Mess Sergeant

This was from an older post "The Mess Hall"

We eventually got our new Mess Hall er, I mean --Dining Facility and with it came a new Mess Sergeant too. I don't think she liked me much and unfortunately, she'd play a significant role in my military career.

The new Mess Sergeant was a little bit like Little Miss Airborne. She was tough and she was Army strong. In fact, I think she had once been a drill sergeant. She was an E7 that came to 1st Armored Division with something to prove. I think in general female soldiers, especially ones that are "career soldiers", had something to prove or at least back in my day we did. We had to show those tough Army guys we weren't just grown up Girl Scouts. Well, new Mess Sergeant certainly was of that mind set. She was tough.

But she got the job done.

Mess Sergeant was in the Mess Hall 24/7, so it seemed --and she was whipping the facilities and the cooks into shape. No more of this slacking off and no more of this frying flies in the deep fryer. With that, the food did get better and the cooks were ever so sharp. I mean, the creases in their "Cook Whites" (the white uniforms cooks wore) were sharp as a razor blade. Everything was run with such precision and expertise. As much as I liked Army food before, I liked it even more now. With our new facility and Sergeant we got a new salad bar with fresh fruits and vegetables. The "made to order" line wasn't as long as it used to be. We even got a new soft serve ice cream machine in. Yeah, things were pretty good.

But Mess Sergeant ---she was everywhere so it seemed and every time I turned a corner there she was making an on-the-spot correction to me. One time, she said something about my uniform and I didn't think she was right so I went back to the office and looked it up. I wanted to challenge her so badly but my NCOIC told me to "leave that alone". Later I was glad I did. Another time it was raining and I didn't have my rain gear with me and as I was leaving for lunch one of the civilians offered me her umbrella. It wasn't colorful or bright or any pattern so I took it and thought it would "Okay enough" to pass Army Uniform standards. Well no sooner than I headed down the sidewalk did I run into Mess Sergeant and she told me the umbrella wasn't authorized AND SHE MADE ME PUT IT DOWN AND WALK IN THE RAIN. I was so mad at her that day.

It wasn't just me. All the buzz in 1st AD was if you crossed paths with Mess Sergeant you better be sure you were "squared away" from head to toe. She was getting on my last nerve to the point when I was going somewhere I'd look around to see if she was coming and if so, I'd go the other way. You know, this was all well and good but we weren't in basic training anymore. It's not like we all had flagrant uniform offenses. I wished she would just leave us alone!

So here's the deal. I was going to the E5 board and I had prepared for weeks and weeks. I studied the materials and I read ALL the headline news for weeks because Current Events was one of the catagories they could ask questions from. I polished and prepared myself for weeks and weeks and weeks and even enlisted the help of one Staff Sergeant Newsome to gear me up. I was ready.

When it was my turn to go before the board I was so polished I shined like a new penny! I walked into the room, or rather "marched" into the room and who should I see seated on the board?

Mess Sergeant --and she was the only female on the board. I just knew she was going to eat me up alive!