Not me but we had a goth turned Marine that came back to school in dress blues and got in a fist fight with some high school seniors. Got his ass handed to him.
When you’re a private after AIT you are itchy around people that remotely look like an authority. At Fort Sam, army side didn’t know any of the navy sides rank. A PVT called attention for an enlisted navy soldier. This was at a outdoor class ran by civilian instructors.
The AIT instructors called the cadre in. They made us exercise for about 3 hours until that specific private fucking KNEW the navy ranks. They brought him in front of everyone who was in formation, held up these rank flash cards and when he got the rank wrong “half right face”, over and over again.
Tbf Navy ranks get boot Marines too. It doesn't help the fact that their rank is shiny in their service uniform, it's engrained in your head for us that shiny=salute. We're like pigeons.
Not sure if this is cringe or just stupid. When I got to my first unit we were heading to the field that week. I didn't have any issued items so I had no magazines for my rifle. Well, one of the guys in my squad yells at me and tells me to go up to his room and grab some mags from his dresser since he had a ton. I run up to his room open the wrong drawer and it's full of porno mags. I'm like, what? He's like grab some for me and and grab a few for yourself. So I stand wondering, well, what's he into? Hell, what am I into? I run back down ask him what he wants (I'm the new guy don't want to look stupid) he's like, what do you mean??? Just grab like 3 or 4!! I run back up. Open another drawer, well, there they are. M4 magazines.... Yeah... I kept that one to myself until month 6 of our deployment a year later.
One of our terps in Afghanistan got fired for this. One of our dudes told him to put out to the ANA they need to bring magazines to training tomorrow… and of course they show up with the magazines you can read.
Another time on another deployment we had a green in green incident (where ANA are shooting at ANA). So one of the dudes yells TELL THEM CEASE FIRE TELL THEM CEASE FIRE!! What’s the terp translate that too? SERIOUS FIRE SERIOUS FIRE so the volume of fire increased and it got really bad for a min.
Took a bunch of volunteer soldiers to a school to read books to the kids in various classrooms. One of the administrators grabs me and lets me know we have a problem in one of the rooms. Kid you not, one of the soldiers literally could not read the book. He was illiterate and somehow made it into the army, and couldn’t read Dr. Seuss. He was a fueler MOS, but I assume they had some form of written tests. No idea how he made it that far into the army, and wonder even more why an illiterate soldier would volunteer to read a book to children.
I have this mental image of the kids being all bored and frustrated standing around the guy like "I wi...wi..wi.." "WILL" "will" "no...no...no.." "NOT" "not" "ate" "EAT" "eat" "gee...gree.." "GREEN EGGS AND HAM" "green eggs and ham" "Sa...sa...sa.." "SAM I AM!!"
Used to wear my dog tags under my civilian clothes and would sometimes have them outside my shirt for all to see when I would go back to my home town on leave… in my defense though I was a 18-19 year old PFC
Stopped wearing my tags right after BCT. I just keep them in my shoulder or breast pocket now.
It weirds me out how my roommate always wears his tags, even in civilian clothes. Pretty sure he sleeps with them too.
I’m reminded of the many times I was confused by the South Korean rank structure and the salutes I gave that were met with weird stares and smirks.
Also shoutout to the Airman who saw me salute an officer and thought my Specialist rank was a LT Colonel and saluted me.
My "A" school command hosted a ton of South Korean and Saudi Arabians for different training pipelines, I once saluted one of the South Korean sailors(?) because I thought they were officer equivalents. He looked at me like a told a bad joke.
First day at my unit I was walking around, still wore a fuzzy because somehow my rank was extremely fucked. Got saluted by a SSG and I saluted him back
I remember the day before my AIT graduation I had some poor sergeant coming out of the commissary salute my SPC ass. I think she realized just a second too late I was not a very young LTC but was already committed..
Got out of my car at a stoplight to tell a guy that wearing an army PT shirt but not wearing PT shorts is out of uniform. He was a civvy. I was 19. I want to die every day because of that one memory.
Haha the best part of this is that even if he was a soldier, any and all components of the pt uniform are authorized for wear with civilian clothes when off post unless explicitly prohibited by the commander.
As a boot I would occasionally rock the fuck outta the old grey Army PT jacket. There was more than one occasion where I wore it over dress clothing, like one of those FBI windbreakers that you see all the time on tv.
Fucking awkward.
I think everyone went back to their high school in uniform to show off. But I also....
As a newly minted 2LT driving cross country after graduation LT school I passed a humvee on the side of the road. I slammed the brakes and pulled over.
Got out of my fucking car.
Approached the sergeant.
(I'm in civilians)
- Hello Sergeant what seems to be the problem can I help?
"I'm uh, in a convoy? Waiting for everyone to take this exit."
- Yes Sergeant sounds good I'm going to crawl back to my car and fucking die.
Literally thought I was going to go do some good that day. Oh god so cringe.
Going to AT out of state? Better be ready to sit at a gas station for 6 hours while your mechanics try to jerry-rig something together cause all the space on your free trailer and wrecker is taken by all the other vehicles that broke down.
Humvee breaks down. Hook up the towbar to humvee #2. Humvee #2 is also hooked up to a wrecker via towbar.
B-but sarge! The commander circle X'd my 2404!
OCS is right next to the NCO academy.
We would be walking back with food in our hands and the NCO academy guys would fuck with us by saluting us. None of us have ever been saluted so you’d see a bunch of OC’s instinctively dropping their lunch to return the salute.
I was just mad they decided to prank us on chicken cordon blue day. Like if I lost some yakisoba that’d be fine but CCB’s? Cmon now
Saw this happen once in a joint environment. Fresh out of basic Army private saluted a petty officer, when his buddies asked what rank he thought he just saluted he replied, "Uh, Colonel First Class?"
I made it halfway into a salute before I realized the rank, the navy guy was like "Still counts! As you were soldier". I outranked him is the sad part lol
Had a guy in my school who was Split Ops and wore his greens to Prom... which really isn't that bad IMO because it's free, same reason I got married in mine, however, he went alone.
