lessonslearned The Hard Way
When a servicemember’s money goes missing from a safe, the CO’s response teaches a young Army second lieutenant a lesson about fairness.
I
n 1969, the U.S. Army typically paid its servicemembers monthly, in cash. At the time, I was a brand-new second lieutenant platoon leader, fresh from the Army’s Infantry Officer Basic Course and Airborne School, assigned to the 5th Infantry Division (mechanized) in Fort Carson, Colo. Because most of the young servicemem-
bers didn’t have checking accounts, and because we encouraged them not to leave cash in their lockers, the company had a safe in the CO’s office in which we allowed them to keep their cash. Most deposits were made on each payday, and withdraw- als were scattered throughout each month. Only five of us knew the safe’s com- bination: the CO, the first sergeant, and three platoon leaders. The process for servicemembers to deposit and withdraw their money was rather straightforward: Servicemembers would approach one of us who knew the safe’s combination and request access to deposit or withdraw their money. The established procedure was (in the case of a deposit) to accept the funds, place them in an envelope, write on the envelope the amount it contained, have the servicemember sign across the envelope’s opening, and record the deposit in a ledger that was kept in the safe. (To withdraw money, servicemembers fol- lowed essentially the same process.) The five of us who could access the safe all fre- quently were approached for access. This process worked extremely well. Except for the infrequent instances when
1 0 0 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R S E P T EMB E R 2 0 1 0
the CO was in his office, the funds were always available, and instances of bar- racks larceny fell dramatically. One afternoon, the first sergeant and
the two other platoon leaders who knew the combination to the safe and I were summoned to the CO’s office. He an- nounced a mistake had been made, and one of the servicemembers was missing $600 from his envelope. It appeared the money had been dispersed to the wrong individual, and the ledger failed to unravel the error. “Therefore,” said the CO, “one of us made an error, and I know it was not me. I want you each to contribute $150 and make up the shortfall.” Although we all felt awful about the
error, we were dumbfounded the CO de- nied he had made the mistake. As a “no time in grade,” married second lieutenant, my take-home pay was only $350 a month; $150 was an extremely large amount to cobble together. But nonetheless, we each somehow found the money, and the ser- vicemember received his missing $600. The way the CO handled the incident
certainly colored my view of that individual, but more important, it served as a lasting lesson about fairness and being careful to use your command authority in an even- handed manner. This incident resonated often as I served in command positions dur- ing my 20 years of military service. MO
— James “Jim” Allen is a retired Army lieu- tenant colonel. He lives in Charlotte, N.C. For submission information, see page 20.
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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