During the Korean War my first assignment at Ft. Dix, N.J. (16 weeks of heavy weapons) was guard duty, all alone at night. The officer of the day left me at the sewage plant and gave me instructions to let no one in unless they gave the password “Bald Eagle.”
It was an uneventful night until a jeep approached at the gate with a captain who I recognized as the officer of the day. Quickly, I let him through the open gate, and he yelled, “Soldier! What’s the password?!” Having completely forgotten the password gave me Kitchen Police (KP) duty all week.
Many months later doing guard duty at the 21st Evacuation Hospital in Pusan, Korea, I repeated the password all night to myself.