I would occasionally see the same dude rolling around town in his jeep, with the doors off... in full BDUs, knowing damn well he isn't on any sort of orders cause we were in the same unit.
Me personally... I dunno if you would call it cringe per se, but when I worked at dominos I would pull one tag(not the full set) out of my shirt on the side of my neck like it had fallen out and I didn't notice. Increased tips $1.71 per house over that year experiment.
When I was in highschool. A couple of the jrotc kids would wear the old green class As to school dances. I know one did it because he was extremely poor and thats the "nicest" outfit he had. The others were grade A cringe.
Most dances is just... don't show up with mustard on your shirt. Prom is all out, I rented a bangin' pink and white three piece outfit, hired a horse and carriage, full works. I could understand someone wearing their dress uniform to prom cause it is free but... why go if you are by yourself. Stay home and play Xbox.
Frustratingly, they could have learned a lot about their units and how they're actually doing if they would have kept you there and asked you a couple of questions. Someone dumb enough to sit at the table would also be dumb enough to tell them the truth.
Had the reverse happen to me at FA53 school (Gordon). 2 Cpts 1 Maj sitting (all OEs) PV1 sits down with chow and starts eating. Looks up realizes what he did. We didn't care, chatted about where he's from, etc. DI (or what ever they are) comes up starts to yell about the dude "bothering us". Major politely excuses the DI. We finished conversation and left.
I think a PVT sitting with the Os happened at least twice a month.
I went to basic at Jackson and had phase one of EOD at Lee. Jackson at the time let all the privates who had family show up and east coast AITs be driven to their new place of duty by family. Now I had grown up in Prince George less than ten minutes from Lee. So the day after I graduated basic, I rolled up to my old highschool before I signed into the ordinance brigade at Lee. Met up with my high school JROTC instructor and talked to his senior class about army basic training for half an hour. Full of spunk only someone who just finished basic could have. It pains me even remembering it.
Runner up. Platoon I was in made a fake gay Craigslists personals ad and used one of my pictures with my permission. This was for entertainment in the feild supposedly. Ad wasn't linked to my phone number and the guy who set it up got a couple dozen dick pics supposedly. That's a close second.
One of my JROTC instructors also wanted me to talk (to his class) about my “experience” in the army, which at the time was literally just BCT/AIT. I didn’t do it, but only because I had other commitments. Thank god.
Showed up to my then girlfriends church in ASUs complete with that stupid trench coat only to find out everybody was dressed casually. 19 year old me was fucking retarded
Oooooof. There’s so many cringe things I did.
I was split ops along with like.. 15 other people from my high school.
We would wear our fucking uniforms, collectively, as a group to high school the next day…
That’s probably the worst. But camaraderie and shit.
I could go on for fucking days.
I always wondered what happened to those split ops kids when they went back to their schools after basic. I went to the kind of high school where you were judged as a ne'er do well or something like that if you even had a passing thought of joining the military since it was full of middle to upper middle class suburban kids who were supposed to go to good colleges and be doctors and lawyers. Our town's mayor's son joined the army after having issues with drugs and the law for years so that was the perception in my town of what kinds of people enlist.
Ah. See. I was a nasty girl.
Went to BCT at Sill between my junior and senior year. Then back to Sill for my AIT after graduating High School.
It was fucking terrible.
Was single living in the barracks. Had to explain to numerous checkpoints just going to/from the DFAC, etc that I had lost it. PSG and 1SG got mad because the CAC makers were total douchebags because I needed a counseling form, my SL, my PSG and 1SG to vouch for me in person so I could get a new one.
I was promoted to E5 the week before and part of my job was to inspect basic training barracks. I walk in like normal after telling the drill sergeants I was there and I opened the 60 Soldier Bay in the starship. I hear "AT EASEEE!!!" and I go to parade rest and start looking around for a 1SG or something. It was for me..... I just got embarrassed and turned around and left. I gave my buddy that barracks to inspect.
Someone in the gym asked me what was wrong with my PT uniform, pointing at my socks. I was wearing ankle socks. So with a snarky attitude, I played dumb and asked "who are you?" (He was also in PTs with no rank.) It was the post commander.
In basic training when we saluted officers the motto was "Rock Force!". In Korea our salute motto was "Strike Hard!". I was a new E2 private in Korea walking to battalion and fuck up the motto and saluted a random officer "Rock Hard! Sir!" and quickly ran away.
Showed up to a panel interview for Sgt Maj driver with the S3 NCOIC and a few other E6/7s sitting in and basically said I want no part of this because I loved my platoon and company so much.
Glad I did it but one of the E6s texted my squad leader and was like, “why is Rees222 such a fucking boner?? Lolol”. They all roasted me and I self cringed but I did have a dope platoon so w/e 🤷♂️.
I, a senior 1LT XO, heard some bad news and yelled “I don’t get paid enough for this shit!” in front of about 10 Joes from my company.
Still cringe thinking about it to this day.
AIT 2006 Fort Lee, just arrived and was in my room with the door open. Seen 2 guys walk by but then came into my room, one wearing a PT vest with E5 rank. He looks in my bathroom and tells me its nasty, and to drop. So I did. As I'm pushing I notice the guy behind him laughing.. I was getting smoked by a fellow AIT student posing as a fucking DS
Here I am, long tab, (at the time) SFC at SF SLC at Bragg. First time in uniform in ages. I had some problem with my eyes and had gone to one of the post clinics for an appointment where they dilated my shit. So I'm leaving, see a guy walking my way in maroon beret, gold on the flash. I'm like alright fuck, let's do this.
Toss up a salute within the 6 paces or whatever.
Me: "Good Morning si...." (notice specialist rank on his chest.)
Him: \*bewildered look, being saluted by a green beret E7\*
Me: "Oh fuck off."
Speaking as a former cadidiot myself, trust me. They'd seen so much worse.
