Since I live with PMO, I ended up asking one of them why officers and SNCOs get preferential treatment with regards to DUIs. The answer: When a junior enlisted or regular NCO gets pulled over, the MP can do the test and make an arrest right there. When it's a SNCO, the watch commander (who is a gunnery sergeant) has to be called to the scene to make the arrest. When it's a field grade officer, a field grade officer has to do it. And if it's a company grade officer, the provost marshall himself has to be called to personally make the arrest. Now, you're a lance corporal who just pulled over a major for DUI. Are you really going to call the provost marshall (who is a major) out of bed at two in the morning to make an arrest for drunk driving? Especially since that major is probably buddies with the provost marshall and goes drinking with him every Friday. Basically, if I were him, I'd be giving the major every possible chance to explain / talk his way out of it. He would have to try to punch me in the face or something before I even consider making that kind of phone call. The same thing happens in the justice system after the fact. Lance corporal gets a DUI? Commanding officer (who is usually a captain) nails him to the wall at NJP - 45 days restriction, 45 days EPD, reduction in grade, half pay for two months. If that captain gets a DUI? If they're going to take his rank and stuff, they either need to get a general to do it or court-martial him. And who the hell is going to court-martial someone for drunk driving (unless, of course, it's a junior enlisted)? Throw in the good ol' boy network, and it's easy to see why a no-connected-friends corporal will get nailed to the wall for DUI while a gunnery sergeant can sexually assault PFCs and get a slap on the wrist summary court-martial.
That's a good point you made about on base stops, but I would assume most people get popped off base for drinking and driving, as was the case of the major general I posted, the guy blew over 2 times the legal limit and spent a night or two in jail. They just outright barely punished him. To be fair, officers do get fucked in some cases as well rather than admitting a design flaw or taking responsibility for allowing pilots to fly unsafe aircraft they blamed a pilot who died in an F-22 crash in Alaska a few years back for the accident when he suffered from hypoxia, I know it wasn't completely cut and dry but the 22 is an unsafe aircraft. Then there are rumors a flying squadron commander just got relieved of command after one of the birds in his squadron went down and people died. It isn't like the commander was a maintainer who fucked up or a pilot who made an error, but he took the fall. Then again, that goes with being a commander, but I just don't want to seem like I'm saying enlisted people are the only ones who get the dick. Oh yeah, and there was an E-9 here in Korea who was a little too familiar with one of his subordinates and he left as an E-6, supposedly anyways.
Why oh why does the 4th of July have to be on Wednesday? We get Wednesday and Thursday off, have to work Friday, and then have to work the weekend. I hope they realize shit is not getting done on that Friday. #FirstWorldProblems
We have a half day on Wednesday, and the Thursday through Monday off. I will be skydiving every day. Ha!
We get half day Monday, no work Tuesday-Thursday, then half a day Friday where we are playing squadron Dodge all. Of course, being the most junior officer in the squadron, someone has to stand duty on the 4th, why not me?
Someone somewhere must have heard me complaining because I just found out we get the weekend off. Score!
Screw that, as an LT myself, I would never fucking do that. That shit's ridiculous. I can say now that I've seen some Officers really take advantage of the separation between officer/enlisted, and it makes me sick. I apologize for my brethren.
This is why nobody that isn't at least a field officer gets saluted in Special Operations. Otherwise, they would think they are something other than pen monkeys.
Isn't the SF regiment only O-3s and up though? Not a lot of junior officers around to salute. I don't care whether or not someone deserves the salute or not, I just think of it as a germophobic handshake, it's just annoying when they don't return it or even acknowledge your existence. I just think "yeah, fuck you too, buddy". All of the officers I've worked under as far as squadron commanders (major / lt col) and down have been pretty down to Earth guys but for some reason officers get a lot of hate, I just haven't seen any legitimate reasoning for it. On the other hand there have been quite a number of senior enlisted people at my previous duty station (I haven't been where I'm at long enough to really judge) who I've interacted with who are complete dicks for no reason that I can think of.
The only real douchenozzle officers I've dealt with have been the bootenants waiting for flight school in Pensacola. They've been in the Marine Corps for about five minutes, and they haven't had any sort of experience with actually leading people. This inevitably leads to faggotry when some of them decide that their O1 trumps staff sergeants who have deployed to Afghanistan multiple times. Here in Yuma, I haven't met a single dickhead officer. The pilots are all pretty friendly people. Dickhead SNCOs, on the other hand... The squadron gunny failed 70 barracks rooms (about a quarter of the barracks) last Friday and kept them cleaning on Saturday for fourteen hours. I am so glad I passed this time.
I know very little about the military but I was in DC with a distant relative who was a somewhat junior officer I guess in the Marines. He had only been in a year but had a 4 year degree hence his officer status and he jumped some older NCO for not saluting him when he walked by, he was off duty but in uniform. He publicly berated this guy for 5 minutes and confirmed to me and everyone standing around that he was an asshole. Does this shit happen often for any of you enlisted guys? Back on topic, I am sending a care package out and was wondering if Copenhagen long cut in the cardboard tins was still a good commodity to ship. The guy doesn't chew but I was told that it's good for trading?
If a fucking butter bar (or anyone under O-4, for that matter) tried to pull that shit on me, they'd wish they hadn't. Some really junior officers with ego complexes like to see how far they can push it with NCOs, and after a while they run into somebody they shouldn't have fucked with. Most don't understand that a senior NCO has a lot of friends that can fuck with a young officer's universe for a long, long time. As for Copenhagen, that stuff is still gold overseas.
