Here is an example of just how stupid the Green Machine can get.
While stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, we were notifed of an FTX that would take place over the Thanksgiving holiday. To make the FTX even more miserable, a Texas "Norther" blew through. For those of you lucky souls that have managed to avoid this form of weather, a "norther" is very cold, wet, windy and involves unseasonable snow.
To make matters even more enjoyable, our brigade commander had a personnel mission to remove heaters from military vehicles "in order to reduce our infra red signature". Yup! nothing like central Texas in 27 degree weather and a foot of snow/ice/slush to make the holidays memorable!
But that wasn't what PO'd the enlisted men. Nope! We took the weather in stride and proceeded to chase OPFER around the maneuver area. Thanksgiving Day dawned to a admin halt. Our officers were called to a high level staff meeting with the Brigade commander. Since it is somewhat unusual for all of the officers to attend a meeting, several scouts decided to perform a security patrol. Our intention was to ambush a "roach coach" and score some sodas and something other than C-rations.
We were a little surprised to see a lot of activity ongoing in a nearby clearing so we snooped in to see what was going on. Our Brigade Commander had arranged for several large tents to be set up and was hosting a Thanksgiving Dinner for his officers and their families. It was quite a spread! Everything served piping hot, white tablecloths, china, even wine for the usual toasts...
Did I mention that Thanksgiving Dinner for the troops was cold C-Rations, seems that the Brigade Commander pulled all of the unit cooks for the Officer's Dinner.
The credit of my fellow scouts, we kept our grumbling to ourselves, but the news of what had happened got out fairly quickly. But what impressed me the most was the Turkey Revolt. It seems that the Brigade Commander's little operation pissed off a lot of officers. They took up a collection among themselves and later that night cooked, delivered and served to the troops a hot Thanksgiving dinner. Kudo's to them!
And the Brigade Commander, well the Division Commander was less than pleased when the details came to his attention. Nothing offical ever happened, but our Brigade Commander was relieved of his command to attend a General Staff course, and was later assigned to a Public Information Officer's slot at the Pentagon. To the best of my knowledge, he was never appointed to command a unit again.
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