The Ely miner., 1943-08-12

punk a corporal?"
red. The grin widened until his
ears hung perilously on the brink of
his lips. It took him half the morn
ing to sober his spirits to working
conditions.
Corporal Can't has been in the
Army exactly four months. He had
been an acting corporal for three
weeks before he got his stripes.
Heaven grant him strength for
the ordeal ahead.
The term ''buck private" was ex-
planned to us this afternoon. It re-
fers to the Old Army Game, pass
ing the buck" The sergeant is first
called on the carpet for a mistake
in his platoon. The sergeant seeks
out the corporal and gives him a
dressing-down. The corporal passes
the buck by scalding the ears of the
private. The private doesn't even
have a mule to kick, so he can't pass
the buck any farther. He keeps it.
That makes him a buck private.
The Army, find, has many subtle
ways to trap the unwary into vol
unteering for work. First there was
the sergeant over at the Reception
Center who came through the recre-
alton hall one afternoon calling for
''Private Smith" Four men an
swered. All four were put to work
picking up cigarette stubs.
On the call, Anybody in here
know how to handle a truck?" don't
speak up. The last three were seen
later pushing a hand truck up the
battery street to haul rifle racks.
Corporal Henry Ussery is to date
the most dangerous conscriptor. This
week he came into the squadroom
to ask if anyone was good at short
hand. Three citizen-soldiers admit
ted that they were.
Report to the Kitchen" the cor
poral laughed. ''The mess sergeant
says he's shorthanded on dishwash-
ers."
Zone of the most solemn and re-
sponsible trusts Of soldier" Ser
geant Curly" Taylor said today,
sis his guard duty" Sergeant Tay-
lor, who has been in the Army for
nineteen years and probably knows
more about guard duty than any
man in Fort Bragg, is teaching us
about guard duty now.
The soldier is called to this duty
about once a month. For twenty
four-hour period, he is on two hours,
and off four hours, and he walks
his post in military manner"
guarding the peace and possessions
and safety of part of the post.
He is responsible only to a corporal
of the guard, a sergeant of the
guard, an officer of the day, and
his commanding officer.
The guard, or sentry, is known
chiefly to the reading and movie
going public by two expressions,
Halt, who goes there?" and Cor
poral of the guard! Post number
threeI" The former, Sergeant Tay-
lor said with his best poker-face,
has given the Army considerable
worry at times.
According to the sergeant, the
guard is instructed to give the ''halt''
order three times and then shoot.
Over-enthusiastic rockies from the
back counties, he said, had been
known to go like this: Halt halt
halt! Ka-POW!" (You can believe it
or leave it; I never question what
the sergeant says.)
There was one rookie guard, he
said, who halted him, questioned
him and allowed him to pass. Aft
er he had gone several steps, the
sentry again shouted, Halt" Ser
geant Taylor came back and want
ed to know-politely, of course
how come. 'My orders" said the
guard, "say to holler Halt three
times and then shoot. You're Just
on your second halt nowl''
The other popular expression is
the come-a-running call that goes
up the line to the guardhouse when
a guard takes prisoner or meets
any case not covered by instruc-
ton" General Order No. 81. If the
guard is on the seventh post. he