Dream 14 Aug 2011

Another rough night for dreaming:

I was again back in the Army, this time in both Lahr, Germany and Petawawa. In Lahr, I am living in the shacks(barracks) and my Mom comes to visit. Somehow she got a room in the shacks also. My last day at work before a couple of weeks off to travel with Mom, C Sqn (C Squadron) leadership are giving me a hard time about my leave, as the Sqn are deploying to the field on Monday for a long exercise. They also give me a hard time for not keeping up with Sqn PT in the morning. I say that I'm injured and do PT at my own pace, which is a lot slower than the rest of the Sqn. As for the leave, I have a signed leave pass, why did they sign it in the first place? Then I remember that I work for RHQ (Regimental Headquarters) and not C Sqn. I got sent up there in the first place because I was injured and couldn't be deployed to the field or anywhere. I have a desk near the Operations Warrant and do mostly clerical work.

Monday morning is when we are going to embark on the train for travels across Europe. We had spent the weekend seeing the sights around Lahr and drinking at the TAV. I'm awoken early by the sound of much activity outside the shacks and look outside to see in the pre-dawn darkness that a Sqn has moved into the area to await their turn to load up on the trains. I go out to the parking lot to find my car/truck. Not only do I not know where I parked, but I also have no clue as to what kind of vehicle I drive. I look at the keys for a clue, but they don't indicate anything. Not sure if my Mom is up, I decide to around the outside of the shacks to see if her room light is on. Along the way I get told many times to put out my white light flashlight, and also bump into the OC and SSM from C Sqn, who again give me grief over not deploying with them. I eventually make my way through their area and search for my Mom's room. Along about then I realize I have no idea where my Mom's room is from the outside so go back to my room to await my Mom. I lay down on the bed and fall asleep.

I awake to find myself shuffling along the hangar lines of RCD Petawawa. I try hard to figure out why I'm there but can't understand it at all. I lay down on the hangar floor to give my brain a rest. I'm awoken because the RSM, Donny Head, has me by the collar and is dragging me down the hangar floor. He is with the CO and they both do not seem amused with this at all. They go on, and I decide to walk around to see if there is anything I can do. I walk outside and see there is a Troop changing track pads so help them. They are all new guys and they don't know, or care to know, who I am. After that task is finished, I move along and jump into a tank that is being cleaned by the crew. I jump into the commander's hatch and help them out. I begin to piece some clues together: I have been out of the Army for about a year, but have worked at both the Armd School and Germany for a few months each. During this time I wasn't getting paid. Now I'm back in Pet and also am not getting paid.

I begin to reason this out. I come to a theory that both the Germany experiences are just dreams. But I'm sure that the Pet time with the Regt and Gagetown actually happened. I decide to go to the Sqn OR (Orderly Room) to see if I'm getting paid or not for the past 3 months or so. The OR is located at the end of the hangar on the second floor, much like our hangar's actually offices are. But there is no staircase to the second floor, just a small metal ladder that you have to climb up from the hangar floor, and then a small walkway to the door of the offices. Only one person at a time can go up or down, and there is a small line up of folks waiting to climb up. It seems the rule is that you have to wait for someone to climb down before you climb up to avoid overcrowding in the offices. I await for a long while to climb up, then I find that I can't raise my arms up over my head to grab the ladder. After a few moments of struggling, the line up behind me calls for me to either climb up or get out of the way. I give way to the rest and wander outside again.

Sometime during this I actually wake up in my bedroom here in Gowan Brae for a few seconds before going back into the dream. But back in the dream, as I'm wandering outside the hangar, I realize that maybe these were only dreams also. I recall telling my parents that I was travelling back and forth to Gagetown from PEI every week to work for the Armd School and that Jim Brown had given me the job. I remember telling him at the time that part of my medical release was that I was not employable for the Army, reg or reserve force. He said he would take care of this. I also remember going to the school OR and being told that not only was I not getting paid, I was nowhere in the system. To me, this revelation further proves to me that it is all just dreams.

By now the various Sqn's seem to be deploying somewhere in a hurry. The hangar lines are filled with tanks and armd vehicles moving in every direction - very fast and with no ground guides. Soon folks begin to get run over and chewed up in tank tracks. I watch with horror, but can't get any one to listen to me to slow down. Soon I'm just barely dodging the vehicles myself. Also among the traffic are the big LAV-3 APCs; it seems we have Infantry in our lines now.

Here is where the dream changes from bizarro to just plain silly:

I watch as a PPCLI (Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry) officer gets half mangled by a tank track. A crowd gathers around him and folks actually listen to me to get a stretcher, blanket, etc. Well I think they are listening to me, but in reality these things were happening before I said anything. We begin to carry the officer up to the UMS (unit medical station). There are about 8 of us who accompany him, 6 young Patricias and me and another young Dragoon. Apparently this was a popular officer.
We get him up to the doctor who immediately calls for 47 pints of blood to replace all the blood he lost. We ask the doc how is he? He replies that he is pretty bad, due to the tank track and his pre-existing condition. We ask what condition, the doc replies that the officer is pregnant. The officer is a man, by the way...or is he? The doc tells us he is going into labour. We wait outside the room. Soon one baby boy arrives, then another, then another, etc. The total is 8 baby boys!! - the officer has given birth to a whole section of little Patricias ,,!! Everybody is estatic over this, but I slip quietly out to gather thoughts.

I really start to work my few remaining undamaged brain cells to sort this out. Is it all just a dream and/or a collection of recurring dreams? Working for no pay and being on course month after month? I sorta come to this conclusion and get a happy feeling in the dream. Perhaps this realization will stop these recurring dreams? But I have been fooled this before where I was on a course that actually ended. But soon came other dreams of being on another, equally stupid, course. I guess only tomorrow night will tell....