encore Off the Map

A liaison offi cer and his driver get stranded after their truck breaks down during a joint training exercise, and their location is surprisingly hard to fi nd.

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In May of 1961, I graduated from Flor- ida Southern College as a distinguished military graduate in ROTC. Feeling full of myself in view of my supposedly envi- able undergraduate accomplishments, I proceeded with my new wife to my first Regular Army assignment as a platoon leader in the 8th U.S. Cavalry, 4th Infan- try Division, then at Fort Lewis, Wash. After a few weeks at Fort Lewis, my

orders for the Armor Officer Basic Course at Fort Knox, Ky., came through, and off we went. I did OK in the course but set no records — except in map reading. Although the subject was entirely new to me, I did well and even was asked to teach a class on the subject. It went fine, and I got a good rating from it.

Then came all that cavalry duty. It was fun, educational, and exciting. (Admitted- ly, part of the fun was that I “out-ranked” by two weeks all of my fellow butter bars who were graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.) Things went well, nevertheless, and eventually I served as B Troop executive officer and then as squadron adjutant. As my time there was coming to a

close, I was given one more job: liaison officer during a big joint exercise out at Yakima Training Center, which was ev- eryone’s favorite desert training area in central Washington State. During the course of the exercise, the

squadron commander sent me on a mis- sion to the headquarters of one of the other

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participating units. My young driver and I hopped into our three-quarter-ton truck and headed out. We had to cut across coun- try, of course, and I read the map while he drove. Then we had engine trouble, and we could not get the truck started again. I called in our coordinates, and we sat back to wait for rescue by the mainte- nance guys. We waited, and we waited. After repeated confirmations of our lo- cation, some of our folks got lost trying to find us. Ultimately, it turned out — as surely you have guessed by now — the big bad map-reading instructor had gotten us lost and, as a result, many of the other guys. I swear to this day that moun- tain range looked to be exactly where I said it was and us in re- lation to it. The only trouble was it was a different mountain range. To my everlasting embarrass- ment, they finally had to stop the exercise to dispatch multiple units to find us. They did, and they never let me forget it. I couldn’t get out of town fast enough. It was an ignominious end to an otherwise very good cavalry experience for a young lieutenant.

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— Robert F. Broyles is a retired Army colo- nel, a Life Member of MOAA, and a member of the Cumberland Valley (Pa.) Chapter. He lives in Carlisle, Pa. For submission information, see page 6.

Tell Your Story Submit your humorous true stories (approximate- ly 450 words) of service- related experiences by email to encore@moaa .org or by mail to Encore Editor, 201 N. Washington St., Alexandria, VA 22314. All submissions will be considered for publication.

ILLUSTRATION: DAVID CLEGG