I didn't become a goof-off or a slacker but I do recall I didn't still have that hard charging spirit that got me promoted ahead of my peers.
I had seen too much of a system that seemed to pnish people for being good at their jobs. All too often I would hear someone up the chain tell Top to 'put a good man on it' and find myself in charge of some dopey detail or other task.
A fellow Sp/5 put it very accurately. He said, "The duds get over."
When he said that he was 100% spot on. The duds DID get over.
Looking back on it things ere that way because most of the staff and platoon sergeants were too lazy to get off their asses and actuallly lead some of those people. It was easier just to let them hide out and avoid much of the drudgery.
Of course the duds didn't get promotions but they didn't have to bust their asses too much, either.
I remember two details that I led cleaning up trash in the field. There was certainly no shortage of it. An infantry battalion in a day or two can create a pretty good collection of C-ration cans and boxes and although the BnCO gives orders to keep the perimeter clean an awful lot of stuff gets by.
The first time I got assigned this job I was assigned three good men, a Jeep and a trailer. We went down gathered a trailerload of trash and headed on back into garrison. We were back in time for noon chow and I reported to Top immediately. I told him I wanted to give the three guys the resst of the day off because they didn't fritter around. They got the job done quickly and did a good job.
Done deal. I went to the mess hall and told the guys thay had the afternoon off.
A while later the detail came around again. It rotated between several battalions and every few months our battalion would get it and the BnCO would give it to Headquarters Battery, where I was located.
Top assigned me to it the second time and for some reason lost in time I was given two duds and a halfway decent guy to get the job done.
All three of them heard that I had given the last group the afternoon off. They were looking forward to the same thing. Instead I made it clear to them that this could be either a half day job or a two or three day job and it was up to them.
They started to complain and I told them that it was going to be done, and done well and when it was done they could go home.
The two duds lookedd at each other and the other guy looked at them and said he had no intention of spending the entire day out in the boonies and we had best just do it, and get it done and over with.
I suppose the man's size and ability with his fists made some of the difference but the two duds buckled down and got it done.
Again, we were in by noon and I reported to Top. He asked me how I had managed to get the two of them to get the job done. I told him that I had given them no choice and I was willing to spend days out there until it was done. I also mentioned that the third guy, the worker was pretty good with his fists. Top grinned.
That left me with a craw in my throat because I was doing the job that the staff and platoon sergeants were supposed to do. They should have motivated those two a long time earlier.
Of coursse, the two duds went back to being duds the second we returned because their platoon sergeants would let them but I did manage to get a day's work out of the pair.
Still, a number of things like that soured me on the army and when I became a short timer I wasn't quite as motivated as I had been.
There was a field problem when I was down to about three weeks and I squirmed out of it. It would have been a waste of everyone's time, the Army's and mine. I would have returned to the battery after the field exercise and started clearing post the next day.
What's interesting is that my First Sergeant knew how I squirmed out and quietly told me he thoought I was pretty slick.
I drank a bunch of quinine (tonic) water and ate a bunch of poppy seeds the night before a drug test and promptly popped hot and was pulled to the hospital for further testing that proved I was clean.
The trip to the hospital saved me. I spent the time the battery was in the field manning the phones in the barracks along with another couple of guys on light duty.
Anyway I was a decent soldier but I couldn't see making a career of it at the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment