Military Repositioning

"First Parade"*

*The class of Naval Academy midshipmen drilled
for hours at their first parade. Finally, they lined
up in columns and were assigned commanders
who issued further orders.

Many of the mids were anxious and repeatedly
made mistakes. But one, A.J., seemed confident
and never missed a beat.

"Mister," his commander asked, "have you any
previous experience?"
  
"Yes, ma'am," A.J. replied. "I have three older sisters!"

**********************************************

"Military Repositioning"*

*In the final days before the massive ground attack
on Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, a tank company
was moved to a position 15 to 20 kilometers from
the Iraqi border. It was a very flat, open area that
left them vulnerable to Scud missile attacks.

Therefore, every evening they repositioned one
kilometer to make targeting more difficult. It meant
tearing down tents, camouflage nets, communications
gear, barbed wire and more, only to reassemble it ten
minutes later in a new location. Since there were other
units to the south, east and west, the only direction
they could move was north, closer to the border.

The company commander knew his soldiers hated this
routine. One day he asked a small group of soldiers if
they understood why they relocated every night.

"Yes sir," came the confident reply of one soldier.
"We're sneaking up on them!"
Received on Thu Dec 3 00:04:20 2009