The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71482   Message #2282863
Posted By: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
08-Mar-08 - 10:20 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Airborne Ranger Song (US Army 82nd)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Airborne Ranger Song (US Army 82nd)
Funny, ha! ha!

When I was going thru Officer Basic at Benning I roomed with a Finance officer. But we were Regular Army, so back then, anyway, he had to do two years in the Infantry for some real world exposure. We caught up to each other again in the Nam. The last time I saw Dave, he was being medevaced, eventually headed to Walter Reed so the knee that had just been mangled by an AK-47 round could be reconstructed.

The brighter side of this is that while we were at Benning, the brass decided they didn't have enough statues and wanted another one in the pose of the half-tone photograph on a lot of period training manuals, "Follow Me!" You know, the grunt with fixed bayonet and one arm up in a great, "Wagons, Yo!" gesture. They lined a bunch of us up (certainly not me) and, well, Dave was ruggedly handsome, as a matter of fact, so they made him pose for a zillion pix that the sculptor could work from, and there you go. A bona fide I-was-there story about how a statue embodying the perfect gung-ho Infantry small unit leader (71542) is really a Finance dude.

Which proves once again that Churchill was right: "Appearances are only appearances, but a good cigar is a smoke."

Chicken Charlie
Sorry, no jodies, but I'm fresh out.
Excuse thread creep, like this is the first time it ever happened:)