What is the dumbest thing you ever saw on active duty? - Page 2

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Posted: 4/29/2003 6:02:55 AM EDT

[#1]

There is one thing that has definitely become abundantly clear bsed on this thread. Holy shit I don't see how I made it out alive with all these dumbasses in the military!!!!!! It honestly makes one wonder what the hell we are getting into when someone that stupid is allowed to handle firearms/explosives/vehicles/aircraft. It truly makes me wonder...

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I don't think the military has a higher percentage of stupid people than the general populace, but because of our neat toys the consequences of error are much greater.

Posted: 4/29/2003 7:08:26 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
While in Bosnia, the commander, 1SG and both SFC's wrote up EVERY Small Arms Bullet (under 20mm) as an explosive ordnance item to pad their awards! "CPT XXX safely supervised the disposal of over 680,000 explosive ordnance items..."

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NNNNNooooooooooooooo, say it ain't so! Not in EOD![:D]

Same thing happened during Desert Storm, a bunch of 1SG's and Commanders getting Bronze Stars.

Army EOD (at least when I was in) could use a good house cleaning of dead weight. If only EOD moved into SOCOM from Ordnance Corps, thats too frightning it might free EOD troops from their desks to do REAL training.

Posted: 4/29/2003 10:11:55 AM EDT

[#3]

I'm posting this per request of the author:

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Quoted:
Wow. I read all the post's and man did that bring back some memories! Some almost mirror my own experiences...Stand-By for a moment. I've got a few.

Here we go...MCRD San Diego December 1985. It's a Sunday in the recieving barracks, one week before meeting our real DI's. We're out on the wash rack scrubbing our new boots and cammies when it's noticed that we're one man short of a full platoon. Next thing I know, there's recruit X(missing man) hanging half out the window of our third floor barracks screaming his fool head off, and what looks to be a DI inside trying to drag his poor ass back in the window. A very apparent scuffle insues, recruit X is dragged back thru said window, screaming and yelling somehow gets louder, then muffled and a distinct whack is clearly heard. Now according one of the other DI's later, recruit X apparently attacked our then recieving DI, and the DI knocked him out with a back-from-Georgia blow from his right hand so-to-speak. Needless to say, we didn't ever see recruit X again.

Again, same recruit platoon, flash to Christmas time. We're now under the thumb of our real drill instructors, and we're sitting in a semi-circle during mail call in the squad bay. The Senior DI is throwing mail all over the damn place when he gets to the largest and final BOX in front of him. Obviously saving the best for last. This box is big enought to fit a 27" TV into. Recruit Y is called to the front of the group to open the box that mommy sent, and Jesus what is this! Said recruit begins by pulling out a complete set of Santa printed boxer shorts, which to all present was hard to keep whatever bearing we had at that time. Next comes a (roughly) 12" leather combo-sheath holding a pair of sewing shears and a small hunting knife about 7 inches long!(picture the drill instructor R. Lee Ermy from the movie Platoon going apes*#t) hahahahaha Oh the shit hit the fan then. The other two asst. Di's had this kid on the deck, face down-hands behind his back, with a pair of Santa boxers on his head, all the while screaming furiously, accusing him of trying to assasinate the senior drill instructor! God I'll never forget it! So... off to the pit we all went(bend-and-thrust). The DI said we were all co-conspiritors. hahahaha yeah,yeah.

Later in the fleet, MCB CamPen, Area 21(Del Mar)M.T. I had the misfortune of hearing about this kid trying to service a trunnion bearing on an M813(5 ton truck)during lunch time, without jacking the truck in the air and un-loading the bearing(it's under immense pressure at this point). He didn't get too far. He took the dust cover off, removed the lock-nut, washer and low-and-behold, there's the bearing... locked and cocked, ready to fire. Apparently he couldn't get it out by hand, so he reached over and grabbed a BFH(big f%$#*^G hammer), hit the bearing-housing, and POW. That was it. Dead. He tragicaly caught it right in the face. Had he jacked the truck in the air, he could've slipped the un-loaded bearing off with two fingers. Poor bastard.

