A batman or orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. A batman's duties often include: acting as a "runner" to convey orders from the officer to subordinates maintaining the officer's uniform and personal equipment as a valet driving the officer's vehicle, sometimes under combat conditions acting as the officer's bodyguard in combat digging the officer's foxhole in combat, giving the officer time to direct his unit other miscellaneous tasks the officer does not have time or inclination to do The action of serving as a batman was referred to as "batting". In armies where officers typically came from the upper class, it was not unusual for a former batman to follow the officer into later civilian life as a domestic servant.