The Dummy

I was drafted into the army in 1952. The purpose of an army is "to defend the freedom of the Country..." The first thing they do is take all your freedom away and teach you to behave like a mindless puppet! One day I apparently had not polished my boots to the satisfaction of the sergeant and he started to yell at me about 3 inches away from my face. This is the time to activate some of my mental defenses, like: 'He is yelling at the guy behind me.",or"I wonder how long he can keep this up?" or "His breath smells aweful, should I tell him?" or "The bible tells me to love my enemies, this is a good time to get started!" I must have frustrated him because he picked on me for days after! The next day it was announced that we were going to have an open house at the barracks. The same sergeant said that we were going to display a dummy dressed up in battlegear. Then he looked at me and said: "DeCock get us a dummy!!" Everbody laughed. I got a pass, and went straight to C&A, a large clothing store in town. I asked for the manager and told him we wanted to borrow a, maybe damaged, dummy. He had several dummies that were too damaged for window display, and I picked a female, - just to get even. I was done at 11:30 am and spent the rest of the day treating myself to icecream and a movie.

When I got back I reported to the sergeant and asked him to send a truck and gave him all the details. He looked surprised. The next morning there was a naked female dummy in one of the side rooms, and lots of guys peeking in. That day there was an all day march scheduled; except for DeCock who will dress the dummy. Laughter!! But that was fine with me, it took me an hour to get the dummy dressed and I took the rest of the day of. That night the sergeant came to me and said:" Good job DeCock, - I guess I was wrong about you......" " Yes Sir, sergeant"