Article September 29, 1973 Issue

The AWOL Lecture

GLENN FELCH

I was drafted into the Army while attending graduate school. The change from civilian status to military service was abrupt and not without immediate challenges.

One morning, during reveille, our recruit training senior drill sergeant began to lecture us emphatically on the subject of being AWOL—absent without leave. Not to be in one's appointed place of military duty was a serious offense, he said. Each soldier who chose to neglect his responsibility would reap the punitive results.

Of course, the words of warning were in reference to physical absence. But little did that sergeant realize how his morning's lecture struck me. It alerted me to an even more essential aspect of responsibility—that of being mentally present in a manner consistent with my understanding of the daily duties of a practicing Christian Scientist.

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