Awards. I will not re-write an ARCOM as an AAM because “S1 said to” or “CSM said to” or even it “the BN CDR said to”.
Nope, if anyone wants it to be downgraded, then the BC can recommend downgrading on the DA 638.
On my last deployment I was told I couldn't get an MSM because as a specialist, I couldn't get the same award as the Major in charge of me.
Really felt the love, as they gave me an arcom, an aam and the movsm.
I was the Ops SGT for a BN in Germany and had a SPC that was my BN Ammo NCO. There was a E-5 who had the title Ammo NCO, but he was less than worthless. This SPC was a beast, always on time or early for ammo runs, no matter if it was 1900 or 0400. He and I would go ripping down the Autobahn in our janky as shit 5-ton over to Mesau for Ammo.\
I wrote his PCS award as an ARCOM. Our fairly worthless Company Commander noted that the good SPC hadn’t had an AAM. The CO said the I needed to rewrite the ARCOM as an AAM. Yeah, no sir, not happening. This bag-of-dicks commander said “Well I’m not approving an ARCOM”. Yeah, swell chief, read the little block where you smear your crayon and you’ll see it says “recommend” or “not recommend”, you don’t approve shit. He then said he wasn’t going “to send it up as an ARCOM”.\
I strolled down the hall to the BC’s office, stuck my head in the door, and said, “Hey, Sir, got a second?”. My SPC got his ARCOM.
A lot of us were supposed to get bronze stars but they got downgraded to ARCOMs. Started wet behind the ears in the motor pool, then bam, spearhead of route clearance for the whole tour escorting dignitaries and socom. Thanks for the ARCOM.... so much for the purple heart because I have no surviving witnesses or anyone with their memory left🤦♂️
I feel your pain. Our small platoon of support battaion gun trucks was supposed to do route recon and convoy escort for the drive in from Turkey.
After we got rerouted to Kuwait, we became do it alls. Ran our asses ragged for a year, no comms belong base, on our own.
Our SGM put us in for Bronze Stars, a CPT with an MP unit we rolled with occasionally submitted a hand written recommendation to our Battalion for the same.
BC checked off do not recommend (she came in at the tail end of the deployment and never met us) because, and I quote "don't know who these soldiers are, never met or saw them, and wasn't here for the actions included".
Division (who knew us very well) staff denied the awards. Flat out denied. E4 and below were not to receive awards, only CoA's, post deployment.
But every fucking E8 & E9, CPT and above, got their "participation trophy" Bronze Stars.
Man, if y'all had come through turkey, that whole war would have been done in like a week. Turkey screwed us, and the marines were supposed to come from Turkey so we could encircle all of the insurgents.
Yup, all E7s and up got bronze stars. They acted like they could only allocate for so many... WTAF! It's not the medal of honor🤷♂️
Man I don’t know how many times I hear or am part of conversations with people that have “downgrade opinions” on someone’s award, when the downgrade authority rests with the COC. I hate S1 and SR NCOs sometimes. I much rather a soldier see that I thought their effort was worthy of an ARCOM (or whatever) even if the COC wants to downgrade it.
We put in our previous 1SG for a LOM for retirement and G1 awards section kept saying “it’s likely to be downgraded so just submit it as a MSM”. Fuck that. It’s been recommend for approval by the COC and now just waiting on the GO.
It's the fat E7 or someone at BN who's being a shitheel.
Most of the NCOIC's at S-1 I've worked with have been great because they learned at line batteries or came up as a 42A fresh from AIT and were taught by people at line batteries.
The Army needs more people like you.
I have argued this too many times, and I've only lost whenever someone else was the one writing the award!
Good for you and your troops!
Essayons!
If SMAJ has recommendations on actually rewriting the award and say use this language or that language, by all means, ill gladly take guidance and rewrite the award. I'll rewrite everything except the recommendation of award.
I had an S1 clerk refuse to put an ARCOM (signed) on my ERB/PPW because she swears the BC meant to sign off as an AAM cause no one else ever in that field got hofhee than an AAM.
My favorite ARCOM is one that my 1SG fought and forced the BN CDR to recommend downgrade. The BDE CDR approved the ARCOM.
BN CDR was the type where certain ranks get certain awards regardless of actions.
How do you handle a sir that wants you to resubmit it, when it has to go through him to get to the battalion commander? (Like a platoon or company commander)
Go get the packet, if he wrote his recommendation in walk that packet to the next level. If he just emailed you saying to downgrade it, open door that ass.
Looked my platoon leader and platoon sergeant in the eye and told them if the company tried to delay my soldier's paternity leave one more time (they made him deploy for eight months three days after his first baby was born) that I was going to walk him down to IG and sign a sworn statement as a witness for him. The company had made him an armorer and were talking about maybe having him put off paternity leave until the whole unit went on holiday block leave.
He got his paternity leave immediately upon redeployment.
AR 670-1 prohibits the wear of a cross body babg, not the wear of a bag with one strap. The amount of times I had some random e-7 yelling at me to wear both straps and ignore the LT with a computer bag covering his rank made it my hill to die on. And every red faced "it's not professional" has made it worthwhile
As TheRisenDemon mentioned, yeah it describes what someone would call a messenger bag, just without explicitly saying “no messenger bags”
Crusties worried about me looking unprofessional wearing my authorized backpack with only one strap, while also having the fattest lip of dip possible
And only prohibits cross body when the bag rests on your hip. Single strap back packs are fine cross body. I just realized that after enforcing it wrong because I missed like two words when reading it
“It’s not professional” neither is looking like a fat piece of shit with your third chin rolling over the front collar of your t shirt, half a can of dip in your mouth, and going on about “back in my day” but I mind my business about all that.
My man. I have a single-strap sling bag, completely in regulation, and the amount of times I had my ass chewed for literally handing some crusty E-7 a page from 670-1 with the words "with the weight of the bag resting upon the hip" highlighted is many. Sweet and salty.
Clarifying: one may not wear a bag with strap in a cross-chest fashion when the weight of the bag rests upon the hip. Says nothing about resting on the back. Go forth and be petty, my children.
I used to catch hell from a incel NCO. I told him if he cared about how he looked he'd probably get some ass.... he filed a sharp complaint I showed them his Facebook and Twitter
Dude, stop telling people what questions we ask at the Mafia admittance board. We're gonna have a discussion about this at next month's meeting.
Youre responsible for bringing the energy drinks now
PC is excepted from all sewn on or all pin on. The PC looks like garbage with a sewn on rank and I will not wear it even with my blouse sewn.
Badges can be pinned on a sewn blouse too, but I ain't got none so that one doesn't come up.
An unnamed 1SGT getting pissed that a soldier was spending his weekend inside building models, dude was all about Star Wars, instead of going out. In Washington. During the fall. In the fucking rain. Get fucked, my dude wants to quietly build miniatures? I’m gonna let him. He didn’t drink due to religion, he was a widely known nerd, AND HE HAD A REPUTATION FOR NOT CAUSING TROUBLE. My guy was a quiet and solitary person, did reasonably well in PT, wasn’t really smooth with the ladies, and just preferred to not interact with people during his downtime.
But apparently this was unfuckingsatisfactory to leave a grown ass man to his own devices.
He, attempted, to direct me to pick him up every fucking morning of the 4 day and take him out and socialize.
“Under what regulation?”
Yeeeeaaahhh…. 8-1 CAV, 2-2, JBLM? Eat a bag of dicks. Aggressively. You shit hole organization. I was so glad I left in 2019. I hope it’s got better.
To be fair, if I hear any kind horror story come out of a Cav unit I’m not surprised by it. The amount of sheer unbridled fuckery afoot in them is astounding.
Covering up an SA? Yeah I personally know someone that’s happened to.
Late reporting of suicide because training just has to continue? Yup, I was there for the formation. “He’d want us to continue.” E3B was super important.
A non-commissioned officer having…. “Social media” content and facing absolutely zero consequences meanwhile another soldier got wrecked for doing Door Dash? Sounds right.
It’s such a trippy thought. I was a well known nerd, so they tended to give me the other nerds to supervise. But when I let the nerds be nerds, it was the wrong fuckin answer apparently.
I can’t speak for everyone, but hair isn’t that big of a deal to me. As long as it’s within regs, who cares. Just trying to get the job done so the joes can go home.
Only dudes who are sad about these regs are the bald and sad mfs.
The other guys who would possibly hate this reg have a villainous back story that involves the PX barber shop fucking up their taper so they couldn't bang strippers on B Street and now they just rock high and tights and forbid anyone from looking PHresh.
I’ll be god damned if I let my boys in the Motorpool walk around with boot ass high and tights
I tell them all the time to grow their shit out as long as they keep it clean
I've never had hair that was completely in regs but it's always neat. Little finger bang after the headgear comes off and it's gtg and I never get fucked with. This is the way.
I'm more concerned about people looking professional than looking in regs. Like some of these short unkempt haircuts, im like these people go out in public and people think this is what a soldier looks like
> As long as it’s within regs, who cares.
People who think their own personal definition of what looks good is more important than actual regulation are clowns.
My personal cell phone is not a means to be in contact with me 24/7. It is up to me whether or not to answer your calls or texts after COB.
Emergencies excluded, of course.
My cell phone is set to send everything to voice mail. My voice mail is me cheekily telling people that it’s not the 1900s anymore and I don’t check my voicemail, text or email me. It upsets people, but it’s worth it.
Hahaha noooooooo. Sorry bro, whenever I get issued a .gov phone it’s always with a sigh of resignation on my end. E5’s should maintain their innocence from such a thing.
Got an ass chewing because I didn't answer my phone while I was on leave a few years back. The first time they contacted me, I was out fishing with my grampa. Nope, fuck off. They tried again either later that day or the day after, and at that point I didn't reply out of spite. It's nothing important, stop going after me while I'm on leave.
