A man of many talents (?)...

My wife had the women from her Bible study group over the other night and I was cooking chicken on the grill for them.

Somehow, that took me back to one of those many times when we finished a training exercise and had a cook-out the night before we got on the road back home. The troops were loading trucks, cleaning and packing weapons (old soldiers know you have to clean weapons 3 times after exercising them so they'll pass the 1SG's inspection), washing vehicles and tents, and doing all sorts of other maintenance-related activities. So what were the officers doing?

No, the officers in my outfit were not sitting in the club drinking cold ones. We were manning the grills and cooking steaks and chicken so everyone could chow down when the work was done. Usually the XO would be in charge of cooking the baked potatoes and the S-4 would do the shopping for all the condiments (if you know what I mean). Being of such an exalted leadership position, I naturally assumed the position of first cook.

I remember one time we were having this "decompression" time and a visitor from a higher headquarters tried to tell me that, first of all officers shouldn't be doing this kind of work, and secondly that only a qualified, school-trained cook was allowed to cook for Soldiers. Since I figured I would have to do the explaining as to how 135 members of the U.S. Army's finest got poisoned , I might as well cook. Besides, I had already logged a lot of hours/summer cookouts on my home grill, so I declared myself qualified and duly trained. As for the part about officers not doing that kind of work, well, I just reminded him he was a guest and should mind his manners or I would have the MPs (which were all my guys anyway) escort him from the area. Later, I did notice him with a full face of Bar-B-Q sauce and a nice thick steak.

Another Army tradition I used to have fun with was having a big Christmas meal, with all the Soldiers dressed up in their Class A uniforms and the Brigade or Battalion Commander and Staff in Blues. I'll never forget the look on one of my Brigade Commander's (a one-star) face when I gave him and his wife aprons and a big long-handled fork to dish up the meat at the serving line as the enlisted soldiers and their families came through. The cooks fixed the meal the night before, but our serving and bussing gave the cooks and their families a chance to be with the other troops for this celebration. I was the Operations Officer at the time. The Deputy knew what was happening and jumped right in, so did the CSM and the rest of the staff. A couple of them served as busboys. The BG and his wife were good people and jumped in, having a great time doing so. His successor, however, frowned on this kind of celebrating, thinking it was degrading to him and beneath his rank, so he did away with all of these activities during his tenure. Bleak times. He didn't know that tradition is about Soldiers and not about him. Too bad.

There must be within our Army a sense of purpose. Do not begrudge the time you spend developing, coaching and helping your people to grow in military traditions. This is how and why they will carry on when you are gone.


Hooah