OT: An Oh Neat! moment

[TiggerCCW UK]

In a similar vein with stupid soldiers I heard about a fun one involving Mil Int here in NI in the early '80s. Apparently some of the green slime had discovered that if you thumb cocked the hammer on a Browning 9mm without chambering a round it would shoot pencils across the room. Some of the MI's had been playing around in the office like this when one of their colleagues walked in and decided to join in the fun. He drew his 9milly, racked the slide, dropped a pencil down the barrel and shot his mate through the arm with a 9mm and an HB pencil.

[jester]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

In a similar vein with stupid soldiers I heard about a fun one involving Mil Int here in NI in the early '80s. Apparently some of the green slime had discovered that if you thumb cocked the hammer on a Browning 9mm without chambering a round it would shoot pencils across the room. Some of the MI's had been playing around in the office like this when one of their colleagues walked in and decided to join in the fun. He drew his 9milly, racked the slide, dropped a pencil down the barrel and shot his mate through the arm with a 9mm and an HB pencil.

And that is why you don't let Intel Types play with real weapons!

Seriously when I did one op in the Desert we had an Army Intel coupled with a Kuwaiti type attatched to us. We saw them take their M16s out of the plastic. And it still had that nice new M16 smell they had no clue how to operate their issue weapons, that was the first time they had handled them out of the wrapper.

As for stupid officer tricks:

Lt at Infantry Training Battallion tries to grab a mortar round he let slip from his hand and go down the tube. He only lost a portion of his middle finger.

Lt. who tries to read a compass in the back of a Duece and a Half, while getting good body alignment holding the compass centerline, while he has bandoliers of ammo and grenades slung across his body ala John Wayne. No surprise we were lost for half the night. Then again that was the norm for that officer. thankfully we always knew where we were should the need arise if/when we needed to get unlost fast.

Lt. Calls for artillery fire on our pos as we break contact. We then withdraw through a mine field! Briliant leadership! As for the rounds out, his piss poor map skills saved us as we didn't even see or hear the impacts! I did speak with some of the canon crews a few months later who remembered the mission.

Captain takes a HQ element on a forced march <never force your HQ types especialy marching they just can't do it!> Ends up in an impact zone and now they have to double time out. LOVELY!

Ah yes, I am sure we can sit back and discuss the insanely stupid antics of officers all night, maybe we should compile out stories into a book, it would make a fortune!

Hmmmm, now I am toying with a character concept of a totaly messed up officer who just can't seem to do anything right, but somehow luck always saves his men.

[headquarters]

in the adventure - dont forget that the officer is constantly promoted and the cmdr favourite due to his gung ho attitude and insane lack of self insight

ranger chant !!etc

Originally Posted by jester

And that is why you don't let Intel Types play with real weapons!

Seriously when I did one op in the Desert we had an Army Intel coupled with a Kuwaiti type attatched to us. We saw them take their M16s out of the plastic. And it still had that nice new M16 smell they had no clue how to operate their issue weapons, that was the first time they had handled them out of the wrapper.

As for stupid officer tricks:

Lt at Infantry Training Battallion tries to grab a mortar round he let slip from his hand and go down the tube. He only lost a portion of his middle finger.

Lt. who tries to read a compass in the back of a Duece and a Half, while getting good body alignment holding the compass centerline, while he has bandoliers of ammo and grenades slung across his body ala John Wayne. No surprise we were lost for half the night. Then again that was the norm for that officer. thankfully we always knew where we were should the need arise if/when we needed to get unlost fast.

Lt. Calls for artillery fire on our pos as we break contact. We then withdraw through a mine field! Briliant leadership! As for the rounds out, his piss poor map skills saved us as we didn't even see or hear the impacts! I did speak with some of the canon crews a few months later who remembered the mission.

Captain takes a HQ element on a forced march <never force your HQ types especialy marching they just can't do it!> Ends up in an impact zone and now they have to double time out. LOVELY!

Ah yes, I am sure we can sit back and discuss the insanely stupid antics of officers all night, maybe we should compile out stories into a book, it would make a fortune!

Hmmmm, now I am toying with a character concept of a totaly messed up officer who just can't seem to do anything right, but somehow luck always saves his men.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by headquarters

in the adventure - dont forget that the officer is constantly promoted and the cmdr favourite due to his gung ho attitude and insane lack of self insight

ranger chant !!etc

The amount of times I've seen shithead officers or NCOs (or even enlisted in some cases) get undeserved promotions and decorations makes me grit my teeth. They climb the ladder -- right on top of the guys who did the real work.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

The amount of times I've seen shithead officers or NCOs (or even enlisted in some cases) get undeserved promotions and decorations makes me grit my teeth. They climb the ladder -- right on top of the guys who did the real work.

Kind of like my work at the minute, but thats a rant I don't want to get started on.

[jester]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

Kind of like my work at the minute, but thats a rant I don't want to get started on.

The more it changes, the more it remains the same!

