Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Faces can be fired, spaces are hard to get ...
I remember the distinction between "spaces and faces" from when I attended the MANPRINT Staff Officers Course at Fort Belvoir in 1989. I was a contractor to the Army medical R&D guys at the time.

The acronymn stands for Manpower-Personnel Integration, an DCSPER initiative to make new Army systems more user-friendly. Doctrine-wise it consists of manpower, personnel, safety, training, health hazards, and human factors engineering. I had a 98 percent GPA and was the second or third-highest student there. Had I still worn the green suit I would have been awarded the alternate specialty of MANPRINT Staff Officer, one of the fuzzier ones.

The course was taught by two retired O-5s from MPRI, one Armor and one Field Artillery. The FA guy had been the S-3 and XO of my FA battalion when I was in Germany in '78-'81, so it was a nice reunion. Fred had been in 4th ID in Vietnam, Bronze Star with "V" and Purple Heart. Though he was a leg he was nobody's wimp.

My only regret about the course was the lovely Carly from Fort Rucker, a DA civil servant. We became very affectionate and I kick myself for not taking our friendship to a higher level. If you wait for that "struck by lightning" love feeling you may go to your grave waiting for it to happen.