Mandatory attendance inevitably means missing out on things that are important to you. But it is what it is. Nor for this man in the armed forces, though.

See how he used his resources to get to go to a wedding.

Refuse to let my dad go to his sister’s wedding? I hope you like tough questions

This is a story from my dad during the era of mandatory service in the Belgian army. I apologize if I get any details wrong but this is 2nd hand and an older one by now.

During his time in the army, my dad’s sister got married. The army was required to allow soldiers to go on leave for these kinds of events (except I assume during emergencies).

Another exception to this rule is about to arrive.

However, his commander apparently did not seem to care much for rules like that. During a military exercise, the commander expected my dad to be present and did not allow him to leave for his sister’s wedding.

My dad was pretty annoyed and so told my grandpa, who at the time was a politician. My grandpa was known to be a bit of a bulldog in politics in the way that he did not back down.

Grandpa was a politician, so had contacts, and said he’d handle it.

Turns out they came in handy.

Long story short, the commander suddenly received a politely worded letter on his desk from the Minister of Defense asking for the reason for the refusal.

According to my dad, the commander furiously called him into his office and stammered something along the lines of “I will let you go to the wedding. I don’t know how you pulled this off, but it will have consequences.”

My dad played dumb for the rest of his time in the army. His commander never did punish him, nor did he bother him again. The commander never ended up knowing how that letter ended up on his desk.

Here is what folks are saying.

That’s something, at least.

Maybe more like most of the time.

It was out of line, indeed.

I’m shocked he’s on a power trip! (Sarcasm)

I wonder what his colleagues said.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.