TTC ☆ OFFICIAL

I have only seen these in NCO induction ceremonies or at the NIM on Fort Benning. I feel like a toddler again

 

I was in the Reserves in Minnesota after I got off active duty, and was just as much of a wiseass then as I am now. Shocking, I know...

There was a fat SSgt. that strutted around in his fatigues, (which barely fit), at every drill. I knew he had never done one day of active, so I went up and asked him, "Sarge, you must have really seen some scary shit when you were wearing those fatigues, back in the 'Nam!"....

I think he is still stuttering out a response.

 

Lol, when I was at Fort Knox there was a SSG like that in the DFAC. Guy had his tray loaded up with 2 cheeseburgers, 2 plates of onion rings, no salad, and 2 slices of cake. His ACU's were stretched to the point where the Velcro and zipper looked like they were going to break. When he got up to walk out he had to lean back to counteract the weight of his gut. My buddy tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Sierra, is that guy's back broken from holding that stomach up?" I lost it and had water flying out of my nose.

He had the 100th Infantry Division Patch. Good ol reserves.

 

Howdy TTC!

 

Hey Robert

 

Afternoon Robert.

 

Good day gentlemen!!

 

I hated the Reserves. I was "promoted" to Corporal one weekend, ended up missing drill because my buddy and I got "lost"on the way to Ft. McCoy, ending up drinking our ass off in LaCrosse, WI, and was demoted the following drill, back to SP4. More responsibility for the same pay? For a guy that went to the military for college money, not a career, or even a J-O-B? No thanks...

 

That's dumb. I had a Soldier back in SA that was going to ETS but joined the local reserve unit and he messaged me the other day saying he hates that unit lol. The only benefit he likes is that he has time to go to school and work on his bike.

 

I was in college, so the check for sitting on my ass for 2 days every month came in handy. I quit when that same buddy of mine and I were on a supply run down to Illinois, and were the only quasi military minds on the trip. When the rest of the weekend warriors broke off the convoy behind me and got lost, then lied to the CO about it, I signed the counseling statement and handed in my resignation papers to that CO at the same time.

Good riddance.

 

They counseled you for them getting lost? if anything that convoy commander would have been at fault for not keeping up with or maintaining communication with his truck commanders. That's super dumb. Yeah I would too at that point. I think when I get close to the end of my 20 years I might just switch over to National Guard and try to move back to the San Antonio area so I can get a job on base or something like that.

 

My buddy and I stopped at a hotel in Beloit, WI, and the numbnuts, "led" by a full time GS employee, stayed in IL, just south of us. When we got up the next day, I called in, (this was '88, so comms were primitive), and told the folks back at the unit where we were, and that we were hitting the road back. The rest of the fools never called in, and when they got back later that day, about 2 hours after us, that GS employee started talking shit to my buddy. The GS dude literally had one front tooth, and my buddy was screaming at him, telling him to hold still, so he could knock that single tooth down his throat! In all my days, I had never heard of the leader of a convoy being written up when it was all the vehicles behind him that had broken off. That's when I knew it was time to go.

 

That's absolutely ridiculous, who would put the GS dude in charge anyway? That is super shitty, I don't blame you for leaving. I would have too, no reason to have to deal with that.

 

Nah, I'm honest to a fault, (which sometimes rubs people the wrong way, when they can't handle the truth). And when someone makes up about me, and sells it, based on his rank, (we were the only non-NCOs on the trip), it's time to move on.

 

We were doing some pre-Desert Shield convoy training in 1990 (we were a Combat Comm) when some idiot in a Civic hatchback decided to bust the double-yellow line and pass multiple M-925s on a hilly 2-lane back road on the way to Lockhart. We were 45 trucks and trail pieces. He made it 10 trucks in before an oncoming pickup "convinced" him to "merge" into our formation, but the asshole locked up his brakes to keep from hitting a trail piece.

His brakes worked better than the M-925 that slammed into him with 40K pounds (26K for the truck and 14K for the trail piece) of "irresistible force."

It was the truck's winch that saved him, as it went through the back window and lifted the car up. Otherwise, that Civic would have gone under the wheels and been completely crushed.

Even though the deputy sheriff faulted the Civic with reckless endangerment and a ton of other citations, our commander STILL tried to crucify the two Airmen driving the truck that hit him. They kept it straight and didn't jackknife the mobilizer, and that's hard to do. Wing Safety (O-6) eventually dismissed the whole thing and publicly told out commander he was an idiot.

It was the first time I ever saw a commanding officer lose their posting. Unfortunately, it was not the last.

 

Toxic Leadership at its finest. Honestly it is getting better now to where you see less of that and more people are wanting to stay in longer but unfortunately it still happens. One of my old Soldiers got out because when he was in Korea he got crucified by his Squad leader for some shit he didn't do and it just left him bitter towards the Army as whole.

Was he a new Commander? I am glad that the commanders I have had are always willing to hear their subordinates' sides of the story and judge the outcome based of everything involved, not just try and find a scapegoat. Glad the Honda driver didn't die, don't need something like that on those Arimen's minds. However, his car being completely destroyed, that's a costly life lesson he won't forget.

 

19 year Lt Col. Just an idiot - a banked pilot who could fly a plane but not lead or motivate people. He retired when they closed Bergstrom because he was not selected to make the move to Davis-Monthan with the rest of the unit. They literally gave everyone "PCS without PCA" orders...except him.

It is nice when higher headquarters recognizes that one of their lower commanders is an idiot. His replacement was fantastic - we were proud to follow him. He'd do manual labor with us, unlike his predecessor.

 

Haha gotcha, well that's great that his replacement was like that. Those kind of Commanders are the best. Kind of reminds me of the previous CO of my unit in SA. When we had combatives, he would join in with us and let people call him out. He would give out 3 day passes if you beat him. He constantly did little things like that to help the moral like Platoon competitions, running with Soldiers that were struggling on their run during PT tests, and even going up and down the range mentoring Soldier who would have trouble qualifying or zeroing their weapons.