Marines conduct chainsaw training aboard Camp Lejeune

I once commanded a Marine Wing Support Group unit responsible for providing engineering and motor transport for the two MAGs at New River. When I took command I had two flatbed trailers that were unserviceable because the wooden beds were rotted. The request for depot level maintenance had been submitted long before my arrival and we could not even get an estimate on when the repairs would be made.
I gathered my people together and asked for alternatives to the prescribed procedure of waiting for another unit to make the repairs. I found out I had people who had worked at depot who were capable of doing the repairs, but we were not authorized to buy the materials (oak planking). then one of my engineering NCOs mentioned we had a saw mill on our table of equipment that had not been used since the Korean War, and my engineers would gain skills they had never been exposed to if we broke it out of storage.
I then called the base forester and he volunteered that he had many oak trees that he would be happy for us to harvest.
We organized a detail to harvest the trees, brought them back and cured the lumber, then made the repairs to the trailers which had been waiting for over two years for repairs.
Everyone in the unit was proud that the various sections within the unit had come together to increase our readiness by using assets that they had never trained in before.
Then the base newspaper decided it was newsworthy and published an article describing the effort. The commanding officer of the unit who was supposed to do the repairs was chastened by the fact that we had gone outside of normal procedures and done his job. His reaction was to have his CG submit a complaint to my CG about ignoring procedures, using my training dollars for the effort and several other sundry charges.
Fortunately, my Commanding General and Group Commander responded with words to the effect that the responsible unit was not providing timely support and my people gained skills that might someday be necessary if we were deployed, that our unit readiness had been enhanced, and the charges were baseless.

Logging is no joke. A lot more than starting a chainsaw. Seen a few close calls with a "widow maker".

At the age of 19 I OJTed on this with Davidson Logging in the Black Hills outside Custer, South Dakota. Nearly cut the big toe off my left foot one day, still have the scar. Then I decided I needed to see the world, and joined the army.