Another back in the army story

While I was in the service I had more than one First Sergeant and to tell you the truth, most of them were worthless alcoholics.

There is one, though that I recall that was pretty good.

He was pretty short on formal education and pretty damned long on native wisdom. He had a rare gift of common sense in most things he had to deal with.

That man was interesting in that he was incredibly flexible. He had the odd ability to be able to address royalty or give a speech to the cadets at West Point one minute and knock someone on his ass the next.

If I remember he was a sharecroppers son that joined the army shortly after Truman integrated it and had a pretty rough go early in his career as he was black.

He came up the hard way in an Old School (even by my standards) army.

Our then new battery commander discovered a morale fund that had laid dormant for years and told a few of us that he was going to spend every cent on us. That turned heads.

One of the first things he did was to schedule a pizza party at a local establishment. We took the whole top floor and wives and sweethearts were invited.

The party hadn't not been announced for very long when rumors about members of a sister battalion crashing the party started.

The day before the party at the noon formation Top addressed the battery.

"As a soldier I like a little combat every so often. I do prefer it against a foreign enemy but every now and then you take what you can get," he said.

"Nobody in this battery is to start any trouble," he continued. "However, if trouble does get started then you are expected to finish it quickly and with a minimum of collateral damage."

The anticipated brawl never really got off the ground. A couple of privates from our sister battalion showed up and Top instantly called the medics to fall in on him.

He approached the wannabe crashers and told them to look carefully at the men who would be assigned to keep them alive until the ambulances arrived.

He then turned to one of the medics, handed him some change and told him to go to the phone booth and prepare to summon several ambulances.

The drunken privates fled and the party resumed with no further incident. 

Come Monday morning formation it was a hoot listening to Top grumble about being cheated out of combat. The battery commander appeared out of nowhere and looked at Top.

"It must be pretty hard on an old soldier not having anyone left to shoot or stab," he said, dryly.

Top pouted like a little kid and the entire battery cracked up laughing.

It was some of the best play acting I ever saw.

Then the BC addressed us and told us he was proud of the way we had behaved and told us he was planning another party in the near future.

It was a company barbecue but that's another story.

It wasn't all fun and games with this man. He was generally serious and took his job seriously. He was a damned good soldier and it was an honor to have him.

I think I'm going to post a few more things about him from time to time.


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