LT Marcus was by far my favorite Platoon Leader. He came to the Support Platoon from a line company where, as a tank platoon leader, he amassed more letters of reprimand than any other lieutenant in the battalion. His appearance was so like Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs) that I had my very talented #2 son draw up a Calvin looking cartoon with Calvin's pants torn out in the rear and his bitten cheek exposed. He loved it, framed it, hung in on his office door.
We took him with us on REFORGER, as a kind of traiining for him since our current platoon leader hadn't left yet. Yeah...a major maneuvering exercise with TWO lieutenants...lucky me. But it was valuable for him to get to see how we did business on a big scale.
As the platoon sergeant, my major function was to daily organize and execute what we called LOGPACs...Logistic Packages. Each unit would communicate their anticipated needs as far as food, ammo, fuel and other supplies. We would organize the fuel trucks, ammo trucks, coordinate pick up of rations and load them on trucks, broken down by unit, and line up about four to six trucks for each tank company. We would convoy to the LRP...Logistics Resupply Point...a spot designated for that night, and then divy up the vehicles to each of the using tank companies. The tank company First Sergeants would lead each of their LOGPACs forward to their units, resupply, then return the vehicles to the LRP where I would gather them up and convoy back to reload with fuel, ammo and whatever other supplies had to be replaced...then return them to a new location whereever the battalion had relocated to in our absence. A typical LOGPAC operation would take about 15 to 20 hours. Whatever was left over we would eat, sleep, maintain our own vehicles and what ever else needed doing.
On one particular night when the LOGPAC requirements had been unusually light due to a lack of moving on the tanks' part...LT Marcus offered to take a 5ton truck and whatever platoon members that weren't involved in the operation into Leighton Barracks in Wurzburg for a shower and PX run. LT Kaelin, the reigning platoon leader agreed and off they went. No biggie, a good morale move and not at all uncommon.
Once the tank company 1SGs pick up their LOGPACs, my job consisted of waiting for them to return...sometimes for hours. So that night, sharing some MRE goodies with my sergeant major and making small talk, watching the "enemy" LOGPACs moving on the next terrain feature, we were interupted by a call on the sergeant major's radio. The Division sergeant major was summoning our sergeant major to an immediate meeting. Our sergeant major explained that we were in the middle of LRP operations and he would be tied up for several more hours. The Division Sergeant Major's reply was succinct and chilling...he said, "Chris, if you don't get to me ASAP, you are gonna hate life". We shared a shocked and worried look, then the sergeant major saddled up and blasted off in search of. Less than an hour later my sergeant major called on my radio and asked me to verify my weapons accountability report for that evening. We did weapons inventory twice a day and filed a report on the whereabouts of every sensitive item we had...especially weapons. Fortunately for me, I had the foresight to list one M2, heavy barrel 50 caliber machine gun as out of hand...it was on the ring mount on the 5 ton truck that went to Wurzburg. After a pause, my sergeant major thanked me asked me to meet him ASAP at the battalion TOC, Tactical Operations Center. I didn't even mention that I was heavily involved in doing my job, he knew that, and I didn't want to "hate life", so I raced off to find the TOC.
I arrive just as the Division sergeant major and another one I didn't know were leaving...the Division sergeant major looked and me and smiled...he said I was one lucky son of a b****. He jumped into his jeep and blazed away. I found my sergeant major in the TOC with an M2 sitting on a table next to him. Looked alot like one of mine...but then they all look alike. I was quickly informed that it was indeed mine and it had been returned to us courtesy of the military police battalion sergeant major. And here is how it happened:
Upon arriving at Leighton Barracks, the lieutenant sent the troops off to the gym to use the showers...he told the driver he could go over to the PX and he, the lieutenant would sit with the truck. Not long after all the troops had gone off, an old classmate of the LT's came by and they started up a conversation...and soon...forgetting every thing else...they drifted off together to the Officer's Club to catch up on old times...leaving the truck and it's ring-mounted machine gun unattended. This whole scenario was witnessed by the MP battalion sergeant major and his driver. They had a hard time believing their eyes...leaving machine guns laying around unattended was a major...no...a MAJOR...NO NO. After several minutes with no one around, the sergeant major sent his driver over to the truck to retrieve the gun. They sat in the Burger King watching the parking lot for some time, then went off to the division sergeant major to report what they had seen...and what they had. I cannot impress on you enough how very very very seriously the Army looks upon weapons management and accountability. So my sergeant major got his call...I got my call...and shortly the LT would return and receive his call.
They were quite late returning to the platoon CP. He came storming into the tent in a tizzy, saw the M2 laying on his bunk and went all dramatically into a huge show of relief. "Oh, man..." he started, "you won't believe what we went through looking for that thing...we thought it fell off or something, we looked all along the road, under the low bridge...man! and all this time you had it here...Sarge, you should have told me you took it off before we left...I wouldn't have panicked...I saw my career flash before my eyes..." He went on in that vein for a few more minutes before he noticed that the looks on our faces, me and Kaelin, were not in keeping with his story and relief. As realization soaked in, his face did a slow transformation into Calvin's most screwed look. He looked at Kaelin and said, "I'm screwed, huh."
The letter of reprimand this time ran into two pages...I got an oversized picture frame so we could put both pages on display on his office wall. Next to all the others. Not being an officer, I wasn't privy to what all else he was subjected to...but it was pretty severe. I will say this, the nickname "Machine gun Marcus" didn't last long...it was soon replaced by "Spit Cup Marcus"...then another...there was no end of material for nicknames for him.