Again, same duty station. Lunch time. I'm leaving to go get some chow, but before I get out the door, this FNG brings in a M151(jeep is no longer in service) to do an oil change. Cripes! Everything was cool and it seemed he had everything squared away, so I left. I come back after lunch, to the same kid trying to get the thing running and pulled out of the bay and put back on line. No dice. It's smoking to beat hell and won't idle worth a shit. What the hell did you do to it I asked and his reply was he changed the oil. I'm looking around under the hood and notice oil all over the inside of the engine compartment. It's literally running out of the dipstick tube when he tries to start it again. I jerked the dipstick out the oil shot about 3 ft in the air! Come to find out, he drug the 30wt. hose hanging nearby, opened the filler cap ontop the valve cover and began pumping the entire engine full of oil until it came out of the dipstick tube, and called it good!!! That followed him till he rotated out of our unit, and I often wondered how he slipped thru the cracks in MOS school. He became an office pogue for the LT.

The last I'll mention for now happened over a weekend of high intoxication and Beer-Garden parties. We had all been drinking heavily in our room on the 3rd floor when PFC.XYZ decides to go walk the third floor hand railing outside our room, still drunk from the night before. You can only tell someone not to do something so many times, but insisting he could balance and walk the handrail for a short distance, I gave in, and shortly thereafter became bored of watching him try to even stand up there to begin with. Well , I sit down and look out the hatch at him balanced on the rail, I look down for a second/hear a muffled whhaaaa...thump, look up and he's gone.LOL! I figured he had managed to walk past my line of sight on the rail, so I get up and go to the outside walk-way and no PFC.XYZ in sight. It was then that I heard him shouting profanities like he had newly aquired Terrets Syndrome(sp?),I looked down(my drunk ass) and noticed him dusting himself off and marching (his drunk ass) back up to the third floor. No injuries... thank god.

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Posted: 4/29/2003 8:24:07 PM EDT

[#4]

The females and FAT-ASSES in ARMY EOD will NOT allow the move to SOCCom! The women officers and to a lesser extent the enlisted females will not be able to attain the level of "Hoo-Ah" badges that the truly motivated will have the options to get. Just look at NAVY EOD for verification of this! So, Fat, Lame & Lazy group keeps pissing EVERYONE else off in the Regular Army and we, the poor dumb bastards have to deal with their after-math.

Back to "Stupid-Human-Tricks" (I am not trying to hi-jack the thread!)

Kosovo 2001. Swedish EOD and US Army EOD are doing joint clearing operations up north of Pristina of an armaments factory that was flattened by NATO airpower. We come across a 122mm HE with a damaged fuze. We move a good distance away & the Swedes tell me that we are in a SAFE AREA and proceed with the demo-ops for the round. Their guys come back, and we are waiting for the time fuze to burn down, and I ask if there was any other shells around the 122. The guy who went downrange looks at me like I asked to do a turn on his Mum! Seriously confused puppy dog look! I tell my team to hunker down. Bout that time we are caught in the biggest fourth of July celebration AT GROUND ZERO! Rounds are cooking off and being kicked out and detonating all over! Two Swedish EOD are slightly wounded from frag as they weren't the strongest to get UNDER the pile of scrambling troops. Lesson number 12. Remotely remove the item and probe the area surrounding it. Hard lessons to learn! -Will

Posted: 4/30/2003 7:28:53 AM EDT

[#5]

I only spent 6 weeks in Mogadishu, but it left me with an undying hate for the Klintons and for the Somalis. They are (both) pigs. They hated us then, (the Somalis) and I hate them now. We were trying to help them and they didn't give a shit. They just wanted us dead.

Why?

Why do they hate us?

I spent 17 years overseas, and I saw the good that U.S. troops do for the welfare of their communities abroad, sometimes unappreciated, but almost always beneficial,

Why is Somalia different fron the rest of the world? It's not.

.
From this (that) point forward, they should just accept the fact that they bring all of their problems on themselves, and they should take care of themselves, on their own dime, not ours.

Fuck'em, (Somalis) I hope they all die.

