I’m thinking about my time in the Army Reserve when I first became an adult. I was never a good soldier. I didn’t qualify on my rifle and I didn’t pass the physical training tests. I had trouble keeping my head down and my mouth shut. When a drill sergeant yelled in my face, “Don’t you want to be here private!?!” I yelled right back, “No Sergeant!” He ordered me out of his platoon which I found out later got him into more trouble than it got me.
But I was also a college kid. I signed up for Reserve Officer’s Training Corp (ROTC) in the year of college I had between basic training and advanced training. I did okay in the classes. I attended several officer functions. I even got signed up for officer’s life insurance. But I was never completely aware that I was on track to be commissioned as a US Army officer. It was just sort of there in the background. I remember a sergeant saluting me because I was a cadet. I had private insignia on at the time so it just confused me. But Officer School was somewhere in my future and I was oblivious.
You are probably thinking how strange all that is and to some degree I do too. But on the other hand I’ve years to reflect on The Army and have seen jokes all along about how clueless new officers can be. I fit right in in some very real senses.
Latter Day Sinner 