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| Image courtesy Susan Carlson.com |
Fifty-two years ago, gentle reader, I first discovered the importance of sequence.
The incident occurred when I had returned from a TAOR1 patrol and I reversed the weapon clearing sequence. I followed that well-drilled sequence to the letter, except that I cocked the weapon (my trusty SLR2) before removing the magazine, instead of vice versa.
It was fortunate that I adhered to another important part of the sequence (pointing the weapon skywards) before pulling the trigger, and ended up causing no more damage than one neat (and mostly invisible) hole in each layer of my tent.
The digger sharing the tent never understood why it would leak at the height of the monsoon. The holes were over his stretcher. I told him about it forty years later when I met him at Toowoomba when he came to collect his sick grandson from my school.
I got away with it without a charge of UD3 because I was by myself, there were no visual witnesses (although everybody heard it), and I joined the small group unsuccessfully looking for the origin of the shot. I'd also pocketed the spent round.
Sequence is also important when moving house, as we are at the moment. Tradies (painters and floorers) have to be engaged in the correct order, and when two buildings are involved, as they are for us, it becomes complicated.
Even relatively small issues, such as moving boxes and furniture from one house to the other, require very very careful sequencing.
You don't want to be double handling furniture and (heavy) boxes of books when you're seventy-four. Maybe doing the bulk of the work by hiring a ute wasn't such a good idea.
I'll let you know when it's all done. My back will no doubt let me know first.....
1. Task Force Area of Responsibility
2. Self-Loading Rifle (L1A1 Australian manufactured version of the Belgian designed FAL)
3. Unauthorised Discharge - one of the most common A4s (military charges).
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