Army Pmcs Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

I’ll let you be the judge. I was a 19E20 (M60 tanker) before attending OCS in the late fall of 1984. After commissioning I was sent to Fort Knox as an Armor officer (after asking for five other branches, I might add) and was lucky enough to have our class selected as a Cavalry course, which enabled me to be sent to a Cav unit upon graduation.My Dad and two brothers, all prior service, advised me to not mention I was prior enlisted until it was found out in the course of time.VERY good advice, I might add. Let your actions set your reputation rather than any prejudice based upon what you say, either positive or negative. This is true for any unit or organization you join. Keep your mouth shut and let them judge you on what you do rather than what you say.In my case it came up because my Platoon Sergeant guessed, but only after my first inspection of the tank platoon to which I was first assigned.It started out as a normal BII layout. In this instance the tank crew lay out all their tools and equipment in front of their tanks ready for inspection. Being normal crews, I knew that any shortages were made up by ‘borrowing’ missing gear and displaying it for that inspection and then returning it to the other platoons. It was a wool-pulling exercise that tripped up many a butter bar who signed ‘full’ hand receipts for their tanks only to find out that half of the tools they saw that day were actually gone and needed to be paid for by someone - usually the one who’s name was on the bottom of the hand receipt.Welcome to the Army, lieutenant.But I was prepared. For each tank I had assigned a pre-printed sub-hand receipt for each intact display (thereby forcing those NCOs to come up with the shortages). I also conducted as part of the layout a full internal inspection of all the vehicles, opening up every hidey-hole I knew where the average tanker kept food, drinks, Playboy magazines, etc. These all came flying out of the loader or TC’s hatch of each tank I entered. No tank was spared, even my own and I spoke to my gunner about it at full volume from inside the turret as he watched from outside.I finished with a stern talk with all of my NCOs about the status and maintenance of the tanks, their inadequate PMCS checklists, poor standards of police of the line, lack of initiative in getting support from the motor sergeant for clearly deadlined equipment (radios, suspension, etc.).When I was done their eyes were as big as baseballs. All except my Platoon Sergeant whose were narrowed and suspicious. Back at the platoon office later in the day, he quietly closed the door and asked the following, guardedly.“Sir, where in the hell did you learn to do that?”I played innocent.“The Armor School gave us instruction on maintenance procedures. Those NCOs were very good.” This was actually true, so it wasn’t too much of a pose.He wasn’t fooled.“No sir. Where did you learn to inspect like that?”He had me.“Officer Candidate School” I admitted.He persisted.“And your former MOS and rank?”“Nineteen Echo - Sergeant”After a short burst of profanity he actually began to laugh at both the situation and his initial reaction to his new lieutenant. We actually started a very strong relationship from that moment onward.My family’s advice was excellent. My reputation was cemented from that first inspection more than anything I might have said beforehand, and any mistake I made afterwards (and I had some doozies - just like every other butter bar) was always treated differently because of it. Not excused, per se, but I got much less ribbing than my brother officers who came to the unit at the same time or later who immediately pontificated about their commissioning source and (non-existent) ‘experience’ at same.