PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents RM3 Kathleen Cramer’s legacy of their military service from 1973 to 1977. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
What Was Your Nickname or Callsign During Your Military Service? Can You Recall the Nicknames or Callsigns of Other Characters From Your Service and How These Were Earned?
So … I believe this was about 1974 or early 1975. I’m sitting in our kitchen in our photo lab at FICPAC command center in Pearl Harbor, HI. The kitchen had a good-sized round table that could seat about 3–4 people nicely. I had gotten into work early and had not eaten breakfast. Previously, I had brought in cereal and milk for such occasions. When I sat down at the table, I was alone. I began pouring milk over my cereal. Within a few minutes, a few others came in and joined me. Now there were four of us, all laughing and joking around.
One guy we called DinDin (real name Mike Dinsen) happened to look at my cereal box. He was now on a mission. He studied the box. Looked at me. Studied the box more. It was Rice Krispies. He kept doing that for several seconds. “Oh, I’ve got it.” I looked up, surprised because I didn’t know what he was doing or what he meant. He looked back at me and then at the box one more time. He’d been trying to couple my name, Kathy, or maybe my last name, Cramer or both, with Krispies. He kept mumbling, snap, crackle, pop around, under his breath, just loud enough that we could all hear him. I don’t know how he got it, but he landed on “Krinkles. That’s it. Krinkles! he pronounced.And from that moment on, that was my nickname. I could only grin. Everyone laughed, but the name caught on like crazy. Almost everyone who knew me called me by that nickname. Then they shortened it to Krink. Either way, I began answering to that nickname. Grand fun. It is a name I have loved since that time. No one outside that command center ever called me by that name.
I had not heard my nickname in 21 years. A friend from that time caught up with me over the phone while I was in Denver. When I heard my nickname, I melted. It melts me every time. How I miss that crazy bunch of people. Seven more years go by. I hear that name again. Another friend from that time has caught up with me. And it’s like no time has passed between us. Unbelievable.
Nicknames must glue us together somehow. One nickname can sum up the character of a person in short order. It encompasses many facets of who we are — in just one or two words. However, it’s the connection of our nicknames to the era that phenomenally seals the memories into us, allowing them to stay forever.
May you all savor those nicknames — they are the glue that helps bind us together.
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