First Platoon, Co.A, 1st Battalion, 70th Armor

     As the platoon leader of 1st Platoon, Co. A, 1st Battalion, 70th Armor, at Gablingen Kaserne, Augsburg, Germany, in the early 60's, I was assigned several platoon sergeants during my tenure, but probably the most interesting was Master Sergeant Kouma, a Medal of Honor winner from the Korean War (conflict ?).

Sergeant Kouma was comfortable as a platoon sergeant, but had no interest in going further, such as a company first sergeant.

     One day, he brought the platoon back from the tank park (from scheduled maintenance) early, so I asked him to step into the platoon leaders' room (where I 'owned' half of a double pedestal desk), to "counsel" him about his infraction. He started to laugh, (but later told his fellow sergeants that his platoon leader was "growing up".) Another time, at one of the major training areas when the snow turned to packed ice as we were trying to traverse an incline and stalled, Sgt Kouma brought out a fishing pole and proceeded to try his luck in an adjacent stream.

     I got my counseling, too. Back at the tank park, one winter (or early spring) day, when the division commander, Major General Cunningham, arrived by helicopter, and I failed to run over the ice & snow to greet him, I was chastised for not doing so.

     Back to the major training areas, we were in the gunnery training area on the day President Kennedy was shot in Dallas. On another day, in the major maneuver area, our company was awarded an on-the-spot Seventh Army superior training award when theDeputy Seventh Army Commander flew over and liked the looks of what we were doing.

     As a last incident, I was leading a "combined arms" attack (tanks & infantry), and tried to take a "short cut" to surprise the "enemy."  My (then) platoon sergeant radioed that I might "throw a track" on my tank.....and sure enough, I did. That was the day I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, which was celebrated at the officers club that night.

jl

     (Jon explained some of this to me:  Q.Why was coming back early an infraction, if the work was done?

A. Schedules are schedules, and if you have people start deviating from them on their own 'hook,' then discipline breaks down, and that's not the way the military (or the Catholic Church) operates!

 Q. Why did Kouma laugh at being counseled? A. He laughed because he knew I was right, but with all of his experience, he was (mentally) placing the "infraction" in his own context (more or less like [family friend] Dunc LaChapelle would have done in dealing with some of his bosses). Sgt. Kouma & I both knew what was going on.

QA: Throwing a track is exactly like throwing a chain on a bicycle....in the sense of stopping; however, replacing the track on a tank is somewhat more complicated!

jl