After I was almost late returning from leave because of an airline connection problem, a strike. IIRC I was a PFC at the time.
The instant it looked like I was going to be late I instantly called Top and told him what happened. His response was, "I can fix this. DON'T do anything stupid, dangerous or illegal trying to get back here on time. Just get here safely as quickly as you can."
As it was I got back to the battery just under the wire, signing in at about 2345. I signed in, went home and grabbed a little shuteye and made formation the next morning.
When Top saw me he told me to report to him after formation. As I was walking in he pointed at me and said. "YOU did EXACTLY the right thing. When you ran into trouble you called. I wish I had an entire battery of people that would do that because it makes my job a LOT easier. Thank you."
Then he asked me my flight schedule and found out I had planned on arriving about 24 hours earlier. "You did that right, too. You left yourself plenty of time in case something came up."
The clerk chimed in which was somewhat rare. "Please close the door, Pic." he said. I closed the door. "Don't tell anybody, but I could have fixed it so the extra time wouldn't have even come off of your remaining leave balance. That's our secret."
Top nodded.
Then Top looked at me with a grin and said, "I'll assume you didn't do anything stupid to get here like hijack a plane or something."
"No, Top. I called you from the military assistance desk. "There was a Marine Gunnery Sergeant there and I said to him, "I know I'm a soldier but I was once told that if you want to get something done with Marines the best thing to do is ask the Gunny."
Top looked amused. "What did he say?"
"He said, 'I like you, Kid."
Top laughed. "So you buttered up a Marine, huh? Pretty resourceful. I take it he fixed you up."
"He got me a flight to Pete Field," I said. Top shook his head.
"Thank you for having the good sense to call ahead. Now go to work."
That lesson has stayed with me ever since. Sometime I'll tell you about the flight the Marine got me.
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