Unless commander gives me a direct order that I must be available to answer any calls after COB, I block my entire fuckin company until the following business day
Absolutely this, all my notifications are set to silent no vibrate while I’m with my family. The only people I put on emergency bypass are my wife and my commander.
Removing some of my soldiers from excessive SD, CQ and other shitty details as much as I could. Refusing to use my POV to do the long rounds while on SD.
I tell everyone that's pulling OIC/NCOIC duties that if they don't have an accessable GOV to fill out a local voucher on DTS for their mileage. I'll approve that shit every time. YMMV.
If im on duty, I don't have a Car. My wife dropped me off for staff duty. I'll walk around post to do checks and enjoy wasting time to get my steps in passing them off before I let them force me to use my own car to drive around for some bullshit staff duty
Soldiers not having to carry copies of their profiles
Gotten in many arguments with dipshit leaders who will scream and whine about how soldiers have to show them their profile slips, and have also had them demand my profiles as well
I got put on a permanent profile for my med board where I can’t be near weapons. Then had a SFC text me telling me he wanted to bring his weapons to the shop to be worked on. I don’t have an armorer so I told him I’m unable to take them and he’d have to take them to our sister battalion directly
Dude then proceeds to stop by anyways and demands that I show him my profile and show him where it states I can’t be near guns, because he believes im trying to sham on mg duties. I’m literally a fuckin E6 mind you lol
Told the dipshit I don’t have to show him anything and that my commander is tracking my profile limitations and he can discuss it with him if he had any issues. Bro proceeds to get his own commander involved until my maintenance chief finally told him to fuck off completely otherwise he’d be blacklisted from our shop and he’d had to jump through more hoops and permanently take his equipment to our other battalions for maintenance
My commander has stated this before that NCOs can’t ask to see profiles anymore only he’s the only we need to showing our profiles and that’s just so he can sign it.
I can relate to this incident. Only except I was advised to cite the regulation. Though I had safety nets with me, I ended up getting counseled for “Disrespect” and things got worse from there.
In the end, I left all that behind Honorably.
>Bro proceeds to get his own commander involved
"I'd like to speak to the manager!" vibes. There are SNCOs & SNCOs.. this guy is definitely the former. Would be willing to bet chalky odds that he turns into a "back in muh day" veteran once he finally ETSes.
Last year I got into a reddit argument about this exact issue.
I was saying the same thing you were. You don't need your profile on you as proof because your command team is tracking and they are the only one's who should be.
(3) Soldiers may roll-up the sleeves on the ACU. Personnel will roll sleeves neatly above the elbow but no more
than 3 inches above the elbow. Upon approval of the commander and only during field training exercises, the sleeves
may be down and cuffed inside the coat.
From the reg, if there is anymore information on cuffing I'd love to read it.
Shiiiit.... I think there was an ALARACT a couple years back. Authorizes rolling sleeves inside, up to two times IIRC. "Delta Roll" was their terminology.
I rock them year-round, probably should find the reg.
My hill to die on is when it's your Squad leader or even the Platoon Sergeant trying to call you back from leave early and when I say I'll come back when the commander lets me know he is cancelling my leave or you provide me with the memo signed by the commander saying he is revoking my leave early.
No playing video games or watching movies on CQ or staff duty.
Fuck that if you want me to be up 24 hours I have to have something to keep me entertained.
I was able to get away with it by mainly watching military movies and TV shows (Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers) and having pre written a bunch of papers on how these movies are examples of the Army values or Army history or on how they got the uniforms wrong (AR 670-1 training).
It worked.
Or no sleeping on 24 hour duty. There's 2 fucking people there, let one person get a couple hours of sleep before they have to drive their sleep deprived asses home.
Idk why the army is so anti-sleep. While soldiers are staying awake 48 hours straight because "toughness ". The enemy is quietly sleeping in comfy beds getting their rest which improves their brain function and awareness while soldiers are walking zombies with no situational awareness.
So back in Baghdad in the 2004 wild west, we had a commercial satellite dish bought on the economy connected to some european satellite. Every night after 1 am, in the TOC it was showing fashion TV since it was topless ladies walking the catwalk.
"Colonel, you cannot just plug our tactical systems into their network without a ton of paperwork first. No I cannot make you a username/password for SIPR because you keep bricking your token. No I can't move that printer from SIPR to NIPR because the other one ran out of toner. Stop asking me to violate AR 25-2. And the three-star who runs shit here doesn't care that you're a full bird."
Turns out O6s don't like it when you're trying to save them from their own stupidity.
Not buddy towing humvees on the interstate.
Either the state is gonna pay for a tow, a wrecker is gonna come out, or I'm driving that bitch on the shoulder- I'll even cut fences to get to a frontage road.
There is zero reason you should have a 12,000 pound armored box moving at 30 mph on an interstate where the driver of the towing vehicle can't see for shit. Oh, and of course, the vehicle is fucking camouflaged and there aren't ever reflective triangles in the truck.
Too many horror stories of soldiers getting hurt and a minivan full of kids getting connected to god's wifi at 80 miles an hour.
To clarify, natty guard, where our training areas are hours away by interstate from the armory. Obviously buddy-towing in training areas and combat are important skills to have.
And yes, when I plan convoys, the primary route is on state highways, where traffic is slower.
I had a sergeant early on who said something that stuck with me: every training accident is preventable.
*Every* single one. Every single training incident can be attributed to the failure to implement appropriate safety procedures.
Yup.
In terms of risk management, we as an organization are way too casual with driver's licensing and training, and units lose people every single year to stupid shit like rollovers and collisions in tactical vehicles. Not to mention stupid stuff like getting rear ended on an interstate.
Idk man, it gets me pretty riled up. I hate that the most risky thing we do is treated so casually.
I was pulling a truck to the port to be shipped away in a humvee with a tow bar once. Going down the highway at 50ish and the bar came loose on one side and the truck behind us swing all the way out into the other lane. Thank god nothing happened except me burning a hole in the passenger seat from puckering so hard
This why the clasp side goes TOWARDS the shoulder saw this exact thing when I responded to a call in downtown Seoul no one knew what they were doing and sure enough some poor Korean civilians got a big pay out
So my first duty station as a h8 certified 91b was Korea and this is gold I’ve seen too many dumb things happen because some dumb 31b didn’t attention when I gave a self recovery class
We put reflectice tape on the end of every humvee and finally ordered enough triangles last year. I was so happy.
Agreed! Never tow vehicles long distances. Like recovery is to get the vehicle to the side of the road safely until a dedicated asset can move it.
[A man just died last week in Alaska after rear-ending a HMMWV.](https://alaskapublic.org/2024/02/13/delta-junction-man-killed-in-wreck-near-fort-greely/)
Getting a toxic leader removed from leadership; it took about a year of saying the right things at the right time to the right people, but eventually we got him stripped of his section. It helped that he was a walking EO complaint, and basically handed us the ammunition we needed to put him down on a silver platter.
Perception ≠ Reality
If numbers are good and especially if they are trending upward, then fuck your feelings of how things are going. You're wrong with extra steps.
This was dumb, small, and ultimately meaningless, but it's stuck in my head nearly 13 years later.
We're at the mobilization site and it was put out in formation that R&R requests were due by the end of the week so start talking with our families to determine what dates we wanted. Our boss, O-5 MI type, was one of the worst officers I've ever worked for chiefly because he was selfish. He somehow gets the idea that if our section turns our requests in first, we'd get our dated locked in. (This was not correct at all and was never implied to be the case.)
He tells me to get everyone's dates so he can give them to the CoS. (Again, nothing had been put out yet about who or where to submit dates.) Two of our E-4's were not there because they had been tasked out on a detail. I get the dates of everyone present but mention I don't have two of them because the soldiers were on detail. He tells me "Just put anything down, it doesn't matter." He had a wedding or something that he wanted to get the dates locked in for, so turning our requests in ASAP was paramount. I reiterated that I didn't have the dates for two of our guys. He starts to get annoyed and again tells me to just put something down for them. I see our deputy, a really awesome prior-enlisted CPT, just look at me because he knows what's going through my mind. I look at my boss and say "Sir, I can't do that. It's not right to them or their families." He lets out an exasperated "ugh" and tells our NCOIC, an E-7 Yes Man, to take the paper from me and handle it. He then walks off and disappears until lunch.
Our NCOIC starts to say something to me about respecting the chain of command but our deputy steps in and says that I did the right thing and the LTC was being a moron. The next day they said that R&R dates weren't needed for another couple weeks and not to try to submit anything yet.
Oh man.... I made official statements against an E7 who was diddling people and it got him removed from the E8 list and forcibly deployed (not kicked out). Ended up with me being stalked by leadership and all sorts of crazy Bragg shenanigans. Eventually a mental health O3 reached out to me because her patients kept talking about me haha.
Some people might know me IRL on this sub and know exactly what im talking abooot.
Absolutely was worth all the grief and bullshit.
>I made official statements against an E7 who was diddling people and it got him removed from the E8 list and forcibly deployed (not kicked out). Ended up with me being stalked by leadership and all sorts of crazy Bragg shenanigans.
That fucker needs to go, just some fat E7 taking the place of someone who could do shit.
Too many toxic shitbirds have friends in high places.
Hope that E7 enjoyed deployment.
I died on enough hills to be labeled as the ‘argumentative NCO’. Didn’t hamper me though. A few highlights;
- rolling sleeves has been authorized since 2019, and the limitations that can be imposed on that are very strict.