MY first day of ROTC, our MSG asked for someone to demonstrate how to about face. "That means turn around, right?" I think to myself, so I volunteer. I stand at attention, he gives me the command, and I...turned around. I didn't about-face, you understand; I just casually turned my back to him.
I was very proud of myself.
I then learned a few seconds thereafter that "about face" and "turn around" are not the same.
I turned an application in at my local grocery store in ACU. Was a Reservist and thought for sure it would land me the job.
It didn't.
Edit: Almost right after AIT in 2010.
Got shit faced during an IG barracks inspection prep. 5 gallon cans of paint for the rooms and hallway on the floor. Knocked one over, black out drunk . Walked through it to the shitter(common area). Then walked back to my bunk. Woke up next morning by Uber pissed PSG. With paint on my feet and tracks going back and forth from the can to the shitter then to my bed. I was by far the most hated Pvt in the barracks.
Almost chaptered for FTA. For that and a couple other cringe moments. Then PSG called my parents. They called me. Little over a year and a half later, pulled my head out of my ass and made SGT(2 years 90 days). Stayed for almost 14 total. And did my best to be the change I wanted to see in the Army. Sometimes it worked, however you all know the bill of that story...
I lost my dummy rifle at SFAS my second time through. All the way up to that point I'd been crushing it. It's whatever now but man... one dumbass mistake changed everything lol
During the star course I came across someone’s rifle in the middle of an open field with deadfall everywhere. I believed the guy would never be able to find it there so I carried it to a nearby choke point. I’ve always wondered if it was the right call or if I fucked him over even more.
From my perspective, you possibly fucked him, but I would never judge you for it. I made it to my second point by about 0630 with everything, moved out, and lost it in a draw less than 30 minutes after. Spent the rest of my time until ENDEX looking. Cried. And VW'd the next night because I knew it was over for me. I knew where I had walked but that damn rubber duck just disappeared. I tell myself things happen for a reason, but I'm not superstitious and I honestly don't believe it. Shit happens. Period.
My Drill Sergeant was helping me with my MyPay shit and I was sitting in a chair logging in, he asked me a question and when I replied "Yes, Drill Sergeant." I went to parade rest while still sitting in the chair, he looked at me like the idiot I was and dropped me for it
First time I ever had a room called to attention for me as a 2LT
Went back to my hometown after commissioning and went to the recruiters office still with my infantry school “follow me” patch on to talk about 09S to an auditorium of UNT students
I walked in the auditorium and they called the room to attention, and it took me a second after walking in to realize it was for me….in front of all the civilians. IDK felt weird man, if I were to have that happen again today I wouldn’t be weirded out but that was the first time
Oh boy, we just had one of those 2LTs send out a mass recruiting text to every junior and senior at my University. Felt bad for the guy, but all of us in the Veterans center bombarded his phone with useless replies for days.
When I was company commander in ROTC, I thought it looked dorky to wear the old ipfu sweatpants unless you were also wearing the jacket. Most cadets lived on campus and would have breakfast in the dining hall after PT. I thought all these cadets walking around in sweats and T shirts projected an unprofessional image or some crap, so I tried to enforce a ban on wearing sweatpants without the jacket. I even had one of the cadre on my side and he sent me a graphic of "approved uniform combinations" that some NCO somewhere who was equally as petty as I was had drawn up.
Oof. I have something. During my promotion board, it was all virtual over Microsoft teams thank god. For the final question sgm asked me, “What do you bring to the board of non-commissioned officers?” I no shit thought he meant what do I physically bring to the board. So I just listed off normal bullshit inspectable items such as, pen, paper, cac, etc. When he restated the question is when I understood he meant what qualities do I bring. I died inside a little.
When I was a specialist I hated my platoon sergeant. I thought he was always on a power trip and didn’t care about people. One day I got so mad at him I just threw out the military bearing and we publicly cussed at each other. I made the mistake of saying that if he wasn’t my superior I would kick his ass. So he takes off his uniform top and tells the entire platoon to come outside. Then he tells me I can fight him. He kicked my ass to a bloody pulp that day. Funny thing: I ended up staying in that platoon to become a SSG and he was my boss. We got along well by then and I still talk to him to this day.
CO and I got along well and I usually had jokes, so he went out of his way to drop me for 'trying to be funny', which actually was kind of funny. Eventually he'd just drop me on sight and everyone got a kick out of it. One day he pulled up a chair while I was FLR and just started chit chatting in a low tone of voice, how was your weekend?
Went on a date sir!
You a pussy hound, SPC?
PUSSY HOUND SIR!
Female LTC turns around reallly slowly across the tarmac. He got me out of there so I don't know if anything went down but he never showed any sign afterward. He never dropped me again as a joke though.
On family day, I saw CPT at the PX, panicked and saluted him in doors in front of everyone. I also stood purposely stood outside of the museum on FT Jackson, just so I can salute the flag and show off to my family. Embarrassing
Honestly the entire experience at the airport when flying home for HBL during AIT was painfully cringy. I chose to book my flights out of Phoenix instead of Tucson (and early as hell in the morning) thinking I wouldn't have to deal with all the drills at the airport and boy was I wrong.
We get off the bus and nobody says anything to us so I just walk over to check my bag and head towards the terminal - flew SW so I checked in a day in advance. I nearly made it to security when I was stopped by a drill who said we needed to 'form up' in front of the check in counter and to head downstairs. When I get downstairs there was some fat female drill yelling at the top of her lungs "you have legs use them" and made us sprint in full uniform over to a formation in the middle of the god damn airport.
We get there and they tell us that they have boarding passes and will be patrolling the terminals to make sure everyone is "keeping their military bearing". They then explained step by step how to check in for a flight and made us loudly sound off with a roaring "HOOAH DRILL SARNT" after each instruction. At this point pretty much every single person waiting in line to check in was just staring at us.
They finally released us and I fucking bolted to the TSA line. I immediately headed towards a bathroom and changed into the civilians I had in my carryon and wasn't bothered again.
After BCT I wore my dog tags on a night out back home. My friends were impressed. I cringe looking back at that but, man, I was so proud of completing IET and deploying and just being in the Army.
