The Army????

[zenheretic]

The CO asked if anyone knew how to type (this was back in the era of typewriters).

I know a guy who was drafted into the infrantry during Viet Nam. Sometime during basic, someone asked the lined up draftees if anyone could type. This fellow knew an opportunity when it came knocking and said yes he could type (couldn't type a darned word). Instead of getting shipped to Viet Nam, he was sent to Alaska to be Radar...er you know that company clerk guy...talk about dodging a bullet. By the end of his tour, he was an accomplished two finger hunt and peck guy.

 

[Will Leavitt]

I've got a story that's 180 degrees from y'all.

I did a story for AFN about a guy in the Alabama National Guard that became EOD because he failed the typing test at MEPS and was wanting to get out of town. He signed the paperwork and was like "what does EOD do?" He was a very good EOD guy and was working as an IED instructor for the DOJ's Center for Domestic Preparedness. I had fun shooting video of him working. He was doing range clearing operations before the Panama handoff. He was using a knife on something in the grass while I got closeups of him working. I looked around the viewfinder to see him ramming a knife into the fusewell of a very very very old 8" gun round (My face is about 2' from this.) "Ummmmmmmm, aren't you worried about that going off?" Nah, we'll never know if it happens. "Yeah, you're right... could you move your face a bit so I can get it in the frame." And we trucked on filming.

Yeah, the Paladin FDC is a nice climate controlled trailer, this CO had his young FDC guys outside working with those Whiz Wheels and slip sticks. The Romanian guy asked why were they doing it manually when they had computers... "Cause, computers don't always !@#$! work sir."