Day 20/31 of my career. Practical jokes. Like nicknames, some can be a bit too much, but I will say that in general, practical jokes in the military are usually a way for the troops to have a good time with their Senior Non-Commissioned Officers or officers, without going jail. Junior officers first arriving at their Regiment are usually a prime target. They want to impress, so are very impressionable. Various angles, but often involving the Commanding Officer dressing up like a Corporal while the most crusty cantankerous Sergeant dresses up as the CO. Sending officers to Stores for a box of grid squares, BFA for a Carl Gustav, getting styrofoam inserts for Leopard road wheels, spot welding an air nipple to a metal road wheel, grease gun jet in the pocket - all funny. One of the better ones was when they convinced all junior officers that they were getting custom ballistic seats for their vehicles, all they needed was a cast of their ass. Sent to the Regimental Medical Station, the roughest female Med Assistant took great joy in making forms of all of the officers asses. They were proudly displayed at the Mess at Friday Happy Hour. On a daily basis, messing with a guys sandwich, or bike, or uniform, asking your Operations Warrant Officer to hold the antenna cable while you hit the radio pressel switch is worth a giggle as 24 volts of power leave a little imprint on the end of his finger. I recall on training that we had a Sergeant who loved to throw gas grenades (a training tool) that resulted in us putting our masks on. When he left his kit in the back of the truck, we stuck a bayonet through his gas mask canister. The next time that he donned his mask, he got the full force of the gas through the hole in his canister. We thought that this was funny - him - not so much. While training on civilian land one time, my guys loved to stand in front of the biggest, freshest cow pie in the whole field, then call to me in the dark. When I walked over to chat with them I soon realized that I was standing up to my ankles in cow-shit. We all laughed. While I can think of dozens of others, nothing outdoes the infamous spoon fight. Ours is slightly different than that video of the one that I found on YouTube, but the idea is the same. Our spoon fights are normally done at a squadron smoker at the end of a long exercise in the field. Food, beer, comaraderie were all flowing. Both competitors are blind-folder (until the fight starts, then only the victim of this practical joke doesnt see everything that is happening), the fighters use their KFS spoon, and the third guy uses a soup ladle from the kitchen. Same outcome, except the junior officer who wins this fight is sporting a little bruise on his forehead the next morning and is congratulated by all as the Spoon Fight Champion (until the bruise goes away). Call it inappropriate or hazing, but this officer has been chosen because he has truly arrived - has been accepted by the troops, they have gained confidence that he is now a member of the team. Maybe later in his career he might understand that being Spoon Fight Champion was the start of something amazing. youtu.be/3xpzE8vEFxo
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 12:16:58 +0000