DON'T DO IT AGAIN.
This is Steven Petrick Posting.
When I was a young lieutenant I was tasked to run an opposing force against the 36th Engineer Group at Fort Benning, Georgia, one night. After several operations I finally found my stocks of ammunition and pyrotechnics very low, so I decided on one more attack, and then I would disperse my troops back to their billets for the rest of the night.
Things went horribly, impossibly wrong . . . in a manner of speaking.
My detachment successfully infiltrated into the main encampment of the Engineer Group (a surprise to me).
Being inside the enemy's perimeter, I searched for something good to attack. There it was. A couple of tents, surrounded by concertina wire and with a guard posted at the entrance.
It was well past midnight, maybe 0300 hrs. But I organized my troops for the assault, literally telling them that as soon as we came out the far side of the Concertina, they were to immediately disperse and head for their beds (they were all drawn from the elements of the Group Headquarters to start with, as indeed so was I. being then the executive officer of the Group's Headquarters company).
The assault went well, lots of gunfire with almost no return fire from the stunned security force (what, we are under attack while inside the perimeter surrounded by friendly troops?), pyrotechnics going off, and confusion in the tent area.
With my job finished for the night, I headed to bed as things were in some confusion within the perimeter.
The next morning, my immediate superior came into my tent and woke me.
He asked if I had happened to attack certain tents about O-dark-thirty. I allowed as how I had. My superior than advised me that the Group Commander had not been able to make up his mind to get out of his cot with his pistol and participate in the defense, or with a large stick to beat to death whoever it was that had woken HIM up.
Having advised me of the above, my immediate superior ended with the words: Don't do it again.
When I was a young lieutenant I was tasked to run an opposing force against the 36th Engineer Group at Fort Benning, Georgia, one night. After several operations I finally found my stocks of ammunition and pyrotechnics very low, so I decided on one more attack, and then I would disperse my troops back to their billets for the rest of the night.
Things went horribly, impossibly wrong . . . in a manner of speaking.
My detachment successfully infiltrated into the main encampment of the Engineer Group (a surprise to me).
Being inside the enemy's perimeter, I searched for something good to attack. There it was. A couple of tents, surrounded by concertina wire and with a guard posted at the entrance.
It was well past midnight, maybe 0300 hrs. But I organized my troops for the assault, literally telling them that as soon as we came out the far side of the Concertina, they were to immediately disperse and head for their beds (they were all drawn from the elements of the Group Headquarters to start with, as indeed so was I. being then the executive officer of the Group's Headquarters company).
The assault went well, lots of gunfire with almost no return fire from the stunned security force (what, we are under attack while inside the perimeter surrounded by friendly troops?), pyrotechnics going off, and confusion in the tent area.
With my job finished for the night, I headed to bed as things were in some confusion within the perimeter.
The next morning, my immediate superior came into my tent and woke me.
He asked if I had happened to attack certain tents about O-dark-thirty. I allowed as how I had. My superior than advised me that the Group Commander had not been able to make up his mind to get out of his cot with his pistol and participate in the defense, or with a large stick to beat to death whoever it was that had woken HIM up.
Having advised me of the above, my immediate superior ended with the words: Don't do it again.
posted by Federation Commander at 5:08 PM
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