Slim.
Not wiry.
Not bony
Not skinny.
Slim.

Characters I met along the way. Every Soldier served with some. Some served with all of them. This one is almost Universal. You find him (or her) in almost every Unit on Earth.
Slim.

Some folks are skinny. At the beginning of Basic Training a lot of us where thin, light weight kids. Most of us who weren't part of a Football Team (and even a few of those) were way less than 150 pounds. No fat, kinda fit, but not in Army shape...yet.

Scrawny was a common description and adjective too. Some guys were rail thin. They looked starved when they took their shirts off. No muscles. No definition. Just skin and bones. Eight weeks later, and those same scrawny kids looked wiry and strong. Not heavily muscled but coiled tight. They went from the neighborhood paperboy look, to that of a featherweight fighter. Those were not Slim.

Slim never changed shape. Nope. Not once. No matter how many pushups a maniac DI forced Slim to do; with intentions of molding a Soldier out of little pile of clay prone in front of him - no muscles appeared. No wiry wrestler body ever emerged from the increased workload and PT every single day...nope.

Slim. Stayed...well, Slim.

I knew three Slims. One in Basic. One in AIT. And one over in Hawaii in the 25th Infantry. The only thing different about everyone of them (besides stuff like personality, skill level, and rank) was their height. Strangely enough, unlike the character "Tiny" who is always anything but tiny; Slims can be any height.

One of the slims I mentioned was the second smallest guy in our Company...barely five foot three. But his name was Slim. In AIT, well that Slim was all of six foot and 134 pounds. Slim for sure. And over in Hawaii? Well that Slim was six foot six inches tall...and he weighed 179 pounds. Believe me that isn't much weight to spread over six and half feet.

All of them would eat just as much as the rest of us at Chow Time, or in the Mess Hall. One of them (the one from AIT) ate more food than anyone I ever saw...it didn't matter...he stayed a Slim. I once saw him eat five Big Mac's and Five large Fries for lunch...even thinking back on that I have to shake my head.

It was the Slim in Hawaii that I wanted to talk about though. You see, that Slim was the second strongest man I have ever met in real Life. Military or Civilian Life. He played on the Division Basketball Team, and would move much thicker players out of the way like brushing aside tall grass out in the Field.

Opposing players would try to box him out, only to be flicked to the side by a long long long arm with almost no muscle on it. You couldn't help it, you had to laugh when you saw the look of surprise on the opposing player with forty more pounds of muscle being moved aside like he was a toddler playing with seven year olds.

One time I saw Slim just pick up the base plate for a 4.2 Inch Mortar- by himself- and carry it more than 100 yards to the track. He braced it on one knee, and reached out with his other hands to turn the bolts to lock it into place. In all my Active Duty Time, I only knew one other soldier who could do that...and he was a "Tiny" not a "Slim."

In the whole time I knew all three of those "Slims" not one of them put on a single pound. Not even an ounce or two. They weighed what they weighed, and unless they went on some raging protein diet and weight regimen...they didn't change at all. They were Slim when you first met them...years later...still Slim.

I had the luck of running into all three of them (at different times) after their Military Careers had ended. One was in his late thirties when we bumped into each other at a Mall. He weighed 116 pounds when he graduated from High School...and now, almost forty years old...he weighed all of 119 pounds. He blamed the weight gain on Middle Age. LOL

The other slim weighed a bit more than he did when I knew him...and he was the only one of the three to have a "pot belly". Let me tell you, a pot belly on a Slim- is hilarious. He blamed it on the Five Big Macs and Five Large Fries combos. LOL

And the tall basketball playing Slim? Well he weighed a bit less. Down to 170 lbs. I asked him why the weight loss?

"Kevin, I don't play Sports anymore. I don't need all that extra weight."

And that , I guess, sums up all the Slims I knew. None of them needed all that extra weight.

So I carry it for them. I ...am...not...a...slim.

Not even a slender. LOL