Mourning a lost pot

October 26, 2004

Staff Sgt. Charlie Hightower stepped out of the latrine today and told my photographer, Stephen Thornton, that he was in mourning.

Tragedy struck Delta Company today when Ol’ Blackie, their beloved coffeepot, was blown up.

No, it wasn’t a bomb or a rocket.

Ol’ Blackie’s fate was 220 volts.

“Her little 110 wires weren’t ready for the 220 she got,” Charlie said with a chuckle.

See, Charlie is preparing to go home as one of the 240-odd soldiers in 3rd Battalion who served in Egypt two years ago. They’ve reached their 24-month deployment limit because of that earlier deployment and get to leave Iraq before the rest of the 39th Infantry Brigade.

With Charlie leaving, new soldiers are learning how to run Delta Company’s Tactical Operations Center. That covers everything from juggling radio communications with soldiers on patrol and battalion and brigade to taking care of Ol’ Blackie.

Well, one of the new guys to the job, who will remain nameless since he killed Ol’ Blackie, moved her from one plug to another.

“He had been briefed,” Sgt. Paul Riley of North Little Rock said of the new guy. “I told him the most important thing was to always keep coffee on. Never clean Blackie, don’t move her, just brew her.”

Well, in the wee hours of the morning, the new guy was fighting the power strip Blackie was plugged into. It kept throwing its fuse.

So he unplugged Blackie and moved her to another power strip — one that was not connected to a 220-110 power converter.

Pow!

That was the end of the Black and Decker coffee pot that has followed Delta Company from the armory in Newport to Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Polk, La.; Camp New York, Kuwait; and on to Camp Taji, Iraq.

She’s brewed more than 500 hundred gallons of coffee for Delta Company.

I remember when we moved to Fort Polk, Charlie plugged her into the power converter in the tent so she could run off 220 power from the generator. Her little red light wouldn’t come on, she wouldn’t brew. Charlie stood there in his pajamas, staring at the light, trying to will it to come on.

Concern grew and pretty soon there was a crowd of men in boxer shorts circling the pot, staring at the red light.

It was a wiring problem that was soon fixed. After that, she never had a problem.

She’d only been cleaned twice in that time, and Charlie reprimanded the soldier responsible for those cleanings. Dirt and grime added to her charm, he said, and the coffee’s flavor.

I do have to say that Blackie’s brew had a nice grit to it, the kind that clung to the sides of your coffee cup. Sound gross? You actually grow to like it. Other coffee doesn’t taste quite right.

Yeah, I know that’s crazy, but it’s true.

Blackie was loved by Delta Company.

After she literally went up in smoke this morning, the new guy opened up the backup coffee pot and plugged it in ... to the same 220 outlet. Yep, it blew up, too.

“You’d think the sparks that came from Blackie would have given it away,” Riley chuckled.

The backup, backup coffee pot was unpacked and plugged into the converter, and it brewed away.

“We transplanted what we could into the new pot,” Riley said, pointing to the permanent filter. “Her heart is still there.”

Staff Sgt. Danny Naracon of Newport put his boonie cap over his heart and bowed his head in a moment of silence.

“She died a valiant death,” Hightower said. “Her little red light was still burning.”

Hightower said Blackie’s passing shouldn’t put too big of a black mark on the new guy.

“He’s the kind of guy you’d want to date your daughter,” he said. “You just don’t want him to make coffee for you. He’s one of the nicest men I’ve met. But he’s got a black heart.”

Tonight in the Delta Company operations center, the new white coffee pot cooked away. Blackie rested in a box on the floor. She’s going home to Newport where she’ll be put on display at the armory with other relics of the deployment.

As the soldiers talked about Blackie’s fate, the new coffee pot gurgled and steamed.

“Blackie never did that,” said Lt. Bill Anderson, company executive officer.

Nope, she didn’t gurgle.

But I’m sure we’ll get used to it.

Posted by Amy at October 26, 2004 03:37 PM