[archy]

There must be something about the Armor/Cav. That same thing happened during the Armor Off Advanced Course I was in at Knox in 74-75. C. Troop (I was in A Troop) brought in some strippers for a dining in at the Godman Club Annex. Things got out of hand. Nothing would have happened until one of the guys told his wife and she told some other wives and they went to the CG. A few careers were ended over that. Actually, the FBI was initially brought in because the strippers came from Louisville onto Federal property.

I can match that. In the late 1980s, an Indiana National Guard SMAJ came to me to share a tale of woe, too juicy not to share, yet delicate enough that not just anyone could be counted on to spill the beans the right way. It seems they'd had a really outstanding recruiting and retention NCO, who'd not only brought a troubled and understrength unit up to 115% of it's regular strength pending a TO&E transformation, but had the highest retention/reenlistment figures in the division, and was even helping out the local regular Army recruiters in town by sending those who couldn't get into the now-filled up local National Guard unit, but were told to go active duty for a one-term enlistment, and he'd have a *try one* one-year slot open for them when they came home- and guys were going for it.

Not surprisingly, they wanted to find out what this guy was doing, bottle it, and send it out to every recruiter and retention NCO in the division. He was sharp in appearance, was thoroughly knowledgable of all the paperwork and admin procedures his job required, but this was clearly a matter of something more than picking the right colour for his freebie *Be All You Can Be* giveaway pencils.

Much to their horror, the staff brasshats found out: seems he had a deal going with a couple of the girls dancing at a local topless joint that anyone joining the unit or reenlisting after their *try one* year got an evening with one of the girls. The bad news was that he not only had to stop his unorthodox but effective practices, but eventually had to take his retirement a few years earlier than he'd intended. The good news was he got hired almost immediately by a Fortune 500 company to handle their own headhunting and management retention problems.

My comments about installing a floor-to-ceiling brass pole in the division commander's office were not particularly appreciated. But when in 1991, members of that Guard unit were among the forces shipped to Kuwait as a part of Operation Desert Shield, those characters he'd recruited were still filling their personnel spaces, and as a result, they were fully staffed and went to Kuwait [and later, Iraq] when many of their sister Guard units were left behind. As in comedy and, um, exotic dancing, the timing involved was everything.

[leadpenny]

Reminds me of Sgt Bilko or, there was a movie with Jackie Gleason (Master Sergeant in supply) and Steve McQueen (Buck Sergeant). Jackie played the perfect wheeler-dealer.

Many of the club systems (Officer and NCO) in Vietnam were run as if they needed to come under the RICO statutes.

I guess the premier example involves the first Sergeant Major of the Army (Woolridge). I think that position was established in the late 60's. After he got the job the story of the Khaki Mafia broke. It was learned that while he had been the SGM of the 24th ID in Augsburg (MG Edwin A. Walker was the CG, BTW) he was part of a group of senior NCO's who skimmed from the top of the slot machines all over Germany. They got themselves assigned to Vietnam roughly together and ran the same organized crime operation over there. It included kickbacks from floor shows and just about everything you could imagine.

Walker, of course, was fired by JFK and supposedly had a shot taken at him by Oswald.

FReepmail shortly.