Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Friday, September 01, 2006 2:20:07 PM
THIS POST WILL MAKE MORE SENSE IF YOU READ THE
ONE IMMEDIATELY BELOW IT FIRST.
In 1981, I was finishing up my tour of duty as an Army ROTC Instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, and preparing to head for Germany. That last summer, I was detailed to Fort Lewis to be the safety officer for the Grenade range. Some 1700 cadets, men and women, would have an opportunity to throw a live grenade on my range, and I had the responsibility to keep them safe when they did it.
When I went to the G-3 Range Safety class, a class all live fire safety officers must attend, I got a real jolt. Two summers before, the ROTC Grenade Safety Officer had done something dumb and gotten himself killed on his own range! That got my attention!
There were eight ROTC companies, with four platoons each. Each day I ran my range, I had eight sections of a half platoon each, four in the morning and four in the afternoon. Before the cadets got to go on the live range, I put them through a class on how to unpack their grenade and the procedures we would use. They threw two practice grenades each. If I was concerned in any way with their first two throws, they were sent to the back of the line to throw two more. None had to throw six, but I still remember a cadet with a Ranger Tab who did earn the right to throw four. It was a no nonsense range, as far as I was concerned.
The live range had five pits with sumps. Each pit had a safety NCO. They were good people and they paid attention. They had to, because if a cadet didn't get his/her grenade over the wall, their job was to get it in the sump before it went off. Their life was on the line every time they allowed a cadet to begin unpacking his/her grenade. Yes, they had my authorization to tackle cadets who did stupid stuff like trying to watch their grenade go off, and they did so at least twice.
After the second company through this operation, I noticed I had a problem with the section I taught immediately after lunch. It was outdoors, the sun was warm, the belly was full, and it was difficult to keep these cadets awake through my safety class.
I decided that the solution was to fall back on one of my earlier life's experiences. The next afternoon, I identified the cadet leader of the section and told him/her to take his section to a place I designated, and have them ground their equipment. I then put them through what I called a "modified high-jumper with three unique repetitions."
This worked wonders. It woke everyone up from their post lunch drowsiness. Only one eighth of any one company needed to do this admittedly strange exercise, so most cadets never knew it was happening.
When the 7th Company came through, a cadet in the early afternoon section raised his hand and asked if he could ask a question. He said "Sir, have you ever heard of the Southwestern Company?" I laughed and said "1966, Bible Library Division," and went on with my safety class.
It is a small world. Everything you learn in life will be useful someday. You just have to figure out how.