Master Sergeant Benwah was a thirty-year Army veteran now assigned
to a training battalion and tough as nails.

He seemed to have no thought
whatsoever about how others responded to his cut-and-dried military
manner.

One day he assembled the training battalion and announced, "Private
Strader, take one step forward."

Private Strader took one step
forward, and the sergeant bellowed, "Private Strader. Report to the
chaplain; your mother just died."

Strader just crumbled and fainted
dead
away from shock.

Later that day, the battalion commander chewed out the master
sergeant: "You're going to have to learn something about TACT. You just can't
yell
at a man and tell him his mother just died. The next time you're
called
on for this duty, you'd better do it in a more compassionate way."

It just so happened that the very next day, another soldier's mother
died,
and the MSGT assembled the troops again.

"All you whose mother is
living" he shouted, "take one step forward. NOT SO FAST, TAYLOR!"