Donald Sutherland as Oddball, a tank commander in the movie "Kelly's Heroes"
I got my last tanker nickname more than a decade after I
earned the nickname Sgt. Bambi Killer. I
got that nickname on a business trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2000. The company I worked for just bought a
company in Brazil and I was part of a team that went to Brazil to introduce
ourselves to the people who ran the business.
Sao Paulo has traffic that makes Los Angeles look like
Omaha, so the local managers sent a limo for the four of us. This meant we
could be more comfortable on the three-hour 20-mile trip from the airport to
downtown.
At the time I had a beard and still had a lot of brown
hair. Among the local staff people who
were waiting to meet us was my now long-time friend Ivan Porccino. Ivan speaks
five languages and was assigned as our interpreter. When we got in the car, Ivan introduced us to
the driver and said we would be in Sao Paulo for a few days. The driver said, “I
love America. I learn English watching American movies.”
So we talked about movies. The driver mentioned he loved “Kelly’sHeroes.” Bob Lee (Robert E. Lee, no kidding, but he went by Bob) our CEO said, “Neil
was a tank commander back the 80s.” The driver turned, looked at me again and
said, “Oddball! You are Oddball!” And so I was. For the rest of the trip and
the rest of the time I worked for that company, I was Oddball, especially to
Bob Lee.
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