Hell when I worked security I had a guy go straight to captain and run the company just because he claimed to have been a seal. Surprise surprise he was a Never Was. And sad thing is when he left he set up shot in another company pulling the same fraud. And yes he is posted on the phoney seal website

I hate frauds and think a man should be proud of what he has done as well as giving credit where credit is due. Which in history courses has had me denounced as a racists and such for saying the Confederates in the American Civil War or the Germans in WWII were extrodinatry in what they were able to acomplish. Then again I like to think I am a realist

[headquarters]

is what it is guys.

Th eguys on top cant see the ones who carr the load but settle upon the ones that make a good show telling it up at the meetings after ,

seen it to Paul - not pleasant.

[Legbreaker]

Seen that happen more than once myself, but only in the junior NCO ranks.
Of course that could be because I was primarily in units where the officers actually knew what they were doing, or at least listened to the SNCOs.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Seen that happen more than once myself, but only in the junior NCO ranks.
Of course that could be because I was primarily in units where the officers actually knew what they were doing, or at least listened to the SNCOs.

I actually got lucky in that respect my last unit in the Army. My Lieutenant was a Sergeant First Class who, after 9 years in the Army (mostly in Special Forces), decided to go to OCS. Ahhh, such a luxury -- having a Lieutenant that actually knows what he's doing!

[Twilight2000v3MM]

A friend of mine was a helo pilot in the USA(NG) air evac unit.

He once told me "What are the two scariest things in heard in Army aviation -

1) A 2nd Lt. saying "Hey I've got an idea."
2) A W-4 saying - "Hey watch this." while flying.

In my line of work its seeign/hearing a 1 year rookie tellign a 4 mo rookie how to deal with/do something - and a 8+ year veteran watching to see what happens.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

The amount of times I've seen shithead officers or NCOs (or even enlisted in some cases) get undeserved promotions and decorations makes me grit my teeth. They climb the ladder -- right on top of the guys who did the real work.

I'll be leaving my current job in October for this very reason. I've been having a kind of cold war with two of my bosses (both women). Been here 10 years, the stats say I'm the best in the state, some months in the top 10 in the whole company, but they refuse to promote me and I've ended up working under people I trained. If my bosses weren't women I'd ask them to step outside so we could sort it out, because its purely personal. They just don't like me as a person. Evil bitches. I hate passive-aggressive bullsh*t.

[Legbreaker]

You know, I've had something similar myself (only it wasn't a woman).
Got very, very bored in the job I had at the time so started to take on some of the responisbilities of those higher up the chain. You'd think they'd have been glad for the help, but nooooo......

Maybe it was because I was doing their job better than they ever could?

[headquarters]

Originally Posted by Targan

I'll be leaving my current job in October for this very reason. I've been having a kind of cold war with two of my bosses (both women). Been here 10 years, the stats say I'm the best in the state, some months in the top 10 in the whole company, but they refuse to promote me and I've ended up working under people I trained. If my bosses weren't women I'd ask them to step outside so we could sort it out, because its purely personal. They just don't like me as a person. Evil bitches. I hate passive-aggressive bullsh*t.

In the name of equality of the sexes and all man , take the back of your hand to `em !


Seriously - can you not go over their heads to the regional boss or whatsitsname and present your case - enough of this stalemate and war of attrition where you get tired out .

Collect your documentation and go on the offensive -and make no secret of the fact that the reason that they are loosing one of their top guys is the un-proffessionalism of the supervisors and their lack of ability .

I mean -you are quitting anyhowitzer , so deliver a sharp blow before bailing .

Yeah!

No ,if anyone could get me up to the same with my boss I would be quite happy

best of luck

[Targan]

I'll be making my grievances explicitly known to the big bosses in Sydney during my exit interview. It has reached the point now that I will never forgive my immediate bosses for what they have done, I won't be able to work with them in the future. I am waiting for my long service leave in October, then I'll requalify for my explosives permit and go back to blowing sh*t up for a living.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by jester

Ah yes, I am sure we can sit back and discuss the insanely stupid antics of officers all night, maybe we should compile out stories into a book, it would make a fortune!

That is totally true. But you can be sure that the book will need a good revision to eliminate all the nearly identical anecdotes we could put in it, independently of our countries of origin.

I only will add one little thought. For my own experience, the worst thing that a working group can do is entering in what we could call the "Of course I know the way to do it!" dynamics, when everyone is trying to affect that he/she has all the answers because of his/her position in the scale seems to dictate it. No doubts allowed because it weakens your position. And every possible question could reveal these doubts. So, it's better not to ask anything, or everybody around you could thing that you are not qualified for the job. The normal learning process becames hindered when nobody assumes his own ignorance about a matter and, what is worst, everybody is willing to emphasize the ignorance of the others as a way to ensure his own position in the scale. I've always thought that the some armies (I'm thinking particularly in the Spanish Army 10 years ago) and a lot of large civilian companies, are specially prone to these dynamics. A dangerous tendency for an army in peace time, that ends affecting all the ranks. The clearest symptoms of this disease can always be observed in the relationship between inexperienced officers and veterans NCO's. In war time, I suppose that the real experience applies its own implacable filters among first line units and the "Of course I know the way to do it!" disappears thanks to "Natural Selection".