You have the wrong guy!!!

It was 1964 and I was on active duty with the 77th Infantry Division stationed in Fort Dix, New Jersey. I was a clerk-typist in a 6 month reserve basic training company and my primary responsibility was receiving a list each day from headquarters with orders to remove certain reservists from the 6 month reserve program and reassigning them to mobilization with their unit for an undetermined period. I was to type new orders for each of these individuals and find them so I could hand-deliver their new orders.

As you can see, I was not the most popular soldier on the base. Remember, 1964 we were escalating the war in Vietnam and everyone was subject to re-assignment, including myself. The first thing we guys did every morning was read the list of reserve units that were activated and pray we weren't on it.

One day, I prepared the list of re-assignment orders, got a jeep from the motor pool and set out to find the guys that I had to deliver the new orders to. Most of them knew if their unit was called up and weren't surprised when I gave them their new assignments. However, there was this one soldier, we'll call him John Smith, who said "This is not me. My unit has not been called up. You have the wrong guy." I explained to him that I'm sorry, but these orders came from headquarters and they check out. Your serial number is the same and so is your name. So he swore to me it had to be a mistake because this is not his unit on the orders. "They can't do this to me. I have a wife and two kids." Well, he was so convincing that I told him I would check it out with headquarters, and he should come to my office around noon at which time I will know if it really is an error.

I called headquarters the next morning and told them the story. They called me back after a couple of hours and sure enough, he was right. There was another soldier with a same name and they mixed up the orders. When John Smith came in at Noon I gave him the good news and gave him another order rescinding the first one and reassigning him to his proper unit. All the color came back to his face, he cracked a big smile and I thought he was going to kiss me. It's a good thing he didn't or I would have decked him. Any way, everyone was happy and we both had a laugh.

That's one of many of my military tales. More to come.