Everybody knows that in the military, you follow orders. If you’re low in rank, you don’t ask questions, you just do it.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t teach them a little lesson, if you’re delicate about it.

OP worked in a cadet corp that’s part of the Air Force.

Context: So I’m a member of the civil air patrol an auxiliary part of the USAF (United States Air Force) and we do a lot of community service, search and rescue and disaster response along side FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), aerospace education, and military customs and courtesies as we are part of USAF.

They’re not  military military, but you know. It still counts.

Also some terms to help y’all:

1. 1. Cadet Cadre= cadets who volunteered to teach the students
   2. Encampment commander= The Adult member chosen to be the person in charge of all personnel and basically is the director
   3. C/ means cadet followed by the rank they hold.

So now that out of the way here we go.

On a training week, they were issued new tablets, still in the box.

We were having the Summer leadership academy which is an encampment mandatory for achieving the rank of C/2d Lt ( Cadet second lieutenant) and we advice new cadets to go after becoming members since it polishes them in what we teach them in regular meetings.

In 2021 the first year after the lockdown my wing was able to get the local joint army training facility for the week the encampment lasted.

So I went as a Flight commander and that year (2021) they were implementing tablets for the staff to upload the form tracking the progress. They were new so they came in a box.

OP’s box went missing, and when her superiors found it, they told her to keep it on her at all times.

After the last orientation session we went to our barrack rooms and we slept. Come the next day, the first day for cadets to come went smooth.

I’m the evening during our reunion we were told of a abandoned box.

I did not think anything about it since I had the tablets serial number written the (the number told was the model’s) and as I arrived at my bunk I saw that the box was missing. Being 11:59pm and I had to be up at 6:00am I decided to go to bed.

Early morning arrived and I went to where the command staff had set up their office and asked for the box.

Then the encampment commander rudely said to me: C/2nd Lt. Puertorricanboi why didn’t you say anything about the box.

I stood there anxious since I’m shy and the commander asked me my unit since I assume was going to tell my squadron commander of my mess-up which was my first I told him sir I’m from Region-state-unit number.

So here came the famous words. Keep it on you at all times.

Roger that.

I said: Roger that sir.

So for the next 5 days that box came to me to the dusty field where the helicopters for our black hawk orientation flight landed and we’re we practiced drill and ceremonies.

Come the last night we had uploaded all of our cadet student’s evaluations and I delivered my formerly white now dusty red from the sand Samsung tablet box to the same Commander.

No words were said to me and to this day I haven’t heard a thing from my squadron commander about that day.

Fellow military folks really love the joke.

That’s an important lesson to learn.

It’s not for everyone.

There were plenty of people who got all of the inside info.

You learn how to color in the lines.

I bet this was super satisfying in the moment.

And probably the only sort of malicious compliance you can get away with in the military.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.