Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 10, 2010

Wonderful last line.

And so the cycle of abuse continues…

Mel sings a line from an essay, “Cancer Becomes Me,” written for The New Yorker in 1996 by a dying Marjorie Gross. See the Wikipedia note: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Gross

Those of you who haven’t worn a uniform outside of band camp won’t have a clue. Those of you who actually have achieved E-5 (in whichever armed service) will know all too well – Mel is going to have a very rude awakening concerning just how much real authority she has.

You’re right about Maria’s original song, Joe: “I feel pretty, O so pretty.” GT’s point is that Marjorie Gross (followed by Mel) gives the song a poignantly self-mocking twist, substituting “petty” for pretty.

Hi Lori,

ahhh, yes sergeants. Are we sure she is not going to be a speck 5. Most technical doggies are not hard striped because they do technical stuff.

Before the Crotch I was a doggie tank mechanic. Made speck 4 in that tour and would have had speck 5 instead of sergeant.

I knew if I went to the garden spot I would still just work on tank engines so I crossed over to the crazy side. My first sergeant at the time told me I was seriously demented but I was head strong and foolish.

Had to do Crotch boot camp because they didn’t count the Army. Made buck sergeant in two and one half but only because there was that garden spot and the things that happen. That and I had some technical skills.

Being a sergeant was moderately ok. I had been a section chief for over a year as a Lance and then full Corporal anyway and the guys in my section were able to work with little supervision since we got sent out to the grunts for operational support.

The only time I had a problem was when I wanted to kill and eat my pet chicken, Lurch, and my crew wanted to fight him in the ville down the road from our operation area in the Que Son valley below Buzzard.

That chicken stew with ham and mothers and beans and meatballs and filletted Lurch was very good. Yes, everyone, rank doth have its privileges.

The worst drawback was when they finally made me go home before I was due to get out of the Crotch and they made me serve the rest of my tour in the Crotch because I was a sergeant 2533. I had only been in the garden for 2 1/2 years, no time at all!

The plane that carried 250 grunts and one radio operator landed at El Toro and the 250 grunts got discharged from active duty and the radio operator had to report for duty for four more months.

I would have much preferred going home but sergeants have to do what the Commandant says.

I feel good for Mel. She will be fine. Her social circle might change a little but she is still a high quality dogface wrench turner (remember the shot down bird, right?). Hard, hard job doing up those flying monsters. Pressure on her and her team is immense because the grunts need those birds and having a broken one doesn’t go to well to grunts who need some airborne ordinance or a quick trip to the vet for rabies shots.

Sorry to yammer on. Old man yammering. That’s all. Nothing to see here, move on along…

nice yammer. i enjoyed reading that

Lots of people tell stories, legacyshooter. You tell them with style that makes me want to hear more. Kudos, man.

It has to be GT’s own nostalgia for the Vietnam era that has produced this week’s outpouring of reminiscences. Whether the reminiscing is done with style or not, to young readers it must sound like old men yammering, as legacyshooter puts it.

Hopefully younger readers will notice the self-deprecation behind the yammering, and they will bring a sense of humor to GT’s political cartoons to match the humor in his military nostalgia.

Nostalgia helps us to share the past. And who knows? Twenty years from now, GT’s successors may look back fondly on our partisan debates and decide that they brought this generation together.

Then the gun packers will sit down with the liberal pacifists and the old vets with the young brokers, and all will heat their tea(bags) using solar panels.

Don’t knock it. NCO’s get access to COLD beer.

I’ve seen good and bad E-5s. Some do a complete 180 with a little authority. In fact a little too often. I think the spec 5 position has been abolished as too often they were used to fill striper slots. I worked an E-5 slot as E-3 and Spec 4. We were an excellent unit and I hope the guys appreciate what I did for them.

The Sp5 E-5 rank was discontinued in 1985. Thereafter, the only E-5 rank was SGT. Why they still have Sp4 is beyond me. Why not just give everyone stripes like the Marines, Air Force, and Navy?

you only get the hard stripe (e-4) as a corporal, and then only if you are in a combat unit..all other e-4’s are called specialist.. and i to am a retired sgt e-5..and sgt’s don’t have that much power..but you can make someone of a lesser rank do pushups, but only 20 at a time. lol!!

You’re right, Joe.

I’m stationed overseas and on AFN (Armed Forces Network) there is a sickening commercial that plays that tune over and over. I about fell over laughing when I saw this comic!

Hey LegacyShooter - No more Spec 5s. Not when it changed but now they go from Spec 4 to Sargeant. I retired as a SCPO (E-8) in 95 and there were still Spec. 5s then but not anymore.

I was a navy E-5 (2nd class machinist’s mate) and the only privilege I had was the right to catch H*ll when the guys under me screwed up.

Appropriate. If Mel were in the Navy, she’d be a petty officer second class. And I knew plenty who really took the “petty” part to heart, raising it to an art form. (Even though the etymology, in this context, is the French “petit.”)