A comment from a friend triggered another memory from many, many years ago. I’ve explained how I was what I call “an inadvertent pioneer” during my Army career and that I was part of the Army Ordnance Corps by basically an odd set of circumstances. In case you didn’t read that post, that was the maintenance side of the Ordnance Corps. My initial official category was as a “Tank, Ground Mobility Material Management Officer”. Anyway, after leaving Fort McCellan, AL where they put us through what was essentially a Basic Course, I went to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD for two separate courses. The Ordnance Officers Basic Course was where all of us were together. That was three months; then those who were in Ammunition, Missile Maintenance, and Explosive Ordnance Disposal went off to other locations for the second part of training. That meant I was at Aberdeen for six months. The staff (called a cadre) obviously got to know us well in that amount of time.

Our post office boxes were in the same building as the company headquarters and so the cadre (who were all Captains and Majors) often crossed paths with us between training sessions. One of my girlfriends and I were standing outside the building talking on a day with quite a few clouds and it was just starting to sprinkle. We were almost through with our conversation and one of the cadre hurried past to get into the building. We saluted smartly and he turned as he was under the overhang and said in tone between amusement and exasperation, “You two do realize don’t you, they say second lieutenants don’t have enough sense to come in out of the rain.”

There really wasn’t much we could say in response, so merely saluted again and didn’t get too wet as we finished talking.