There’s a weird sort of game people play in the Army; I don’t know if it is in all the services or even in all the jobs within the Army– a sort of quiz where you basically ask “how would YOU do MY job”? An Infantryman might ask a Finance Clerk how he’d assault through an objective under enemy fire; in this case a Combat Engineer asks how someone would handle a mine field. Of course, it gets turned around, too– someone in a technical or administrative job might ask a combat arms soldier how they’d handle a particular problem.

Perhaps it’s funny to see how an unfamiliar person would try to adapt to something you know well, or see your daily routine through someone else’s eyes. By “funny” I don’t mean laughing at the person for making mistakes; more like it is amusing to realize how your job is perceived through the lens of unfamiliarity and (probably) misinformed stereotypes. It seems like people are always learning new things about their fellow soldiers through these little challenge-quiz moments. Of course, it might just be me, and no one else has these moments, and I am totally misreading things happening around me (happens more often than I’d like to admit).

Anyhow, so if a civilian can have a tiny “purse dog”, then someone in the Army can have… an “ammo pouch dog”? It’s funny to see how many people have tiny little dogs that they take with them everywhere. I’ve seen them on planes. busses, everywhere. It’s not every day, of course, but just often enough. Why not downrange, I guess. I think twice I’ve seen people bring their dogs to Drill Weekend, which I am officially jealous of. In this case, Fleur makes the mistake in assuming that any dog, even a household pet, knows how to sniff out things like explosives or whatever. My dogs, however, can sniff out their food bowls and the most comfy spots on the couch, and that’s about it.