OH MY GOSH!!!! Now THAT was a riot. Reminds me of a good one...Here
goes:
I recently retired from the army. After 25 years in the military as
a welder/machinist, it's safe to say I've met some pretty colorful
folks...one of them was a guy by the name of Vern back at Fort Knox,
Kentucky.
I was the sergeant in charge of the shop & "corpral Vern" was one of
my not too bright welders who couldn't get through even the smallest of
tasks without getting really confused. He and one of my sergeants
finally had it out about Vern's inability to work on a project without
it turning into a disruption for the whole shop.
I had recently undertaken a project where we were about to begin
taking a bunch of M60 battle tanks into the shop, draining all the
fluids, removing the transmission & engine and cutting 4" holes in them
before putting them back in, welding up all the hatches & plugging the
barrel, painting the tank green with a white star and shipping them off
to VFWs for use as a display tank.
After the 1st tank had arrived, I was away from the shop for awhile
taking care of some business. As I was walking back into the shop, I
notice Vern out front standing on this tank....tapping it iwth a
hammer...nodding his head up & down (as if to say "yes" to
himself...Vern talked to himself a lot) and marking an "X" on the tank
with a piece of soapstone. I look over closer to the shop....and all
the guys are just rolling with laughter!
Now before I go into this any further, you have to understand that
the armor on these old tank turrets is thicker on the sides than it is
on the top...like wise the hull is thicker on the front and sides than
it is on the rear.
This tank has soapstone "X"s all over it and Vern is just happily
tapping away! I climb up on the tank & before I can say anything, Vern
says, "That's right you know what I'm doing don't you sergeant? See
people who wrok for you get smart, and then someday we get your job!" I
can hardly contain myself as I admit, 'This must be something old sarge
forgot, why don't you show me?" Vern says listen..."Tap, tap, tap (on
the side of the turret with the hammer...and then..."Tink, tink, tink
(on the top of the turret) you hear that difference sergeant? That's a
soft spot in the armor!" then he beams "Segeant Troy showed me that!"
Vern was so proud of himself...it was almost hard to explain to him,
he'd been the butt of a joke. I kept the piece by helping him play a
joke back on the good sergeant.
-Wayne-