Command Presence

Since I seldom got a pass my experience in any of the off-base locations was limited. Only one was memorable and I didn’t realize its importance at the time.

On one of the corps weekends we were told there was a dance hall that had a great band playing. It turned out to be country-western style but in Oklahoma that is about all there was available. The featured attraction was a man named Hank Williams. I’m not enough of a western music buff to know if he was that well known in 1952 but he certainly was later.

Passing inspection did not get you through OCS, although it did have some bearing. The academic part was the most important requirement but “command presence” seemed to be of particular importance.

Command presence is the ability to give an order with authority in order to have it obeyed promptly and without question. At OCS the best way to demonstrate the quality was in parade marching, close order drill or in directing calisthenics.

I was blessed with a loud voice and that served me well in the command presence department. Our battery, after several weeks of training in close order drill, had not won the battalion flag for excellence in the weekly post parade. Our battery commander, Captain Brazier (we called him, behind his back, naturally, Captain Fatback, because he looked a lot like Porky Pig) was determined to get that flag.

Our problem, he decided, was that the candidate commander could not be heard all the way to the back of the unit when we were passing the reviewing stand. That resulted in a lack of uniformity when the command, “Eyes Right!” was given as we passed the “brass.”

Up to this time, candidate parade commanders were chosen on the basis of their “spit and polish” ability. Obviously this method had not produced the desired results so Capt. Brazier conducted a contest to determine the loudest voice in the battery and that was an area where I excelled. The good captain winced at my selection, since he was very well aware of my inspection record, but he was desperate.

We practiced hard and that Saturday Charlie Battery (our unit) won the coveted banner and we were allowed to carry it throughout the week. Capt. Brazier quickly replaced me as candidate commander so my successor got the honor of receiving the flag from the commanding general the following Monday. Fellow battery members urged me to step up and receive it since I had been at the helm when we won the banner but I declined. I decided it was not wise to bring attention to myself, given my track record.

On the other side of the coin, a lack of command presence might have destroyed a candidate at one of our morning physical exercise sessions. We took turns each day leading drills, giving us not only the workout value, but training us in voice commands. One of our members dreaded the day he would be picked to lead the drills because he was quite shy and his command presence was utterly lacking.

His nervousness showed as he prepared to give us the command, “Hands on hips, move!”

Instead, it came out, “Hips on shoulders, move!” Let’s hope his other skills in school pulled him through.