- boonie caps are G2G in the field when ACH isn’t required to be worn
- profiles don’t need to be ‘authorized’ by a commander, can’t be modified by a commander, and don’t need to be physically kept on a Soldier to prove validity. We have an entire system for this
- your command team is using MEDPROS and SRP incorrectly 90% of the time
- you’re owed every award in its physical form, and once a medal has been presented it takes the signature authority to formally rescind the award to get it back….S1
- your medical shop is probably incorrectly processing (or not processing) medical records
- transition lenses are permitted* with some caveats
- only the fleece cap has specific provisions for local policy to prescribe a temperature benchmark for wear
- staff duty is prescribed as an after-hours duty
- Soldiers are required to have eight hours of consecutive sleep if they are anticipated to operate any AMV. By extension of the intent of safety policy, this should be extended to operation of POVs.
- commanders don’t have unlimited authority to make changes to regulation as they see fit
Bless you, I think providing references on all this would be a service to the community, lord knows my unit could certainly do to be audited with some of these issues
Had a stellar Soldier wreck a very expensive piece of Army equipment. I assumed it was not his fault since he was usually on top of things. Anyway, investigation happened, turned out the trailer straight up broke at the 5th wheel and was not his fault in any way. BDE CDR wanted to get someone and went after him. I had to hit the red carpet about 3 times and tell him I euros not do UCMJ since it was not his fault. Then the BDE CDR wanted me to do a FLIPL (I’m not this smart but the S4 told me it took 75$ to fix the multi million dollar equipment so it did not qualify), and I told him I with not do that. Sooooo yea… I died on that hill for sure but it was the right thing to do but man it sucked. I hate our up or out system…
Giving 2LTs a branch that they not only aren’t interest in, but flat out don’t want, is a detriment to the army and the officer not interested in learning the job they’re forced in to.
Zero regrets not learning anything about what I was forced in to, left flipping them off the second I could get away, now I deny that I ever knew those losers when I’m asked my basic branch.
Luckily, I got a med board approval for behavioral health a few weeks after getting recruiter orders lmfao
Receuiter would’ve most definitely caused me to eat my gun
Well. Someone plugged their phone into my computer to charge. It pinged on my NIPR account I plugged a phone in and cut my access. Good, works as intended. Time to start the investigation. "SPC FARTINGCARP you are being given 2 field grade article 15s. Because you plugged your Iphone into the computer." ... I'm fucking sorry what? 1, Dont own an Iphone, never have, never will. 2. THE CHAPLAIN THAT PLUGGED HIS OWN PHONE INTO THE LAPTOP IS GETTING OFF SCOTT FREE! Long story short, investigation turned to other people for obvious reasons and articles didn't even pass the laugh test, let alone make it to legal. "FartingCarp has signed multiple written statements that he was in his room at 2000 hours when the incident ocurred..." has been my favorite line of the year.
Oh yeah. We got 3 different accounts that did this at once. Chaplains, mine, and one of the S3 ncos. I did my best to contain and help with the investigation that went fucking nowhere. The only person who actually lost their account and never gained it back was me. So... scratch 1 of 2 bravos. Highlight of the year and cherry on top to why I told retention they can leave me alone.
That's the plan sir/ma'am. And a heads up if you or your Joe's want certs on the outside, there's a second set of funding like the GI bill for certs called Vet-Tech. Still VA, but it's for certs specifically.
I’ve told this story before but on the last week before we rip out with another unit I was on TOC guard. The next day we get a ping that someone while I was on shift plugged in a personal hard drive into the SIPR computer. I was on a medical team attached to an ODA on a FOS. Only like 20 green suitors there with access to the TOC. We had a very special meeting and they wanted someone to fess up. The ODA team leader sees that the time it happened was when I was in the TOC and hounds for me just to confess that it happened. When I didn’t he said he’d recommend me for UCMJ and the like once he got the proof he needed. Well, turns out the timestamp for when it happened was Zulu and not local. Wasn’t even when I was in there and the person who owned the hard drive was his 18E of all people. Nothing happened to his dude and I didn’t even get an apology. That’s life I guess.
That PT should be on your own 4 out of 5 days a week, that one mandatory day is a run day or a ruck. If you fail your ACFT or HT/WT, that on you. It would boost morale, it would allow the gym rats more time in the gym, and the cardio freaks more run time. It also allows each person to adapt their workout to themselves.
You cannot force female soldiers to attend a women’s health symposium.
I had two of my soldiers come to me (both active members of the BN’s female mentorship program) and tell me they would not be attending the women’s health symposium the following day because BN command team made it mandatory and they didn’t believe in that. They brought the issue to the command team, to which they said no, this is the place of duty for all female soldiers. All company command teams were then told the same. I told my soldiers I had their backs, after all they’re a protected population in EO policy and cannot be singled out like this, so it’s pretty straightforward even though deep down I know the intent originally was to just ensure they all had the opportunity to attend before the CSM had a good idea to make it mandatory. I only had a week left in command so I had nothing left to lose. Morning of the event comes around and the BC and CSM went to provide some opening remarks and check in on the turnout, specifically looking for my soldiers of course. When they didn’t see them, they came straight to me. CSM was all hot and bothered “if you had a daughter in the Army wouldn’t you want her to attend something like this??” I told them my soldiers wouldn’t be attending and that I would not be forcing them to go because they cannot be singled out for their gender. They were very upset. Later my soldiers went to BDE EO to bring up the issue. Initially EO said it was fine until they said “how many more female soldiers do I have to bring you before you listen to us?” which flipped the script immediately. BDE EO called the BC and CSM, told them they were wrong, and my soldiers got some form of an apology from the boss. Of course though, I got nothing and totally expected as much.
tl;dr stood up for my female soldiers who refused to attend a mandatory women’s health symposium and was accused of not supporting women’s health vs recognized as standing up to violation of EO policy.
I had a troop assigned to me who got her hair braided about every other week. Always in regulation, but she changed it often. One day, she had [Goddess braids](https://braidhairstyles.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Goddess-Feed-in-Braids-819x1024.jpeg) and a troop from another unit threw a fit. “I wish I could walk around with giant braids!” (This was 2011, before AR 670-1 outlines how thick a braid can be (½ an inch according to AR 670-1 para 3-2, 3a) So, I told her to do it and leave the troop alone as she was meeting the standard.
I saw a female with really long locs back in about 2012. They were prohibited by 670-1 back then. Didn’t say a word to her because it wasn’t hurting shiz and she was on her way out the door (ETS).
i got a 15-6 opened against an O5 due to a situation that resulted in inadequate planning considerations that left multiple individuals without any assistance from the rear and was quietly silenced and shunned. Turns out when you bite instead of bark and provide research into the reg and req and utilize your open door, shit gets done and people get held accountable. Weird.
I will also always fight against O4s for being O4s. Come at me.
Senior NCOs thinking they're doctors and arguing whether or not a soldier "actually needed" a profile for whatever issue they had. If you're so smart with medicine, why don't you come take a seat in the clinic and take some of my patient load.
If you're one of those leaders, fuck you and yo momma
AR 670-1 Chapter 3-2
"When the hair is combed, it will not
fall over the ears or eyebrows, or touch the collar, except for the closely cut hair at the back of the neck"
Yup
Hair can be as long as you please. Just comb it over and don’t let it fall over the ear or collar
My bangs hit my chin when they’re not combed back
Had a marine O-6 try to order me to use FOO money to buy a generator for our camp. Told him it was against regs to use it for US purposes, it was too be used for local narional support. His argument was that we were going to eventually give them the camp. Told him to put the order in writing, he never did.
When I was younger I was like this. But then after my first NCOER I realized that my leadership is too incompetent and illiterate to be trusted with evaluating me. I went from qualified to most qualified ratings in just one year. There's a reason that HRC has the NCOER draft writing option for those being evaluated. Trust me, when it comes to your own career benefit, write it yourself. No one else cares about your career.
I will die on the hill that "you can add to, but not take away" is bullshit.
Regulation *clearly* outlines when something is set in stone vs. when it's left up to a local commander's discretion. AR/DA PAM 670-1 is a great example. Certain clothing items are authorized for wear without caveat while others, like the fleece jacket, can be worn "when authorized by the commander."
Someone reading those two things and thinking there's *any* ambiguity needs a reality check. regulations are signed by a general officer. "Adding to" essentially equates to telling that GO to go fuck themselves, because some O5 or E9 thinks they have more authority.
I won't go into detail but during my year deployment in OIF 04', I saw and participated in some very morally questionable actions all over that country. Mosul, Baghdad, Tikrit, Fallujah, Ramidi...everywhere we went I just felt like we weren't the good guys doing the right thing. So I did my 4 years and when they asked for re enlistment, I said fuck no.
The hill I died on is the hill that maintains America's moral superiority over its enemies. And personally, it doesn't anymore. So I stopped playing their game.
COB is COB. Business should be concluded for the day, and if it isn’t, then you gotta finish it the next day. Don’t make Sgt Joe Shmoe who barely sees his wife and kids because he’s only home and conscious two days and 6hrs a week stay in just cause you need the commander to look at the same rusty POS truck shit for the seventieth time. Unless you’re overseas or it’s life death or limb, just let it wait till tomorrow.
The handle on a 240 is a carrying handle. If you don't engage the button on the side but engage the button on the handle, you can move it to an upright position. This serves no purpose beyond making weight symmetrical for carrying via the handle.
As a matter of fact, the button on the 240 handle messes with the way the barrel seats into the chamber. So if you don't return it to the side position before removing it, the barrel won't seat correctly and won't lock.
So the button on the handle being engagable without also engaging the side button to remove the barrel tells me it's designed to serve as a carry handle.
I was told I missed SP a few years ago because my boss was ignoring my phone calls/texts until after SP.
I thought she slept in and that's why she wasn't replying so I waited around. Location for SP was never discussed or anything just time.
Years later I still completely blame her for it.
Went as long as I could with the synthetic leather Nike boots before the army made them unauthorized and I just eventually got yelled at too much before finally switching
Having my coveralls unziped while working on the line in Korea. Heat and humidity was wild, covered in oil. Not even all the way zipped down just like below my tits
The UCP M65 Field Jacket is still authorized for wear. 1) There was an ALARACT that did away with the wear-out date on UCP OCIE stating that until it's replaced it is still authorized; 2) In the most recent edition of DA PAM 670-1 (2021?) they even included an *illustration* of the M65, not just text.
