Stories of the Highway Patrol

THE PISTOL PACKER

by  Harry C. Wallace, CMSgt [Ret.]

While assigned to the 709^th MP Bn., In Frankfurt, Germany, during the Berlin Airlift of 1949, one evening I was called to a local establishment.  The complaint was about a soldier who was waving a gun around. Like any other hero of that era, I immediately entered, and discovered at the top of the stairway, much to my dismay, a soldier who was indeed waving a pistol.

As soon as he spotted me, he pointed the pistol in my direction. I was about to go for my hog leg (pistol) when the joker suddenly up and lit a cigarette with the pistol.  The pistol in reality was only a cigarette lighter.  The fool will never know how close he came to heaven, or hell that night.

I took him to MP Headquarters where he received a stern lecture for his thoughtless actions.  We all had a good laugh later but at the time I saw my life passing away very fast when he pointed what I thought was a real weapon at me.