A good Story for you.

Boy do I have a funny story to tell you about today.... The funny thing is, it's NOT a story! This actually happened, but I'll tell it like a story.

SMSgt Bramlett and I spent a good part of the day together at our #1 priority project that has a deadline of 1 JUN and the CC's hot topic. Late in the day I got a call on my cell phone that my vehicle was to be turned in. I had already lost my truck because (well, let's not get into that cause that's another long story) - so, I lost my truck. In place of the truck I was driving this temporary little Toyota Corolla - looks really out of place here - but anyway, today I lost it too. So I have no vehicle - which is not so bad. But I had a few stops I needed to make on the way home so I took SMSgt Bramlett up on his offer to drive me in his POS Polaris 4 Wheeler.

One of the places I needed to go was to get a subdued patch for my flight suit. Now - that may mean something to some of you, or not, but that's also a different story. The patch needed to be purchased from the embroidery store in the the PX complex - the busiest place on BAF. The entire area is probably only 2 acres and there must be 25+ shops and stores, no parking, and hundreds of people milling about. Oh - and there is only 1 way in and out. As we were pulling in, the SP's (Security Police) were stationed by the entrance/exit with blue lights flashing. We noticed and illegally parked vehicle and assumed they were there to write a ticket.

We made it to the shop, bought the patch, and walked out in about 5-8 minutes. During that time, a tow truck appeared blocking the one and only entrance/exit. Now we are waiting to see what happens. Were they going to actually TOW this illegally parked truck? Well, Yes. They are. So next thing we see is some people moving about the truck - like it belonged to them. Surely they would just ticket them and let them go? Nope.... They were going to tow it. Period. So the truck driver gets out with his buddy and one of the men talk with the apparent driver of the truck - she hand's him the keys, and he drives the vehicle to position it behind the tow truck.

I thought to myself, You have GOT to be kidding! Nope - they continued to block the entrance this whole time - which by now 10 minutes has passed while this part happened and the guys from the tow truck are now apparently having some problems with the mechanical tow lift and are attempting to repair it.

So curiosity got the best of me and I jumped out of the POS Polaris and walked over the the nearest SP Sgt on scene.

Me: "Can I ask a really stupid question?"
SP: "Yes, Sir"
Me: "Are you towing that perfectly capable vehicle?"
SP: "Yes, Sir! It was illegally parked and we are towing it to place X"
Me: "Well, I understand that, but since it is perfectly capable to drive, why not just DRIVE it to place X?"
SP: "Uh, well, uh, Sir, (pause) we are not authorized to do that. We HAVE to tow it, Sir."
Me: "OK. Just a stupid question!"

So - there you have it. They are blocking traffic in and out of the busiest place on BAF for 30 min to tow a perfectly drivable vehicle - to which they had the keys, mind you.

Now comes the funny part (if you hadn't at least smiled already). They "drove" the illegally parked car BACK into the illegal parking spot to temporarily make room to let cars drive around the tow truck - which the two men were still busy trying to repair. As we drive by the illegally parked truck, two fat ladies (I'm talking 300+ each) (civilians) were taking at LEAST 20 pizza's out of this truck. So these ladies came to the PX area to buy pizzas and were too lazy to find a legal parking spot, went and picked up their pizzas, and were pulling out when they were busted.

Now, they lost their ride, and are stuck there with these 20 pizzas!

Also - on the way out, there was an Army Captain (yes, an officer) directing traffic - that's something you don't see everyday!

So that's my story and I'm sticking too it. Mike and I had a pretty good laugh over that!

All that to top off a fairly crappy week for me. Like I started the story, I lost my ride too, and we also lost our common area in our hooch to some Army guy (supposedly a SGM (Sergeant Major) or Officer) - so I didn't want to make a big stand to keep it. The Army guy is moving in tomorrow. And apparently we are loosing all (yes, all) our heavy equipment for at LEAST a week at the end of the month. I know some of you reading this are engineers and you can certainly appreciate my frustration with that comment.

Mark.