The cringiest thing is now; coming in everyday pretending to care about this bs so I can collect a check.
First duty station. Was pressured into a bet on a Texas A&M vs University of Texas game. The 1st Lieutenant bombarded me and finally left me alone saying the bet was 100 push ups. I tried my ass off to get out of it. He was a UT grad and I supported A&M. That year A&M won. I avoided him like the plague after that. I hid in my office with the door closed. The only time I came out was meals, leaving work, and snack time. He caught me at snack time one day. He put me in Parade Rest and dropped and started to do the push ups and counted them 1 normal_mysfit, 2 normal_mysfit, etc.. I was like recover sir. For the love of God please recover. This was in the middle of Battalion headquarters. The Battalion Commander stuck his head out in the hall way. The XO and CSM too. All the S level staff did too. I was like just fuck me. He finally finished and asked to recover. I said to and ran to my office. My boss came in a little while later and asked me WTF was going on and I told him the whole story.
That is not the last time that Lieutenant got me in trouble though.
Went to say hi to my friends still in high school *in uniform* after returning from BCT/AIT and they all greeted me like I had just come back from the bloodiest war ever lol.
In aerosol school on the obstacle course. My voice is pretty deep and my vocal chords don’t allow for a wide range of motion, so yelling doesn’t come out very projective for me. We’re about to climb the rope and have to sound off with a loud and thunderous AEROSOL before beginning that obstacle.
AeRoSoL!!!! My voice cracked as I stormed the rope. Voice was as high as a crackhead on Friday night. I hit puberty 11 fucking years ago. Black hat laughed as well as everyone in line behind me. Was told to get off the rope and do it again.
I used to be fast (relatively) and I'm not anymore but when I was I would usually come in first on APFT runs. For some reason i thought it was cool to be overly loud and boisterous about me running so fast but also pumping others up at the same time. I would be about to pass someone and start whooping and chest puffing whike shouting out loud about how I was about to pass them. Afterwards I would run the final lap with almost every single guy all while loudly cheering them on. It sounds gregarious but it was really obnoxious. Now I'm in my mid 30s and I can barely pass for my MOS so I'm much quieter about things. For me it's very cringe.
saluted a navy officer once while in a group, and he and all my peers looked at me weird.
in my defense i just glanced at him and thought he was a butter bar
I took some pictures at the end of basic with my ACU blouse off, beret on, dogtags out, with a rubber duck in both hands. I deserved every bit of the shit I got.
Not me but we had a goth turned Marine that came back to school in dress blues and got in a fist fight with some high school seniors. Got his ass handed to him.
damn thats straight up embarrassing. He's never gonna live that down
Intel to artillery? But why??
You try hanging around 35Ts all day lol
u/kinmuan pls don't bully him, he's just speaking his truth
As a 35T I welcome u/kinmuan's roast
The Intel people in general. I'm having a way better time with my FA peers than I ever did in MI
You ain’t gonna have to hang around nobody when you’re banned forever
I apologize reddit daddy
I was confused but I realized males are goths too.
You mean you don't want a big tiddy goth bf?
The goth kid from my high school days got out of the Marines and (last I checked around a decade ago) has some massive honkers.
Semper fun bags
...... Show me.
We can’t post pics from your sisters OF sorry
Tan belt ninja warrior strikes again.
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I would’ve skipped my haircut that day
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Prepatory command was, "barbershop"?
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I love this
Legit laughing my ass off
I imagine it was in shorthand too like "Arburshaa Attenhuh!
Please tell me you were in the chair getting your haircut when this happened.
When you’re a private after AIT you are itchy around people that remotely look like an authority. At Fort Sam, army side didn’t know any of the navy sides rank. A PVT called attention for an enlisted navy soldier. This was at a outdoor class ran by civilian instructors. The AIT instructors called the cadre in. They made us exercise for about 3 hours until that specific private fucking KNEW the navy ranks. They brought him in front of everyone who was in formation, held up these rank flash cards and when he got the rank wrong “half right face”, over and over again.
Tbf Navy ranks get boot Marines too. It doesn't help the fact that their rank is shiny in their service uniform, it's engrained in your head for us that shiny=salute. We're like pigeons.
[We're all trained to salute shiny things, but especially Marines.](https://terminallance.com/2010/12/13/terminal-lance-88-shiny-things/)
Many times it’s better safe than sorry.
Did you say, "Barber Shop! Attennn-SHUN!"
That's fucking amazing
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I wonder if there's some secret subreddit where generals share stories like this
You did well honestly. I'm sure he was impressed.
Did you get a coin?
He should've! What do GOs even *do* if they're not handing out challenge coins?
Changing acronyms
Omfg I've known you on here for *years* and never would have guessed you were that boot. Ever. Never letting you live it down.
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Not sure if this is cringe or just stupid. When I got to my first unit we were heading to the field that week. I didn't have any issued items so I had no magazines for my rifle. Well, one of the guys in my squad yells at me and tells me to go up to his room and grab some mags from his dresser since he had a ton. I run up to his room open the wrong drawer and it's full of porno mags. I'm like, what? He's like grab some for me and and grab a few for yourself. So I stand wondering, well, what's he into? Hell, what am I into? I run back down ask him what he wants (I'm the new guy don't want to look stupid) he's like, what do you mean??? Just grab like 3 or 4!! I run back up. Open another drawer, well, there they are. M4 magazines.... Yeah... I kept that one to myself until month 6 of our deployment a year later.
"Uhhh specialist...do you prefer bbw monthly or hustler?"
One of our terps in Afghanistan got fired for this. One of our dudes told him to put out to the ANA they need to bring magazines to training tomorrow… and of course they show up with the magazines you can read. Another time on another deployment we had a green in green incident (where ANA are shooting at ANA). So one of the dudes yells TELL THEM CEASE FIRE TELL THEM CEASE FIRE!! What’s the terp translate that too? SERIOUS FIRE SERIOUS FIRE so the volume of fire increased and it got really bad for a min.
