During the 1970s, I served as an Infantry ossifer at Ft. Wainwright, AK. One night, when I had pulled Staff Duty Officer duty, I was making a routine tour of the barracks. In one barrack, the CQ (Charge of Quarters, the NCO in charge of the place when everyone else was gone) was staring at a filled goldfish bowl. He had an M2 artillery compass open on the desk.
"Evening Sergeant. What are you doing?"
"Earthquake watch, sir," he replied.
Well, this gave me no information at all, so I used a standard follow on. "Explain."
"Yes sir. If there is an earthquake, the water will slop over the rim of the bowl. I am to shoot the magnetic azimuth and call it in to the Duty Officer."
"Very well, Sergeant. Carry on."
I actually did make it out of the building before I cracked up.
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