Put on Guard Duty One day I was assigned duty on the road leading to our Radio Relay site. I don't remember which site it was. I suspect that we weren't there long enough for a lasting memory. I was in a very small shack and had a EE-8 telephone set for communications. It is one of those phones with a crank that you crank when you want to signal anyone to pick up the phone. All phones on the line will ring and you indicate whom you want to talk to. I was bored out of my mind with nothing going on. The time was passing slowly.

The Phone rings All of the sudden the phone lets out a ringy-ringy. I, in a foolish moment, gave out a silly answer to the ring. I picked up the phone and gave the following reply, stupid as it was, "Black or white, day or night, you call we haul, digger speaking." There was deafening silence and an official voice said, " Do you know who this is?" I replied, "No!" The voice said this is Lieutenant Blah Blah!" I forget this real name. I then replied, "Do you know who this is?" The voice replied, "No!"

My Next Reply "Well, you ain't ever going to find out!" and I hung up. About 15 minutes later a jeep drove up, skidded to a stop and a breathless Lieutenant asked me if I had seen anyone using that phone. I truthfully replied that I had not seen anyone use the phone. At that he roared off to the next phone. I never did anything stupid like that again.