Over on MeWe, Mike Williamson posted this image:
It's a quote from the character Billy Sunday, played by Robert de Niro in the 2000 movie "Men of Honor".
It made me laugh, because when I did a South African officer's course in the mid-1970's, there was a textbook titled "An Officer And A Gentleman". It was heavily influenced by British colonial military customs, such as which knife and fork to use for what course in a meal, etiquette in the officers mess, and so on.
I never forgot the bit dealing with over-indulgence in alcohol. It said, very simply, in exactly these words:
An officer is never drunk. He is only pleasantly tired.
Yeah, riiiiiiight!!! I seem to recall an awful lot of "pleasantly tired" officers from time to time . . .
Peter
In the early 20th century, some regiments poster to the Hill Stations in the British Raj had printed "apology cards" for the officers' mess. It had blanks for the names of the offender and the offendee, and then a series of offenses with a little dash out beside them that the offender could tic off as needed to cover their behaviour when "pleasantly tired."
ReplyDeleteThe version of this I ran into in the US Navy was, “A chief is never late; just unavoidably detained.” Said the chief who was late to the event he scheduled, in reply to one of the enlisted yelling out, “Yer late, chief!”
ReplyDeleteFrom the Officers' Training Manual at West Point, late 1800's: "Enlisted men are stupid, but cunning and bear constant watching..."
ReplyDeleteIt is because of training such as this that most officers don't have keys to the clue locker...
IIRC, that quote was on a plaque at the entrance to the Intelligence Operations Information Center on the USS Constellation CV-64.
DeleteI grew up on Naval Bases, where security was kept by young Marines. More than once I saw the T-shirt - "I Might Get So Drunk I Have to Crawl Home, but By God, I'll Crawl Like a Marine!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.ironhorsehelmets.com/i-might-get-so-drunk-i-have-to-crawl-home-but-by-god-ill-crawl-like-a-marine-w-usmc-symbol-t-shirt/
Or, "I never thought he drank until I saw him sober one day".
ReplyDeleteThe "polite" term in my regiment was "well refreshed". The less polite term was "As drunk as a monkey" and other similes. Ahem!
Phil B
Snerk... pleasantly tired... sure, sure...
ReplyDelete"He is not drunk who, from the floor,
ReplyDeleteCan rise again and drink some more"
An Irishman is not truly drunk if he can still hold on to a single blade of grass and not fall off the world.
DeleteAt the wake of my uncle, a box of photos and items from his days in the Korean War was brought out. It included a ration card for two drinks. Two. Drinks. Really?
ReplyDeleteThe US Navy has (or at least used to have, times change) a method whereby an enlisted sailor could be promoted to the Officer ranks. This was known as becoming a Mustang, and the process was known as Knife & Fork School.
ReplyDeleteAnon@1054:
DeleteA shipmate entered the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program, getting him off the ship while the rest of us slaved away. Good guy; I missed him. Years later, I happened upon a newspaper mini-story. He was a Commander (good for you, Harry!) stationed at the Pentagon when a disgruntled co-worker opened fire, wounding him and killing an adjacent cubicle-dweller. Jeez. I guess being an O ain't all skittles 'n beer.