I don't remember what it was but the lieutenant told me to take if off of my helmet.

We were stateside on a field problem so I did. I outright told him I was doing it just to shut him up. I then said to him that if he had told me to remove it in a bona fide combat zone I would have told him to shove it and double dog dared him to court martial me for it.

He seemed shocked and I explained to him that I was stateside and in no danger and really had a lousy hand to play so it was in my best interest to simply take the pin off of my helmet. In the situation I was in I would be made less comfortable if I disobeyed him. In short, I had something to lose and nothing to win.

I said that in a combat zone it I would be the one with the good hand. 

I told the lieutenant that if he tried something that chickenshit on me in a combat zone I'd probably tell him to piss up a rope and publicly double dog dare him to court martial me. I pointed out that a nice, warm jail cell is probably a lot more comfortable and safer than slogging around in a nasty combat zone. All trying to make me remove my pin was going to do is make me safer and him weaker. He'd be down a man.

He tried to tell me he was bigger than me and he was. I replied that I didn't care how big he was. If he ever pushed or struck me that he would never be able to get any sleep, ever.

He reported the entire thing to my First Sergeant and to his credit he told the entire story. The old soldier looked at him asked the lieutenant if he had bothered to start off by asking me nicely to remove the pin. He hadn't. 

Top also told the lieutenant that a lot of little things mean an awful lot to deployed soldiers and he would probably be a lot better off if he learned to overlook the small stuff.

I'd like to say the lieutenant became some kind of cool guy after that but I can't. He was a West Pointer and did whatever it is West Pointers did and maybe still do to wangle a transfer to a firing battery because he was gone shortly afterwards.

Transferring to a firing battery from a headquarters battery was really a step in the wrong direction career wise. There's far more to learn in a headquarters battery but I guess he just wanted to go to where the guns were. Whatever.

Still, it was what it was.

Incidentally that old First Shirt had never gotten out of grammar school and had to learn to read by being taught by a college educated draftee but he was one of the best teachers I ever had.

















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