Command has its privileges...

I haven't written any Army stories for a while so as I was going through some old pictures, I thought I would take a minute to tell you about these two pictures.

I was the battalion commander for the 391st MP BN (EPW) and happened to also be the principal at Anna High School in March of 1997. One thing that I learned quickly was that small rural communities celebrate some really neat little festivals, the kind that would hardly even get noticed in other places. McCartyville, a little crossroads village which is part of the Anna School District and happens to be where we live, breaks out of the winter doldrums on St. Patrick's Day each spring, recalling its Irish heritage with a 5K run, a 5-6 unit parade and some high-spirited partying at the local establishment called Patricks.

While there are some very good runners in the community, the 5K is mostly for fun and is not taken seriously by everyone. In fact, there have been one or two people who don't run the whole way who have been known to have a green beer at the rest break.

As I said, I was the principal at the time and wanted to do something to help with the parade. I was also interested in getting the U.S. Army a little more visibilty in that neck of the woods. So, I told the commander of a subordinate MP unit in Troy to conduct a road march/route recon exercise with his objective being to find the Village of McCartyville, plot a route that would take them there and execute a plan that would have them there (the objective, in Army terms) exactly at the starting time of the parade. They would then participate in the parade and gather intelligence on the locals in the process (had to tie in some Army stuff for them to do).

One of the things I always told my junior officers and sergeants was: If you tell people where to go and what to do, but not how to get there or how to do it, you'll be amazed at the results. The weather in March here in West Central Ohio can be quite unpredictable, and this year was no exception. It snowed the day before and was quite cold the morning of the parade. But that wasn't going to stop them. Besides, we had one young Soldier who had just joined that particular unit and I wanted to show the locals what he looked like in his uniform, standing behind his weapon, out of the top of a HUMVEE. My superiors would have called this a spontaneous recruiting event--you know, the U.S. Army in support of local community events.

Well it worked and they amazed me. As I fully expected, they found the place quite easily and arrived about 5 minutes early. The kids in town thought it was really cool, especially when the troops stopped after the parade and parked in the church parking lot for about a half hour to let the kids climb all over the vehicles (The platoon leader told me this was their intelligence gathering time. But I know better -- one of the locals told me this was when they gave the Soldiers some coffee so they could warm up. Well, maybe this was intelligence gathering, who knows).

I don't know that this unit got any recruites out of this, but the troops had fun, the company commander and the detachment commander got brownie points with their battalion commander (me), and the community got to see some Soldiers up close. I think the National Guard took credit for this and got some recruits, but what the heck.

This reminded me of a saying attributed to Ronald Reagan: Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but Soldiers don't have that problem.


The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth. Stonewall Jackson

Hooah