Posted: 4/30/2003 10:35:05 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
The females and FAT-ASSES in ARMY EOD will NOT allow the move to SOCCom! The women officers and to a lesser extent the enlisted females will not be able to attain the level of "Hoo-Ah" badges that the truly motivated will have the options to get. Just look at NAVY EOD for verification of this! So, Fat, Lame & Lazy group keeps pissing EVERYONE else off in the Regular Army and we, the poor dumb bastards have to deal with their after-math.

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AMEN to that!! I see things haven't change since I got out! We booted a few pieces of work out of the 53rd when I was there from 96-98. Nice thing about Yakima was battalion didn't like to come out there and didn't like us. I am glad I wasn't at the 707th though, too close to old "Control" 3rd Ord Bn (Micro Managers).

Here is another example of stupidity. My team leader and I were assigned to sit out at a range and give any EOD assistance necessary for a weapons test. On the other side of the impact area (Yakima's impact area is huge and has no trees) while the testing was going on, F-16 were dropping Mk-82's and Mk-84's on tank targets in a West to East fashion. Well, one of the pilots had a brain fart and flew in a East to West fashion and dropped a Mk-82 on a group of Civilian construction workers working on the range. We saw the bomb released, and instantly said "What the F#$% is that dumbass doing!" The SOCOM Major, me and my team leader were assigned to told us to check those guys out. I have never driven a HMMV that quick in my life, we were expecting to find casualties, and called to have a medivac get airborne. We get there and luckily no one was hurt as the bomb landed on the other side of a small hill deflecting the Frag and shockwave away. I found the impact mark (and a deer in a state of dementia) and it was only about 150 meters from those poor guys, had that hill not been there, they would have eaten major amounts of steel from the 192 lbs. of Tritonal going off.

This incident went all the way to the office of the SECDEF, the pilot was "greeted" at his air base by his Wing Commander, relieved of duties on the spot.

I am thankful things turning out O.K. and not having to witness strewn body parts.

Posted: 4/30/2003 10:07:36 PM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
I only spent 6 weeks in Mogadishu, but it left me with an undying hate for the Klintons and for the Somalis. They are (both) pigs. They hated us then, (the Somalis) and I hate them now. We were trying to help them and they didn't give a shit. They just wanted us dead.

Why?

Why do they hate us?

I spent 17 years overseas, and I saw the good that U.S. troops do for the welfare of their communities abroad, sometimes unappreciated, but almost always beneficial,

Why is Somalia different fron the rest of the world? It's not.

.
From this (that) point forward, they should just accept the fact that they bring all of their problems on themselves, and they should take care of themselves, on their own dime, not ours.

Fuck'em, (Somalis) I hope they all die.

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Damn we must have been there the same time, I still cant stand em' A few post back I spoke about the little rat claw f**kers.

Posted: 5/2/2003 3:34:34 PM EDT

[#8]

LOLOLOL...man if I wasn't such a slow typer :/

let me put it to you like this....sometimes, I wonder HOW these people ever made it this far. Yet, we/they manage one way or another

LT out

Posted: 5/3/2003 6:00:41 AM EDT

[#9]

A lieutenant with a map and a radio........

Posted: 5/5/2003 8:40:47 PM EDT

[#10]

I have a twin brother, who was homeported in and had a off base quarters in Yokosuka. My ship was from San Diego. Some how one of our Chiefs came across my brother in the local equivalent of a stop and rob. Tried for 15 minutes to convince my brother that he was known, in fact they had stood watches before, and as my brother cooly and calmy told him that he wasn't known, that he was a drunk sailor, and he sure as hell wasn't gonna get a ride back to the base. Well the Chief finally stomped out saying that he was gonna tear up all the EOOW quals he had signed ME off on. Well the next morning Saturday the Chief made it to the wardroom laboring under a nasty hangover and proceeded to try and respectfully ask me what the heck I had done to him out in town, apologize if he said anything wrong, but why couldn't I have given him a ride? At that point, I told him I was sorry, but he must have had a really bad night cuz, I had the duty and had been on board all night, I didn't have a car but if it had been me I would have given him a ride. All observers by that time were trying hard not to burst into laughter. I told him to turn around and ask my brother and pointed. He did, realized he'd been had, almost started crying from laughter.

