The Common Sense of a DAT

What happened to good ol' fashioned common sense? Is it not fashionable to have common sense these days? I mean, none of the fuckwits in hollywood ever use any common sense, so it must be trendy to walk around all day like a complete ninny. Partake in my example, shall we?

This time of year, it's starting to get dark fairly early. I think over here it's completely dark right around 2030 hours (That's 8:30 PM if you're not good at math). When I come out of my nightly shift change brief, it's completely dark and vehicles have to drive on the roads with their lights on.....or so I thought.

Common sense tells you to drive even a small car with headlights on in the dark so you don't get into an accident or run over someone. Well that common sense must not extend to tankers. Last night I came out of my meeting and walked out into the street to hear the enourmous, 12 ton M1A2 Abrams tank rolling right at me. I didn't know it was coming because it wasn't using any lights. Oh wait, the rear lights were on....sorry.

Is it me? I mean, a tank rolling down a dark road with no lights on? A road that is very busy all day with other vehicles and soldiers no less. If we were to perform Preventive Maintenance, Checks and Services (PMCS) on our vechicles and we found the headlights; not both, but one headlight, not to be working then that vehicle would be considered deadlined and wouldn't be allowed to leave the motorpool.

This tank must have had both headlights blown out in some grand firefight. Oh wait! I know! They were testing out their new night vision goggles. That's great. Let's do that on the busiest road of the FOB.

Now I know why they call 'em DATs (Dumb Ass Tankers).