Dependants, base theaters, and Patton

Mark Conley

Active member
You are probably asking to yourself, "what do these three things have in common as funny?"....

Fact one. usually all military bases have a base theater of some sort. Us kids had to go somewhere , so the adults (say mother) had a quiet time to go to the BX and Comissary on saturday and sunday. Under a certain age, one adult had to be with you...(dad usually. dads at that time couldnt buy grocerys...so they said.)

Fact two. No matter what time of day the movie showed...at the beginning of all features the american flag was shown, and the star spangled banner played. Always. no exceptions.

Fact three...You (the movie goer) was expected to stand when you saw the flag, and you rendered the correct honors ( salutes for men in uniform, or hands across the heart for us dependants). they had people at that time whose job was to watch the audience, and make you comply with the honors directive.

So here we are..at the afternoon matenee Movie... "Patton". My father was with us kids...and we got in the theater late.

Soooooo...guess what happened when that large american flag appeared? he saw it...saw that the theater wasnt doing anything...and like the good sergeant he was...politely called the base theater to attention at the top of his lungs.

remarkably...everyone got to their feet quickly (he had that kind of effect on people)...and we stayed that way until George C Scott came walking up to give that famous monolouge

...which then everyone of us kids started laughing inside. but after a look at our father, we decided to stand as long as he did.

I guess the rest of the patrons felt the same way... cause they stayed up too...till "George" gave us the "at ease" and we all sat down again.

My dad swears to this day he'd never seen the film before we walked in that day ....:angel:
 
A loving story.... it's things like that that you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Also Patton was in my opinion one of the most badass SOBs ever to serve in my Army. Carried a single action, slung dead mexican bandits on the fenders of his car like deer, and pretty much was a pain in everyone's ass.....
 
Back
Top