When a Warrant Officer tells you to do something, you listen. Unless, of course, you enjoy pushups.

So, what would you do if a high-ranking officer gave you an order that made your life easier, but your direct supervisor decided to undo it just to flex authority?

Would you push back? Or would you let the chain of command settle it?

In the following story, one soldier finds himself in this exact scenario and chooses the latter.

Here’s what happened.

Countermand orders? Get smoked.

I was in a desert country that was very hot while in the military. I was one of the newer members of the group when they gave us a free plane ride out there.

My job was not combat-oriented in any way and was far away from most danger. However, because I was new, instead of a normal weapon to carry daily (15 hours a day, 7 days a week), I was assigned a heavy-duty size.

After about a month into this, the other people assigned to this weapon and I were complaining. We do not need these readily available, as our job is not to provide immediate defense.

He was stopped by a warrant officer one day as he struggled with his heavy weapon.

I worked in a section that consistently dealt with Warrant Officers. To those not in the know, these WOs are very well known for their no-nonsense attitude and for getting the job done in the best way possible without messing with the standard. They are the keepers of the standards and would expect nothing less.

One day, a Warrant officer 5 saw me carrying this weapon and asked me why I had it.

I explained it was the weapon assigned to me and as an officer he replied “I have a pistol. My substantially lighter weapon is in the armory, tell them to exchange my heavy for his.”

I am through the moon!

When his supervisor saw the upgrade, he made him switch back.

After the exchange, I went to the smoke pit to show off my new weapon. Eventually, my first-line supervisor saw me and asked how I got it. I explained the orders given to me.

He responded, “Is he your front-line supervisor?”

He made me resubmit my new weapon for the old.

Now the fun part.

When the WO found out what happened, he was not happy.

I worked in an area where sometimes we went to where the WO5s were on assignment. I took the job to deliver something, and the WO sees me with the old weapon.

He asked if I had a chance to exchange it. I replied that I did, but my SGT said to change it back.

His response was, “Did you tell him it was my order?”

Me: “Yes, sir.”

The SGT got what he had coming to him.

WO5: “OK, OP, follow me.”

Anyone who has an idea of the army knows that a WO5 outranks an SGT by a mile, so countermanding his orders better have a good excuse.

We get to the SGT’s office, and WO5 asks him what happened. The SSgt gave some lame excuse, then WO5 said, “Snap to attention.”

WOs, as a rule, don’t adhere to normal standards. Then, WO5 excused me, told me to switch weapons, and locked the door. I stayed just long enough to hear a lot of yelling, curse words, and counting pushups.

Yikes! That must’ve been amazing to witness.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit relate to this story.

This person understands the shock.

It must’ve felt great!

Yes, the SGT was out of his mind.

They should know better than to do this.

That SGT learned a lesson that day!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.