RAFINO

RAFINO Report
ISSUE 21 - Fall 1998 
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A 2nd Lt. Learns An Army Lesson 
By Al Durning

As a 2nd Lt., in December 1959, I was assigned directly from the Basic Signal Officers course at Ft. Monmouth to the position of chief, USA Signal F&A Office, Operating Agency 03 - which at the time was an 06 position.  The position was previously filled by a Signal Corps Major (P) with an MBA from Harvard.  He had not lived up to the expectations of COL. Robert Hoag, FC, the Staff F&AO who reported to the Comptroller of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, a Signal Corps colonel.  As in so many of the old headquarters they stacked up 06s in the chain of command.  As a side note many of our members will remember Ken Church who ended up on the AMC Finance and Accounting staff.  He was Colonel Hoag's deputy in those days.  COL. Hoag had the Major (P) reassigned.  The SC personnel branch sent a message to Fort Monmouth - "Assign the next available graduate of the Career Course with a degree in accounting to the Office of the Chief Signal Officer."  In the transmission that part of the message reading, "of the Career Course" was omitted.  As luck would have it, a basic course was graduating that day and Al Durning, already on orders to join a Signal Corps battalion in San Francisco en route to TDY in Thailand was diverted to Washington, DC to report NLT midnight that same day.  Shortly thereafter, a manpower survey downgraded the position to an 05 slot on the wisdom that if it could be filled by a 2nd Lt., then it shouldn't be an O6 position.  Now to the story:

The office was manpower intensive, rudimentary data processing and the ICAR system was a year away.  I had a personal secretary who supervised a four person typing pool.  Directly across from our offices was the Mil Pers Office of the Signal Corps, staffed mainly by 05s with almost no clerical support.  Occasionally, when they were between a rock and a hard place the 05s would ask if our typing pool could help out.  At the time I was a 2nd Lt. on a two year tour, heading back to Boston as soon as my two years were up.  Those 05s were a nuisance and although we normally bailed them out - to put it simply - I was not as gracious as I could have been.  I didn't make them beg but they did have to come hat in hand.  Well, 18 months elapsed.  Then the Berlin buildup came along and I was replaced by Major Bill Duffy, FC, and I was off to Europe.  I ended up as a platoon leader in the 29th Signal Bn. at Druex AFB, a God forsaken desolate spot 35 miles west of Paris.  One Saturday while pulling OD, I met a helicopter which arrived unexpectedly carrying our Brigade Commander, whom I immediately recognized as one of those 05's!  He greeted me with, "Durning, what is a Washington hotshot doing out here in the boondocks?"  Not waiting for an answer he slapped  me on the back and said, "Good training."  Then I understood!  What a lesson in humility.