lessonslearned Bird’s-Eye View


Fresh out of ROTC and awaiting his turn at Armor Officer Basic Course, a brand-new second lieutenant is on his own when he answers a phone call from a colonel with alarming information.


I


n 1984, as a newly minted sec- ond lieutenant, I was assigned to Armor School at Fort Knox, Ky., to attend Armor Officer Basic Course (AOBC). Some of us brand-new second lieutenants, fresh out of college ROTC programs, had orders to report several weeks before the start of AOBC 2-85. While waiting for our AOBCs to start,


we were in a state of limbo unofficially known as “snowbird” status. Everyone at Fort Knox knew we were the most inex- perienced officers in the Army, but they had to give us something to do while waiting for our course to start. They temporarily assigned me and several other snowbirds to battalion headquar- ters to serve as personal assistants to captains holding staff officer positions in the Armor School. There also were a handful of second lieutenants at battalion headquarters who’d already graduated from AOBC and were awaiting assignment to their first duty station. These slightly more senior second lieutenants were known as “blackbirds.” Even though the blackbirds had only a few months’ seniority over us, they looked down on us snowbirds and sometimes played practical jokes on us. Along with two other snowbirds, I


was assigned to assist the battalion S-3, a captain. This S-3 used his snowbirds to do menial tasks that didn’t require armor training, such as delivering messages for him and answering his phone.


108 MILITARY OFFICER SEPTEMBER 2016


Once, when the S-3 stepped out of his office for a minute, I was the only person around when the phone rang. The caller, a colonel, ordered me to tell the captain to get on the radio and broadcast a severe weather alert to all battalion troops in the field. Excited to be able to convey such im- portant information from a high-ranking officer during my first week on active duty, I wrote down the details, then breathlessly reported the call to the S-3 as soon as he returned. The captain, however, seemed unimpressed by the urgency of the weather alert. He asked me, “Did you ask for a call-back number to con- firm the alert?”


I admitted I hadn’t. The captain read


the entire phone mes- sage I’d written down for him, then informed me gruffly that I’d been the victim of a prank phone call. I asked him, “Sir, how do


you know the alert isn’t real?” Pointing to the name of the


high-ranking officer who’d called, the captain said wryly, “Lieutenant, you just received a weather alert from Colonel Harland Sanders, the creator of Kentucky Fried Chicken.”


MO


— David Harten Watson is a former Army first lieutenant who lives in New Jersey. For sub- mission information, see page 4.


Tell Your Story Military Officer seeks service-related anec- dotes that left an im- pression. See Directory on page 4 for submis- sion information. All submissions will be con- sidered for publication.


The caller, a colonel, ordered me to tell the captain to … broadcast a severe weather alert.


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