Truism.. (For "Prior Service" here..)

[crusader rabbit]

I guess it's the same in all branches.  We had a fresh ensign assigned as gunnery officer.  Within his first 72-hours, he put a round through his duty station.  Was immediately sent to gunnery safety school.

Same ensign came back and was assigned as JOOD while we were leaving San Francisco.  Ship needed to make a 2 degree course correction to starboard (that's to the right for all you lubbers). 

Ensign ordered the helmsman to, "Come left to course..." 

That is a 358-degree course change. 

Captain realized immediately what was happening and took corrective action. 

Ensign was relieved as JOOD  and confined to quarters until we reached Hawaii.

And so it goes.

[tombogan03884]

We had a know it all Battery Commander, a Capt., who, on a FIREEX at Camp Edwards Ma. shut down the highway to Cape Cod by getting his target information 180 degrees wrong.
Fortunately the batteries rounds landed in the median strip and no one was injured, but he was a civilian by sundown.

[les snyder]

I was fortunate to have served with the most dedicated and skilled enlisted men in the USAF... Morse operators,  Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, and Thai linguists and fellow radio traffic analysts.... I was in a rather obscure Air Force command (USAF Security Service) that was "run" by the senior NCO's...I enlisted with 4 years of college, but was short 5 hours of Russian language for my BA...my second duty station was the day shop (we had time to do more in depth analysis)  at Clark AFB, Philippines, I had a couple of first term Chinese Mandarin linguists working with me..both were E4 (Sgt in the AF)... one had a master's degree in history, the other two years of law school..

[Ichiban]

I was walking behind a couple of old Chiefs at my first duty station when we were met by a butter bar.  Both Chiefs saluted left handed.  The butter bar returned the salutes, stopped, and looked after the Chiefs with a real puzzled look.  Of course when I passed him I gave him a leftie as well just to cover for the Chiefs.

[santahog]

I had a C.O. (Captain) that, during some trip to a gunnery range, was standing outside the tank, presumably "supervising" something. He pushed the brim of his helmet up with the dirty end of his sidearm and it "went off". The round followed the inside of the helmet, over the top of his head and hit the dirt behind him... (He was from West Point..)

I was protected by the Non-Comms one time when I got caught doing a girl I picked up at a bar in the day room, in the floor, behind the last row of those orange-wooden chairs that they used back then. (Maybe still do. I don't know..) I got caught by the SDNCO on duty that Saturday night. (Save that story for later..  )
I was a cook in an Armor Battalion HQ Co. That Monday, a guy messed up my grill, making it impossible to cook an egg without breaking the yolk. I apologized to the guys standing in front of me. One of them said that "I heard you had a rough weekend" and a line of 50 guys that ran all the way our the door started giggling.. My C.O. (same guy) was the only one of about 500 guys who didn't find out.. (He would have busted me..)

Yup..

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