One of the things I look back fondly

 on during my service time were some of the senior NCOs.

I had a sergeant major that was a WW2 vet. One day the old soldiers were telling me how great the M14 service rifle was until the BnXO and the sergeant major walked in. The BnXO was a former enlister man and blushed. He confessed he had learn to shoot on an M1 Garand.

It was the sergeant major that brought the house down when he told the BnXO that the Garand was a Buck Rogers POS and that HE learned on a Springfield.

The funniest thing I recall is a man that was my First Sergeant. He had served in Korea shortly after the army had been integrated and had been the serious victim of racial prejudice. Being black, he got some of the dirty jobs and did them well, going out in the night with a .45 and a trench knife and collecting ears. This guy was a true badass by reputation.

He was a classic in his own right, not very well formally educated and I believe he couldn't read very well.

Yet in a way he had a certain polish about him that can not be described. I would proudly introduce this man to any head of state as one of my mentors. It is one of those things a person can not pin down. Class in his own right, I guess.

Still, the man was a true basic issue GI character.

One night someone on guard duty in the motor pool decided not to call a relief for a call of nature. Like most of us he carried a packet of C-ration toilet paper in his ammo pouch.

He did his business in the corner of the L shape of the motor pool building and continued walking his post.

The next morning the motor sergeant found it and raised hell with the old school Top Kick and as a result, the noon formation is one I will never forget.

"One of you guys on guard duty crapped in the corner of MY motor pool," he said. "Now some of you collitch kids are goin' to tell Old Top that it must have been some dog that done it, but I ain't never heard of no dog using no toilet paper!"

YOU try keeping a straight face through THAT one!



To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY