A Tale of Two Soldiers

A Fictional Story Based On Reality
by Scott M. Williamson

One night, on the same military base somewhere in America, there were two soldiers. One just finished his shift and went back to the barracks to get out of his uniform. It had been a rough week so far, so he decided to reward himself mid-week.

After changing out of his uniform, he headed to the local bar close to the base. Upon arriving at the bar, he noticed a little card game going on in the back. He went into the back room and joined the game. After a few hours of losing some of his hard-earned money, he decided to sooth his loss with some drinks.

While drinking at the bar, he noticed one of the local girls he had seen there before. He bought her a few drinks, and after a while both were drunk. The soldier grabbed his car keys and the local gal, and took off to an area motel. After the soldier had used the local girl for what he had intended, he took back off for the base.

During that same night, on the other side of the base, was another soldier who was hard at work. He was assisting his superior officer in the questioning of a member of a known terrorist group. The soldier was one of the few who had the training to interpret the Middle East language.

After many hours of careful interpretation of the prisoner's answers, both the soldier and the superior officer were satisfied that they had gathered enough information to stop yet another mass murder of innocent Americans. They decided to call it a night, and returned the prisoner back to his cell.

Upon leaving, the superior officer commented on how he could not wait to get back home to his wife and have a home-cooked meal. He then bragged about what a wonderful cook his wife was, and that she was cooking his favorite meal tonight. The soldier replied that he too was anxious to get home. He was unsure what he was having for dinner, but knew whatever it was, it would be great. Due to fatigue of working all night, the soldier slipped and forgot to change pronouns and said of his cook, HE is a great cook too.

The next day both soldiers reported to work. The first soldier bragged to his superior officer of his night time activities, to which the superior officer shook his head and said, "Boys will be boys." The second soldier was greeted the next day by his superior officer with discharge papers for his immoral conduct.

DON'T ASK DON'T TELL......... DON'T WORK