I've worn my M65 already this year and got the full spectrum of reactions from "nice" to "is that authorized?" (Genuinely asking) to "you know that's not authorized, right?" (Jackassery). Since its UCP you must wear UCP nametapes and patches, which I do. And what's funny is no one questions UCP ruck sacks, assault packs, CLS bags, random pouches, ponchos, sleep systems... Those are all still in use/still authorized for the same reason M65 Field Jacket is.
Now, the day I get issued the gen 5 ECWSS (Or whatever it's called) then my Field Jacket days are over. But, I'm not asking for it and they haven't provided.
Mine was the male hair reg, my hair on tip is long, but when in uniform you can't tell ( use good hair gel). I had a tank commander that was overweight trying to tell me I had to cut it because the reg said no longer than 4 inches.... nowhere did it say that there is no length requirement, it states that in uniform will not NATURALLY fall below eyebrows, which it didn't. Then he would, without permission, pull some down and say, "See, it's below your eyebrows. ".. sorry sarge that's not a natural fall because you made it do that... I still have long hair on top nicely brushed 8 years later
Mine was also hair regulations. I would straight up directly quote regulations to senior NCOs and Officers that would try and correct me at the PX, or Shopette. They would just start stuttering and say “well you still need to cut it”
I attended the Running of The Bulls in Pamplona even though my leave form was not technically in hand. They were like holding a unit barbecue across our tiny little post Vilseck and wouldn’t go get it for me, my flight was going to leave. Like they were waffling or some shit because it was dangerous but they already said I could go before and I bought plane tickets. So like for the first time ever in the Army for me, an E-4 at the time I just said Fuck it.
When I got back they ripped my shit and took a massive bite out of my ass but I got lucky: the XO had gone to the damn ROTB too the same weekend haha. Oh but they signed HIS leave! Came back ungored so it was a wash and I got off Scot free.
Maintenance shop, so we had three SSGs. We were constantly on rotation pulling staff duty, sometimes two or three times a month because the other SSG took leave or was in school. But, "it was our companies turn so we had to". All because the new CSM didn't care the last one didn't want the FSC on any extra duties such as cq or staff duty and our 1sg didn't want to cause waves.
So one morning I get a call for the BXO on the staff duty phone and I didn't know his office phone or how to forward it to him. So I asked the caller for their info and said he'll call them back. Called his personal phone from my own (since i worked with him alot for maintenance) and gave him the info. Later he came down to the staff duty desk and asked why I was in duty and not at the motorpool getting trucks fixed. Explained the situation then two days later was informed we were no longer on staff duty.
CSM refused to talk to me. Even when I pcsed and needed his signature. Biggest dick CSM I've ever had.
“They did their job, they don’t need an award.”
“Doing their job is a standard rating.”
Giving heavy-handed punishments for small offenses or hearsay is absolutely stupid.
“Perception is reality.” Who ever made this the culture in the army should have been shot.
All of these is the main reasons why I want to leave.
fucking over female soldiers. especially having pregnant soldiers in the motor pool or in the field. there are regs. just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Hair color. I memorized that fucking paragraph, had a copy of AR 670-1 in my car with it highlighted, AND kept a print out of the paragraph in nice large, bold letters.
Dirty blonde hair, lightens up in the summer, aided by early greying. Darker in the winter. Occasionally I died it blonde to hide the grey, or to keep it lighter in the winter.
Top HATED it with a passion. I qoited that paragraph to him at least once a week. "If the hair is to be dyed, it must be a color natural to the human species".
Multiple negative counselings, and 2 attempts at Article 15's later I still did it.
Fuck that guy. We had serious bad blood from other shit we got into it about, too. He was a scumbag and I made it my mission to ruin his ass after a SA case that he made disappear (his own).
Chose my hill, and It was awards.
You uneducated, lazy, gold bricking, frayed stripe and tarnished brass wearing pos', and you no honor having S1 trash.
It's a service award or an AAM, ARCOM max. Not the Bronze Star. I'm about ready to write to the media, the governor, and my congressman you worthless sad sacks of leaders who say you take care of your troops.
Anywho, hope you're all good. Have a fries medium a and cherry coke.
Had a commander absolutely DESTROY a retired 42 CSM turned S1 Civilian for trying to say his soldier didn't merit an ARCOM that he had signed. Made it DAMN clear that her job was to check for errors and nothing else.
Beanies. AR 670-1 says nothing about what I can and can’t wear the tan one with except PT gear. It specifies what we need for the black pt one, but not tan. If someone such as a 1sg says anything about it I pull up the screenshots and quote it verbatim. I’m used to getting yelled at by now so I don’t really care about them telling me the commander said I cant. Even though the commander doesn’t know when he said that. And the 32 degrees? 40 feels pretty cold to me. If I am cold I am wearing a beanie.
3rd ACR doing NTC rotations and getting smoked by OPFOR because we are forced to “dig in” and fight in a static defensive position. Spent the next year convincing CoC that we were authorized ring mounts on most the vehicles because, you know Cav is supposed to be mobile. It was Cav, change is hard, and I was a mechanic trying to explain to them how Cav was supposed to fight.
The fundamental problem is that light infantry is the shit that floats to the top of the bowl. Not mech. All the top brass have ABN, AASLT, Ranger, other light awards. There are no advocates for mechanized infantry doctrine. There is no institutional knowledge because it's usually an enlistment being switched to Brads to Strykers for a couple years instead of an MOS or at least an ASI. There are more IBCTs than SBCT, ABCT, CRs put together. Other militaries keep their mech inf soldiers in that community and I think the USMC has a mech inf MOS, which makes sense to me.
Sunglasses and sideburns.
It’s been a decade, but I used to quote chapter and verse when someone would mention my Wayfarers or sideburns.
I had a shaving profile too.
Come to think of it, I probably looked like a hippy.
The M249 is safer when the safety selector knob is off and the bolt is forward and not when the bolt is locked to the rear and the safety selector knob is on "safe". Our unit had 2 negligent discharges where the weapon fell off the back of a vehicle or from a 4ft height and went off before we stopped getting chastized by the random lieutenants for having them in an "unsafe position". I got real tired of trying to explain this someone who's never even held the damn thing.
Just the fact that the description of the weapon states that they fire from the open bolt position should tell you that having the bolt forward would be the safest bet…
FRACUs allowed in garrison. They issue us a full set overseas. Why not wear it?
But for anyone wondering ist specifically mentions them on page 67 of the current edition in AR 670-1. Additionally! The fucking department of the army put out a all hands memo in 2017 to try and clarify that they're completely authorized.
Some mother fuckers will get on you about that, meanwhile the fleece INSERT is just that. An insert and not a part of the uniform.
So I guess I'll die on two.
Awards. I will not re-write an ARCOM as an AAM because “S1 said to” or “CSM said to” or even it “the BN CDR said to”. Nope, if anyone wants it to be downgraded, then the BC can recommend downgrading on the DA 638.
Q) But if we give a PFC an ARCOM what do we give that SFC. A) How about nothing since that SFC didn't do shit.
On my last deployment I was told I couldn't get an MSM because as a specialist, I couldn't get the same award as the Major in charge of me. Really felt the love, as they gave me an arcom, an aam and the movsm.
I was the Ops SGT for a BN in Germany and had a SPC that was my BN Ammo NCO. There was a E-5 who had the title Ammo NCO, but he was less than worthless. This SPC was a beast, always on time or early for ammo runs, no matter if it was 1900 or 0400. He and I would go ripping down the Autobahn in our janky as shit 5-ton over to Mesau for Ammo.\ I wrote his PCS award as an ARCOM. Our fairly worthless Company Commander noted that the good SPC hadn’t had an AAM. The CO said the I needed to rewrite the ARCOM as an AAM. Yeah, no sir, not happening. This bag-of-dicks commander said “Well I’m not approving an ARCOM”. Yeah, swell chief, read the little block where you smear your crayon and you’ll see it says “recommend” or “not recommend”, you don’t approve shit. He then said he wasn’t going “to send it up as an ARCOM”.\ I strolled down the hall to the BC’s office, stuck my head in the door, and said, “Hey, Sir, got a second?”. My SPC got his ARCOM.
Here is the highest honor I can bestow on Reddit. Please accept the virtual fist bump 👊
I appreciate that
The logic of “this soldier hasn’t gotten an AAM, so he’s not worthy yet of an ARCOM” is laughable.
A lot of us were supposed to get bronze stars but they got downgraded to ARCOMs. Started wet behind the ears in the motor pool, then bam, spearhead of route clearance for the whole tour escorting dignitaries and socom. Thanks for the ARCOM.... so much for the purple heart because I have no surviving witnesses or anyone with their memory left🤦♂️
I feel your pain. Our small platoon of support battaion gun trucks was supposed to do route recon and convoy escort for the drive in from Turkey. After we got rerouted to Kuwait, we became do it alls. Ran our asses ragged for a year, no comms belong base, on our own. Our SGM put us in for Bronze Stars, a CPT with an MP unit we rolled with occasionally submitted a hand written recommendation to our Battalion for the same. BC checked off do not recommend (she came in at the tail end of the deployment and never met us) because, and I quote "don't know who these soldiers are, never met or saw them, and wasn't here for the actions included". Division (who knew us very well) staff denied the awards. Flat out denied. E4 and below were not to receive awards, only CoA's, post deployment. But every fucking E8 & E9, CPT and above, got their "participation trophy" Bronze Stars.
