I wrote memos, filled out the forms, had DPW (Department of Public Works) on speed dial. One weekend the power went out friday morning and was still out at 2300. I was still in uniform, waiting for DPW to show up and fix the problem. Soldiers were out in the public spaces getting hammered and I was making hourly calls to our CSM, who I was tracking was going back home that weekend to see him family after 2 weeks of field problems (out on monday back in on friday, not over the weekend stuff).

He walks up at 2315 (1115PM for those vivilian folks)he walks up in civvies. Many MANY of the guys out drinking are underage, lots of the females are barracks rats, all in all it looks like a disaster in the making, he could have busted just about everyone there for something. He walks up to me, ignores all the drinking and general merryment that goes on in an army barracks after a week in the field and waits with me making small talk while DPW finally shows up, fixes the problem. Then he calls me and the Staff Duty NCO over and suggests that he’s heard rumors of underage drinking in the barracks and suggests that they try to get control of the situation.

Be this guy, Don’t make a bad situation worse because you can, if you ask people to give up their time for a job that doesn’t help them in any way, do the same once in a while. And always give people a chance to fix a problem before landing on them for it.

CCO

SSG B tried to keep us in the Supply office working and not in the motor pool cutting grass. She arranged for prisoners (from on post) to cut the grass. We did pull maintenance on our vehicle; hey, we used it every week to go to get stuff. I never cut grass except when I was at a short school there; it was a sort of pre-PLDC (Primary Leadership Development Course).

I even went to training meetings as a Specialist (E-4) when she was working on manual the property book; yes, a company with a property book — the Army list of the stuff we were suppose to have as well as what we actually had like carpenter’s tool kit, radio’s, trucks, and TA-50.

Her favorite complaint was, it seemed, “This company has too ##*^&& much money. This is just **** ^^^^.”

Oh, I do not know what happened to the Gortex. Yes, I signed for them at Logistics. Yes, everyone signed for theirs. No, not funny. They asked me about it by letter after I got out. ( I wish I had added ask CID they may have investigated the prior disappearance of Gortex from that post. I think my professor was slightly freaked out about it.)

Dad proceeds to do it his way, and gets yelled at. Finally, the 2nd Lt. takes him to the CO. Who proceeds to tell this infant that Sgt. Warner had been in uniform since before the Lt. had been born, and to shut up and let the Sgt. do his job.

For the record, dad was a swabbie during WWII and switched to the Air Force right after, and getting a chance to play in Korea, then Nam, retiring afterwards since a GED wasn’t good enough to let him get promoted again.