"The Great Place"

I thought I would never see this place again after leaving nearly two years ago. Fort Hood, Texas. “The Great Place.” More like the Army’s butthole. It’s one of the larger Army bases and if you’ve payed any attention to the news in the last ten years, you’d know just how much of a skid mark this 158,000 acre patch of dirt is.

Fort Hood is ideally an active duty base. However, on the north side, Army Reserve and National Guard units spend roughly two months training there prior to deploying overseas. My first trip here was in 2016 on my way to Afghanistan. At this point in my career I had been in the Army seven years and had experienced just about every training environment the Army could come up with. At least I thought I had but boy was I wrong. From moldy barracks, to spiders the size of my hand, rattlesnakes, skunks, and the unyielding dusty aroma of cow crap in the air, my time here couldn’t come to a faster conclusion.

Why? How on God’s big beautiful green earth did I end up here again. Here I was back at The Great Place gearing up for yet another rotation across the pond not even two full years since the day I last set foot here. It’s as if I had never left, only thing that changed was the weather. Same moldy barracks, same shitty stench in the air, same countdown until I no longer had to be here. I was lucky enough this time to get a bottom bunk. I began setting up my little home for the next 60 days. I made my bed, situated my gear in my locker, took a shower and was pretty much gonna relax for the rest of the evening. I finally flopped down on my bunk and started texting my wife. I was on my back with the bottom of my phone resting on my chest as I texted with one hand. Just past the right edge of my phone I caught the glimpse of what appeared to be a small notebook strategically stuffed between the mattress and bars of the bunk above me. I set my phone down and pulled the book out of its hiding spot. At first glance, it looked like it could be one of those pocket sized New Testament bibles that I’d gotten from the chaplain in basic training. It was black with that shiny leathery texture and had an elastic strap wrapped around the longer side of it. I removed the strap and opened it to see if maybe someone’s name or contact info could’ve been inside. "Property of Lennox Black aka LB" was the only identification that seemed to have been written on the inside, and this definitely seemed like it was his journal.

Now the moral and ethical part of my brain was screaming at me to close it and put it back where I had found it. “You can’t read someone’s journal, there could be some pretty personal things in there that they may not want anyone to know about.” On the other hand, the nosey and curious side of my brain was telling me that “there’s no chance LB was ever gonna get this journal back, let alone find out that I had read it.” I started reading the first few pages and LB's thought seemed to have mirrored my thoughts of Fort Hood. “Day 1: We arrived in what appears to be the worst place on earth the Army could've stuck us in. We are soldiers, heroes even, and these are the best accommodations they can give us?” It was as if the he took the thoughts right out of my head and wrote them in his journal. I couldn’t stop reading. The pages were numbered one thru seventy-five and I figured I could read it all before I fell asleep. The more I read the more I related to this guy. From what I gather, this was his first deployment, and it reminded me very much of my first time being here too. After the sixty days of training are over, we get a four day pass. Some folks fly home to see their families one last time before we deploy, others fly their families in, and those that are usually single find trouble to get into locally. I had gotten to the part of the journal where LB was on his four day pass. What I read next would take me down a path that would change my life forever.

LB's journal had been in written in vivid detail. Maybe that's why I couldn't stop reading it. You would've thought I had stumbled across a secret copy of an unreleased Harry Potter book. For his four day LB rented a car, drove down to San Antonio and booked a room at the Hyatt Regency for three nights. His plan was to see a few landmark sites during the day and eat at a different nice restaurant each night. There were several museums and restaurants in the area so LB figured he would walk. After he settles in his room, he grabs his backpack and heads out the door. On his way to the first museum he noticed there was an armored truck parked in the alley behind his hotel. There's usually nothing odd about an armored truck being parked in an alley except on this truck the driver, passenger and rear door were wide open and no one was in or around the truck. LB approached the truck being curious. As he got closer he notices the rear of the truck is virtually empty except for one large canvas bag with leather handles. He looks around some more thinking "who would leave an armored truck open like this." LB circles the truck and looks around realizing that there's no one around. He circles back around to the rear of the truck to investigate the contents of the bag. he picks the bag up and realizes that it wasn't empty. his heart starts to beat heavily as he looks around again. His hands now shaking he unzips the bag to find a large sum of crispy $100 bills in $25,000 dollar stacks. Again, he looks around not believing what he has just stumbled across. Military backpacks are pretty big, and all LB gad in his backpack was his iPad, so after looking around once more he took his bag off his shoulders and started stuffing the money in there. Once he had emptied the canvas bag he zipped up his back pack and walked swiftly but unsuspiciously as possible out of the alley and back up to his room.

In his mind, LB's plans had definitely changed. he got back up to his room and could barely get the key card in the door because his hands was shaking so much. He calmed down just enough to get the card in to unlock his door. Once inside he put the do not disturb sign on the outside, locked the door, chained it and positioned the chair from the desk in his room under the door knob as another layer of barricade. In a whisper to himself LB kept saying "holy sh*t, holy sh*t," still in disbelief as to what had just transpired. "How'd that truck get there? Was it a robbery? Should I turn the money in? WAIT! What if I turn it in and they think I had something to do with it?" LB asked himself all these questions on what his next move was gonna be. He then came to the realization that no matter how the truck ended up in that alley, he was now apart of whatever transpired.

