Boredom and FOB Madness
There's a lot of couple-day events that we've been attending. The days in between have not been very eventful. And boredom in the Army can lead to madness... Or crazy rumors and minute subversion.
For example: We've managed to lock ourselves down. People believed that three big name bands were going to play a concert in the local PX parking lot. People were under the impression that they might have to stay back for Christmas. I, personally, have been subverting small details on platoon white-boards around the area.
The lock-down: We came back from four days in the field at about 10:00. We were looking forward to a little time to go shopping in town. As I walked towards our bathrooms, at 10:15, I was stopped and told by my platoon sergeant to alert everyone that we were "locked down" (exact words).
This typically means that you can't go anywhere or do anything. It's like being grounded by your parents. But we hadn't been back long enough to get in trouble. So the evil elves or gremlins, who run the rumor mill, started up the steam engines.
The first reason that went around for our punishment was: Our command was angry at us for having an "un-authorized AAR". ("After action review"-a discussion about what went well/what can be improved in a training event.) Truth: The command had little idea that the company had the AAR, how could they have been mad.
The second reason for our punishment was: Someone from another company was drunk and arrested in town. Truth: Everyone was out at different training events. No one could've been arrested in town.
The truth in the whole matter was that our trip to town had to be requested through Battalion via memorandum and one had not been typed or sent up. Therefore anyone could go anywhere on post and no one was in trouble.
Bands at the PX: Around Thanksgiving there was going to be a concert in the PX parking lot. The bands playing there had not been announced. The rumor for the set was Three Doors Down and/or Slayer. I am personally proud that this rumor started at our barracks, around 09:00, and had made its way to the opposite side and through different battalions (1-167 CAV) by 14:00.
The conversation was that Three Doors Down had a video of them playing a concert on an aircraft carrier and that it would be cool if they played for the troops here. Slayer was mentioned as a joke. The truth was that three local bands played the show.
There are platoon dry-erase white-boards that have the days/weeks training events written out for all to see. In light of the lock down and concert rumor I "adjusted" the schedule to read something like this:08:00 Formation09:00 Create Rumor15:00 PT on your own17:00 Destroy Morale19:00 Closing Formation
I've also been leaving insightful quotes (from people like Patton) about how to run/command troops on the boards. I've also been subverting the wall lockers of my fellow soldiers by taping The Onion headlines to them.
More subversion to come (probably after Christmas).
For example: We've managed to lock ourselves down. People believed that three big name bands were going to play a concert in the local PX parking lot. People were under the impression that they might have to stay back for Christmas. I, personally, have been subverting small details on platoon white-boards around the area.
The lock-down: We came back from four days in the field at about 10:00. We were looking forward to a little time to go shopping in town. As I walked towards our bathrooms, at 10:15, I was stopped and told by my platoon sergeant to alert everyone that we were "locked down" (exact words).
This typically means that you can't go anywhere or do anything. It's like being grounded by your parents. But we hadn't been back long enough to get in trouble. So the evil elves or gremlins, who run the rumor mill, started up the steam engines.
The first reason that went around for our punishment was: Our command was angry at us for having an "un-authorized AAR". ("After action review"-a discussion about what went well/what can be improved in a training event.) Truth: The command had little idea that the company had the AAR, how could they have been mad.
The second reason for our punishment was: Someone from another company was drunk and arrested in town. Truth: Everyone was out at different training events. No one could've been arrested in town.
The truth in the whole matter was that our trip to town had to be requested through Battalion via memorandum and one had not been typed or sent up. Therefore anyone could go anywhere on post and no one was in trouble.
Bands at the PX: Around Thanksgiving there was going to be a concert in the PX parking lot. The bands playing there had not been announced. The rumor for the set was Three Doors Down and/or Slayer. I am personally proud that this rumor started at our barracks, around 09:00, and had made its way to the opposite side and through different battalions (1-167 CAV) by 14:00.
The conversation was that Three Doors Down had a video of them playing a concert on an aircraft carrier and that it would be cool if they played for the troops here. Slayer was mentioned as a joke. The truth was that three local bands played the show.
There are platoon dry-erase white-boards that have the days/weeks training events written out for all to see. In light of the lock down and concert rumor I "adjusted" the schedule to read something like this:08:00 Formation09:00 Create Rumor15:00 PT on your own17:00 Destroy Morale19:00 Closing Formation
I've also been leaving insightful quotes (from people like Patton) about how to run/command troops on the boards. I've also been subverting the wall lockers of my fellow soldiers by taping The Onion headlines to them.
More subversion to come (probably after Christmas).
posted by SGT Dock at 12:00
1 Comments:
Sorry that An old Korea Era Vet didn't realize I could Add to this till this evening; must have been the wine with dinner. Anyway keep it up most interesting; All I did in my 53 to 56 Service with SCARWAF (bet you never heard of it) was help upgrade Standsted RAF Station England to a Heavy Aircraft Airport. All the best from a retirie now in Florida with the souviner I brought back from the UK 50 years ago; My Wife!! 803EAB for Reference
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