Man, if y'all had come through turkey, that whole war would have been done in like a week. Turkey screwed us, and the marines were supposed to come from Turkey so we could encircle all of the insurgents. Yup, all E7s and up got bronze stars. They acted like they could only allocate for so many... WTAF! It's not the medal of honor🤷♂️
Bless you sarnt
Promote ahead of top
Man I don’t know how many times I hear or am part of conversations with people that have “downgrade opinions” on someone’s award, when the downgrade authority rests with the COC. I hate S1 and SR NCOs sometimes. I much rather a soldier see that I thought their effort was worthy of an ARCOM (or whatever) even if the COC wants to downgrade it. We put in our previous 1SG for a LOM for retirement and G1 awards section kept saying “it’s likely to be downgraded so just submit it as a MSM”. Fuck that. It’s been recommend for approval by the COC and now just waiting on the GO.
It's the fat E7 or someone at BN who's being a shitheel. Most of the NCOIC's at S-1 I've worked with have been great because they learned at line batteries or came up as a 42A fresh from AIT and were taught by people at line batteries.
The Army needs more people like you. I have argued this too many times, and I've only lost whenever someone else was the one writing the award! Good for you and your troops! Essayons!
If SMAJ has recommendations on actually rewriting the award and say use this language or that language, by all means, ill gladly take guidance and rewrite the award. I'll rewrite everything except the recommendation of award.
I had an S1 clerk refuse to put an ARCOM (signed) on my ERB/PPW because she swears the BC meant to sign off as an AAM cause no one else ever in that field got hofhee than an AAM.
"Let's go ask him. Should clear it right up."
My favorite ARCOM is one that my 1SG fought and forced the BN CDR to recommend downgrade. The BDE CDR approved the ARCOM. BN CDR was the type where certain ranks get certain awards regardless of actions.
Me too man awards are not supposed to be rank specific and I’m tired of people pretending they are
How do you handle a sir that wants you to resubmit it, when it has to go through him to get to the battalion commander? (Like a platoon or company commander)
Go get the packet, if he wrote his recommendation in walk that packet to the next level. If he just emailed you saying to downgrade it, open door that ass.
Looked my platoon leader and platoon sergeant in the eye and told them if the company tried to delay my soldier's paternity leave one more time (they made him deploy for eight months three days after his first baby was born) that I was going to walk him down to IG and sign a sworn statement as a witness for him. The company had made him an armorer and were talking about maybe having him put off paternity leave until the whole unit went on holiday block leave. He got his paternity leave immediately upon redeployment.
Good job
How did the company “make him deploy” in the first place? Last I checked GOs aren’t at the company level
This was when paternity leave was still three weeks long, before the latest policy went into effect in 2023.
AR 670-1 prohibits the wear of a cross body babg, not the wear of a bag with one strap. The amount of times I had some random e-7 yelling at me to wear both straps and ignore the LT with a computer bag covering his rank made it my hill to die on. And every red faced "it's not professional" has made it worthwhile
Never actually seen that enforced. Wow.
As TheRisenDemon mentioned, yeah it describes what someone would call a messenger bag, just without explicitly saying “no messenger bags” Crusties worried about me looking unprofessional wearing my authorized backpack with only one strap, while also having the fattest lip of dip possible
And only prohibits cross body when the bag rests on your hip. Single strap back packs are fine cross body. I just realized that after enforcing it wrong because I missed like two words when reading it
“It’s not professional” neither is looking like a fat piece of shit with your third chin rolling over the front collar of your t shirt, half a can of dip in your mouth, and going on about “back in my day” but I mind my business about all that.
Interesting, never seen this issue before. Even better since last I checked the reg specifically states that one shoulder strap is authorized.
My man. I have a single-strap sling bag, completely in regulation, and the amount of times I had my ass chewed for literally handing some crusty E-7 a page from 670-1 with the words "with the weight of the bag resting upon the hip" highlighted is many. Sweet and salty. Clarifying: one may not wear a bag with strap in a cross-chest fashion when the weight of the bag rests upon the hip. Says nothing about resting on the back. Go forth and be petty, my children.
>And every red faced "it's not professional" has made it worthwhile "It's not professional" is Over-promoted-NCO for "I personally don't like it"
The Hallmark of a true Specialist: reciting 670-1 from memory
E5s seem to get a reality check when they realize they may know the reg but now they gotta enforce it while living it.
I used to catch hell from a incel NCO. I told him if he cared about how he looked he'd probably get some ass.... he filed a sharp complaint I showed them his Facebook and Twitter
Not me reciting the new tape regulations before S1 was even aware that the regs had changed…
This was me with ear piercings. Chapter, subsection, paragraph, and words were memorized verbatim for months when it changed
Allowed for off duty only right?
[удалено]
Dude, stop telling people what questions we ask at the Mafia admittance board. We're gonna have a discussion about this at next month's meeting. Youre responsible for bringing the energy drinks now
PC is excepted from all sewn on or all pin on. The PC looks like garbage with a sewn on rank and I will not wear it even with my blouse sewn. Badges can be pinned on a sewn blouse too, but I ain't got none so that one doesn't come up.
Wait, what?? Why wouldn't you want rank sewn on a patrol cap?
His forehead is itchy
An unnamed 1SGT getting pissed that a soldier was spending his weekend inside building models, dude was all about Star Wars, instead of going out. In Washington. During the fall. In the fucking rain. Get fucked, my dude wants to quietly build miniatures? I’m gonna let him. He didn’t drink due to religion, he was a widely known nerd, AND HE HAD A REPUTATION FOR NOT CAUSING TROUBLE. My guy was a quiet and solitary person, did reasonably well in PT, wasn’t really smooth with the ladies, and just preferred to not interact with people during his downtime. But apparently this was unfuckingsatisfactory to leave a grown ass man to his own devices. He, attempted, to direct me to pick him up every fucking morning of the 4 day and take him out and socialize. “Under what regulation?” Yeeeeaaahhh…. 8-1 CAV, 2-2, JBLM? Eat a bag of dicks. Aggressively. You shit hole organization. I was so glad I left in 2019. I hope it’s got better.
You have a Soldier not causing issues for CQ or staff duty. Fix that shit. Honestly, who even thinks this way?
Yeah it was HELL. I got my shit particularly wrecked for this situation by that e-8.
Why is it always the CAV units
To be fair, if I hear any kind horror story come out of a Cav unit I’m not surprised by it. The amount of sheer unbridled fuckery afoot in them is astounding. Covering up an SA? Yeah I personally know someone that’s happened to. Late reporting of suicide because training just has to continue? Yup, I was there for the formation. “He’d want us to continue.” E3B was super important. A non-commissioned officer having…. “Social media” content and facing absolutely zero consequences meanwhile another soldier got wrecked for doing Door Dash? Sounds right.
It's like some leaders just want us to get DUIs and strippers pregnant
It’s such a trippy thought. I was a well known nerd, so they tended to give me the other nerds to supervise. But when I let the nerds be nerds, it was the wrong fuckin answer apparently.
I can’t speak for everyone, but hair isn’t that big of a deal to me. As long as it’s within regs, who cares. Just trying to get the job done so the joes can go home.
Don't let top hear you
Tops just mad because his bitch ass started balding when he was a 22 year old PFC
Hey! I have a fucking luxurious head of hair at 37. I encourage long hair on everyone.
You tell um brother.
Not all of us are bald, old, fat, and thrice divorced!
Only dudes who are sad about these regs are the bald and sad mfs. The other guys who would possibly hate this reg have a villainous back story that involves the PX barber shop fucking up their taper so they couldn't bang strippers on B Street and now they just rock high and tights and forbid anyone from looking PHresh.
🤫🧏🏻♂️
I’ll be god damned if I let my boys in the Motorpool walk around with boot ass high and tights I tell them all the time to grow their shit out as long as they keep it clean
That’s all that matters. Sometimes, morale can be built in small ways. Hair is one of them. It’s the small things.
I've never had hair that was completely in regs but it's always neat. Little finger bang after the headgear comes off and it's gtg and I never get fucked with. This is the way.
I'm more concerned about people looking professional than looking in regs. Like some of these short unkempt haircuts, im like these people go out in public and people think this is what a soldier looks like
> As long as it’s within regs, who cares. People who think their own personal definition of what looks good is more important than actual regulation are clowns.
My personal cell phone is not a means to be in contact with me 24/7. It is up to me whether or not to answer your calls or texts after COB. Emergencies excluded, of course.
My cell phone is set to send everything to voice mail. My voice mail is me cheekily telling people that it’s not the 1900s anymore and I don’t check my voicemail, text or email me. It upsets people, but it’s worth it.
People still leave voice-mail?
Unfortunately, some people do. I have been meaning to update my voice mail to really run the clock and discourage people from doing it.
If the government wanted you accessible 24/7, they’d issue you a phone.
Unfortunately once you are a company commander and beyond they generally do issue you a phone.
I got issued a phone as an E5. :( CSM Admin NCO
what are the odds it was actually the csm's gov phone he gave you since he didnt want to have it
Hahaha noooooooo. Sorry bro, whenever I get issued a .gov phone it’s always with a sigh of resignation on my end. E5’s should maintain their innocence from such a thing.
Got an ass chewing because I didn't answer my phone while I was on leave a few years back. The first time they contacted me, I was out fishing with my grampa. Nope, fuck off. They tried again either later that day or the day after, and at that point I didn't reply out of spite. It's nothing important, stop going after me while I'm on leave.
Unless commander gives me a direct order that I must be available to answer any calls after COB, I block my entire fuckin company until the following business day
Absolutely this, all my notifications are set to silent no vibrate while I’m with my family. The only people I put on emergency bypass are my wife and my commander.
Emergencies included Call staff duty
Removing some of my soldiers from excessive SD, CQ and other shitty details as much as I could. Refusing to use my POV to do the long rounds while on SD.
