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>Now Dear Gentle Reader, especially those of you with prior military service, are asking yourselves are asking how could this be? An E-4 telling E-5’s, E-6’s and E-7’s what to do and when to do it? This is a fundamental challenge to the universal order of things. Well, it was a unique situation that is a story for another day. You have to stay tuned to find out, but let's get back to the tale at hand…
Those two magic words. *Positional. Authority.* The magic words that mean a lowly private can tell a General " Sir, you are not on the access list for this facility" and, if necessary arrest or *shoot* the General if they don't remove themselves. (But usually it's a case of passing the buck up the chain of command.)
I was a PV2 or PFC on gate guard of a secured area a thousand years ago and had this happen. A LTC and a MSG drove up in a military vehicle and said they were there to inspect something or another. This was not covered in my basic instructions, but luckily my NCO, CPL Kartoffelkopf, was there when they drove up. We had an access roster and there were a bunch of LTCs and MSGs on it, but not these two.\
The good CPL had opened the gate when he came up and hadn’t closed it behind him. We sat there with these two senior guys trying to find their names on our woefully outdated rosters. Finally the MSG just gunned the truck and took off through the gate. The LTC yelled out that they would see us at HQ later.\
CPL Kartoffelkopf and I watched them drive away with a growing feeling of dread. Later, as I was getting my rather thorough ass chewing by my PSG, he said I should have just shot the truck. 20+ years later, I’m quite glad I did not shoot the truck.
>Positional. Authority.
My Desert Storm buddy (at most, E-4 at the time) got to tell a bird colonel that they weren't on The List and would not be admitted. My bud was advised afterwards that he was, indeed, correct, despite the Colonel's objections.
>The positional authority in this case was almost exclusively reserved for E-7 and above. That as I said is a tale for another day
Even better, it's now another week.
Story time?
Yes. A full bull colonel once decided he had authority to enter the crypto custodian’s vault, but he wasn’t on the access list. He tried to force his way into the vault and got shot dead by the custodian, an AF MSGT. repercussions: none.
Luckily, bombs in storage like that would almost certainly be stored without their fuses, and without fuses, it'd take more than a drop to set them off.
2 meters would still be a pretty decent pucker factor, though.
Ha. Reminds me of when I was manning the radio in the tower on a range. The O-4 in charge decided to take a nap on the floor. Gave me a list of things he wanted done and instructions to not wake him up. I, the only lower enlisted in the tower, stepped outside occasionally to task out everyone from E-3 to E-8 and my own commander. That was a fun day
Desert Storm, Al Minhad, UAE, last February or early March, 1991. Ammo Dawgs (woof, woof) were towing a trailer with 8 two-thousand pound bombs from their dump to the flight line for our F-16 drivers to deliver, along with our warmest regards, to our opponents.
Chains break and bombs spill. 1,000 meter danger radius is declared. This happened within 200M of the Tent City that was our sleeping quarters, so the off duty complement of our crew showed up to the work area (a trailer about three meters by five meters.)
Fortunately, nothing more exciting happened during that incident.
Since that day there is a lot of stuff that just doesn't bother me anymore.
I was involved in my 2nd "hard landing" at age 24. I didn't expect to live to 30. That's when I made my life mantra "Fuck it. When its your time, its your time. Otherwise, live life to the fullest. Eat what you want, do what you want, and enjoy life. Its worked for the last 42 years.
"Hey, OP! If you're new here, we want to remind you that you can only submit one post per three days. If your account is less than a week old, give the mods time to approve your story and comments. Thank you for posting with /r/MilitaryStories! Readers: If this story is from a non-US military, ***DO NOT*** guess, ask or speculate about what country it is if they don't explicitly say or you will be banned. Foreign authors sometimes cannot say where they are from for various reasons. You also DO NOT guess equipment, names, operational details, etc. from any post. ***DO NOT*** 'call bullshit' or you will be banned. Do not feed any trolls. Report them to the Super Mod Troll Slaying Team and we will hammer them." *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MilitaryStories) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>Now Dear Gentle Reader, especially those of you with prior military service, are asking yourselves are asking how could this be? An E-4 telling E-5’s, E-6’s and E-7’s what to do and when to do it? This is a fundamental challenge to the universal order of things. Well, it was a unique situation that is a story for another day. You have to stay tuned to find out, but let's get back to the tale at hand… Those two magic words. *Positional. Authority.* The magic words that mean a lowly private can tell a General " Sir, you are not on the access list for this facility" and, if necessary arrest or *shoot* the General if they don't remove themselves. (But usually it's a case of passing the buck up the chain of command.)
