The Gad Fly

 

Before I got to Fort Gordon, I had heard of the House Fly, the Deer Fly, and the Horse Fly, but I had never heard of the Gad Fly. Here’s the story.

 

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The Gad Fly

 

When I was in the Army at Fort Gordon, Georgia, attending Avionics Communications  Equipment Repair School, I was living on the top floor of an old barracks that was heated by coal. The top floor was full of bunk beds and each bunk was fitted with a mattress, a set of sheets, a pillow, one pillow case, and army blanket. We all had a wall locker with a combination lock that we kept our stuff in next to our bunks.

 

This photo shows the bunks and wall lockers we had in our barracks at Fort Gordon, Georgia. I was on the top bunk at about the location of the closest bunk.

 

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In the late afternoon after classes, and on week ends when we didn’t have leave to go off base, we often ended up laying in our bunks reading, writing letters or sometimes just napping. The flys were particularly bad in the summer months and it was always warm in the barracks so we nearly always had our shirts off. so the flys would sometimes drive you crazy crawling on you.

 

 

 

There was this very small man from the Philippines living on the floor with us that had black hair that had individual hair strands that were very thick. The guys name was Gadrinab and he was one of those guys that really enjoyed pestering the guys in barracks anyway he could. He would take a coat hanger and straighten it out making a long stiff rod. He then would pull out one of his 3 inch long thick black hairs, and tie it on the end of the straightened coat hanger with a rubber band. We named his device the “Gad Fly.”

 

This is our graduating class for Avionics Communications Equipment Repair Class at Fort Gordon for June 27, 1969.  I’m kneeling on the left. Gadrinab is standing in the front row 2nd from the right.

 

 

 

Gadrinab would slip on the bottom bunk and start agitating the person on the top bunk with his Gad Fly. I swear being tickled by that thing felt exactly like fly crawling on you. Gadrinab was relentless and he would irritate you with his Gad Fly for two hours if you didn’t catch him.

 

 

 

When I was being bothered by a particularly pesky fly, I listened for laughter from the other side of the Barracks and then stuck my head over the side of the bunk to look for Gadrinab. I’m sure it was very entertaining watching me swat at fictitious flys for two hours.

 

Squirrel War II Count now  4

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Thanks for reading The Gad Fly,
Bill