It doesn't matter if you're on or off duty, if an enlisted person and an officer cross paths outdoors and both are in uniform they are supposed to exchange salutes. Doesn't matter if the officer is an O-1 and the enlisted person is an E-9. Most officers will just stop the person and quietly tell them they better not forget to salute them next time or something, which is reasonable, and then send them on their way, but it really depends on the situation. Yelling at or berating people out in public isn't supposed to happen at all and it rarely happens on a base. It's one thing if you're on base, but in front of a bunch of civilians who don't know what's going on just gives everyone a bad image. I think it's dumb E-7s and up have to salute O-2s and below, I'd be embarrassed if I were the officer I think, but it's just a simple hand motion that people tend to blow the importance of way out of proportion. Happy birthday 'Merica, at least it's that time in Korea. Commence drinking.
Like I said this guy is a complete douche so I can see him power tripping. Thanks to Brian H though, I am definitely calling this asshole a butter bar next time I see him.
I can't imagine the world of shit that would land on a junior officer who tried to pull that on any senior NCO I've ever met here. A bunch of my uncles on my mums side and their generation of cousins are ex military, mostly retired as pretty senior NCOs but a few officers as well. My mums family is huge, and there's about 20 of my generation of cousins are in the military as officers and another dozen or so enlisted. Every one of them gets the same advice from every one of my uncles when they graduate. And every time like it's a revelation that they've never heard before. I'm not very close to that side of the family, but I've heard the graduating officer speech at least a dozen times. The last line is normally done in sync by every male member of the family in earshot. "Shit in, Shit out boy. Shit in, Shit out. If you give your soldiers shit, they'll give it back to you. If you give them respect and competence, that's what they'll give you back. Remember when you get the urge to shit on your men, they out number you by a hell of a number. Your NCO's have been giving respect and competence to good officers, and shit to bad ones, since before you knew what your pecker was for, and if you shit on them, they will bury you boy. If you ever see fire, you remember to listen your NCO's. Your mother didn't go to all the trouble of wiping your ass, so she could bury you young."
Sup guys, I just wanted to see if It'd be possible to get a few opinions from people here. I've been thinking about seriously enlisting for about a year now, and I recently went down to Parris Island for my best friends graduation from the USMC and it really reeled me in. I never really had the chance to experience the tradition and culture of military until then and it seemed really fulfilling, like something I wanted. I plan on visiting recruiters from the different branches next week to try and weigh out my options and see what I can do and what they think. The problem is, I only have one year left in my undergrad and I'd figure I would ask here to get a honest opinion from people who aren't recruiters. I've already spoken to an Marine officer recruiter and I don't know how interested I am in going that route which is why I bring up the question. Is it worth it to look into my options now and finish school later or should I just finish school first? There's also the issue that I'm not completely sure if I want to make a career out of what I'm going to school for. Its a great field,(Cyber Security) don't get me wrong, I just don't know how well it is for me. So I'm thinking maybe a few years off and experience in another field will either A. help point me in a different direction or B. help rekindle the want for what I'm going to school for. Any tips or feedback is appreciated, whether in here or a PM. I know most of this stuff is solely up to me, and obviously I have to speak to a recruiter first, so if I'm a dumbass you can just shoot me with a witty message about how empty minded I am and if it's good enough I might post it in the funny reps thread. Thanks!
This may be the buzzed part of my brain responding to you, but don't join the USMC for fulfillment. Yeah there are traditions and shit but that isn't enough to account for 1) the lack of job fulfillment (peacetime Marines tend to not do shit with very VERY few exceptions), 2) the shit pay, and 3) the multi-year contracts. If you are exiting college with good job chances, do that. If you can't put into a paragraph the reasons you want to join x military branch that doesn't include being swept up in the tradition, snappy uniforms, or general and not pinpoint "feelings" that x branch gives you, then you should probably rethink your ideas. If you have VERY clear job goals (which, btw, they can stick you in a different MOS as per your contract so even that can get effed up) or if you intend on sticking it out for career to retirement for your family (some guys go in with no job prospects but a family to support) then maybe it would be right for you. (I probably did some weird double negative shit up there but like I said. Girl's night in. I think you get the idea though.) Also something to consider, some branches are more hardcore and pain in the ass'y than others. My husband joined because he lived in California (expensive area, bad economy) and got laid off from his jobs and couldn't afford to put himself through college anymore. USMC was his way to get through college. For less hardcore reasons such as that, you should pick an easier branch. He has said on more than one occasion, "I should have joined the coast guard." or the chairforce. Or whatever. I don't want to be completely negative because when times were tough, it made it possible for el husband to survive, but yeah. Shit can get real shitty, FAST. If you have a way to support yourself, you need to be super duper sure about your reasons before you sign onto that 4-5 year contract.
Thanks guys, I should have added that the whole graduation thing just rekindled my interest, it wasn't simply the reason I want to join as I had thoughts long before that. The general consensus seems to be finish school then figure out what I want, obviously I'd have to speak with the recruiters first anyways. Also, I am more interested in leaning towards Navy or Air Force if anything. I feel like some of the possible jobs I looked at fit some of my interests more. Anyways, ll look into it a bit more and figure out where to go from there. Happy fourth!