October 2, 1941 Fort Stotsenberg, Luzon
“Maggots are smarter than you. They stay on the ground no matter what. Private Illababaru you are an idiot, I am surprised that your mother ever trusted you with a spoon. You thought. Privates do not think. Sergeants think and officers order. When you are allowed to think, you will be issued a brain and rockers. Do I make myself clear, private”
The young man tried not to swallow hard as he looked at the bantam-weight sergeant in front of him. His company sergeant had seen him left his hips off the ground when the entire company was supposed to be taking cover during an artillery barrage. It had been several weeks since he had to hold the dead cockroach position from his last screw up but Sergeant Ibling saw everything.
“Sergeant, perfectly clear”
“Go run to the barracks and back, one hundred push-ups at the barracks and one hundred more when you get back”
As the private started his jog to the barracks, he did not see his sergeant’s lips curl slightly in what may have been a penumbra of a smile. The company was coming along better than most of the other company of the 11th Infantry Regiment of the Philippine Army Reserve. Each battalion had a platoon of long service Scouts. The non-commissioned officers of the platoon were scattered and over-promoted. Under normal circumstances, Sergeant Ibling would have been receiving his first squad command if he was on a fast track, more often he would be an assistant squad leader. Now he had been promoted twice and made the first sergeant of an infantry company with a fresh from training lieutenant as the company commander and full of recently recalled reservists.
At least they had time. The first reservists had arrived in early August and the last by September first so the past month had been productive. Later on in the week, they would be going to the rifle range for the first time and the reservists would show what they had learned and what they had forgotten since 1939.