"Short-Timer"

Anyone remember “Short Time Calendars” during your service in the ol’ Canoe Club? I’ve been told and research suggests that the calendars started during the Vietnam War. Most soldiers had a calendar on which they crossed out the days spent in Vietnam. When you were considered ‘short’ the calendar was taken more seriously and many GI’s had very creative ones…

Usually, nothing more than a simple, pocket sized calendar or piece of paper with numbered squares, each one representing a day and that was carried by a soldier who marked off the days “in-country” one by one until his rotation date came up.

Some got creative, some were “works of art”; pictures divided up like a “paint by the numbers” drawing where you colored in one day at a time, but basically, they were just a way to keep track of the days looking forward.

In later years the custom was borrowed throughout the services as sailors planning on getting out after their first hitch would follow suit with these bits of art...

Personally, I never carried one as I ended up doing a Twenty-Three year stretch. Never considered myself a lifer. But here we are talking about it like it ain’t nothing but a thing…

I remember a picture of a fist with an up raised finger divided into 100 squares and from day one-hundred to go, it got each square colored in.

Here’s a short little poem that goes along with all those single enlistment short timers…

"I'M SO SHORT THAT"........

-When I jump out of bed, I free fall for 3 minutes before I open my chute! And then it takes all day to climb out of my boots!
-I could parachute off a dime!
-I had to parachute off my bunk to the floor today!
-I can walk on stilts under a pregnant amoeba!
-I am knee high to a tadpole!
-I drink coffee with a long straw because I can't reach the table!
-I have to jump up to look down!
-I can play handball against a curb!
-They use my height to measure jungle boot tread!
-I could jump off the edge of a quarter and scream "AAAAHHHH" all the way down!
-I was too short to be seen at my farewell party!
-I have to blouse my flak vest inside my boots!
-I have to look UP to a 2nd Lieutenant!
-I have to stuff paper in my boots to see out!
-I could sit on my thumb and let my feet dangle!
-I can sleep in a matchbox!
-I have to part my eyebrows to trim my toenails!
-You can see my feet on my driver's license!
-I can walk under a worm without bending over!
-I can sit on a dime and dangle my feet!
-I have to use a ladder to scratch a snake's belly!
-I left yesterday!
-I could trip on a dime!
-I can't even carry on this conversation!
-My feet don't touch the ground!
-I can't even stand on a dime to see over a nickle!
-I have to look up to see down!
-I don't have to open the door to leave the room!
-By the time you recognize me, I'll be gone!
-During firefights, I just crawl under my rucksack!
-During incoming, I have my personal sandbag to get under!
-I am next!
-I won't write another letter, because I'll beat it home!
-I can hide behind a blade of grass!
-You don't really see me, I'm just a figment of your imagination!
-I got lost in my boots, just putting them on!
-I can sit on a dime and dangle my legs!
-I can walk under a pregnant ant with a top hat on!
-I need a ladder to step up on the curb!
-I need a step stool to reach the piss tube!
-I'm too short for long conversations!
-You need a magnifying glass to see me!
-I have to stand on tip-toes to see out of a tank track!
-I'm counting seconds!
-I might not start another letter, 'cause I'll be gone before I finish it!

(Fin)