Soldiers Were Ready For Soul Food Night, But One Missing Dish Sparked Serious Drama
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Power trips can be satisfying right up until a higher-ranking person discovers the mistake they were hiding.
Most workers, especially in the army, know better than to question a superior twice, but when a newly promoted sergeant orders you to “check down, not up,” would you keep helping or follow those instructions exactly?
That command leaves one Army cook quietly watching a missing tray of corn become a much larger problem during dinner service.
Let’s check up on what went down…
“Check down, not up.”
I was a cook in the Army for a few years in the mid-aughts and had a surprisingly nice deployment to Bagram, Afghanistan.
We would have a soul food night once a week stateside but it was replaced by steak and lobster when we deployed.
Since it had been a while since the last one the Dining Facility(DFac) manager decided it was time to bring back the soul food.
He was off that night and a couple of our other higher leadership were in Qatar or on leave so we had a newly promoted Staff Sergeant(E-6) running the show. He was career Army, took forever to get this promotion, and excited about his progress.
OP wasn’t doing as well in the Army.
Meanwhile I had just earned a demotion (E-3to E-2) a couple months prior and was persona non grata
So when I asked him where some of the items he took responsibility for were as we approached open, he was furious.
He gave me a hurried chewing out the ended with, “check down, not up.”
So twenty minutes later when he told me the line was set up and to get out there I did not tell him he forgot one of his items.
There’s a problem.
We open to serve and our Command Sergeant Major (E-9) and his newest guests were already lined up for soul food night.
He requests a bit of this and then and then stops in his tracks.
“Where’s the corn?”
“I’m sorry sarnt major, I am not sure. I swear I saw some getting made.”
“You better have some damn corn, it is my favorite.” (Weird but okay.)
“I can get Sarnt ‘jerkface’ for you.”
“Nope, I’ll get him myself!”
They found the corn.
He proceeded to entire the kitchen and begin asking questions.
The new Staff Sergeant comes hustling out, looks at the line, looks in a warmer, and pulls out a pan of corn on the cob.
I pull one of the extra pans of another item we had out and he slots the corn in.
Then he tries throwing me under the bus with CSM standing there. “Why didn’t you tell me the corn was not out?!”
He had the perfect response.
“Sarnt you just chewed me out for this, you said check down, not up.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
Then CSM pulled him over towards the snack bar and laid into him for the next 15-20 minutes.
I had never been happier while on the line.
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What a lot of drama over corn!
Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.
Here’s a comment about OP’s low rank in the military.
This person comments on OP’s use of military jargon that not everyone understands.
This person doesn’t think the Staff Sergeant is going to get promoted again any time soon.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a researcher who complained about being excluded from a trip only to watch the university cancel the whole thing.
This person was also in Bagram.
The sergeant wanted obedience without questions, and the cook kindly gave him exactly that when the corn never reached the serving line.
Once the command sergeant major noticed his favorite side was missing, the forgotten tray appeared quickly, and the blame started traveling downward.
The corn was eventually served, but the sergeant still received the evening’s most thorough roasting.
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