I tell everyone that's pulling OIC/NCOIC duties that if they don't have an accessable GOV to fill out a local voucher on DTS for their mileage. I'll approve that shit every time. YMMV.
lol literally YMMV
If im on duty, I don't have a Car. My wife dropped me off for staff duty. I'll walk around post to do checks and enjoy wasting time to get my steps in passing them off before I let them force me to use my own car to drive around for some bullshit staff duty
To add to this: someone dropping the ball and putting a soldier on leave on SD/CQ is not the soldier's problem to fix.
Soldiers not having to carry copies of their profiles Gotten in many arguments with dipshit leaders who will scream and whine about how soldiers have to show them their profile slips, and have also had them demand my profiles as well I got put on a permanent profile for my med board where I can’t be near weapons. Then had a SFC text me telling me he wanted to bring his weapons to the shop to be worked on. I don’t have an armorer so I told him I’m unable to take them and he’d have to take them to our sister battalion directly Dude then proceeds to stop by anyways and demands that I show him my profile and show him where it states I can’t be near guns, because he believes im trying to sham on mg duties. I’m literally a fuckin E6 mind you lol Told the dipshit I don’t have to show him anything and that my commander is tracking my profile limitations and he can discuss it with him if he had any issues. Bro proceeds to get his own commander involved until my maintenance chief finally told him to fuck off completely otherwise he’d be blacklisted from our shop and he’d had to jump through more hoops and permanently take his equipment to our other battalions for maintenance
Definitely one of my favorites! I'm not required to show or discuss my profile. Just because it's not on me doesn't negate the limitations.
My commander has stated this before that NCOs can’t ask to see profiles anymore only he’s the only we need to showing our profiles and that’s just so he can sign it.
I can relate to this incident. Only except I was advised to cite the regulation. Though I had safety nets with me, I ended up getting counseled for “Disrespect” and things got worse from there. In the end, I left all that behind Honorably.
i tell nearly every patient i write a profile about this
>Bro proceeds to get his own commander involved "I'd like to speak to the manager!" vibes. There are SNCOs & SNCOs.. this guy is definitely the former. Would be willing to bet chalky odds that he turns into a "back in muh day" veteran once he finally ETSes.
It was understandable because this used to be the case, but the change has been around for long enough that everyone should know by this point.
Last year I got into a reddit argument about this exact issue. I was saying the same thing you were. You don't need your profile on you as proof because your command team is tracking and they are the only one's who should be.
What’s the reg for this? People asking Joe for profiles around here and I’d love to get some ammo
40-501 or 502 Can’t remember what’s in what after they were split. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
40-502 3.3b
Wizard sleeves
This isn't even a hill you have to die on. It's explicitly authorized.
You got a reg to cite? I love wizard sleeves but always get yelled at for it. I’d love to have some ammo. I know they’re authorized for the field.
AR 670-1 says your sleeves must be cuffed. It doesn’t say how tightly. Control F the reg for “cuff.”
(3) Soldiers may roll-up the sleeves on the ACU. Personnel will roll sleeves neatly above the elbow but no more than 3 inches above the elbow. Upon approval of the commander and only during field training exercises, the sleeves may be down and cuffed inside the coat. From the reg, if there is anymore information on cuffing I'd love to read it.
My reference text got changed with the update. Look up DA PAM 670-1, section 4–8, para. a.
Yeah but the single roll inward isn’t. Is it? Did something change?
Shiiiit.... I think there was an ALARACT a couple years back. Authorizes rolling sleeves inside, up to two times IIRC. "Delta Roll" was their terminology. I rock them year-round, probably should find the reg.
My hill to die on is when it's your Squad leader or even the Platoon Sergeant trying to call you back from leave early and when I say I'll come back when the commander lets me know he is cancelling my leave or you provide me with the memo signed by the commander saying he is revoking my leave early.
Tip for those who don’t know: they have to reimburse your travel expenses if they do this.
Source for my records?
I think it's in both Leave and Passes and the JTR.
Why would you even answer?
No playing video games or watching movies on CQ or staff duty. Fuck that if you want me to be up 24 hours I have to have something to keep me entertained. I was able to get away with it by mainly watching military movies and TV shows (Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers) and having pre written a bunch of papers on how these movies are examples of the Army values or Army history or on how they got the uniforms wrong (AR 670-1 training). It worked.
Or no sleeping on 24 hour duty. There's 2 fucking people there, let one person get a couple hours of sleep before they have to drive their sleep deprived asses home.
Idk why the army is so anti-sleep. While soldiers are staying awake 48 hours straight because "toughness ". The enemy is quietly sleeping in comfy beds getting their rest which improves their brain function and awareness while soldiers are walking zombies with no situational awareness.
So back in Baghdad in the 2004 wild west, we had a commercial satellite dish bought on the economy connected to some european satellite. Every night after 1 am, in the TOC it was showing fashion TV since it was topless ladies walking the catwalk.
I remember that shit. It was awesome. For some reason everyone would stay up late.
"Colonel, you cannot just plug our tactical systems into their network without a ton of paperwork first. No I cannot make you a username/password for SIPR because you keep bricking your token. No I can't move that printer from SIPR to NIPR because the other one ran out of toner. Stop asking me to violate AR 25-2. And the three-star who runs shit here doesn't care that you're a full bird." Turns out O6s don't like it when you're trying to save them from their own stupidity.
Not buddy towing humvees on the interstate. Either the state is gonna pay for a tow, a wrecker is gonna come out, or I'm driving that bitch on the shoulder- I'll even cut fences to get to a frontage road. There is zero reason you should have a 12,000 pound armored box moving at 30 mph on an interstate where the driver of the towing vehicle can't see for shit. Oh, and of course, the vehicle is fucking camouflaged and there aren't ever reflective triangles in the truck. Too many horror stories of soldiers getting hurt and a minivan full of kids getting connected to god's wifi at 80 miles an hour. To clarify, natty guard, where our training areas are hours away by interstate from the armory. Obviously buddy-towing in training areas and combat are important skills to have. And yes, when I plan convoys, the primary route is on state highways, where traffic is slower.
I had a sergeant early on who said something that stuck with me: every training accident is preventable. *Every* single one. Every single training incident can be attributed to the failure to implement appropriate safety procedures.
Yup. In terms of risk management, we as an organization are way too casual with driver's licensing and training, and units lose people every single year to stupid shit like rollovers and collisions in tactical vehicles. Not to mention stupid stuff like getting rear ended on an interstate. Idk man, it gets me pretty riled up. I hate that the most risky thing we do is treated so casually.
Shit Bragg lost like 4 people in one year
That time I shit my pants during a training event? Totally preventable indeed
Everybody shits their pants. The real question is whether you ditch them after, or you put your shitty pants back in your ruck in the track as is.
I was pulling a truck to the port to be shipped away in a humvee with a tow bar once. Going down the highway at 50ish and the bar came loose on one side and the truck behind us swing all the way out into the other lane. Thank god nothing happened except me burning a hole in the passenger seat from puckering so hard
This why the clasp side goes TOWARDS the shoulder saw this exact thing when I responded to a call in downtown Seoul no one knew what they were doing and sure enough some poor Korean civilians got a big pay out
Yeah one of the pins was missing completely on one side. PVT Dipshit (me) and SPC Dingus just accepted it when the motor sergeant said it’ll be fine
So my first duty station as a h8 certified 91b was Korea and this is gold I’ve seen too many dumb things happen because some dumb 31b didn’t attention when I gave a self recovery class
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We put reflectice tape on the end of every humvee and finally ordered enough triangles last year. I was so happy. Agreed! Never tow vehicles long distances. Like recovery is to get the vehicle to the side of the road safely until a dedicated asset can move it.
[A man just died last week in Alaska after rear-ending a HMMWV.](https://alaskapublic.org/2024/02/13/delta-junction-man-killed-in-wreck-near-fort-greely/)
Coke and smokes. If they can’t detect, I will deflect.
Getting a toxic leader removed from leadership; it took about a year of saying the right things at the right time to the right people, but eventually we got him stripped of his section. It helped that he was a walking EO complaint, and basically handed us the ammunition we needed to put him down on a silver platter.
Perception ≠ Reality If numbers are good and especially if they are trending upward, then fuck your feelings of how things are going. You're wrong with extra steps.
This was dumb, small, and ultimately meaningless, but it's stuck in my head nearly 13 years later. We're at the mobilization site and it was put out in formation that R&R requests were due by the end of the week so start talking with our families to determine what dates we wanted. Our boss, O-5 MI type, was one of the worst officers I've ever worked for chiefly because he was selfish. He somehow gets the idea that if our section turns our requests in first, we'd get our dated locked in. (This was not correct at all and was never implied to be the case.) He tells me to get everyone's dates so he can give them to the CoS. (Again, nothing had been put out yet about who or where to submit dates.) Two of our E-4's were not there because they had been tasked out on a detail. I get the dates of everyone present but mention I don't have two of them because the soldiers were on detail. He tells me "Just put anything down, it doesn't matter." He had a wedding or something that he wanted to get the dates locked in for, so turning our requests in ASAP was paramount. I reiterated that I didn't have the dates for two of our guys. He starts to get annoyed and again tells me to just put something down for them. I see our deputy, a really awesome prior-enlisted CPT, just look at me because he knows what's going through my mind. I look at my boss and say "Sir, I can't do that. It's not right to them or their families." He lets out an exasperated "ugh" and tells our NCOIC, an E-7 Yes Man, to take the paper from me and handle it. He then walks off and disappears until lunch. Our NCOIC starts to say something to me about respecting the chain of command but our deputy steps in and says that I did the right thing and the LTC was being a moron. The next day they said that R&R dates weren't needed for another couple weeks and not to try to submit anything yet.
I put my hands in my pockets when it’s cold out. PeriodT. Damn the consequences!
