Tower Rat Song

As I've mentioned before, I was a Tower Rat in the Army. A Tower Rat is a Military Policeman that performs physical guard duty at a sensitive site - usually securing ordinance, intelligence or a launch site. In peace time, it's about the worst duty you can have because it was a "do nothing" job. To be fair, sometimes we'd mix it up by leaving our do nothing jobs at the site and go to the field and do nothing there. Instead of sitting around, being bored in a tower back at the site, we'd sit around and be bored (and immeasurably cold) in a foxhole - you see? Totally different!

Point of note: Doing nothing did not mean doing what you wanted. You actually were required to do nothing. You couldn't read or listen to a radio or converse with your buddies - you were there to look at the wire and little else. Mind numbing boredom. That's what really ticked us off, we signed up to be lawmen with white hats, not watchdogs with Kevlar helmets. Instead of being at a good-sized base, with plenty of ammenities (movies, restaurants, clubs), we were on a tiny depot surrounded by farmland, and very little else. (Yes, we all felt totally and completely screwed over - it wasn't just me!).

Anyway, take a listen to Ken Siftar's "Tower Rat Song". It's a nice country ditty recounting the experience of a typical Tower Rat. http://www.nsforestry.com/Tower_Rat2.mp3

Thanks to Ken and to the fine people at http://www.towerrat.com/ for keeping the memories alive.

SPC Refford

566 MP Company, SADFROG (Siegelsbach Army Depot, Federal Republic of Germany)