ARMY ARMY ARMY ARMY ARMY!

I have talked about cadence in the past. The mysterious semi-singing form of communication that keeps soldiers a-truckin. I was once told a story that at a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) school a guy was told to do cadence to march the platoon someplace. He responded "I don't know any cadence." They told him "make one up." So he said "A is for Army, R is for Army, M is for Army, Y is for Army." Followed by "ARMYARMYARMYARMYARMY!" At the top of his lungs as fast as possible. This story has nothing to do with why I am writing today.
It was 0300 and I was sleeping on my couch. You see on Thursday I had discovered my toe had become infected, it was black and horrible. I went in to the ER and the Dr. sliced it open and gave me some drugs and told me not to go to work the next day. I was also supposed to keep my foot up. That was why I was on my couch. So there I am sleeping peacefully on my couch when my phone begins to humm its gentle melody. So I answer the phone, as has become my habit. "SGT Crozier, you need to go to the AOD desk and report to the SDNCO ASAP, one of your buildings is unsecured. I tried to call your counterparts but they were unavailable so you will need to go in until they relieve you."
"What?"
"You need to get in ACU's and go to the AOD, now!"
"I'm on Percaset."
"Are you trying to pull a fast one on me? Because you're slip said you were off of duty for 24 hours and its been over 27 hours, so you should have no excuse not to be able to go into work."
So here I am. An AOD is like the Hospital's night watch. They mostly sit and answer phones. The SDNCO is the Staff Duty NCO. They wander around post and make sure all the buildings are locked. As it turns out, one building was not locked. So, because this building was unlocked I was asked to go and sit in it until someone came to lock. I didn't have a key, but I am a soldier with a damaged foot. Right now it is 0530, on a Saturday and it is raining outside in drought ridden North Carolina. It is times like these that I am glad that I only have 2 more weeks of work as an active duty United States soldier. Don't get me wrong, the Army has been good to me and I have been pretty good to the Army. However these are the times when I think how stupid some of the things we do are, and how petty people can be about things we have no control over.
The moral of the story: If you are in the Army and they have not issued you a phone, don't answer it when it rings.