lessonslearned Shared Onus W
While on my first tour in Vietnam as the regional U.S. fi nance offi cer for the Mekong Delta in January 1968, I was happy to get R & R to Sydney for a week. I went, leaving a “butter bar,” who recently arrived from CONUS, in charge. Upon return from Down Under, I went
through my inbox and found, among other things, a “Report of Flash Expenditures.” Before I signed the message, I reviewed the data including the message precedence. I screamed with an appropriate expletive when I read my junior offi cer’s intent to send the report with a FLASH (extreme urgency) precedence. I had been trained that such a precedence was used for situ- ations where the enemy had breached the defenses and was coming over the wire. I demanded an immediate explanation, and the clerk, who had prepared the report, said the prior week’s report had gone out with a similar prece- dence. I went pale. It so happened the
next day the general support group and regional sub-area commander was hav- ing his weekly staff meeting that I was required to attend. Part of the meeting agenda included comments on recent events by various commanders. To my horror, the signal battalion commander, responsible for local gen- eral communications support, began by reminding all present of the need for mes-
70 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2012
When a fi nance offi cer takes R & R, he returns to fi nd the “butter bar” he left in charge of the unit has been sending out red alerts. Luckily, the offi cers’ superior fi nds a lesson for everyone.
sage precedence discipline. He reviewed the ROUTINE, PRIORITY, and rare IM- MEDIATE messages. FLASH precedence messages were practically nonexistent, he said. I sat there red-faced, looking for the door through which I would be kicked as I imagined my unit would be identifi ed as the off ending miscreant. Seconds passed like hours. Finally, the topic changed, and the meeting moved on. After the meeting, the signal battalion commander called me aside to make sure I understood my unit was the off ender. I was appropriately humble, admitted the gaff e, and thanked him for not singling me out at the meeting. He conceded it was his people’s responsibility to ques- tion the use of inappropriate precedence and stop it. Thus, he hoped we both could learn from the incident.
accountability
Could we? Yes sir, you bet! What an example of leadership that lieutenant colonel demonstrated to me, then a junior company-grade offi cer. I still gratefully remember it 44 years later. MO
— Dick Darcy is a retired Army lieutenant colo- nel. He lives in Annapolis, Md. For submission information, see page 6.
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