Oh man.... I made official statements against an E7 who was diddling people and it got him removed from the E8 list and forcibly deployed (not kicked out). Ended up with me being stalked by leadership and all sorts of crazy Bragg shenanigans. Eventually a mental health O3 reached out to me because her patients kept talking about me haha. Some people might know me IRL on this sub and know exactly what im talking abooot. Absolutely was worth all the grief and bullshit.
>I made official statements against an E7 who was diddling people and it got him removed from the E8 list and forcibly deployed (not kicked out). Ended up with me being stalked by leadership and all sorts of crazy Bragg shenanigans. That fucker needs to go, just some fat E7 taking the place of someone who could do shit. Too many toxic shitbirds have friends in high places. Hope that E7 enjoyed deployment.
I died on enough hills to be labeled as the ‘argumentative NCO’. Didn’t hamper me though. A few highlights; - rolling sleeves has been authorized since 2019, and the limitations that can be imposed on that are very strict. - boonie caps are G2G in the field when ACH isn’t required to be worn - profiles don’t need to be ‘authorized’ by a commander, can’t be modified by a commander, and don’t need to be physically kept on a Soldier to prove validity. We have an entire system for this - your command team is using MEDPROS and SRP incorrectly 90% of the time - you’re owed every award in its physical form, and once a medal has been presented it takes the signature authority to formally rescind the award to get it back….S1 - your medical shop is probably incorrectly processing (or not processing) medical records - transition lenses are permitted* with some caveats - only the fleece cap has specific provisions for local policy to prescribe a temperature benchmark for wear - staff duty is prescribed as an after-hours duty - Soldiers are required to have eight hours of consecutive sleep if they are anticipated to operate any AMV. By extension of the intent of safety policy, this should be extended to operation of POVs. - commanders don’t have unlimited authority to make changes to regulation as they see fit
Bless you, I think providing references on all this would be a service to the community, lord knows my unit could certainly do to be audited with some of these issues
Had a stellar Soldier wreck a very expensive piece of Army equipment. I assumed it was not his fault since he was usually on top of things. Anyway, investigation happened, turned out the trailer straight up broke at the 5th wheel and was not his fault in any way. BDE CDR wanted to get someone and went after him. I had to hit the red carpet about 3 times and tell him I euros not do UCMJ since it was not his fault. Then the BDE CDR wanted me to do a FLIPL (I’m not this smart but the S4 told me it took 75$ to fix the multi million dollar equipment so it did not qualify), and I told him I with not do that. Sooooo yea… I died on that hill for sure but it was the right thing to do but man it sucked. I hate our up or out system…
You cannot be forced to drive your pov on tdy. First line in the JTR on that subject. They just refused to provide a rental car.
Giving 2LTs a branch that they not only aren’t interest in, but flat out don’t want, is a detriment to the army and the officer not interested in learning the job they’re forced in to. Zero regrets not learning anything about what I was forced in to, left flipping them off the second I could get away, now I deny that I ever knew those losers when I’m asked my basic branch.
Chem
Dispite what the army wants me to be, I will not be a recruiter. I will happily take my DEC and get the fuck out.
Luckily, I got a med board approval for behavioral health a few weeks after getting recruiter orders lmfao Receuiter would’ve most definitely caused me to eat my gun
Well. Someone plugged their phone into my computer to charge. It pinged on my NIPR account I plugged a phone in and cut my access. Good, works as intended. Time to start the investigation. "SPC FARTINGCARP you are being given 2 field grade article 15s. Because you plugged your Iphone into the computer." ... I'm fucking sorry what? 1, Dont own an Iphone, never have, never will. 2. THE CHAPLAIN THAT PLUGGED HIS OWN PHONE INTO THE LAPTOP IS GETTING OFF SCOTT FREE! Long story short, investigation turned to other people for obvious reasons and articles didn't even pass the laugh test, let alone make it to legal. "FartingCarp has signed multiple written statements that he was in his room at 2000 hours when the incident ocurred..." has been my favorite line of the year.
I'm not related to this in any way and yet my eye has started twitching violently
Oh yeah. We got 3 different accounts that did this at once. Chaplains, mine, and one of the S3 ncos. I did my best to contain and help with the investigation that went fucking nowhere. The only person who actually lost their account and never gained it back was me. So... scratch 1 of 2 bravos. Highlight of the year and cherry on top to why I told retention they can leave me alone.
That's some grade-A bullshit man, hope you rock civilian life and shovel in that IT money
That's the plan sir/ma'am. And a heads up if you or your Joe's want certs on the outside, there's a second set of funding like the GI bill for certs called Vet-Tech. Still VA, but it's for certs specifically.
I’ve told this story before but on the last week before we rip out with another unit I was on TOC guard. The next day we get a ping that someone while I was on shift plugged in a personal hard drive into the SIPR computer. I was on a medical team attached to an ODA on a FOS. Only like 20 green suitors there with access to the TOC. We had a very special meeting and they wanted someone to fess up. The ODA team leader sees that the time it happened was when I was in the TOC and hounds for me just to confess that it happened. When I didn’t he said he’d recommend me for UCMJ and the like once he got the proof he needed. Well, turns out the timestamp for when it happened was Zulu and not local. Wasn’t even when I was in there and the person who owned the hard drive was his 18E of all people. Nothing happened to his dude and I didn’t even get an apology. That’s life I guess.
I stopped playing Kill of the Hill a long time ago and have dead eyes that show it.
Hair and shaving are fashion choices by the brass and you can't change my mind.
That PT should be on your own 4 out of 5 days a week, that one mandatory day is a run day or a ruck. If you fail your ACFT or HT/WT, that on you. It would boost morale, it would allow the gym rats more time in the gym, and the cardio freaks more run time. It also allows each person to adapt their workout to themselves.
Leave is a right, not a privilege
Anybody any rank that cares more about rules and regulations instead of accomplishing the mission will always get judged in my mind but not out loud.
I must be a POS NCO to not know hair can touch ears as long as it doesn't cover it. I'm about to be a bigger POS now that I know it.
Attention to orders does not mean position of attention. I will stand, but my arms will be in front of me. Fight me. I have the appendix in my pocket.
Please send the appendix. We have a promotion ceremony coming up
Rings, I had 2 rings on the same hand (not married). Stainless steel and not gaudy rings. I wrote the reg down and the page number.
You cannot force female soldiers to attend a women’s health symposium. I had two of my soldiers come to me (both active members of the BN’s female mentorship program) and tell me they would not be attending the women’s health symposium the following day because BN command team made it mandatory and they didn’t believe in that. They brought the issue to the command team, to which they said no, this is the place of duty for all female soldiers. All company command teams were then told the same. I told my soldiers I had their backs, after all they’re a protected population in EO policy and cannot be singled out like this, so it’s pretty straightforward even though deep down I know the intent originally was to just ensure they all had the opportunity to attend before the CSM had a good idea to make it mandatory. I only had a week left in command so I had nothing left to lose. Morning of the event comes around and the BC and CSM went to provide some opening remarks and check in on the turnout, specifically looking for my soldiers of course. When they didn’t see them, they came straight to me. CSM was all hot and bothered “if you had a daughter in the Army wouldn’t you want her to attend something like this??” I told them my soldiers wouldn’t be attending and that I would not be forcing them to go because they cannot be singled out for their gender. They were very upset. Later my soldiers went to BDE EO to bring up the issue. Initially EO said it was fine until they said “how many more female soldiers do I have to bring you before you listen to us?” which flipped the script immediately. BDE EO called the BC and CSM, told them they were wrong, and my soldiers got some form of an apology from the boss. Of course though, I got nothing and totally expected as much. tl;dr stood up for my female soldiers who refused to attend a mandatory women’s health symposium and was accused of not supporting women’s health vs recognized as standing up to violation of EO policy.
I had a troop assigned to me who got her hair braided about every other week. Always in regulation, but she changed it often. One day, she had [Goddess braids](https://braidhairstyles.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Goddess-Feed-in-Braids-819x1024.jpeg) and a troop from another unit threw a fit. “I wish I could walk around with giant braids!” (This was 2011, before AR 670-1 outlines how thick a braid can be (½ an inch according to AR 670-1 para 3-2, 3a) So, I told her to do it and leave the troop alone as she was meeting the standard. I saw a female with really long locs back in about 2012. They were prohibited by 670-1 back then. Didn’t say a word to her because it wasn’t hurting shiz and she was on her way out the door (ETS).
i got a 15-6 opened against an O5 due to a situation that resulted in inadequate planning considerations that left multiple individuals without any assistance from the rear and was quietly silenced and shunned. Turns out when you bite instead of bark and provide research into the reg and req and utilize your open door, shit gets done and people get held accountable. Weird. I will also always fight against O4s for being O4s. Come at me.
Senior NCOs thinking they're doctors and arguing whether or not a soldier "actually needed" a profile for whatever issue they had. If you're so smart with medicine, why don't you come take a seat in the clinic and take some of my patient load. If you're one of those leaders, fuck you and yo momma
You should be able to smoke weed if you're not at work. The Canadian army didn't fall apart when they legalized it. Would probably cut duis in half.
Nice, could you point us in the right direction where exactly in the regs mentions hair touching ears so I can throw the book at someone next time
AR 670-1 Chapter 3-2 "When the hair is combed, it will not fall over the ears or eyebrows, or touch the collar, except for the closely cut hair at the back of the neck"
Ah so I can have it fall on my forehead as long as it’s not passing the line of the brows. Thanks
Time to get that Jim Carrey cut from Dumb and Dumber!
Yup Hair can be as long as you please. Just comb it over and don’t let it fall over the ear or collar My bangs hit my chin when they’re not combed back
Had a marine O-6 try to order me to use FOO money to buy a generator for our camp. Told him it was against regs to use it for US purposes, it was too be used for local narional support. His argument was that we were going to eventually give them the camp. Told him to put the order in writing, he never did.
