WEEKLY EXTREME EMAIL
“Enlisted men are stupid, but extremely cunning and sly, and bear considerable
watching.” U.S. Army’s Officer Guide, 1863.
I don’t take offence at the
above quote being enlisted myself, in fact I agree with most of it except being
stupid. It’s almost in the enlisted men’s job description to keep officers on
their toes by being cunning and sly and to show them the difference in book
smarts and street smarts whenever the opportunity arises.
One of my most
memorable demonstrations of cunning and sly involved myself and my leading petty
officer when we matched wits with our Platoon Commander and assistant Platoon
Commander over a game of Jeopardy on TV.
My leading petty officer Chuck
and I drank rum and cokes together and watched Jeopardy often during training
trips we took during Platoon Workups. Being the Platoon Chief, the senior
enlisted, and Chuck being the second senior enlisted, we roomed together and
would patiently wait for Jeopardy to begin each night we were not
working.
So addicted to seeing who was smarter, Chuck and I would play
Jeopardy by telephone when we were home, back at the Team, in Virginia Beach
almost every night. Neither one of us were very good, very smart, but we enjoyed
getting the occasional answer correct and hurling a few insults at each other
over our rum and cokes.
My Platoon Commander was a graduate of Blue Canoe
U, the Naval Academy, and he was sharp. My assistant Commander was no slouch
either and exceptionally educated while Chuck and I cheated our way through high
school and struggled to spell college correctly.
While we all respected
and liked each other there was always that pesky officer/enlisted thing between
us and education being the bigee. Chuck and I were dumb enlisted
pukes.
That all changed on a training trip to North Carolina when my
Platoon attended a shooting school there.
As usual Chuck and I poured
a rum and coke and turned the channel to Jeopardy. Almost as soon as the show
started I said “let’s go see the O’s and play with them.”
Our two
officers roomed together also and soon Chuck and I were seated in their hotel
room. We offered the O’s a drink and began discussing that days training we
accomplished and what we were doing for training the next day. A few minutes
later I turned on Jeopardy casually as we all continued to talk.
It
didn’t take long before Chuck and I began nonchalantly answering questions on
the show while we continued our training discussion. Science, Literature, World
History, Word Origins, Sports. You name it we ran the categories answering each
question correctly to the amazement of the officers who never had a chance to
answer a single one Chuck and I were so fast.
As the question was asked
for Final Jeopardy, Chuck and I discussed the possible answer to the insanely
hard question while to officers had no clue. We agreed on the answer and it was
the CORRECT ONE. With a HOOT of excitement and a High Five between us, Chuck and
I left the stunned officers and went back to our room without saying another
word to them.
It’s that cunning and sly part of the enlisted man that
keeps officers on their toes and wondering. All the book smarts in the world
can’t prepare an officer for the wrath of the under educated enlisted
man.
It also helps when Jeopardy makes a mistake and shows the same show
they did the night
before!
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Less
than thirty days out from the April Course beginning and outside of the spring
touch up of the property we are ready to go.
The new Kill House is set.
The Race Track is set.
The only worry we have now is warm weather that is
warming the local water. The April Class is a toughie from the cold water for
the students. The cold water is a delight for the Instructors because we don’t
have to get in it.
Warm water is depressing for us at Extreme SEAL
Experience. Very depressing, so we’ll just have to find something equally
miserable for our April Class and that is never hard. Sly and Cunning.
I
can take a few more in the April and May courses but HURRY UP and get signed up...