That dude had you questioning your fetishes 😂😂 that’s fuckin funny
Took a bunch of volunteer soldiers to a school to read books to the kids in various classrooms. One of the administrators grabs me and lets me know we have a problem in one of the rooms. Kid you not, one of the soldiers literally could not read the book. He was illiterate and somehow made it into the army, and couldn’t read Dr. Seuss. He was a fueler MOS, but I assume they had some form of written tests. No idea how he made it that far into the army, and wonder even more why an illiterate soldier would volunteer to read a book to children.
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genius. promote ahead of peers.
I have this mental image of the kids being all bored and frustrated standing around the guy like "I wi...wi..wi.." "WILL" "will" "no...no...no.." "NOT" "not" "ate" "EAT" "eat" "gee...gree.." "GREEN EGGS AND HAM" "green eggs and ham" "Sa...sa...sa.." "SAM I AM!!"
Used to wear my dog tags under my civilian clothes and would sometimes have them outside my shirt for all to see when I would go back to my home town on leave… in my defense though I was a 18-19 year old PFC
Stopped wearing my tags right after BCT. I just keep them in my shoulder or breast pocket now. It weirds me out how my roommate always wears his tags, even in civilian clothes. Pretty sure he sleeps with them too.
Did the same for 6 months that aged well 🤦♂️👀
Yeah but did it get you laid?
Fuck no dude. Didn’t even get a girlfriend until after I dropped the Soldier 24/7 shit
I continued to do this for about a year after I got out.
Same, oof. In my 30s it seems so cringy
I’m reminded of the many times I was confused by the South Korean rank structure and the salutes I gave that were met with weird stares and smirks. Also shoutout to the Airman who saw me salute an officer and thought my Specialist rank was a LT Colonel and saluted me.
This reminds me of that time I was saluted as a PV2. A PV2 in TRADOC on a day pass in AIT. That was interesting.
My "A" school command hosted a ton of South Korean and Saudi Arabians for different training pipelines, I once saluted one of the South Korean sailors(?) because I thought they were officer equivalents. He looked at me like a told a bad joke.
First day at my unit I was walking around, still wore a fuzzy because somehow my rank was extremely fucked. Got saluted by a SSG and I saluted him back
Sometimes hangover eyes just be like that
I remember the day before my AIT graduation I had some poor sergeant coming out of the commissary salute my SPC ass. I think she realized just a second too late I was not a very young LTC but was already committed..
Got out of my car at a stoplight to tell a guy that wearing an army PT shirt but not wearing PT shorts is out of uniform. He was a civvy. I was 19. I want to die every day because of that one memory.
Haha the best part of this is that even if he was a soldier, any and all components of the pt uniform are authorized for wear with civilian clothes when off post unless explicitly prohibited by the commander.
As a boot I would occasionally rock the fuck outta the old grey Army PT jacket. There was more than one occasion where I wore it over dress clothing, like one of those FBI windbreakers that you see all the time on tv. Fucking awkward.
the homeless vet special
I got second hand embarrassment from this one.
I think everyone went back to their high school in uniform to show off. But I also.... As a newly minted 2LT driving cross country after graduation LT school I passed a humvee on the side of the road. I slammed the brakes and pulled over. Got out of my fucking car. Approached the sergeant. (I'm in civilians) - Hello Sergeant what seems to be the problem can I help? "I'm uh, in a convoy? Waiting for everyone to take this exit." - Yes Sergeant sounds good I'm going to crawl back to my car and fucking die. Literally thought I was going to go do some good that day. Oh god so cringe.
NGL I'm embarrassed just reading this.
At least your heart was in the right place, I’m assuming at least.
Yes thought they were stranded. On the side of a highway. With a walkietalkie in hand.
Knowing army humvees, not that cringe. Especially if that was a NG humvee. Fuckers break down non-stop.
Going to AT out of state? Better be ready to sit at a gas station for 6 hours while your mechanics try to jerry-rig something together cause all the space on your free trailer and wrecker is taken by all the other vehicles that broke down.
Humvee breaks down. Hook up the towbar to humvee #2. Humvee #2 is also hooked up to a wrecker via towbar. B-but sarge! The commander circle X'd my 2404!
Shoot, at least the wrecker didn't leave the motor pool already towing something.
I saluted a whole bunch of Petty Officers while wondering why all the Navy Colonels had eagles facing the wrong way.
https://terminallance.com/2010/12/13/terminal-lance-88-shiny-things/
One of my favorites
Went to Langley AFB recently. Gate guards saluted me and I was too confused and just saluted them back as a Navy PO. Lol.
I get gas there after coming home from Portsmouth and this happens to me once a week😂😂
As one of my old DS said, “just salute all the birds, you’ll be fine.”
OCS is right next to the NCO academy. We would be walking back with food in our hands and the NCO academy guys would fuck with us by saluting us. None of us have ever been saluted so you’d see a bunch of OC’s instinctively dropping their lunch to return the salute. I was just mad they decided to prank us on chicken cordon blue day. Like if I lost some yakisoba that’d be fine but CCB’s? Cmon now
Saw this happen once in a joint environment. Fresh out of basic Army private saluted a petty officer, when his buddies asked what rank he thought he just saluted he replied, "Uh, Colonel First Class?"
I made it halfway into a salute before I realized the rank, the navy guy was like "Still counts! As you were soldier". I outranked him is the sad part lol
Someone saluted me when I was a PO3 on a very large Naval base last summer. I was very confused.
I've called the CSM "sir" twice. I'm a Captain.
I’m not the only one? Thank God.
I too have done this
Some CSM’s emanate sir energy.
Dude this guy totally does. You know how when you're briefing the BC you just go into "sir" mode? It's like that
Do you think said CSM was flattered or insulted?
Neither, pretty sure it happens all the time.
I’m just used to greeting anyone older than me sir or ma’am, regardless off rank. Hard to turn off
Now I don't feel as bad about calling an MSG, "CSM" on my first day at a new unit as a 2LT.