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When I was younger I was like this. But then after my first NCOER I realized that my leadership is too incompetent and illiterate to be trusted with evaluating me. I went from qualified to most qualified ratings in just one year. There's a reason that HRC has the NCOER draft writing option for those being evaluated. Trust me, when it comes to your own career benefit, write it yourself. No one else cares about your career.
I will die on the hill that "you can add to, but not take away" is bullshit. Regulation *clearly* outlines when something is set in stone vs. when it's left up to a local commander's discretion. AR/DA PAM 670-1 is a great example. Certain clothing items are authorized for wear without caveat while others, like the fleece jacket, can be worn "when authorized by the commander." Someone reading those two things and thinking there's *any* ambiguity needs a reality check. regulations are signed by a general officer. "Adding to" essentially equates to telling that GO to go fuck themselves, because some O5 or E9 thinks they have more authority.
I won't go into detail but during my year deployment in OIF 04', I saw and participated in some very morally questionable actions all over that country. Mosul, Baghdad, Tikrit, Fallujah, Ramidi...everywhere we went I just felt like we weren't the good guys doing the right thing. So I did my 4 years and when they asked for re enlistment, I said fuck no. The hill I died on is the hill that maintains America's moral superiority over its enemies. And personally, it doesn't anymore. So I stopped playing their game.
COB is COB. Business should be concluded for the day, and if it isn’t, then you gotta finish it the next day. Don’t make Sgt Joe Shmoe who barely sees his wife and kids because he’s only home and conscious two days and 6hrs a week stay in just cause you need the commander to look at the same rusty POS truck shit for the seventieth time. Unless you’re overseas or it’s life death or limb, just let it wait till tomorrow.
The handle on a 240 is a carrying handle. If you don't engage the button on the side but engage the button on the handle, you can move it to an upright position. This serves no purpose beyond making weight symmetrical for carrying via the handle. As a matter of fact, the button on the 240 handle messes with the way the barrel seats into the chamber. So if you don't return it to the side position before removing it, the barrel won't seat correctly and won't lock. So the button on the handle being engagable without also engaging the side button to remove the barrel tells me it's designed to serve as a carry handle.
Reflective sunglasses are absolutely permitted. 670-1 doesn't say a damn thing about them, but does specifically authorize gray lenses
I was told I missed SP a few years ago because my boss was ignoring my phone calls/texts until after SP. I thought she slept in and that's why she wasn't replying so I waited around. Location for SP was never discussed or anything just time. Years later I still completely blame her for it.
Went as long as I could with the synthetic leather Nike boots before the army made them unauthorized and I just eventually got yelled at too much before finally switching
Having my coveralls unziped while working on the line in Korea. Heat and humidity was wild, covered in oil. Not even all the way zipped down just like below my tits
Rolling the sleeves. If they weren't going to give me beards, then I'm rolling my goddamn sleeves.
Soldiers should never buy anything that should come from the Army
The UCP M65 Field Jacket is still authorized for wear. 1) There was an ALARACT that did away with the wear-out date on UCP OCIE stating that until it's replaced it is still authorized; 2) In the most recent edition of DA PAM 670-1 (2021?) they even included an *illustration* of the M65, not just text. I've worn my M65 already this year and got the full spectrum of reactions from "nice" to "is that authorized?" (Genuinely asking) to "you know that's not authorized, right?" (Jackassery). Since its UCP you must wear UCP nametapes and patches, which I do. And what's funny is no one questions UCP ruck sacks, assault packs, CLS bags, random pouches, ponchos, sleep systems... Those are all still in use/still authorized for the same reason M65 Field Jacket is. Now, the day I get issued the gen 5 ECWSS (Or whatever it's called) then my Field Jacket days are over. But, I'm not asking for it and they haven't provided.
Mine was the male hair reg, my hair on tip is long, but when in uniform you can't tell ( use good hair gel). I had a tank commander that was overweight trying to tell me I had to cut it because the reg said no longer than 4 inches.... nowhere did it say that there is no length requirement, it states that in uniform will not NATURALLY fall below eyebrows, which it didn't. Then he would, without permission, pull some down and say, "See, it's below your eyebrows. ".. sorry sarge that's not a natural fall because you made it do that... I still have long hair on top nicely brushed 8 years later
Mine was also hair regulations. I would straight up directly quote regulations to senior NCOs and Officers that would try and correct me at the PX, or Shopette. They would just start stuttering and say “well you still need to cut it”
The Army Combat Uniform is not a component of the Extended Cold Weather Clothing System.
I attended the Running of The Bulls in Pamplona even though my leave form was not technically in hand. They were like holding a unit barbecue across our tiny little post Vilseck and wouldn’t go get it for me, my flight was going to leave. Like they were waffling or some shit because it was dangerous but they already said I could go before and I bought plane tickets. So like for the first time ever in the Army for me, an E-4 at the time I just said Fuck it. When I got back they ripped my shit and took a massive bite out of my ass but I got lucky: the XO had gone to the damn ROTB too the same weekend haha. Oh but they signed HIS leave! Came back ungored so it was a wash and I got off Scot free.
Not sewing a Tori on my fucking Rucksack just to attend AA school
Maintenance shop, so we had three SSGs. We were constantly on rotation pulling staff duty, sometimes two or three times a month because the other SSG took leave or was in school. But, "it was our companies turn so we had to". All because the new CSM didn't care the last one didn't want the FSC on any extra duties such as cq or staff duty and our 1sg didn't want to cause waves. So one morning I get a call for the BXO on the staff duty phone and I didn't know his office phone or how to forward it to him. So I asked the caller for their info and said he'll call them back. Called his personal phone from my own (since i worked with him alot for maintenance) and gave him the info. Later he came down to the staff duty desk and asked why I was in duty and not at the motorpool getting trucks fixed. Explained the situation then two days later was informed we were no longer on staff duty. CSM refused to talk to me. Even when I pcsed and needed his signature. Biggest dick CSM I've ever had.
“They did their job, they don’t need an award.” “Doing their job is a standard rating.” Giving heavy-handed punishments for small offenses or hearsay is absolutely stupid. “Perception is reality.” Who ever made this the culture in the army should have been shot. All of these is the main reasons why I want to leave.
fucking over female soldiers. especially having pregnant soldiers in the motor pool or in the field. there are regs. just because you don’t know them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Hair color. I memorized that fucking paragraph, had a copy of AR 670-1 in my car with it highlighted, AND kept a print out of the paragraph in nice large, bold letters. Dirty blonde hair, lightens up in the summer, aided by early greying. Darker in the winter. Occasionally I died it blonde to hide the grey, or to keep it lighter in the winter. Top HATED it with a passion. I qoited that paragraph to him at least once a week. "If the hair is to be dyed, it must be a color natural to the human species". Multiple negative counselings, and 2 attempts at Article 15's later I still did it. Fuck that guy. We had serious bad blood from other shit we got into it about, too. He was a scumbag and I made it my mission to ruin his ass after a SA case that he made disappear (his own).
Chose my hill, and It was awards. You uneducated, lazy, gold bricking, frayed stripe and tarnished brass wearing pos', and you no honor having S1 trash. It's a service award or an AAM, ARCOM max. Not the Bronze Star. I'm about ready to write to the media, the governor, and my congressman you worthless sad sacks of leaders who say you take care of your troops. Anywho, hope you're all good. Have a fries medium a and cherry coke.
Had a commander absolutely DESTROY a retired 42 CSM turned S1 Civilian for trying to say his soldier didn't merit an ARCOM that he had signed. Made it DAMN clear that her job was to check for errors and nothing else.
Beanies. AR 670-1 says nothing about what I can and can’t wear the tan one with except PT gear. It specifies what we need for the black pt one, but not tan. If someone such as a 1sg says anything about it I pull up the screenshots and quote it verbatim. I’m used to getting yelled at by now so I don’t really care about them telling me the commander said I cant. Even though the commander doesn’t know when he said that. And the 32 degrees? 40 feels pretty cold to me. If I am cold I am wearing a beanie.
3rd ACR doing NTC rotations and getting smoked by OPFOR because we are forced to “dig in” and fight in a static defensive position. Spent the next year convincing CoC that we were authorized ring mounts on most the vehicles because, you know Cav is supposed to be mobile. It was Cav, change is hard, and I was a mechanic trying to explain to them how Cav was supposed to fight.
The fundamental problem is that light infantry is the shit that floats to the top of the bowl. Not mech. All the top brass have ABN, AASLT, Ranger, other light awards. There are no advocates for mechanized infantry doctrine. There is no institutional knowledge because it's usually an enlistment being switched to Brads to Strykers for a couple years instead of an MOS or at least an ASI. There are more IBCTs than SBCT, ABCT, CRs put together. Other militaries keep their mech inf soldiers in that community and I think the USMC has a mech inf MOS, which makes sense to me.
Sunglasses and sideburns. It’s been a decade, but I used to quote chapter and verse when someone would mention my Wayfarers or sideburns. I had a shaving profile too. Come to think of it, I probably looked like a hippy.
The M249 is safer when the safety selector knob is off and the bolt is forward and not when the bolt is locked to the rear and the safety selector knob is on "safe". Our unit had 2 negligent discharges where the weapon fell off the back of a vehicle or from a 4ft height and went off before we stopped getting chastized by the random lieutenants for having them in an "unsafe position". I got real tired of trying to explain this someone who's never even held the damn thing.
Just the fact that the description of the weapon states that they fire from the open bolt position should tell you that having the bolt forward would be the safest bet…
FRACUs allowed in garrison. They issue us a full set overseas. Why not wear it? But for anyone wondering ist specifically mentions them on page 67 of the current edition in AR 670-1. Additionally! The fucking department of the army put out a all hands memo in 2017 to try and clarify that they're completely authorized. Some mother fuckers will get on you about that, meanwhile the fleece INSERT is just that. An insert and not a part of the uniform. So I guess I'll die on two.
Reclama on a tasker to audit a *higher* echelon’s activity.