The Inspection

A not so obvious question

Colonel Dickenson had known about the upcoming three-star general’s visit for quite some time. If he were to make it into the flag officer corps, he needed to impress an influential general, Lt. Gen. Sutherland. Several in Dickenson’s command told him that, and Sutherland himself hinted at that notion.

The general’s meant a lot of work. For certain, the troops had their daily cleaning schedule after each shift, but this inspection would no doubt be meticulous and tedious. Sutherland probably wouldn’t do any of the inspecting, save for a brief once over. Instead he would bring a few of his underlings for the inspection details, the dirty work.

Still, the inspection, would take place over a period of three days. His troops had been using the last 90 minutes of each shift to clean, shine, and paint as appropriate. The Saturday before the general’s arrival, there was an all-hands cleaning party – but they could come in their civilian clothes.

Lt. Gen. Sutherland and his staff arrived on Monday as scheduled. Dickenson and his staff met the General and his staff in a large conference room and they hammered out the ground rules for the inspection,

“Colonel, I have one question for you before we begin our review of your personnel and facilities. Colonel, in your estimation, how many man-hours have you spent prepping and cleaning for my visit?”

Colonel Dickenson slowly nodded his head and said, “Depending on your perspective, sir, too many or not enough. Which would you prefer?”

Sutherland smiled. “Interesting answer. I’ll take that as ‘too many.’ When you retire, Colonel, I suggest you go into politics because you said that to me with a straight face. You’d be great with donors and high brass within the DoD. They like their egos stroked as much as possible, something many politicians don’t understand.”

“Yes sir. I’ll take that under advisement and as a compliment.”