I will never forget my first day in the 101st Airborne Division at Ft Campbell, Ky. I was to report to 1-327th Infantry Regiment, where I was assigned to A Company, 1st Platoon. After meeting my Company Commander I was escorted to the platoon area in the back to meet my platoon sergeant, SFC Anderson. They called him Big “A” for a reason, he was about 6 feet tall and 300 pounds of solid muscle! To put things in perspective, I was a brand new “butter bar” 2nd Lieutenant and as a recent graduate of Ranger School where I lost over 40 lbs, I weighed in at 5’-9” and 150. This was the moment I’d been preparing for, for over four years, taking over my infantry platoon! I had a lot of confidence and a lot to be proud of…after all I was a Military Academy (West Point) graduate, Airborne, Air Assault, and Ranger qualified. But somehow by God’s grace, in that moment I chose humility. Maybe it was the fact that my Platoon Seargent was a lot bigger than I expected…but I looked up and him and said with confidence and humility “Goodafternoon Sergeant Anderson, I’m Lieutenant Thomas, it’s great to finally meet you, I’ve learned a lot in school, but I know I’ve got a lot to learn about what it’s really like to be an Infanty Platoon Leader and I look forward to learning from you.” He took a step back, looked me up and down, took a deep breath and said “Sir, I’m going to make you the best Lieutenant in the Battalion!”
Go get um Butter Bar!
Wow, this article is nice, my sister is analyzing
such things, so I am going to tell her.
Your mode of explaining the whole thing in this post is truly good,
every one can simply be aware of it, Thanks a lot.
I really like it whenever people come together and share thoughts.
Great blog, stick with it!