56 Mike

 "Call me LGK."

LGK had just been giving me a lengthy explanation of why the land behind a low hummock of piled up and overgrown trash and debris at the back of a lot belonged to him. 

He had invoked the Pilgrims, the Catholic church, payments of $800 million daily ("I know it seems like a lot") and his career in the military.

I had come down to tell whoever owned the tent that was pitched on the land that they had to move. There was an argument going on when I arrived, and about ten homeless people arguing or observing. 

One of them asked me what I needed, and I mentioned the tent. As we were talking the rest of the crowd moved off, except for LGK who started to talk about property and the law, and V, who spends a lot of time staring at the sun.

"You were in the military?" I asked him.

"I was in the Army, twenty-six years."

"What was your MOS, where were you?

"Ansbach, Darmstadt...56 Mike. I was with a Patriot unit."

I grew up in Darmstadt. I didn't know what 56 Mike was, but I knew what a Patriot was, and that made sense because Darmstadt was the big headquarters for air defense in Germany.

56M, or 56 Mike in military parlance, is the designator for the job of Religious Affairs Specialist or Chaplain's Assistant in the Army. The chaplain can be a controversial figure in the ranks; good ones can be a huge asset and boost in morale, bad ones quite the opposite. Chaplain's Assistants accompany the chaplain, serve as drivers and lay helpers, and maybe most importantly, can carry a gun and fight which the chaplain cannot.

I didn't know any of this at the time, so we spent a few minutes trading stories about Darmstadt. Places we'd both gone to, how nice Germany was. 

I had to get back to work, so we shook hands.

"Thank you for making me seem personable," he said.