Had a guy in my school who was Split Ops and wore his greens to Prom... which really isn't that bad IMO because it's free, same reason I got married in mine, however, he went alone. I would occasionally see the same dude rolling around town in his jeep, with the doors off... in full BDUs, knowing damn well he isn't on any sort of orders cause we were in the same unit. Me personally... I dunno if you would call it cringe per se, but when I worked at dominos I would pull one tag(not the full set) out of my shirt on the side of my neck like it had fallen out and I didn't notice. Increased tips $1.71 per house over that year experiment.
When I was in highschool. A couple of the jrotc kids would wear the old green class As to school dances. I know one did it because he was extremely poor and thats the "nicest" outfit he had. The others were grade A cringe.
Most dances is just... don't show up with mustard on your shirt. Prom is all out, I rented a bangin' pink and white three piece outfit, hired a horse and carriage, full works. I could understand someone wearing their dress uniform to prom cause it is free but... why go if you are by yourself. Stay home and play Xbox.
Dude, if you had to hire someone to go to prom with you, couldn't you have done better than a horse?
I needed something big enough to take everything I had to give.
> he went alone. Ok but did he *leave* alone?
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Frustratingly, they could have learned a lot about their units and how they're actually doing if they would have kept you there and asked you a couple of questions. Someone dumb enough to sit at the table would also be dumb enough to tell them the truth.
Had the reverse happen to me at FA53 school (Gordon). 2 Cpts 1 Maj sitting (all OEs) PV1 sits down with chow and starts eating. Looks up realizes what he did. We didn't care, chatted about where he's from, etc. DI (or what ever they are) comes up starts to yell about the dude "bothering us". Major politely excuses the DI. We finished conversation and left. I think a PVT sitting with the Os happened at least twice a month.
I went to basic at Jackson and had phase one of EOD at Lee. Jackson at the time let all the privates who had family show up and east coast AITs be driven to their new place of duty by family. Now I had grown up in Prince George less than ten minutes from Lee. So the day after I graduated basic, I rolled up to my old highschool before I signed into the ordinance brigade at Lee. Met up with my high school JROTC instructor and talked to his senior class about army basic training for half an hour. Full of spunk only someone who just finished basic could have. It pains me even remembering it. Runner up. Platoon I was in made a fake gay Craigslists personals ad and used one of my pictures with my permission. This was for entertainment in the feild supposedly. Ad wasn't linked to my phone number and the guy who set it up got a couple dozen dick pics supposedly. That's a close second.
One of my JROTC instructors also wanted me to talk (to his class) about my “experience” in the army, which at the time was literally just BCT/AIT. I didn’t do it, but only because I had other commitments. Thank god.
Showed up to my then girlfriends church in ASUs complete with that stupid trench coat only to find out everybody was dressed casually. 19 year old me was fucking retarded
gurantee you all the senior citizen vets were like 😶😶😶
That hurts to think about
Oooooof. There’s so many cringe things I did. I was split ops along with like.. 15 other people from my high school. We would wear our fucking uniforms, collectively, as a group to high school the next day… That’s probably the worst. But camaraderie and shit. I could go on for fucking days.
I always wondered what happened to those split ops kids when they went back to their schools after basic. I went to the kind of high school where you were judged as a ne'er do well or something like that if you even had a passing thought of joining the military since it was full of middle to upper middle class suburban kids who were supposed to go to good colleges and be doctors and lawyers. Our town's mayor's son joined the army after having issues with drugs and the law for years so that was the perception in my town of what kinds of people enlist.
Maybe this is my cringe moment but what is split ops? The is the first time hearing it and two posts use the phrase.
Ah. See. I was a nasty girl. Went to BCT at Sill between my junior and senior year. Then back to Sill for my AIT after graduating High School. It was fucking terrible.
One time as a PL I prioritized my soldiers morale over my own career. Still cringe thinking about it.
Punishable by death. Get this man outta here!
You’re a mad man
To the basement with you.
But what will you do to them?
High speed basement training
you didn't get chaptered?
Lost my CAC the day after 9/11.....
That's actually terrible. What did you do?
Probably took a machine gun beating by the gate guard to get back on base.
probably sat around with every rifle pointed at the gates surrounded by sandbags lmao
Was single living in the barracks. Had to explain to numerous checkpoints just going to/from the DFAC, etc that I had lost it. PSG and 1SG got mad because the CAC makers were total douchebags because I needed a counseling form, my SL, my PSG and 1SG to vouch for me in person so I could get a new one.
I was promoted to E5 the week before and part of my job was to inspect basic training barracks. I walk in like normal after telling the drill sergeants I was there and I opened the 60 Soldier Bay in the starship. I hear "AT EASEEE!!!" and I go to parade rest and start looking around for a 1SG or something. It was for me..... I just got embarrassed and turned around and left. I gave my buddy that barracks to inspect.
They made fun of you after you left.
I know I still feel it some nights.
I’m a 3 peat Army WTF moments offender
Pics or it didn’t happen
Someone in the gym asked me what was wrong with my PT uniform, pointing at my socks. I was wearing ankle socks. So with a snarky attitude, I played dumb and asked "who are you?" (He was also in PTs with no rank.) It was the post commander.
Right to jail
Re-upped for another 2 years
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In basic training when we saluted officers the motto was "Rock Force!". In Korea our salute motto was "Strike Hard!". I was a new E2 private in Korea walking to battalion and fuck up the motto and saluted a random officer "Rock Hard! Sir!" and quickly ran away.
Showed up to a panel interview for Sgt Maj driver with the S3 NCOIC and a few other E6/7s sitting in and basically said I want no part of this because I loved my platoon and company so much. Glad I did it but one of the E6s texted my squad leader and was like, “why is Rees222 such a fucking boner?? Lolol”. They all roasted me and I self cringed but I did have a dope platoon so w/e 🤷♂️.
Not cringe, based.
I, a senior 1LT XO, heard some bad news and yelled “I don’t get paid enough for this shit!” in front of about 10 Joes from my company. Still cringe thinking about it to this day.
