The duty officer reported to his CO: Sir nothing significant has happened during my duty hours - only the dog died.
The CO asked: How did the dog die?
The duty officer: Ate too much of mule meat sir.
The CO: Mule meat ? Where did that come from?
The duty officer: Sir actually we had to shoot one of our mules.
The CO: Why?
The duty officer: You see sir, he was in terrible pain due to over exhaustion caused by overload.
The CO: How over load ?
The duty officer: We had to carry water in barrels from the river and this mule got overworked.
The CO: Water ? Why ?
The duty officer: Sir because we had a fire in the Quarter Guard... everything is turned to ashes.
The CO: Goddamn it... this is what you should have begun your report with.
The duty officer: Well actually when I reported to 2IC, I did that, but he fainted on the spot....