A Blow Below the Belt

An army unit is being trained for cases of medics' intervention in combat. One of the "wounded" soldiers is loaded onto the back of a large ambulance that leaves for the barracks. The soldier remembers told words that co-operation among those involved in the action was the main prerequisite for success. He recalls all the different situations in which he met the medical orderly in charge of the ambulance, and how the man looked on with complete indifference, without doing the slightest thing to help, as other soldiers tried hard to fulfil their tasks. Therefore, when the ambulance is trapped in the mud, the soldier takes a seat some distance away from the scene; unconcerned, he then watches the medic help himself out of the problem with a shovel. After a while, the ambulance continues on its journey and reaches an overturned civilian truck on the side of the road. The truck has been loaded with scores of wicker baskets full of live poultry that are now scattered all around the highway and the surrounding fields. Without thinking twice, both the medic and the soldier set to catching chickens and again they talk about the importance of co-operation.