Pentagon will pay military troops, Trump says, shifting $8B

It is incredibly cool when someone higher up the food chain turns some fool into dinner.

Summer of 79 I was the XO for an admin/log detachment at Todendorf, a German anti-aircraft range. We were the only Americans for 200 miles, it was awesome.

Six weeks into the TDY, one of my MP's hadn't been paid. My NCOs worked their chain of command, to no avail. The poor kid was in tears, he'd been stuck on the compound all summer, while his buddies were partying it up off post, in a town with the greatest concentration of newly divorced women I'd ever seen.

As the CO was back home dealing with marital issues, that left me in charge. Knowing what had transpired with the attempts to get him paid, I was pissed. I told my clerk, get me his Group Commander on the phone. Five minutes later, I was talking to a rather perturbed Bird Colonel, so I had to work fast.

At the end of the call, I told the Colonel I had the pleasure of meeting him at the outbriefing for the B/5-6 ADA Nuclear Surety Inspection that occurred several months prior. When I mentioned I was the Augmentation Force Commander, the tone immediately changed. "LT, how are you doing? How did you end up at Todendorf?" He put a jeep on the road that afternoon to get those checks delivered to us, 400 miles north.

During that NSI, I really got into it with the Chief Evaluator, who criticized me for not getting to the site soon enough. I always used the 4 hours alloted to train my soldiers in refresher infantry tactics. We were dealing with live ammunition in an area that housed nuclear weapons.

At the outbriefing, the evaluator made mention of my response as another criticism. The first person to speak after the evaluation team left was our Deputy CG. He pointed at me and said, "Lieutenant, I'll take that hit for you. Anytime you want to give your soldiers extra training, you have my express permission!" Thus ended one of the best days of my undistinguished military career. lol

No one back at home station ever gave me flack during that TDY. The after action reports from the battalions we supported were nothing less than exemplary. My people did a great job that summer.

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