This is a true story.

Lo, many years ago when I was in high school on the left coast, I had an English instructor named Gale McGuire. HE was a 6-3" burly Marine M/Sgt. who, after WW-II, had gone to college on the "G.I. Bill" to get a teaching degree.

Anyway, as the law required in those days, he was still a member of the active Marine Corps Reserve (Air arm). His primary duty was to secure crash sites related to either Marine or Navy aircraft and/or facilities.

One day a P-80 "Shooting Star", our first U.S. operational jet fighter model, crashed near Moffit Field, California (south of San Francisco). M/Sgt. McGuire properly secured the scene, which happened to be a dairy farm, and was personally standing on the concrete approach (somewhat littered with cow manure) to the crash site.

Up bustles a very self-impressed Navy Captain (Full-Bird Colonel to you Army types). Gale steps in front of him to keep him from proceeding. The Captain is, shall we say, a tad rude. He orders Sgt. McGuire out of the way.

Sgt. McGuire starts to caution the Captain. At this point the Captain loses what little military courtesy he may have ever had and becomes downright obnoxious, making clear to M/Sgt.McGuire the breadth of the differences in their rank, social standing, parentage, etc. and tell's him "Sgt., this is a direct order. Shut up and stand aside, or tomorrow you will be a Private!" Sgt. McGuire salutes sharply, gives a crisp, "Aye, Sir"!, and steps aside.

The Captain strides pompously by in his best brisk, stiff manner, and proceeds on down the concrete. After about 20 feet, he takes one more step and promptly disappears, uniform and all, into approximately 8-10 feet of liquid cow manure. For a moment all that was visible was his cover (hat), Floating on the surface. Luckily, he knew how to swim.

The San Jose Mercury-News carried the story the next day, and it was read out loud by one of the students in our class, with M/Sgt. McGuire present, back in his "teaching" mode.

You can be sure we all listened in the future when he told us how to do something. I suspect a certain naval Captain may have too.