took a little getting used too. Being naked in front of so many guys was a shock to my shy “sensitive” nature. It turned out that once I got past my own nakedness, seeing other guys my age walking around naked was a real treat.



But, the first time I went to the showers was a bit overwhelming to me. As I've said before, I grew up in a sheltered enviroment where nudity was not a common thing. At the end of the first day we were told that it was SOP (Standard Operational Procedure) to hit the showers. Sergeant Montoya said he wanted to see nothing but assholes and elbows. Well, that had its intended effect and everyone started to hurry around, at least until he left the room.



Of course I took my usual approach to this new environment that I found myself in. I had adopted it from the beginning, back at the induction center. Stay back and watch the others to see what they would do. Some of the guys stripped down and wrapped a towel around themseves and headed toward the latrine and the showers. I just kept my head down and peeked around, trying not to catch anyone’s attention. It was hard not to just stare at some of these guys stripping off their clothes. “Man…” I thought. I didn't know quite what to make of it.



I used as much control as I could muster as I slowly worked around my bunk and lockers, steeling myself for my “maiden’ voyage into this new world of open group nudity. I finally worked up sufficient courage, stripped off my clothes and quickly wrapped a towel around my waist just as I had seen the others do. I then headed off. Of course, I made darn sure to keep a good grip on my towel as I negotiated my way through the rows of bunks.



As I stepped into the latrine area, I looked around and saw a large well lit bathroom with a row of 12 toilets running down one side of the room and a row of 12 sinks running down the other. Over the sinks were a row of mirrors facing those starkly “out in open” toilets, similar to the photos below although our latrine was larger and cleaner.






There were naked guys everywhere. Some naked guys were sitting on the toilets talking to each other like it was a normal thing to be crapping next to your new friends while talking about sex with the girls back home. Those toilets were an experience in themselves. There were other naked guys bending over the sinks brushing their teeth and shaving. “Ooo…” I thought








The "Water Closet"




In the back of the room, just beyond the lovely toilets, I saw a cute, wet, naked blond guy stepping out of what looked like a hallway with his towel in his hand. “Oh,  the showers must beyond that hallway” I thought, as I ripped my eyes away from him.



As it turned out, the showers were in that hallway. It was like a long closet, about 16 feet deep. It was lined with stainless steel, with a row of shower heads and faucet handles projecting from the right-hand side. I discovered to my horror that there was barely (no pun intended) room enough for that many guys to get in and out without rubbing bodies with the other guys that were showering.

I was beginning to get really nervous. I felt like turning around and heading back to the safety of the bunks. At this point I couldn’t, that would break my rule of not drawing undue attention to myself.  I had no choice. Whether I was shy or not, I had come this far, I needed to shower so I might as well keep going. I stripped off my towel and stepped in.



Well, I can tell you, I’m a pretty small guy and I made myself as skinny as possible. I slid along the left hand side, dragging my bare butt along the wet wall and doing my best to avoid those jostling wet bodies. But the first thing that happened was that some guy stepped back to leave the shower and bumped into me with his wet hairy butt. “Hey Runt, watch where you are going! I've been called runt throughout my life and it wasn't one of my favorite nicknames and was usually by some big jock. I looked around at him and thought, "crap, your  not that much larger than me". But I said, “Oops, sorry….err… ah…sorry” as I struggled to avoid any further contact with his hairy wet body.



I found the first open shower head and started to soap up, trying the best I could not to appear embarrassed. But, I’m sure my red face was a complete giveaway. I looked around sheepishly, looking at the other guys and realized that no one was noticing me. They were all busy trying to look nonchalant themselves.



It was then that I realized that I wasn’t the only one struggling to get used to this new way of life. I’m sure it wasn’t new to some of them, but I could quickly see that I wasn’t alone in my embarrassment. I finished my shower and headed back to my bunk with a new sense of self confidence, thinking, “That wasn't so bad. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”

It wasn’t long before I was over my case of nerves and was able to enjoy my trips to the shower, along with the view, discreetly of course.