And here it is, February, and I haven’t posted anything of real value since Thanksgiving… I’m gettin’ lax… need to fix this.

Today was an interesting day; any day when you get your ass chewed by both the Sergeant Major and First Sergeant, and then the whole deal evaporates without much further… that’s interesting.  To explain…

We had a short day today, and the Medics were mostly down in the motorpool, moving our vehicles around.  Since they recently reconsolidated all the medics back into Headquarters Troop, all medic vehicles needed to be moved into a single spot where they are parked next-to each other, and since two of those tracks are deadlined and don’t start, that involves using a tow bar to move them.  We had a partial tow bar, but the connecting feet for it were locked up inside a different track, and the soldier with the keys to that track is away at a Field Exercise.  Sooo…. I go wandering through the motorpool to find someone else’s tow bar that we could borrow.

This is where it gets silly.  Only tow bar available is connected to a mortar track that’s inside one of the maintainance bays.  Elsewhere inside the bay, Alpha (’Apache’) Troop is preparing to conduct a Change-of-Command ceremony… they’re getting a new Captain.  When I first check the area, the ceremony hasn’t started yet, so I go get a few soldiers, some wrenches, and a Humvee to move the tow bar (’cos those things weigh around 400 lbs.).  We return to outside the bay, I tell two of the soldiers where the tow bar is and what door we’re taking it out of, and start ground-guiding the Humvee into position.

Now, inside the bay, these two soldiers take some good initiative without paying enough attention to their surroundings.  One of them opens the large bay door (which I hadn’t planned to use… I was going to use the smaller side door), and the other one starts wrenching away on the connecting-bolts for this tow bar… and neither of them noticed that the Ceremony was underway.  Granted, there was a Bradley Fighting Vehicle parked between them and the ceremony, but you’d think they’d have heard the music playing…

So, I step inside to start assisting with the tow bar, and before I get five feet past the threshhold, the Sergeant Major is in my face, giving me The Look, and quietly hissing at me “What the hell are you doing?” etc, etc.  He tells me to have my platoon sergeant see him, and spins on his heel and walks off.  I get the Humvee driver to shut off the engine, have the soldier who opened the bay door close it again, and get everybody outside… and did the right thing.

Soldier who opened the door?  “Get down.  No, don’t push, just stay in the Front Leaning-Rest.”  I get on the phone, call SFC Gladden, and quickly explain to him what happened and that the Sergeant Major wants to see him, tell the soldier who’s on the ground to recover, and step back inside to prepare for the ass-chewing.

The ceremony ends, everybody is milling about, Sergeant Major spots me and snarls “Where’s Sergeant Gladden?”

“Sergeant Gladden has been called, Sergeant Major.”  I’m rigidly at position of parade-rest.

Sergeant Major tells me to follow him, leads me toward the First Sergeant, and gives him a nutshell description of what happened.  I say, “I was outside, helping move the Humvee into position.  As the NCO in-charge of the detail, I should’ve been the first one through the door to assess the situation, and should’ve kept better control of my soldiers.  My fault.”

First Sergeant is giving me this sideways look… he can tell the situation is just a simple screwup… and in the traditional Army view, my response was perfect.  I didn’t try to stall, dodge, or shift blame, and that’s exactly the right thing to have done.  He gives me an additional few minutes advice on keeping aware of one’s surroundings, and lets me go.

So, at closeout formation, Sergeant Gladden asks me “What happened?”  I re-explain to him, and ask what the Sergeant Major had to say… and he says “Nothing.  He didn’t say anything to me about it.”

Paraphrasing:  Somewhere in Hagakure, there’s a chapter where Tsunetomo discusses qualities of personal retainers, and he asks ‘Who would you choose as a retainer?  The man who has never made a mistake?  Or, the man who has made one mistake, and lived to talk about it?’

It was an interesting day.