Had a young lad who couldn't stay off the whacky tobaccy. Spent almost his entire hitch on restriction. Snuck off the ship in Subic and turned and walked the wrong way down Alava Pier. I was driving the wardroom car back from the Chuckwagon Club, where we had been having a nice quiet evening of pizza, playing Korean Craps and maybe a beer or two. Lo and behold he sees the car and recognizes the XO, the PWO, his Department Haed and Division Officer in the car and locks his eyeballs forward. Well I dropped the others off and I drive back down the pier roll the window down and ask him as he's walking alongside the car if he wants a ride back? "No. Sir, I'm on Liberty. " yeah sure at 11:00 at night just leaving in the Philippines."You sure you don't want a ride?", "No Sir" "GET in the car" and we drove back. Wawatched to XO discussing the reason they have a list with pictures of the Restricted Men and why the OOD is supposed to oversee the evening Restricted Mens muster by the Master at Arms.

Saw "Baby Hughy" come back from the Club sloshed one night at Newport RI, he pointed out that the skunks were out. "Look they're friendly", "Uh no, leave them alone" "No they come over, they're friendly" "Get away" "Watch me pet this one." You'ld be surprised how quickly one of them little beasties can bite an extended finger turn and spray. He got a ride in the back of a pick-up to the dispensary, they made him stand outside with his hand only through the door while his buddies hosed him down. He had to get the minimum rabies treatment after that too.

Posted: 5/6/2003 2:24:47 PM EDT

[#11]

Then I had a BMSN (E-3) (ex-Army, was best E-5 in performance and leadership on ship for the most part) who missed muster one morning. Got a phone message that he had been arrested and the local PD was sure if they were going to book him or let him loose. He'ld call back. He named a city but left no phone number. Gee, what a coincidence. The force had a Chief, A Captain and several Lts. Guess whose Dad was the senior Lt at the time. Guess how long the story lasted. I gave the OOD one of my Dad's business cards to give to him when he reported back aboard with a request to brng it to me. He came back late that night, started his sad tale and then was given the card. The Chief on watch smiled, told him to look at the city and the name on the card, mentioned I wanted to see him. Never tried to BS me again.

Posted: 5/20/2003 5:24:23 PM EDT

[#12]

here's a couple for ya:
While at Benning, I watched a 2nd Lt blow his fingers off. He didnt know the difference between an arty simulator and a grenade simulator, so after pulling the fuse on a grenade sim (thinking it was an arty) he waited for it to start whistling before he threw it. Needless to say, it didnt whistle, damn near took off his whole hand.

At Camp Casey, every Battalion sent a duece-and-a-half to the front gate to be a drunk truck, well this guy from my unit got on the wrong truck, then started badmouthing tankers, too drunk to realize he was on the tankers truck. They beat him pretty bad, put him in the hospital for a coupla days.

Posted: 5/20/2003 8:21:35 PM EDT

[#13]

Some years ago during a training exercise my "deep recon" team was doing a probe/snatch action against the "enemy's" rear flank. "Deep recon" teams were 5-6 man/woman groups that typically endeavored to gather troop intel from the enemies rear areas. It was an experimental unit designation within alpine recon that we had experienced some success with in exercises. They are intended to use superior knowledge of the local alpine terrain, superior mobility and superior ability to operate at altitude to observe and even harass the enemy. Doctrine was the debilitation of leadership targets and forcing the enemy to commit more forces to the rear right when he can afford that the least. Later we added a scout sniper pair to deep recon teams and made them quite a bit more proactive about harassing. There was even a move afoot to give them better anti-materiel abilities with a .50 sniping weapon before I left the service. In this case we were experimenting with a new tactic involving rear area infiltration and officer prisoner snatches. Very aggressive stuff for recon- quite a bit of fun in exercises though.

