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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Friends / Friendship
- Published: 10/27/2019
Military Maneuvers/Dumpster Diving
Born 1950, M, from Sparta, il, United StatesField Maneuvers were over. It was a training exercise in what to do if captured by the Vietnamese. Unfortunately, my escape buddy, Howard, and I were captured during the exercise. We were looking for some redemption in the eyes of our platoon.
By 9:00 p.m. we were back at our barracks. Our drill sergeant told us we were tired, and he ordered us to bed. The next day was to be our AIT graduation ceremony.
My squad would disobey that direct order. Steven Jackson, my squad leader had other plans for us.
His brother had been in the same training company a year before and was quite familiar with the exercise we had just finished. Consequently, Steven knew exactly when things were scheduled to happen.
Steven convinced us, earlier, we were going to have a pizza party when we returned from the field. I don’t remember any more how we were to have the pizza delivered to our barracks or how we managed to keep the party secret from the rest of the company. I only remember that Steven’s brother had tried this military maneuver the year before and he got caught.
Steven’s plan was better than his brothers. He convinced us of that. Of course, there were risks involved with his plan and we were willing to take them. After all, the reward was pizza. What red blooded American Male would not take risks for pizza?
We felt like a real Army squadron on a special mission. The Army had trained us well.
The pizzas were ordered and arrived warm and ready to eat. Just as we had planned, our platoon was caught red-handed. The platoon sergeant came in right behind the pizza. He grabbed the boxes, took them to the dumpster behind our barracks, threw them in, scolded us, threatened us with disciplinary action, and then disappeared.
Unbeknownst to the sarge, my ol’ escapee partner and I were making one more escape attempt. Our plan was to escape from the barracks and put ourselves in the required operational position. This time we were successful.
Howard and I went dumpster diving. You see, we were already in the dumpster when the sarge arrived. As he was throwing in the pizza, we were catching them.
…………… Don’t worry folks. The dumpster was clean. This is the Army. Someone in the Army always needed to “learn a little discipline”. And cleaning a dumpster was a good way to demonstrate the consequences of a lack of discipline……………………………….........................
Howard and I were pretty good at dumpster diving. Not much pizza escaped from their boxes.
The patrol went to bed well satisfied with the day’s accomplishments. The taste of pizza checked any unpleasant thought of discipline we knew was coming in the morning.
An hour before graduation ceremonies, our squad was called before the company commander. Did our plan fail? Graduation, we thought was not going to happen for us.
You see, there was rumor of a long-standing tradition between those graduating and those in charge. According to the rumor, there would be unauthorized pizza in the barracks the night before AIT graduation. We, of course, believed we were only continuing that long-standing tradition.Those in charge always won the challenge. The Trainees always believed, “Someday we will win.” And just like those, whose noble footsteps we were now following, we believed we would win.
But we were not prepared for what happened next. The CO told us what we accomplished the night before had never been done, successfully.
We were not the first to try a pizza party maneuver, but we were the first to actually eat the pizza. Dumpster diving was never done before.
The company commander was amused with our tactical maneuver. He let us go with a hearty congratulations and said he would be on the lookout for that tactic in the future.
I heard that Steven made a career out of the Army. He finished his career as a Lt. colonel with the armored tank division.
I never saw or heard from Howard after graduation.
Military Maneuvers/Dumpster Diving(Ed DeRousse)
Field Maneuvers were over. It was a training exercise in what to do if captured by the Vietnamese. Unfortunately, my escape buddy, Howard, and I were captured during the exercise. We were looking for some redemption in the eyes of our platoon.
By 9:00 p.m. we were back at our barracks. Our drill sergeant told us we were tired, and he ordered us to bed. The next day was to be our AIT graduation ceremony.
My squad would disobey that direct order. Steven Jackson, my squad leader had other plans for us.
His brother had been in the same training company a year before and was quite familiar with the exercise we had just finished. Consequently, Steven knew exactly when things were scheduled to happen.
Steven convinced us, earlier, we were going to have a pizza party when we returned from the field. I don’t remember any more how we were to have the pizza delivered to our barracks or how we managed to keep the party secret from the rest of the company. I only remember that Steven’s brother had tried this military maneuver the year before and he got caught.
Steven’s plan was better than his brothers. He convinced us of that. Of course, there were risks involved with his plan and we were willing to take them. After all, the reward was pizza. What red blooded American Male would not take risks for pizza?
We felt like a real Army squadron on a special mission. The Army had trained us well.
The pizzas were ordered and arrived warm and ready to eat. Just as we had planned, our platoon was caught red-handed. The platoon sergeant came in right behind the pizza. He grabbed the boxes, took them to the dumpster behind our barracks, threw them in, scolded us, threatened us with disciplinary action, and then disappeared.
Unbeknownst to the sarge, my ol’ escapee partner and I were making one more escape attempt. Our plan was to escape from the barracks and put ourselves in the required operational position. This time we were successful.
Howard and I went dumpster diving. You see, we were already in the dumpster when the sarge arrived. As he was throwing in the pizza, we were catching them.
…………… Don’t worry folks. The dumpster was clean. This is the Army. Someone in the Army always needed to “learn a little discipline”. And cleaning a dumpster was a good way to demonstrate the consequences of a lack of discipline……………………………….........................
Howard and I were pretty good at dumpster diving. Not much pizza escaped from their boxes.
The patrol went to bed well satisfied with the day’s accomplishments. The taste of pizza checked any unpleasant thought of discipline we knew was coming in the morning.
An hour before graduation ceremonies, our squad was called before the company commander. Did our plan fail? Graduation, we thought was not going to happen for us.
You see, there was rumor of a long-standing tradition between those graduating and those in charge. According to the rumor, there would be unauthorized pizza in the barracks the night before AIT graduation. We, of course, believed we were only continuing that long-standing tradition.Those in charge always won the challenge. The Trainees always believed, “Someday we will win.” And just like those, whose noble footsteps we were now following, we believed we would win.
But we were not prepared for what happened next. The CO told us what we accomplished the night before had never been done, successfully.
We were not the first to try a pizza party maneuver, but we were the first to actually eat the pizza. Dumpster diving was never done before.
The company commander was amused with our tactical maneuver. He let us go with a hearty congratulations and said he would be on the lookout for that tactic in the future.
I heard that Steven made a career out of the Army. He finished his career as a Lt. colonel with the armored tank division.
I never saw or heard from Howard after graduation.
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