Chapter 21:

Uniforms:

Hogan had been hovering over his desk for the last three hours now trying to scrub out a nasty coffee stain on his service shirt. His leather jacket had been hung and was standing there in nothing more than his pants and a light blue bathrobe tied around him. Soap, shampoo, alcohol wipes, he just could not get the stain to come out. To his dismay, his efforts seemed to only make the dark brown spot spread more. He sighed with frustration and looked at the alcohol wipe in his hand that just barely had any residue on it. He shook his head.

"Boy, when it said 'one duty alcohol wipes' on the package they weren't kidding, were they," he said to himself. He turned back to his stained shirt and desperately tried again with a new wipe, praying that if he scrubbed long and hard enough that some improvement would result from it. Nothing.

As he continued with his failing task, the door to his quarters opened, and Carter stepped inside. The young sergeant closed the door behind him and made his way casually to his commanding officer.

"Hey, Colonel," he said, before spotting the stained, button-up shirt lying on the desk. "What happened to your shirt? Looks like someone tried to use it as a mop."

"I spilled coffee on it earlier and have been trying to get this stain out for hours. No matter what I use, it only seems to make it worse," Hogan answered, paused, then turned to face him. "Where's Kalina?"

"Oh, she's in town all day with some of her girlfriends shopping."

"Good. I don't want her to see me when I'm not completely dressed." Hogan sighed, then turned to his sergeant with a helpless expression. Maybe his scientist and demolition expert knew how to fix this problem. "Carter, you happen to know how to make something to get this stain out?"

"I've got one I've been working on for a couple weeks. Maybe that could get rid of it?"

"I'll take anything at this point. I look at one more alcohol wipe, and I think I'll lose my last bit of sanity."

"Sure thing, boy. I mean Colonel." Carter picked up the shirt, folded it over his arm, then returned his eyes to the officer. "Hey Colonel, why don't you just put your spare shirt on until I'm finished?"

Hogan put a fist on his hip and let out a soft breath of air.

"That was my spare shirt," he said.

"What happened to your other one?"

"You remember when that German Shepherd got loose and heard the word 'attack'?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Let's just say my body wasn't the only thing that suffered damage that night."

The young man nodded.

"Got 'cha, Sir," he answered.

Hogan followed Carter out of his room and into the main area. He watched the technical sergeant sit down at the main table and pull out a spray bottle that had once been used for a furniture cleaning solution.

"Just a few squirts of this, a little rub with this washcloth, and boom! Good as new." Carter scrubbed the small area with his blue washcloth, put it to the side, and his eyes widened a bit. "Uh oh."

"What is it?" Hogan asked, trying to lean forward and get a better look at things. He liked anything but the expression currently on his sergeant's face.

"Hey Colonel," Carter began. "How do you feel about wearing purple?" He lifted the shirt up to his commander and showed him how the coffee stain had spread even more and turned to a bright purple color.

Hogan turned his head to the side and back at Carter with the roll of his eyes. "Carter, I can't wear a purple shirt with the rest of my uniform. It's completely out of regulation."

"I don't get it, Colonel. It worked just fine on grape soda and gravy stains, I don't know what made this happen," Carter answered, staring baffled at the mess before him.

Hogan gave him a small smile. His sergeant had tried. That was all that mattered to him. "It's alright, Carter. Do we happen to have any spare white shirts down below I could wear temporarily? Just until Newkirk finishes sewing mine back together?"

"We got a couple Luftwaffe shirts I could take the insignias and stuff off of."

"Good. Do that and sew on the ones from my shirt. It'll be good enough for the meanwhile."

"Right, Colonel. You still want me to try getting this stain out, Sir? I can maybe figure out what happened with my stain remover and resolve the problem."

"If you're still determined to do so, be my guest. I've about had it with that stain." Hogan started for his bedroom, when he turned around and faced his sergeant. "Carter."

"Yeah, Colonel?"

"If you manage to get that stain out, look into getting that purple shirt. My wardrobe could use a bit more color to it."