It worked something like this. A recon team would chute in behind lines and near a forward headquarters or supply area. We knew a good bit about how the "enemy" protected field HQs and supply areas so we had some good ideas about how to deal with them. What we were trying to exploit this time was what I thought might be a flaw in HQ setup procedures. Specifically, perimeter security elements also functioned as close recon when field HQ first moved/setup. Since they often found themselves quite afield of HQ and because HQ security was not assigned to a dedicated unit we had some opportunities to slip in, snatch officers, sabotage HQ supply and melt away in the early hours of HQ setup when things were already in chaos. It was a [b]BAD[/b] OPSEC flaw that has since been corrected.

The way we planned to exploit the process was by finding the likely point where flank security would be set up and then waiting for the HQ recon/security group to come out to the flank we were on to set up the checkpoint/OP. Since this was typically a 3 man team we'd generally neutralize them and then call in a waiting snatch team. The snatch team would slip into that flank and pick a good looking officer and cart him/her off maybe sabotaging some equipment if the opportunity presented itself, while we acted as a rear guard to their exfiltration before ourselves exfiltrating or laying an ambush for any pursuit- provided it wasn't in force. We had pulled the trick a few times in exercises before and it worked like a charm at least twice of the four times we tried it. On one occasion the snatch team bagged a VERY annoyed Colonel.

On this particular occasion we misjudged the group setting up flank security for the field HQ and only found them after they had started setting up their checkpoint. We found them because we heard this "clank... clank... clank..." coming from through the trees. It sounded like someone was practicing to be a blacksmith or something. I found it so odd that we spent 20 minutes approaching the checkpoint because I was so weirded out by the noise. "What the hell IS that?" I was convinced it was some kind of trick because they were making so much damn noise.

So we finally get to the source of the noise and see the 3 man team all hunched over something except for one guy who is hitting that something with his entrenching tool. "clank... clank... clank..." I looked at this for something like 10 minutes. This guy would bang on this metal thing, reorient it, bang on it again, and inspect it the entire time while his buddies looked on.

We crept in, easily neutralized the team (none of whom were over 19 years old) and set up our ambush position to be ready to rear guard the snatch team. We were about to call in the snatch team when I decided to look at what the 3 man team had been messing with. I walked over to the small "fighting hole" and 4 sandbags the team had managed to get set up and looked at this cylindrical object, about the size of an unexploded 120mm mortar round.

It was about that size because it [b]WAS[/b] an unexploded 120mm mortar round. Our captured OP team had found it buried with their third stroke of the entrenching tool, pulled it out and starting playing with it. According to spade-boy he was "trying to knock the dirt off of it to see what it was."

What a mess. The regs say that you have to call in a UMD team (Unexploded Munitions Disposal) if you find unexploded ordinance during an exercise. Unfortunately, once we did that we were ruled out of the exercise since we had to secure the area and keep it clear until the UMD team arrived making us instant "observers." The round turned out to be quite live indeed.

I still can't get over the fact that this guy pounded away on a fired 120mm shell for something like 30 minutes while I watched/heard and managed to live to tell the tale. Occasionally I still chuckle and shake my head picturing those three trainees hovering over that round while one of them pounded on it.

Definitely the dumbest thing I ever saw.

Posted: 5/23/2003 5:44:22 PM EDT

[#14]

Just to make some Interesting Non-Bodily-Injury Notes:
The Reception Station:
We were told to disposed of various Items because they were “Contraband”. There was this one guy who had 50 dice or so with him. He later told me he planned to sell the dice whenever he was able to. Bring a pair of dice to whatever Crap game he was to find. He brings the dice for a few bucks, clean everybody out. We never did have time for the Game while in Basic. When I got to my Permanent Duty Station the PX was selling dice in 10 packs. Only saw One game during my time.

Basic and the one time a Recruit misplaced his M16. The Drills put his rifle up in a tree, just out of reach. He was told to go to the base of the tree and call out repeatedly, “Here Weapon! Here Weapon! Here Weapon!” At the time it wasn’t funny. Looking back on it I’m having a hard time not laughing out loud. He sounded so miserable after a while!

