Green Is the Color of "Huh?"

 2018

As a member of the Army Reserve, I was attending drill. My unit was stationed at the Defense Supply Center Columbus (DSCC) in the Columbus, Ohio area. This is a large supply complex, on which in addition to the warehouses, etc., numerous Reserve and National Guard units were located. 

The drill started out like they often did, with one of the least challenging Physical Training (exercise) sessions at the DSCC gymnasium. I was at worst only mildly sweaty, but I really, really hate being smelly and dirty. The gym shower area, not at all my favorite place, was undergoing renovation. Only about half the showers were available, and my platoon was ordered to return to the building we drilled in to shower there. This surprised me, as we usually were forbidden to go there, but rather, it was saved for the E-8s and E-9s

As a transgender woman, I do not at all like having to undress in front of men. But, in the military, I was still not out, because at that time, being transgender was against regulations. with 28 years of service, I didn't want to lose it all.

At our building, there was a crappy little shower area, with 2 shower heads, 4 hooks on a wall, and a decently long bench. The shower heads were in a separate room, behind the bench room, and each shower head had a really long curtain. I soon found myself at the shower area and was shocked to see I was the only one present. Heck yeah!

I undressed quickly. Believe me, you undress quickly when you're in a men's shower room with shaved legs, armpits, and pubic area, and painted toenails. In this case, a medium-dark green. Frankly, they looked pretty good! But I quickly pulled on shower shoes and went into the other room to shower. 

As I started to shower, I heard someone come in, and the guy spoke to me, addressing me by name. He was a Staff Sergeant in my platoon, and apparently, he saw me go in. So he was talking about the upcoming activities, just general talk. But, while we were at the gym, he had been talking about this Soldier, a Corporal, that was in the unit several years ago. It seems that, according to him, this person was really weird. But, we had left the gym. 

Sensing a captive audience, he continued his story. The Corporal, it seems, was soft spoken, seemed very odd in general, didn't like sports, always smelled like baby powder, and all sort of things. As he spoke, I heard him come on into the shower area and go into the other spot. The water came on over there. 

Yet, the story continued. The Corporal in question always seemed to act differently around some male Soldiers. I was told that he was seen getting his hair cut in a beauty salon. Apparently, at one time, he was seen taking a shower, and he had his toenails painted blue. I was told how shocking this was, and how stupid it was that a guy would paint their toes. All this while I stood there with green toenails. Hey, at least green is an Army color!

I finished up quickly, and went to dry off. I moved as quickly as possible, and was soon wearing panties, a uniform t-shirt, and pulled on the uniform pants. I sat on the bench, and quickly dried my right foot, and reached for my sock. 

As I picked up the sock, the Staff Sergeant came out of the shower room and sat next to me. Looking over at me, and no doubt wondering for a moment why my face looked so goofy, he said "Can you believe any guy would paint his toenails? What a pussy! I mean, can you -". As he said it, he noticed the green on my foot as I reached to pull on my sock. He croaked out a startled "huh?" and then his voice stopped. 

Now, this guy wasn't someone who was violent. Thankfully. He was our supply sergeant. Goodness, was he shocked. He was quiet for a moment, then stammered for a moment, a silly sounding "uh uh uh uh". By this time, I had both socks on, and was pulling on my boots. I'm a  combat veteran, Putting boots on only takes a few seconds.

I was out of there while he was still shocked. The shower area opened onto the building's drill floor, which is just a large room that served as an area for meals, as well as a place to clean weapons, practice marching, all sorts of stuff. All I had to do was pull my top on over my t-shirt, and I looked just like everyone else.

I was concerned about what he would do. I'm sure he gossipped about it to others, but no one ever said a word to me about it.