Tommy's Moose

Attitudes – Beliefs – Values - Truthfulness – Fairness – Consistency – Getting’ Better and Efficient

Tommy’s Moose is an adventure that takes the reader on a trek of terror and the steps taken to abate that terror. There’s an unscheduled late night visitor to a lonely guard post—what excitement that visitor creates. Discussion points include: the attitudes – beliefs – values of those you work with, the role of being truthful – fair & consistent with those you work with, and the goal of always striving to make your organization better and more efficient.

This actual event took place one evening about a year into my tour of duty in Alaska on a cold night in December during my turn as the Officer of the Guard at Fort Richardson, Alaska. This was my second winter in the command so I was no longer a cheechako and knew my way around. I was familiar with the ammunition area as this was part of my platoon’s area of responsibility—I’d been there numerous times.

The prime character in the unfortunate event happens to be my platoon clerk, Tommy. I say prime character here because Tommy starts the ball rolling and is intimately engaged the entire time that the action takes place. One might consider the actual prime character the Moose that enables Tommy to take the actions he eventually took—I will acknowledge that the Moose did have a major role in the event; a fact one will discover.

Anybody in a leadership position that has any sort of security arrangement will be familiar with the goings-on when employees are confronted with the unknown of darkness and the unexpected.