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The platoon sergeant led him to a trench, told him that it was his for the night. He indicated the directions by pointing, all the section locations and telling the platoon commander that he was in the middle of the defensive position. It was already dark and the platoon sergeant went off.

That whole area was a company defensive position with 3 platoons. Those days there were no night vision devices available for the Infantry. The Platoon Commander was 2nd Lt Robert. He was tall and the trench was too shallow and short for him, he tried to sleep and his legs were out of the trench, lying inside. He had bad feelings about his feet getting shot off. He slept, waking up after a couple of hours of deep sleep he was disorientated. He was virtually travelling the whole day and still very tired. 

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He woke up with a start, wondering if his soldiers were alert, the whole area was pitch black and very quiet. Too quiet for his liking, with the enemy threat and all he wasn’t sure if his boys were alert. “Bright bulb” got an idea to test whether his boys were alert, he took his M16, fired two rounds rapidly, the whole position opened up, M16’s and LMG’s firing.

“Oh, my boys are alert”, he went back to sleep once the firing ceased. Meanwhile on a hill further up the Officer Commanding was thinking, “my boys are under heavy attack”. Robert woke up again and had the same thoughts, he again let loose two rounds, it had the same effect. The OC was thinking “I hope they can hold out until daylight, moving now to reinforce them would be dangerous”.

The whole shit show was repeated a few more times, by dawn the platoon was clean out of ammunition. All the trees in front of the position were all shot up. The OC was thinking throughout that the position was being overrun by the enemy. At first light the OC arrived leading a strong fighting party, expecting enemy bodies strewn all over the place. 

A sheepish looking 2nd Lt Robert came to meet him. The OC went into an apoplectic fit. The 2nd in Command of the battalion, managed to speak to the Brigade Commander, who a very fatherly type of man, who said, 2nd Lt’s can make mistakes not blunders. 2nd Lt Robert should fall on his knees in front of his Battalion 2nd in Command thanking him, he was charged though severely reprimanded. That was light!!

Later he redeemed himself by fluke. On a Saturday he was happily drinking beer in the bar of the Officer’s Mess. Suddenly the 2IC of the battalion arrived, he told 2nd Lt Robert to deploy with the UCIS Platoon (Unit Combat Intelligence Squad), “But sir, I am not the platoon commander”. The 2IC firmly told him that the UCIS commander was on compassionate leave, he was the only officer available.

2nd Lt Robert got ready with his equipment and weapon, enemy was sighted in the Karak area, a few clicks from Kuala Lumpur. All the UCIS boys were there, reached the disembarkation point found enemy tracks and followed up. It was closed country with thick vegetation and foliage.

Soon the leading scout saw some figures in front of him, he opened up with his Mossberg pump action shotgun. One of the figures dropped. 2nd Lt Robert rushed up front and saw the figure asking the leading scout whether the enemy was dead. The leading scout who never shot at anything alive in his life said, “I don’t know.”

2nd Lt Robert decided to fire his M16 at the body, by now at least 7 of them were gathered up front, Robert opened with a burst of fire. The body moved due to the impact of the bullets, Robert yelled, “He’s alive!” All 8 of them opened up on the very dead communist.

This time around he was not admonished for expanding vast amount of rounds. So long as there is a kill, the higher ups were happy.

Another of my batch for another screw up. He goes on operations; he was an avid angler before he joined the service. In his area of operation there was a river teeming with fish. He placed his rifle barrel in the water and pulled the trigger.