Page 41 - A Soldiers Exposition

MILITARY OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY (MOS)

Supply – Logistics
Administrative Specialist and NCO
Other Duties as Assigned

I was a “LOG” our term for anyone in the logistics field.

I worked hard. I did as I was told, went where I was told, and adapted.

During my first eight and a half years I was an enlisted soldier. Highest enlisted rank: Staff Sergeant, E6.

I participated in those wonderful “Other Duties as Assigned” such as Charge of Quarters (CQ), Guard
Duty (GD), Kitchen Police (KP), and Driver for the Company Commander (CO) and the First Sergeant
(TOP).

I was also given short periods of training, at the unit level, and placed on so-called “teams”. These
assignments were called “Special Duty Assignments”. Three teams that immediately come to mind are:

- The Armament Inventory and Inspection (AIAI) Team: A fancy title for being required to
assist the unit Supply Sergeant with the weekly cleaning of all the unassigned weapons in the
unit. This high honor was usually performed on Saturday mornings. OK, no big deal. So the
weapons must be accounted for and cleaned.

- Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) Response Team: I was barely 19 years old. Are
you kidding me? Life is setting in fast. This army stuff is serious business. Nevertheless,
with unit-level training of a very short two weeks, I was designated as one of the unit’s NBC
response leaders. I was now personally responsible for the safety of seventy-five of our
soldiers in the event of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

- Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team: I suppose I should have considered it an honor
to have been chosen for this “team”. Am I right?

I was “trained”; I attended a three-day training seminar.

I was given a special notebook with all the “things” to which I could expect to be exposed.
What’s the problem? Do you see any problems?

Try to imagine being nineteen, not well educated, and finding yourself on a team of soldiers
given the responsibility of always being on-call to respond to any EOD incident. Now, you
need to understand I was NOT on “THE” team that disarmed anything. I was on the “support”
team that rendered assistance to “THE” team. We performed tasks such as traffic and crowd
control.

Exposure is the name of the game when it comes to EOD. I will explain in more detail a little
later. It is an interesting tidbit.