LB made a plan to checkout early drive to another city and remove himself from being so close to where a possible crime had been committed in which now he would most definitely directly and indirectly be apart of. He packed up the little things he had with him and proceeded downstairs to checkout. "Leaving already?" asked the receptionist. "Yeeeaaah! Something came up and I have to get back to base." Although he had only been there a few hours, she still had to charge him for the one night to which he quickly agreed with to speed up the process. LB hurried to his rental car and loaded everything in the back except his backpack. He put on the front passenger floor. He didn't want to take his eyes off of that bag. As he exited the parking garage, police had by this time swarmed the street near the alley where the armored truck was and a helicopter was flying in circles above. His heart beating out of his chest, LB calmly drove away as if if nothing had happened. He had originally planned to just drive a city over but after seeing police on the scene, he got to the Austin exit and just kept driving. After a few hours he was pulling up to the front of The Westin Galleria in Dallas. He booked a room for one night. He made it to his room, triple barricaded it like he had done in San Antonio and flopped down on the bed exhausted.

After gathering himself, LB realized that it'd be a good idea to count the money. He dumped it out on the bed and started doing some quick math. Each stack had a $25,000 band wrapped around it, and there was twenty stacks which means he was staring at $500,000 in cash on the bed in front of him. "Why me? Why did I approach that truck? Why didn't I just keep walking? What am I gonna do with all this?" It was more money than LB had every dreamed of seeing at once. He put the money back in his backpack and started coming up with a plan.

Since everyone was on pass and the barracks were empty, LB decided that he would drive back to base and stash the money there until he can come up with a better idea. He definitely couldn't tell anyone because he didn't want anyone possibly turning him in. He justified keeping the money by telling himself that "Technically I didn't steal it, I found it." Once back in the barracks he started re-organizing his gear to see how he was going to fit $500,000 in cash in his bags that were already stuffed with army gear. He racked his brain thinking of a way to get the money home to Washington without detection. If he flew home he'd run the risk of the money being detected thru airport security. If he drove he definitely wouldn't make it back in time for recall formation. Finally he thought, "I know we'll be gone roughly a year and have to pass back through Fort Hood for demobilization. Maybe I'll just stash it somewhere here that no but me would be able to find it and I'd get it when we come back.

As LB's eyes wandered around the barracks looking for a hiding spot for his loot, his eyes came to rest on the bottom of his locker. He investigated further and realized that the floor of the locker was double layered held together by four screws with hollow space in between the layers. He quickly pulled out his Gerber multitool and started removing the screws. He pulled the top layer of the floor up and couldn't believe just how perfect his plan had come together so far. He laid down ten bundles first followed by the a second layer of the remaining ten bundles. He then put the top layer of the floor back in place and re-installed the screws. With a smile on his face he couldn't believe how his last 48 hours had gone from him just relaxing and taking in some sites, to him coming into half a million dollars in cash. Now all he had to do was make it overseas and back and come up with one final plan to get home with all that money.

As I read the last page with any writing on it in I couldn't believe what I had just read. "Is this real?" I flipped through the rest of the journal and on one random page the number 16 was written in the middle of the page. I look up at my locker and it was locker number 16. Either this was the worlds best prank or LB was about to become the worlds most unluckiest person. I go to my locker and tap on the floor with my knuckle and it was solid as if something was in there. I know from having used many military wall lockers that the floors usually have a hollow feel and sound. All be it, I wasn't gonna pop open the floor with everyone around. Now here I am having to come up with a plan on how I was gonna get this money back to Virginia if at all it did exist.

I'm a very critical thinker. I had an entire plan cooked up in minutes. When everyone leaves for breakfast in the morning I was gonna stay behind and pop open the floor to see if the money was indeed in there. Morning came, as planned everyone left for breakfast and I stayed behind. I whip out my multitool and remove just two screws to lift the floor just enough to see in. I never knew how good money could smell until it's aroma filled my nose. Too excited that this was actually real I removed the remaining two screws and gosh almighty all $500,000 was laid in there perfect just like LB had described it in his journal. I grabbed one of my not so full duffel bags and packed the money at the bottom of it then put the gear I wasn't gonna deploy with on top. I put the floor back down, reinstalled the screws, put the duffel in my locker and was off to breakfast.

Sixty days came and sixty days went. Now it was time for our four day pass. I already had my plan to get this money home ironed out. My wife had been wanting a new car and I told her we can get exactly the one she wanted cheaper here in Texas and I'd drive it back to Virginia with her then fly back to Texas before recall formation. She flew in, we bought her car and drove it home. I stashed the duffel bag with the rest of my military gear at home never to be thought of again until I got home. When I got back from deployment and got settled I let my wife read the journal. The more her jaw dropped the more I knew it was almost time to tell her everything. I went to the room where I kept all my military gear and grabbed the duffel bag. I unpacked the gear until only the money was left and then I dumped it out in front of her. She had never seen that much money in one place at one time and neither had I before I pulled up the floor to that locker. I don't know what ever happened to Lennox Black, heck I never even looked him up to see if I could find him. All I know is thanks to him my wife and I was able to go on the honeymoon of our dreams.