AIT. Everybody had those Deep Dark OD Green shirts and pants. There are other units at that base that ISN’T connected to TRADOC. They were FORSCOM. Their uniforms were faded, used in. They knew things we didn’t. They got respect we hadn’t earned just yet. So one or two Trainees put a little bleach in the washer with their fatigues. They came out almost white.

Fort Hood and The Time A General Wanted To Beatify The Base. For this we were to go out into the Field, chop some pine tree limbs and make fences with them. The fences stayed up for about a day. The chigger bites I got lasted for two horrible, sleepless, itch filled nights. Night One I woke up five times, scratching myself all over my legs. To include the chigger bites on my balls. The medics said Lanocain lotion. That pink stuff might as well have been Pepto Bismo lotion for all the good it did me. The worse part about chiggers is that you would never see them. Just the bites. No More fences!

Posted: 5/23/2003 6:35:03 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I was at Camp Lejune, NC in 97' when Hurricane Danny paid us a visit. In the middle of the downpour and gusting winds, one marine from the ANGLICO barracks decided it would be an ideal time to test his new invention.

The invention:

1 skateboard
1 poncho

Rigging the poncho to the skateboard and using himself as a mast to deploy the sail, he began to windsurf the parking lot. Well, it was working until a 65mph gust got ahold of him and tossed him into a Tahoe. The imprint he left in the car looked exactly like a Willie Coyote imprint. Broke every bone in his body, he finished his EAS in the hospital, and added an additional 3 months extra due to his prolonged hospital stay.

I can't think of any one single incident that even remotely compares to this as far as "Not the best idea". Anybody got anything else?

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Uhhh,[:I]

I did this back in '85 at Tyndal AFB. However, I was off base, and the roads were completly empty. A friend and I used his motorcycle covers and ended up over 10 miles away from his house! His wife came and got us.[:D]

Unfortunately, all the other "dumb things" I saw in the military involved me instigating it or actually doing it![shock]

Posted: 5/23/2003 7:18:14 PM EDT

[#16]

Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan

I was a Fuels Controler working in the control center one night when the Red Phone rings. It's weather alerting the base that we had thunder storms within 3 nautical miles.

I start bringing the trucks back to the yard that were in route or hadn't starting pumping yet, and starting sending expeditors to trucks that are pumping to have them shut down and return to the yard.

Next thing I know, the air squadron's control center is calling me wanting to know why I stopped all the pumping.

Me: "Didn't you just get the weather alert sir?"

MSgt Dumb: "Yes. But that doesn't explain why you stopped fueling."

Me: "Sir. Technical Order blah blah blah requires that we shut down all fuel operations when we have lightning within 3 nautical miles."

MSgt Dumb: "The weather alert said nothing about lightning within 3. It said thunder storms within 3."

Me: "Where do you think the sound of thunder comes from?"

MSgt Dumb: "I don't give a damn where it comes from! Get those fuel trucks back out there!"

After me raising his MSgt. rank(E-7) with my Chief's rank of (E-9), he raised me a captian, which resulted in my Chief getting so pissed he called him with a Full Bird Colonel.

From that day on, weather alerts in regards to "thunder storms" came in over the red phone like this: "We have thunderstorms producing lightning within 3 nautical miles."

Even after all that, the weather guys can't even get it right. Lightning produces thunder! Thunder can not produce lightning![banghead]

Posted: 5/23/2003 7:28:52 PM EDT

[#17]

Oh yeah, in the same fuels control center. It's shift change. There are 6 controlers and expeditors on days, and 4 on swings, plus the NCOIC makes a total of 11 people standing around in a 10x10 darkened room getting a shift change briefing.

Chief comes and buzzes at the door and the guy on the desk hits the switch to let him in. He walks right into the center of the room and says, "G--d---! How many f---ing controlers do I have in here! Looks like a f---ing circle jerk!"

To which I replied immediately, "Yeah, the pivot man just showed up."

Every jaw in that room dropped to the floor except mine because I was smiling. Chief turned around and looked at me, lowered his head, shook it side to side, and then just walked out without saying a word.

