There comes a time in every officer's career when he wonders if the things he is doing are right...if he is leading troops in the right direction and preparing them for the possibilities of having to actually take this "stuff" to the battlefield.
Well, that inspired this picture. It was taken in Alabama during a field exercise where we were tasked with setting up a "field" prisoner of war camp and teaching other kinds of soldiers what we do and how to process and guard enemy prisoners -- on the off chance that they would some day have to do this. Of course they absolutely hated it, saying that was not their job, blah, blah, blah. Little did we all know that it would be just about everyone's job when we went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We had just completed the construction of the camp. and had gathered the commander, CSM, and staff out by the sign to take a picture. We took a serious one for the record, and then took this one. There have been times over the years that everyone in that picture thought this might have been the better one for the record. And I dare say that there might have been both Soldiers and superiors who felt the same way.
But aside from some of the fooling around Soldiers always do, this was an extremely professional group, and really did a lot to bring credit to all those who performed this Enemy Prisoner of War mission in the last 15 years or so. Combat commanders soon learned how much of a combat multiplier units such as ours could be for them on the battlefield.
But anyhow, back to the picture. One thing I always remember about my time in the service is what the CSM (top, right)always used to say:
Being in the army is like being in the Boy Scouts, except that the Boy Scouts have adult supervision.
Hooah
No comments:
Post a Comment