Reported by Glenn Miller.

Kurt might want to forget this one.

Mids were usually incredibly boring, especially mids in the winter. One advantage of having NCOs for flight commanders was they didn’t mind a few naps as long as we had a sufficient number of people awake to handle what little mission there was at that hour and time of the year.

So, it was not unusual to have a few of the on-duty crew take their parkas and snuggle up next to the equipment racks and take a nap (6-8 hours, usually). It was also pretty common practice to tie together the combat boot laces of those who were foolish enough to nod off while on position and wait until they awoke only to fall flat on their faces when they tried to take a step.

One memorable winter mid, Kurt Laidlaw was working the RU analysis desk and, as usual, it was dead. Kurt spread his parka out on the desk and curled up for a long winter’s nap. I can’t swear to it, but I think it was Kaipo Simpson who suggested we “decorate” Kurt’s sleeping area.

Several of us cut out various creatures in colored paper (six-ply) and hung paper fishes and other assorted marine life from the ceiling over Kurt’s desk as well as strewed the desk with star fish, sea shells, and other bottom-dwelling creatures.

When we finished, it looked like Kurt was sleeping at the bottom of the sea. Then we all waited until he woke and saw what we’d done. Kurt had a good sense of humor about it. It’s just too bad we weren’t allowed to have cameras in there. That would have been a great one to post here.