Chiprj recently wrote an article detailing a former soldiers struggle against poor records keeping on the Army's part. I support the civilians position in this totally. That being said it did remind me of something that happened during the reign of SSG Calangelo here at Ft. Hood.

     During the run-up to the second Gulf war our unit had a real need for linguists of a certain type. The Army had really cut back on the numbers of these folks in the years past so they had to dig into both the Active Reserves and thr Inactive Reserves.

     Among those called up was one SGT Murray. He had already fulfilled the entirety of his obligation and owed the US Government and the Army absolutely nothing. A freewheeling fast living guy he had no reason to respond to the polite "If you wanna" message the Army sent out. Nonetheless respond he did. Murray bought himself some uniforms and trucked his big ass (like 6'3" 230lbs) down to Ft. Hood on his own buck. There he started working with us despite the fact that he had no contract and was not being paid a fucking dime.

     While I support the civvies who choose not to come in when they don't have to, I have a shitload more respect for SGT Murray.