In August of 1992, Charlie Company, 46th Engineer Battalion, was participating in the Fort McClellan post change of command ceremony. Major General Hines was retiring and Major General Orton was assuming command. TRADOC commander(and former commander of VII Corps in the Gulf War) General Franks was officiating the change of command. It was pouring down rain, and if you have ever been in or seen a military change of command ceremony, you know that the brass can get pretty long winded.(MG Hines did keep his remarks short and sweet.)

So one young soldier, Specialist K*, decided after standing in the pouring rain, he had had enough.

And broke ranks and walked out of the ceremony.

With the whole post watching.

The only reason he did not get slamdunked then and there was because that same day, we were on standby alert to go to Miami to clean up after Hurricane Andrew. We had had a new commanding officer, CPT Moffatt, assume command from CPT Trimble, and since K's brain cramp occured under CPT Trimble, I imagine that CPT Moffatt wanted to get all the facts before issuing an Article 15.

(For those of you not in the military, or not familiar with it, Article 15 is Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, nonjudicial punishment. Which is an option a commanding officer has to punish offenses not serious enough for a court-martial. You got them for things like missing formations, sleeping on duty, disrespect to an officer or non-comissioned officer, little stuff. And the most that a company-grade officer could give was 14 days restriction to quarters, 14 days extra duty, reduction by one rank, and forfeiture of a weeks pay. Field-grade officers(major and above) can hand down 45 days restriction, 45 days extra duty, forfeiture of 2/3 pay for 2 months.)

But I digress. We came back from Miami 3 weeks later, K stood before the man, got 14 days restriction, 14 days extra duty, busted to PFC, and loss of a week's pay.

Two years pass. K was still in the unit, and had made his rank back. Another post change of command was going to take place. Word came down from post headquarters:UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES will you permit Specialist K to be anywhere near the change of command.

The moral of the story:Generals have very long memories.

*-Name changed to protect the guilty.