One of the new companies in my battalion is a National Guard unit from South Carolina. One truck was going across the FOB to the Duke shop for the first time, so I rode with them to make sure they got there. One of the soldiers riding along was a specialist, one of the lowest enlisted ranks that is usually made at 16 months. They are a little nervous about Lieutenants, or Captains as they tend to call me (same rank different name for Navy and Army).
We got down the shop and I start working on installing my little system. This red-headed South Carolina specialist walks up and says in his slow South Carolina way, “Sir, what rank are you?” Since I’m the only person with two bars as my insignia who calls himself a lieutenant on the FOB, I’m used to this question. “I’m a lieutenant, but I’m still an O-3 like your captains are.” Confused look. “Oh, I’ve never seen an officer do mechanic work before. I thought captains are supposed to be company commanders.”
If it weren’t so innocent and accompanied by the same look of confusion that I daily experience over my current job, I would have thought he was trying to be mean.
1 comment:
i, too, had a very similar experience with my brightest specialist; we were working together to stand up an operations and intelligence center for our trainees, and he simply turned to me with a quizzical look and asked, "Sir, do you feel like an officer here?"
i was honestly struck dumb for about 15 seconds. i finally managed a bemused, "why do you ask?"
he looked uncomfortable, and realizing i had put him kind of on the spot, i followed up quickly: "no..."
"and you and i both know why."
out of the mouths of babes.
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