Rank has its privileges

Instead of boring you with another post about my wonderful work environment, I thought I’d share a funny story that happened to me yesterday.

RP and I were on our daily mail run to the “Alamo,” which is a one story compound built around a courtyard with one entrance. All the offices, including the post office, open into the courtyard. The entrance is smallish, maybe one-and-a-half humvees wide. As we pulled up to the compound (I was driving) I noticed a piece of construction equipment off to the right side, partially blocking the entrance. On the left side, a wooden sidewalk runs out of the compound toward a group of shower and toilet trailers.

I stopped to make sure that the equipment wasn’t moving and to make sure that I had enough room to get around it. One of the guys working with the equipment noticed me and waved me through. As I crept forward slowly, I grazed the edge of the sidewalk. This caused one of the boards to pop off and go flying into the air behind me. I thought that I may have also broken a few of the other boards. I pulled into the compound and hopped out only to have a soldier approach me to let me know that two people (who’d been following in a humvee behind me) wanted to talk to me. I approached the humvee ready to apologize for maiming the sidewalk. However, the soldier inside (a first lieutenant) noticed that I was a captain (my army equivalent) and said, “I was going to chew you out until I saw that you outranked me!” Of course, the gentlemen in the passenger seat (an NCO I think) was still a little mad so he vented a little bit, though the first lieutenant tried to smooth over his words (for fear that I would get mad?) I apologized and went about my business, thankful that I wasn’t in trouble at all. Rank does have its privileges! Now just imagine what they would’ve done if they’d known that I was a chaplain! (On my flack jacket I have only my rank, not a cross or anything else identifying me as a chaplain.)

Postscript: On our way out from the Alamo, we pulled over and checked the sidewalk. Indeed, I had loosened up but one board. It wasn’t even broken. It just needed to be nailed down again. I think the incident simply looked more spectacular and damaging than it really was.

Cheers,
Peter