A Soldier Lodged A Complaint About His Superiors During Training, So They Hazed Him To Teach Him A Lesson
by Matthew Gilligan
I was never in the military, but I can imagine that it would be a pretty bad idea to annoy or upset your superiors.
Sounds reasonable, right?
But I guess not everyone feels the same way…
Check out how this man in the Army got even with a soldier who should’ve probably kept his mouth shut.
Army Revenge Story.
“A little background first: This story happened to my dad while he was in the Army shortly after Vietnam ended.
My dad went to OCS (Officer Candidate School) and was a captain in an Artillery unit.
I’ve heard him throw around terms like 10th Mountain Division and Rangers a ton while I was growing up and his uniforms say stuff like that.
I’m an Army brat but I never joined since it has no appeal to me.
I don’t know a ton about how things work in the Army and so I might get a few of the details wrong since I am retelling the story based off of what I remember him saying while growing up.
My dad was a Captain when this all happened at Fort Sill. Sorry to all you Army guys that will see something is off in my story.
I don’t know exactly how Army bureaucracy works.
Joes would be trained by my dad’s Top SGT that he nicknamed Top and they were great friends up to the day Top passed away in the early 2000’s.
My dad and Top would show these guys how to fire artillery and do the math that comes into shooting the gun and how to stack ammo for it and do charge bags etc.
There are specific rules about this kind of work.
One thing you’d never do is stack rounds on the deck of the Howitzer. A Howitzer from what I understand is a giant gun capable of shooting something like 30 miles away.
Not stacking the rounds on the deck was beaten into everyone’s heads and there was this one guy (we’ll call him Timmy) that simply didn’t care and would stack it on the deck anyways.
One day they were firing off the Howitzer and Timmy put some giant 8 inch rounds on the deck.
When this gun is fired I guess the whole deck and everything will jump and go back like 3 ft.
Which can cause these rounds to flip over and possibly detonate whatever is loaded into the heads of them like explosives, which is why you never do that.
My dad sees this happen and then sees Top jump down Timmy’s throat about safety etc and Timmy is unfazed.
Later that week my dad gets a call from his superior saying they need to meet.
Oh, boy…
My dad meets with his superior and he says that Timmy has lodged a complaint against my dad and Top because they “constantly single me out for their problems” or something to that degree.
My dad’s superior says that he thinks the complaint got lost in the mail as he throws it in the trash.
My dad said he got the hint that he needed to do something about Timmy since he was endangering everybody and now making written complaints that were downright lies.
Instead of getting into a paper war to get Timmy discharged over safety violations my dad decided good ole fashion hazing would work better.
Fast forward a few weeks and my dad and the Joes are in foxholes and doing some type of war game in a huge Oklahoma field on base.
It’s pouring rain and they are just sitting tight for a reason I can’t remember.
My dad calls Timmy over and says “Timmy, you see that stop sign down the road (about 2 miles away)?” Timmy says “yes sir!”
My dad says “run down to it and report back if it’s raining.” Timmy runs down and back and says “Sir, it’s raining, sir.”
My dad says “very good, Timmy. Get back to your hole.” Timmy makes a face of displeasure and my dad says “Timmy, is there a problem?”
Timmy says that there isn’t but it ****** my dad off for some reason and so he decides Timmy is lonely.
My dad says “Timmy, are you lonely in your foxhole!? Do you need a companion!?”
LOL.
Timmy says “Sir, no, Sir” and my dad says “bull ****, you look lonely!”
Dad then tells Timmy to find the biggest rock he can carry and report back immediately.
Timmy comes back about 10 minutes later with a rock the size of a watermelon and my dad says “outstanding, Timmy! You’ve found a friend. Go back to your hole with your new BFR (Big ******* Rock).”
Timmy goes back to his foxhole and puts the rock down at his feet in the foxhole.
Top goes over to where Timmy has a foxhole and says “Timmy! You selfish *******! (Or something to that degree). You didn’t did a foxhole for your BFR! Do you want your BFR to ***!?!?!”
Timmy says no and then starts digging a second foxhole.
This sounds exhausting.
Fast forward a few days and they are back in the barracks and Timmy has been dragging around his BFR for the whole time.
Digging foxholes for it, carrying its ammo etc.
All the Joes have to fall into a line in the morning where my dad will look them over and tell them if something looks wrong, go over the war game results or plan another one or something to that degree.
Timmy shows up late running with his BFR. Top goes over to Timmy and says “Timmy, why are you and BFR late!?” Timmy says he couldn’t run as fast or something.
My dad then comes over and says “Timmy, this is unacceptable and if I let you get away with this, then it’ll set a bad example for the rest of the men.”
My dad then tells Timmy “You and your BFR are getting too friendly and you’re missing roll call because of it. It’s time for you to break up with your BFR and do a more important task.”
This kid was really going through it…
My dad instructs Timmy to go set his BFR free into the wild and come back with a push broom.
Timmy runs over to a field about 200 yards away and sets the BFR down and then grabs a nearby broom and comes back.
My dad says “Top, do you see all this sunshine on the sidewalks?” Top says “Yes, sir I do, it’s a **** shame.”
My dad looks at Timmy standing there with a new broom and he says “Timmy, today I need you to sweep all this sunshine off the sidewalks. Don’t come out to the field until it’s done.”
Timmy starts sweeping the sidewalks and my dad and the rest of the men go out into the field to do training or something.
It was a long day for Timmy…
Later that evening, about 10 hrs later, they are coming back and Timmy is pushing a block of wood on the sidewalk. He had swept so much that the bristles had worn off.
It was dusk or close to it and some of the sidewalk had a shadow from the nearby buildings cast on it. My dad says “Timmy, outstanding work. Fall in.”
Timmy never lodged another complaint after that and eventually got kicked out of the Army for sleeping on the lawn of the barracks from drinking.
I guess two strikes for that and you’re done…at least back then.”
Check out what Reddit users had to say about this.
One reader weighed in.
Another individual shared their thoughts.
This person spoke up.
Another individual wasn’t a fan of this place…
And this Reddit user shared a story.
He probably should’ve kept his mouth shut…
Lesson learned a bit too late.
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.
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