After reading the story of the Group CO's 'feud', I was reminded of a prank the Lieutenants played on the MAG-16 CO (Col. Fulton, I think) as well as all of the Squadron CO's (Col. Brady included).

It was shortly after the MAG CO and all the Squadron CO's got new jeeps that a bunch of Purple Fox Lieutenants were wending their way back from the Officers Club one night when they spotted the jeeps parked along the fence by the 'Heavie's Hootches'.  Each jeep sported a brand new spare tire cover with the Squadron/MAG patch and CO's name.  If you will recall, jeeps didn't have ignition keys, but, for securing the jeep, there was a length of chain welded to the dashboard which was locked to the gearshift with a padlock.

The Lieutenants thought it would be a neat idea to switch all the spare tire covers around since none of the CO's had committed the serial number of their jeep to memory, they just looked for the one with their tire cover. The tire covers of all the Squadron CO's as well as the Group CO & XO were soon switched and the culprits disappeared into the night.

The next morning, Col. Brady arrived at the Squadron and announced "to whom it may concern..." that it had taken everyone quite a while to sort out what tire cover belonged to what jeep. The incident was compounded by the fact that the Group CO's meeting was scheduled for that morning and everyone was about 45 minutes late for the meeting. Col. Brady concluded by saying that it had been a good joke, but that prudence dictated that it wouldn't be appreciated if it happened again.

Submitted by:
    Larry W. "Slick" Britton, LtCol. USMC(Ret)