Joe Habecker (left) Ryan Smith (far left)

Our First Sergeant Jeff Huttle gave me the honor of reading the promotion orders for Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steve Harper and Sergeants Joe Habecker and Ryan Smith.

Steve is a former Air Force guy who saw the light and is now one of our crack pilots in B Company.

Joe and Ryan are former Long Range Surveillance types. They were co-conspirators with Kerwin in the Martella/Miccarelli pinkbelly incident. They were sufficiently rewarded for their transgressions following their promotions.

The First Sergeant put them in the front leaning rest (push up) position. Just when they thought they were about to get a nice workout, two giant gatorade cans were dumped on them by their fellow LRS-D alumni. This is a shocking experience in normal temperatures, but in heat approaching 120 degrees, I'm sure it's much worse. What's worse is as they tried to get up they were pelted with water balloons.

It was a firing squad and it couldn't have happened to two better guys.