What's the goofiest thing you ever saw happen while you were in the military?

SMSgt Tony Barnes — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:17:42 -0400

Could be fraud waste and abuse...or simply dumb decisions.

Response by SMSgt Tony Barnes made Jul 30 at 2015 6:18 PM

SMSgt Tony Barnes — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:18:50 -0400

Saw EOD get refused for dive watches at a deployment site...they resubmitted as 'mission chronometers' and got their watches.

Response by MSgt James Mullis made Jul 30 at 2015 6:38 PM

MSgt James Mullis — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:38:27 -0400

This falls more under the category of stupidest, rather than goofiest. But the Wing commander at one of my first bases, in the early 1980's, ordered all female airman in administrative positions to wear skirts. Apparently, he did not like the look of women in slacks. To be fair he also ordered all male airman to wear V neck T shirts, which was about 10 years before its time. As you can imagine, there were a lot of IG complaints and he was promptly asked to retire.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Jul 30 at 2015 6:49 PM

MAJ Ken Landgren — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 18:49:11 -0400

The day of graduation my teammates and I hogtied our instructor and unceremoniously dumped him in front of the Regimental HQ. We were told to go save him lol.

Response by Capt Mark Strobl made Jul 30 at 2015 7:06 PM

Capt Mark Strobl — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 19:06:50 -0400

Was working on an MPF ship that was being retro-fitted with some new things to accommodate our embarkation plan. The light bulb in my working space burnt out. I asked where I could get a new bulb. The 1st Officer told me to fill out a form and return it to the Maintenance Bubba. After a frustrating week, I opted to take a properly functioning bulb from an unoccupied space. Changed the light bulb. Problem Solved. Two days later, I had to respond to a grievance filed against me from the local electricians' union... seems I was a threat to their job security.

Response by Cpl Tou Lee Yang made Jul 30 at 2015 9:52 PM

Cpl Tou Lee Yang — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 21:52:56 -0400

Ordered a $225,000 cooler for an EHF (Extremely High Frequency) terminal just to have the terminal get trashed and replaced by a new version 3 months later.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jul 31 at 2015 1:20 AM

Capt Seid Waddell — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 01:20:23 -0400

In the late '60s the AF had a suggestion program that paid substantial rewards for suggestions improving safety or saving costs that were accepted.

A crew chief in maintenance on the O1 Bird Dogs suggested that the weak brakes on the plane be replaced with disc brakes so that the pilots didn't have to stand on them to slow the plane when taxiing. This suggestion was accepted and carried out, and the crew chief received several hundred dollars for the suggestion.

When the first flight of five O1s was getting ready to take off, the crew chief told them that the brakes had been improved, and not to stand on them like they were accustomed to doing.

The O1 is a tail-dragger, so the pilots taxi out doing s-turns to see ahead of them past the nose as they taxi. When the first O1 got to the end of the runway he hit the brakes to do his engine run-up. Unfortunately, he stood on the brakes as he was accustomed to doing, and stacked the plane up onto its prop. The four O1s behind him were startled seeing the plane in front of them flip up, so they also stood on their brakes. Five birds in a row stacked up on their props.

The same crew chief that had suggested the disc brakes as an improvement then suggested that the disc brakes be removed and the old brakes put back on, as a safety improvement. This suggestion was also approved and the crew chief got several hundred dollars more for his second suggestion.

Life is better when you smile.

Response by SSG (ret) William Martin made Jul 31 at 2015 2:01 AM

SSG (ret) William Martin — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 02:01:02 -0400

Painting rocks was the worse thing I ever saw.

Response by CDR Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 31 at 2015 8:35 AM

CDR Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 08:35:29 -0400

While deployed to Vietnam in 2008 for a humanitarian deployment, I was working with the contractors and sub-contractors trying to get a small boat landing installed for personnel transfer on the landing we had established. The landing that was delivered was a giant steel box that looks like it was welded together and painted the day before, by someone who has never seen what a floating boat dock style landing looks like. I watched from the shade of a nearby awning at the comedy unfolding before me. First they tried to ballast it down for stability by partially filling it with water, which only caused this thing to break free from the pier and float sideways, realizing what they did, they tried swimming out to it and climbing on it to somehow get access to drain it, but only to fall off into the water a few times as their weight caused it to shift dramatically in the water, and they wound up upside down hanging on for a bit. Took them all night to pump it out, and get cinderblocks to add stability.

Response by Cpl Robert Lehto made Jul 31 at 2015 2:07 PM

Cpl Robert Lehto — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 14:07:30 -0400

Picking up and carrying an M151 to it's trailer so it could get hitched. CO wanted to see if we could do it. We did, and he got in a lot of trouble for that one.