However! My NCOIC had a few words for me after he left. I'm sure the Chief heard every one of them to because he was yelling so loud.[BD]

Posted: 5/25/2003 4:58:47 PM EDT

[#18]

ill play ,ill play...while on AD at quantico..2 MPs were playin quick draw w/ berreta 9mm and needless to say..one of em got shot in the groin...he lived and things were fine..but got in deep with tht one.

Posted: 6/1/2003 8:53:09 AM EDT

[#19]

A couple of years ago I went to Ft Stewart, GA with my National Guard Air Defense unit. We are in the middle of a live fire with Stinger missiles deep in the woods when suddenly range control starts screaming cease fire. Less than one minute later, two B-1 bombers fly directly overhead at about 500 ft AGL, totally oblivious to the weekend warrior holding a live Stinger beneath them. I was on the Ballistic Aerial Target detail that day, and the E-7 in charge suggested firing one off, just to give the pilots something to think about. I hope some Air Traffic Controller lost his job over that one, because it could have been very, very bad.

Posted: 6/14/2003 7:10:21 AM EDT

[#20]

Hey Ranger!!! Saw a similar episode...a guy tied a water ski tow rope to the chest strap of an MC3 rig (similar to a Jumbo Para Commander) and was behind a jeep...here's the rub, a Para Commander is a Desending rig whereas the Para-Sail is an Asending rig....anywho, tow rope broke, (nylon and stretched to limit)...launched him into the MC3 and he came down and broke both legs...man, that sure left a mark...

Posted: 6/18/2003 9:07:37 PM EDT

[#21]

I was making a repair on a Herk and got stuck with an AB who wouldn't shut up. I finally got sick of it and sent him to supply for a yard of flight line and a sky hook.

I can't believe that oldie still works. :)

Posted: 6/27/2003 9:48:04 AM EDT

[#22]

Being forced to wear raingear as part of our uniform for afternoon classes at USNA.....

....when there wasn't a friggin' cloud in the sky!

Apparently the dickhead jarhead OOD wanted to see how many Mids he could fry.

Marine Officers at USNA were 99% dicks. I've never understood it....

Posted: 6/28/2003 8:59:51 PM EDT

[#23]

Didn't see it, warstory from Senior Drill Sgt at Fort Knox in the long ago:

M48A2C in Vietnam returned to the motor pool with a broken torsion bar. Crew attempted to remove broken torsion bar by method described in -10. No luck. Crew then hijacked a jeep, wrapped chain around torsion bar, hooked chain to tow pintle on jeep, tried to yank torsion bar free. No luck. Genius (my friend the Senior Drill) suggests "field expedient method" of torsion bar removal. Quarter pound of C4 ejects broken torsion bar which skips like a rock across the motor pool before skewering a 5-ton dump truck through the sides of the bed. No casualties, but I understand there were some dudes hi-steppin'!

Was there for this one:

Foggy morning at Dripping Springs Range at Fort Knox, 224 trainees with M16A1's waiting to shoot. Senior Drill Sergeant (same guy as above) sends Training Officer to tower phone to call Range Control to ask them to turn on the range fans to blow the fog away so the troops could shoot. LT was pissed when he got back.

Dumbest thing ever seen on active duty:

Taking an M60A3 tank platoon down a platoon battle run at Baumholder in the counterattack, I called for fire (canned, supposedly) using the grid provided in the scenario. (This was in the old days before jump radios; we had evaluators riding jump seats mounted on the open loader's hatches.) Somebody in the FDC transposed some numbers. There we are, five tanks line abreast at 20 mph with targets coming up when 8 155mm howitzer rounds with superquick point-detonating fuses (not VT, thank God!) start landing around us. No casualties outside of a few loaders having SSGs/SFCs landing on their backs as the evaluators unassed their jump seats. Big time "Cease Fire Freeze" from Range Control on that one. Later that week a battery from the same FA Bn popped a VT round over the Baumholder Commissary. That same day, the FA Bn roadmarched back to their home kasern since there were no trains for them and Baumholder wouldn't let them stay.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What is the dumbest thing you ever saw on active duty? (Page 2 of 2)

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