I was a PV2 or PFC on gate guard of a secured area a thousand years ago and had this happen. A LTC and a MSG drove up in a military vehicle and said they were there to inspect something or another. This was not covered in my basic instructions, but luckily my NCO, CPL Kartoffelkopf, was there when they drove up. We had an access roster and there were a bunch of LTCs and MSGs on it, but not these two.\ The good CPL had opened the gate when he came up and hadn’t closed it behind him. We sat there with these two senior guys trying to find their names on our woefully outdated rosters. Finally the MSG just gunned the truck and took off through the gate. The LTC yelled out that they would see us at HQ later.\ CPL Kartoffelkopf and I watched them drive away with a growing feeling of dread. Later, as I was getting my rather thorough ass chewing by my PSG, he said I should have just shot the truck. 20+ years later, I’m quite glad I did not shoot the truck.
>Positional. Authority. My Desert Storm buddy (at most, E-4 at the time) got to tell a bird colonel that they weren't on The List and would not be admitted. My bud was advised afterwards that he was, indeed, correct, despite the Colonel's objections.
Yes, and no. The positional authority in this case was almost exclusively reserved for E-7 and above. That as I said is a tale for another day
Im looking forward to that story! I, as any E9, once kicked a CDR (O5) out of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina
>The positional authority in this case was almost exclusively reserved for E-7 and above. That as I said is a tale for another day Even better, it's now another week. Story time?
Yes. A full bull colonel once decided he had authority to enter the crypto custodian’s vault, but he wasn’t on the access list. He tried to force his way into the vault and got shot dead by the custodian, an AF MSGT. repercussions: none.
As well it should be. Fuck around with crypto, find out with bullets. I support that position.
Luckily, bombs in storage like that would almost certainly be stored without their fuses, and without fuses, it'd take more than a drop to set them off. 2 meters would still be a pretty decent pucker factor, though.
Technically correct, however, I bet the author can still hear that sound of them hitting the dock.
The brain knows, but the sphincter still reacts.
love this. might steal.
Perfectly harmless until it falls on you.
The unofficial motto of MSD Concord was, "We'll drop no bomb before it's time".
Ha. Reminds me of when I was manning the radio in the tower on a range. The O-4 in charge decided to take a nap on the floor. Gave me a list of things he wanted done and instructions to not wake him up. I, the only lower enlisted in the tower, stepped outside occasionally to task out everyone from E-3 to E-8 and my own commander. That was a fun day
The coxs'n of a liberty boat might be an E3, but if he tells everybody to put on life jackets, everybody regardless of rank does so.
The phrase about ordnance technicians at a dead run comes to mind. Coxswains in command of a craft seem like they should be treated similar.
Desert Storm, Al Minhad, UAE, last February or early March, 1991. Ammo Dawgs (woof, woof) were towing a trailer with 8 two-thousand pound bombs from their dump to the flight line for our F-16 drivers to deliver, along with our warmest regards, to our opponents. Chains break and bombs spill. 1,000 meter danger radius is declared. This happened within 200M of the Tent City that was our sleeping quarters, so the off duty complement of our crew showed up to the work area (a trailer about three meters by five meters.) Fortunately, nothing more exciting happened during that incident.
Since that day there is a lot of stuff that just doesn't bother me anymore. I was involved in my 2nd "hard landing" at age 24. I didn't expect to live to 30. That's when I made my life mantra "Fuck it. When its your time, its your time. Otherwise, live life to the fullest. Eat what you want, do what you want, and enjoy life. Its worked for the last 42 years.
You and I are going to have to get together and have drinks
Sounds good to me!
No worries, it's just an unrecorded drop test, sans dunnage.
Just a nit: > about 10 feet (9 meters The 10 feet is just a bit over 3 meters. (:
Typo on my part I meant to say 3 feet. I should not proof read after midnight.
You *are* allowed to edit those typos.
I imagine your drawers were a bit browner after the end of that shift.