My Dad was in the Army and I was in the Air Force, so you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t use correct Army lingo or ranks. My Dad retired as a full bird and this is his story as he told it to me. He might have been a Lt or Captain at the time. Probably some time in the late 70s-early 80s.

Dad’s group was out on a training exercise and one of the rules was you couldn’t leave any trash anywhere. They camped for the night and a piece of trash was found. The sergeant told the guilty soldier to pick it up and dig a hole as punishment. The soldiers decided to make a game of it and took turns to see how much they could dig. My Dad went to his tent and went to sleep.

When he woke up in the morning he realized they had been digging all night. The hole was so deep they had to lower each person down by a rope. My Dad said when he saw this his ‘asshole puckered’ and he went straight up to the sergeant, grabbed him by the collar and screamed “Get that soldier out of that hole before it collapses around him and we all go to Leavenworth!”

Everyone lived to serve another day.