Some officers learn

Captain T came off active duty and into a National Guard brigade-level intelligence section near Dallas. He was a VMI graduate, with a degree in Spanish and a minor in voice, had completed the Army intelligence officer’s course and completed a three-year tour in Germany. His civilian job was with a major beverage company headquartered in the Dallas area.

Captain T one time mentioned a CIA recruitment talk he received near the end of his active duty time. Because of his VMI degree and his competence in Spanish, he was offered a position in Central America with a major U.S. beverage company. In addition to managing beverage distribution, he would recruit agents and establish information networks.

“The CIA told me I would be attached from some Mess Kit Repair Battalion in the Midwest,” he said. “If anything ever happened to me, the agency could deny everything, since I belonged to an Army Reserves unit.”

He turned down the offer, he said, because he would have to spend a year working in a CIA basement in Washington, D.C., building, sorting through daily intercepts, at a salary less than that of an Active Duty captain.

“And, I didn’t want my parents being told I had been killed in a helicopter accident during an Army Reserves exercise.”

Captain T did not exactly fit in his first two drill weekends. Another analyst in the section said, “I don’t think he’s going to work out at all.” I said, “Just give him a little more time. I think he’ll be okay.”

Around his third drill weekend, Captain T and I were talking, about Army stuff and Russian stuff when he said, “I guess I was a bit of an ass my first few drills.”

My thought on some Army stuff revolves around “Do not lie to an officer.” So I said, “Yes, Sir, you were.”

Captain T said (and I am not making this up), “I’ve never worked with NCOs who are as intelligent as I am, and it took getting used to.”