29 November 1998

A Rainy Day at the Defense Intelligence College

Anthony F. Milavic
Major, United States Marine Corps (Retired)

It was a rainy spring day in 1971; in fact, it was a pouring-down-rainy day at the Defense Intelligence College, Anacostia, D. C.. 

An Air Force officer classmate--I’ll call him John--rode in with me that morning. After classes, we started out together only to be stopped at the rear door by the rain thundering down on the cars parked behind the school. My car, of course, was some 100-150 yards beyond those in sight, a fence, a hill, many mud puddles and . . . whatever. After some 10-15 minutes of debating the merits of waiting out a storm that gave no sign of letting up, the two of us decided to make a run for it. We splashed, stumbled, and bumped our way at “high port” through the rain to my car; actually, in search of my car for we weren’t too sure where it was.

I got there first, opened the door, and got in just as John arrived and climbed aboard. My immediate reaction was to throw my rain-soaked barracks hat into the back seat, open my raincoat, and shake off the residual water as I breathed a sigh of relief. In the process, I heard a . . . torrent of expletives coming from John that prompted me to turn to him. He sat there staring out the windshield with water dripping from the bill of his hat and nose onto his neatly folded raincoat draped, military style, over his left forearm.