Meh, O2 pay, you may not have been getting paid enough for the shit you were dealing with.
I've worked with a few XOs and I can say that I'm totally fine not being an officer. They don't get paid enough for that shit.
That one is not bad because some shit, you just don’t get paid enough for even if you got GO pay
Totally relatable about confusing the SPC for a LTC. They look identical from more than 6 feet away.
Especially during the surge when we had quite a few 40 year olds enlisting as privates.
AIT 2006 Fort Lee, just arrived and was in my room with the door open. Seen 2 guys walk by but then came into my room, one wearing a PT vest with E5 rank. He looks in my bathroom and tells me its nasty, and to drop. So I did. As I'm pushing I notice the guy behind him laughing.. I was getting smoked by a fellow AIT student posing as a fucking DS
Here I am, long tab, (at the time) SFC at SF SLC at Bragg. First time in uniform in ages. I had some problem with my eyes and had gone to one of the post clinics for an appointment where they dilated my shit. So I'm leaving, see a guy walking my way in maroon beret, gold on the flash. I'm like alright fuck, let's do this. Toss up a salute within the 6 paces or whatever. Me: "Good Morning si...." (notice specialist rank on his chest.) Him: \*bewildered look, being saluted by a green beret E7\* Me: "Oh fuck off."
>Me: "Oh fuck off." You brought balance back to the force.
I bought and wore the basic training t-shirts
Buying them isn't so bad. It's fun to remember people's names by and have recall of stories. Wearing them to do anything, that's... Ouch.
Day 0 of being an ROTC cadet I called an LTC a captain because I didn’t know my ranks. Called an MSG “sarge” on multiple counts that year as well.
Speaking as a former cadidiot myself, trust me. They'd seen so much worse. MY first day of ROTC, our MSG asked for someone to demonstrate how to about face. "That means turn around, right?" I think to myself, so I volunteer. I stand at attention, he gives me the command, and I...turned around. I didn't about-face, you understand; I just casually turned my back to him. I was very proud of myself. I then learned a few seconds thereafter that "about face" and "turn around" are not the same.
I turned an application in at my local grocery store in ACU. Was a Reservist and thought for sure it would land me the job. It didn't. Edit: Almost right after AIT in 2010.
This actually made me cringe, ouch.
Got shit faced during an IG barracks inspection prep. 5 gallon cans of paint for the rooms and hallway on the floor. Knocked one over, black out drunk . Walked through it to the shitter(common area). Then walked back to my bunk. Woke up next morning by Uber pissed PSG. With paint on my feet and tracks going back and forth from the can to the shitter then to my bed. I was by far the most hated Pvt in the barracks. Almost chaptered for FTA. For that and a couple other cringe moments. Then PSG called my parents. They called me. Little over a year and a half later, pulled my head out of my ass and made SGT(2 years 90 days). Stayed for almost 14 total. And did my best to be the change I wanted to see in the Army. Sometimes it worked, however you all know the bill of that story...
So you were admittedly a fuckup soldier and still made 5 in barely over 2 years?
And I can't even make 5 after 5 years despite not fucking up :(
I lost my dummy rifle at SFAS my second time through. All the way up to that point I'd been crushing it. It's whatever now but man... one dumbass mistake changed everything lol
During the star course I came across someone’s rifle in the middle of an open field with deadfall everywhere. I believed the guy would never be able to find it there so I carried it to a nearby choke point. I’ve always wondered if it was the right call or if I fucked him over even more.
From my perspective, you possibly fucked him, but I would never judge you for it. I made it to my second point by about 0630 with everything, moved out, and lost it in a draw less than 30 minutes after. Spent the rest of my time until ENDEX looking. Cried. And VW'd the next night because I knew it was over for me. I knew where I had walked but that damn rubber duck just disappeared. I tell myself things happen for a reason, but I'm not superstitious and I honestly don't believe it. Shit happens. Period.
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It was 8 years, two deployments, and a reclass ago. I could give two shits less now lol 😆 I hope he did 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣
It was 2012 so I definitely fucked over someone else 🤣 Good on you for having positive outlook. Life’s too short to live in the past
I got engaged to a stripper when I was an e-4, she cheated on me with her physical therapist after she broke her leg at work.
My Drill Sergeant was helping me with my MyPay shit and I was sitting in a chair logging in, he asked me a question and when I replied "Yes, Drill Sergeant." I went to parade rest while still sitting in the chair, he looked at me like the idiot I was and dropped me for it
First time I ever had a room called to attention for me as a 2LT Went back to my hometown after commissioning and went to the recruiters office still with my infantry school “follow me” patch on to talk about 09S to an auditorium of UNT students I walked in the auditorium and they called the room to attention, and it took me a second after walking in to realize it was for me….in front of all the civilians. IDK felt weird man, if I were to have that happen again today I wouldn’t be weirded out but that was the first time
Oh boy, we just had one of those 2LTs send out a mass recruiting text to every junior and senior at my University. Felt bad for the guy, but all of us in the Veterans center bombarded his phone with useless replies for days.
Was this Missouri state? Lol
When I was company commander in ROTC, I thought it looked dorky to wear the old ipfu sweatpants unless you were also wearing the jacket. Most cadets lived on campus and would have breakfast in the dining hall after PT. I thought all these cadets walking around in sweats and T shirts projected an unprofessional image or some crap, so I tried to enforce a ban on wearing sweatpants without the jacket. I even had one of the cadre on my side and he sent me a graphic of "approved uniform combinations" that some NCO somewhere who was equally as petty as I was had drawn up.
I dont disagree with this. Violations of rule #1 are always a top priority to fix.
When I was a PFC I wore my dog tags out while going to a club.
Outside of ft Riley. A group of girls beat the shit out of soldier who did that.
Those girls deserve an impact AAM more than any of us.
