Humor in Uniform 1/25/2010

[R J]

1/25/2010
You’ve never seen two greener recruits than Fred and me the day we arrived for basic training.  We were immediately assigned guard duty, and soon after, Fred was approached by an officer.  “Halt!  Who goes there?” Fred shouted.   The officer identified himself and waited for a response.  And waited….. “What’s wrong, soldier, don’t you remember what comes next?”  “No,” Fred yelled back.  “And you’re not taking another step until I do.”

[Rowdy]

  I had similar incident on guard duty - being a rooky air winger L/Cpl confronting a hot shot grunt LT 
It was day light, on a back road seldom used, but these guys where lost   
They drove up in a jeep, I stoped them and asked them if they needed help or directions, all I get is this stare - like he was waiting for something      Here it comes, he was waiting for a salute  and he made it known  that was what he wanted    -  and again after I told where to go (nicely)  he waited before leaving for that salute    They turned around and went back to where ever they came from,     I avoided offcers at all cost until I learned to play the game 

[solo1]

Yep, reminded me of my own experience.

In 1952, basic training at Camp Pickett Va, when we stood guard duty,  we were only allowed billy clubs EXCEPT one weekend when the base commander wanted his residence guarded when he was away . Now this house was way out in the boonies.

I was volunteered for the guard post from midnight until 4AM.  No billy club, I was given a fully loaded M1 Garand.

When the Sergeant of the Guard and the LT came to relieve me, they stopped the jeep a good 300 yards away and started yelling "It's Us!, It's Us!, Private Doenges"  No driving up with "Halt, who goes there?" crap!.............

That was the only time that I felt power as a raw dumbass grunt! 

[R J]

When I was on guard duty as a recruit, we guarded a bunch of warehouses in a fenced in area in the South part of San Francisco by the Hunters Point Naval shipyard.    We shared an area with them then.

Someway shape or another a guard dog, actual dog, took pity to us and became our buddy.

You never knew where he would show up, but he was always somewhere in the compound.

One night about 3:00 AM, our OD, Lt Parker I think was his name, wandered around out in the area having a look see a foot, no vehicle.

 About that time we, (I and 4 others on duty) heard this ungodly call for help.    I called the Sgt of the Guard, and he came out in his Jeep.

It seems the dog had taken care of our intruder.     He had grabbed a big mouthful of one check and would not let loose, till one of us on duty told him to let go.....        The Lt ordered the dog off the base, several of us hollered about it and the base commandeer told the Lt the dog staid, and the next time he was OD, to use his jeep to check things out...

I have no idea how long the dog was on the base after that as about 3 weeks later I went to Korea to be in the Chosin Reservoir ordeal..   What little we got to know the dog, he was a Guardian Angel in disguise.....