I was a South African Engineer Corps logistics officer at the South African Army Headquarters in Pretoria in 1984.
During that time, a part-time citizen force engineer corps troop was assigned a three-week survey project in a remote part of the country. They were responsible for doing their own logistics planning for their deployment in the field.
During a debriefing after completion of their assignment, I asked them how things went on the logistics side.
The troop commander reported that things went extremely well, except they’ve made a mistake when they ordered paper serviettes. They calculated that they would require 1000 individual paper serviettes for the three weeks. What they did not consider, was that the denomination of quantity (doq) for paper serviettes was 100 serviettes per box. So, instead of ordering 10 boxes of paper serviettes, they placed an order for 1000, and subsequently received 1000 boxes of paper serviettes!
The troop commander also said that there was bad news and there was good news.
The bad news was that they forgot to order toilet paper, and that they did not have any for the three weeks.
The good news, however, was that they had an abundance of paper serviettes!
(Written by: Johan du Preez)
Note: The above illustration is for visual reference only. It does not depict the actual events or individuals described in the story.