I Used to do That for a Living; Landing and Leaving 108 Jobs Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 | Page 28

Roger Scott Jackson

ever going to be a soldier, a vocation for which
(apart from fighting, which came naturally to
him) he was unfit. He hated it. And he was not
at liberty to quit. The single worst place for a guy
who can’t abide being bossed is the army. And
the worst job in the army is that of private. Jack
was a PFC ‘til the day he was discharged. Everyone at or above the rank of corporal was his boss.
They could cuss him to his face and he had to
take it. And though he earned the Bronze Star
and a Presidential Unit Citation as a bazookaman at the horrific Battle of Jebsheim in January, 1945, the only decoration he was proud of
was his Combat Infantryman’s Badge, because it
was awarded only to foot soldiers who had been
shot at, regardless of rank. Pictures of Jack from
1943 and 1946 look like two different people, the
latter appearing old enough to be the former’s
father.
My theory is that once Jack whipped Hitler,
and got back to being a civilian, he could not wait
to exercise his right to quit, so he did— right and
left and all over the place. He also refused to take
direction from more than one boss. If his immediate supervisor was, say, the foreman, and the
president of the company told him to do something, he would say, “I’ve only got the one boss.
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