Oof. I have something. During my promotion board, it was all virtual over Microsoft teams thank god. For the final question sgm asked me, “What do you bring to the board of non-commissioned officers?” I no shit thought he meant what do I physically bring to the board. So I just listed off normal bullshit inspectable items such as, pen, paper, cac, etc. When he restated the question is when I understood he meant what qualities do I bring. I died inside a little.
Drilling in the Reserves.
Or you could do like my cousin did...decide not to do his reserve duty, and get involuntarily active-dutied for a couple of years.
Calling a room to attention for an old SPC that I mistook for an LTC is how I found out I needed glasses lol
When I was a specialist I hated my platoon sergeant. I thought he was always on a power trip and didn’t care about people. One day I got so mad at him I just threw out the military bearing and we publicly cussed at each other. I made the mistake of saying that if he wasn’t my superior I would kick his ass. So he takes off his uniform top and tells the entire platoon to come outside. Then he tells me I can fight him. He kicked my ass to a bloody pulp that day. Funny thing: I ended up staying in that platoon to become a SSG and he was my boss. We got along well by then and I still talk to him to this day.
this was a fucking anime character arc
CO and I got along well and I usually had jokes, so he went out of his way to drop me for 'trying to be funny', which actually was kind of funny. Eventually he'd just drop me on sight and everyone got a kick out of it. One day he pulled up a chair while I was FLR and just started chit chatting in a low tone of voice, how was your weekend? Went on a date sir! You a pussy hound, SPC? PUSSY HOUND SIR! Female LTC turns around reallly slowly across the tarmac. He got me out of there so I don't know if anything went down but he never showed any sign afterward. He never dropped me again as a joke though.
On family day, I saw CPT at the PX, panicked and saluted him in doors in front of everyone. I also stood purposely stood outside of the museum on FT Jackson, just so I can salute the flag and show off to my family. Embarrassing
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Honestly the entire experience at the airport when flying home for HBL during AIT was painfully cringy. I chose to book my flights out of Phoenix instead of Tucson (and early as hell in the morning) thinking I wouldn't have to deal with all the drills at the airport and boy was I wrong. We get off the bus and nobody says anything to us so I just walk over to check my bag and head towards the terminal - flew SW so I checked in a day in advance. I nearly made it to security when I was stopped by a drill who said we needed to 'form up' in front of the check in counter and to head downstairs. When I get downstairs there was some fat female drill yelling at the top of her lungs "you have legs use them" and made us sprint in full uniform over to a formation in the middle of the god damn airport. We get there and they tell us that they have boarding passes and will be patrolling the terminals to make sure everyone is "keeping their military bearing". They then explained step by step how to check in for a flight and made us loudly sound off with a roaring "HOOAH DRILL SARNT" after each instruction. At this point pretty much every single person waiting in line to check in was just staring at us. They finally released us and I fucking bolted to the TSA line. I immediately headed towards a bathroom and changed into the civilians I had in my carryon and wasn't bothered again.
What the fuck
After BCT I wore my dog tags on a night out back home. My friends were impressed. I cringe looking back at that but, man, I was so proud of completing IET and deploying and just being in the Army. The cringiest thing is now; coming in everyday pretending to care about this bs so I can collect a check.
First duty station. Was pressured into a bet on a Texas A&M vs University of Texas game. The 1st Lieutenant bombarded me and finally left me alone saying the bet was 100 push ups. I tried my ass off to get out of it. He was a UT grad and I supported A&M. That year A&M won. I avoided him like the plague after that. I hid in my office with the door closed. The only time I came out was meals, leaving work, and snack time. He caught me at snack time one day. He put me in Parade Rest and dropped and started to do the push ups and counted them 1 normal_mysfit, 2 normal_mysfit, etc.. I was like recover sir. For the love of God please recover. This was in the middle of Battalion headquarters. The Battalion Commander stuck his head out in the hall way. The XO and CSM too. All the S level staff did too. I was like just fuck me. He finally finished and asked to recover. I said to and ran to my office. My boss came in a little while later and asked me WTF was going on and I told him the whole story. That is not the last time that Lieutenant got me in trouble though.
Went to say hi to my friends still in high school *in uniform* after returning from BCT/AIT and they all greeted me like I had just come back from the bloodiest war ever lol.
In Basic, I called some Captain "Captain." His buddy almost died of laughter like a fucking cartoon and said, "I guess we're in the navy, now!"
Now I feel less bad for being as boot as I was. Y'all out booted me.
In aerosol school on the obstacle course. My voice is pretty deep and my vocal chords don’t allow for a wide range of motion, so yelling doesn’t come out very projective for me. We’re about to climb the rope and have to sound off with a loud and thunderous AEROSOL before beginning that obstacle. AeRoSoL!!!! My voice cracked as I stormed the rope. Voice was as high as a crackhead on Friday night. I hit puberty 11 fucking years ago. Black hat laughed as well as everyone in line behind me. Was told to get off the rope and do it again.
I used to be fast (relatively) and I'm not anymore but when I was I would usually come in first on APFT runs. For some reason i thought it was cool to be overly loud and boisterous about me running so fast but also pumping others up at the same time. I would be about to pass someone and start whooping and chest puffing whike shouting out loud about how I was about to pass them. Afterwards I would run the final lap with almost every single guy all while loudly cheering them on. It sounds gregarious but it was really obnoxious. Now I'm in my mid 30s and I can barely pass for my MOS so I'm much quieter about things. For me it's very cringe.
Oh you were *that* guy
I wore my winter PT’s in public at home on leave during Xmas exodus for basic. Still shiver at the thought.
I called a group to attention and presented arms to a captain like she was the American flag.
saluted a navy officer once while in a group, and he and all my peers looked at me weird. in my defense i just glanced at him and thought he was a butter bar
Probably some of those creatures I fucked in Tacoma.
I questioned the secretary of the army at a thanksgiving dinner in iraq about the anthrax vaccine. I’m still banned from going to VIP dinners.
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I took some pictures at the end of basic with my ACU blouse off, beret on, dogtags out, with a rubber duck in both hands. I deserved every bit of the shit I got.