All this talk of spooks lead me to another little incident.
More from my Time in Service.
SERE training was part of my past. I don't remember all the levels to it. But I took the most basic model. Just what to do if captured, when to try and escape, and how to stay escaped.
But I got captured. Over and over again. So my first mistake was so simple I was unaware I was even making it.
Every time I asked the Black Hat why I kept getting discovered. He would smile at me: "Hughes, you stink."
"I know. I suck at this stuff. But why?"
"Because you stink and when you don't you smell clean."
I had no clue he was actually telling me my problem!
I always took a shower when the Duty day was done. And I also used Brut aftershave. So, until he explained it to me...I thought I was just practicing good hygiene.
Later I figured out what he meant. I mean what critter in the jungle smells like Brut? And clean has its own smell, and nothing in the Jungle...is clean. You might be able to fool another human with the tricks they teach you...but tigers, lions, and panthers...not fooled at all.
Not only was I a regular feature in the "Catch and release" segment of training. I also sucked at just giving my name, rank and Social Security number. Once they put me in that Tiger Cage, and doused me some alternating hot and cold water...after doing some five hundred pushups...it took like a minute to break me. We were told not to give out our Mother's Maiden Name.
I thought I was going to hold out for hours. It was more like minutes...and they didn't even lay a hand on me.
After the first set of cramps, I not only told them my Mother's Maiden Name,I gave out her home address, and all of her siblings too.
So the spook business is not for me. I smell to clean.