Yo, Colonel, gimmie that number

I was holding a staff meeting this morning and I needed to make a call to bring someone else in on the meeting. I didn't have the number I needed handy, so it seemed like a good idea to call the division secretary -- only because I knew THAT number at least -- and ask if she would mind looking up the number for me real quick.

However, the division secretary did not answer the phone, the division Colonel did instead. So what was I supposed to do? Say get me that number and hurry it up already? To the Colonel? The man that could have me fired faster than Donald? I don't think so.

(For you non-military types, a Colonel is basically one step down from a General. I'm pretty sure Generals have redundant, fault-tolerant secretaries so that they never have to answer the phone.)

Instead I politely excused myself from the phone call with an apology for interrupting his day. One of my team members kindly volunteered to go ask the other person to join us.