Whats the dumbest thing you ever did when you were in the service?

I did some other things........but I need to learn what the Statute of Limitations is before I admit it!

I was an avionics tech in the Navy, worked on and flew in E2-B early warning aircraft. My squadron was deployed on the USS Nimitz in the Med (1977)...I had just come off an arduous 12 hour shift (nights) one 3 hour flight and then spending the rest of the 9 hours repairing various systems in the aircraft...the last system I had to repair that night was the doppler radar system. I located the problem and it was a box in the "hell hole" of the aircraft, a space in the rear of the aircraft right behind the tailhook and the only way in there was through a trapdoor in the bottom of the aircraft.

I replaced the box (about 75 pounds) by installing it into it's mounting plenum rack, tightened down the ratchet wingnuts, gave it a good tug on the handles and safety wired it. I signed off the job gave the MAF (maintenance action form) to my supervisor to inspect and sign off and went to bed.

About an hour later I was woken up rather vigorously and was told to report to the maintenance Chief's office...I got up, confused as all hell, and stumbled down to his office...there in his office was that same doppler box I'd installed a few hours before and totally mangled...It seems that when I installed it, the two male pins on the bottom of the doppler unit didn't fully engage the female sockets on the plenum and when the plane was catapulted off the deck, it flipped out of the plenum, went crashing through the hell hole door and went skidding down the deck and ended up in the nets that encircled the carrier deck...I guess the airboss went apeshit and wanted to know what the hell happened...they cleared the deck for an emergency landing because in that hellhole is all kinds of control hydraulic lines for the rudders, elevators, etc etc. They didn't know if the box had clipped one or more of those lines as it came flying out and the crew wasn't taking any chances, understandably.

Fortunately, I was fairly new to the squadron being that I was only a 3rd class PO at the time, all I got was a severe toungue lashing...the guy that signed off my MAF (who was a 1st class PO as well as a 1st class asshat) never went out and actually checked the repair like he was supposed to do...he just assumed I had done it correctly. He ended up losing his inspector's credentials (QAR) for a few months. Being aircrew, I fully understood the implications of what had just happened...I could've killed 5 crewmembers and one of them could've been me. That hit me like a ton of bricks.

I learned two things that day...one, always double check your work, no matter how simple the job may seem to be and two, when I got my QAR (quality assurance rep), I always always always, checked the work...if anyone asked me why I would tell them this story.

One other thing, for those that haven't spent any time on a carrier, cameras are always rolling during flight ops forwrd deck and aft deck. I got to see the launch of that E2-B on the film and watching that plane spit that box out of it's back end as it went careening down the deck was very sobering. I considered myself very fortunate I didn't end up getting busted (or worse).

That was the stupidest/dumbest thing I ever did in the service...

Originally Posted by ccm75

Ditto. I had all kinds of opportunities but took my took my ETS at the first opportunity. Six months later my battalion jumped into Panama and then went to the gulf shortly there after. I could have tried for flight school, OCS, Ranger, but I thought I was the smart one getting out. I served, but often wished I'd served longer.

Had some drunken escapades in GA, Italy, Germany and one notable night in Istanbul, but just the typical GI's on leave kind of stuff.

My MOS got killed right after I made Cpl. I could have extended my enlistment and lat moved to basically any MOS in the Corps.... I qualified for everything and had a spotless jacket and could have had my pick. Instead I got myself FAP'ed out to the rifle range so I could hide from the career planner until my EAS.

I was very fortunate after I went civilian and can't complain, but some of my buddies that stayed in got some pretty awesome jobs and they've made a real difference. Gunny Stan who got to "go native" for a year in A-Stan and is going back in a few months. Cpt. S who flies CH-53's. Sgt A who did some secret squirrel stuff and now works as a "contractor." They don't make a lot of money but they love what they do.

Originally Posted by saltydude

After reading the Rants, Outings O-My thread I'm sure Grendel would've have some good "stories" for us!!

He and another NES great seem to have had a lot in common.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbu...rmer-97-Bravos

Originally Posted by Skysoldier

I did some other things........but I need to learn what the Statute of Limitations is before I admit it!

Sorry, state law is my game, not UCMJ.

OK, I'll play - I disabled my jeep with explosives on my first field exercise.

It was a force-on-force training exercise, and I was a brand new platoon leader for a platoon of combat engineers in the 101st Airborne Division, Fort Campbell.

We had the mission to blow a road crater, and I assigned 1st squad to accomplish it. The squad leader called a little later, saying he was all set, except he forgot the detonating wire! Time was ticking by, and the Force Commander (Infantry Colonel) wanted that road crater in now!

I hopped in my jeep, ran down to another squad, grabbed their roll of wire and flew off to 1st squad. As we showed up at the mission site we had about 5 minutes to meet our deadline. I jumped out of the jeep, told my driver to take it down the road, and sprinted to where the squad leader was waiting. We hooked up the wire, reeled it out, and realized there was only about 200 feet of wire on the reel.

Now, realize, we had about 200 pounds of fertilizer primed and ready, and the safety stand-off was a hell of a lot more than 200 feet. But, being mission-oriented (and a dumb-ass newbie lieutenant), I gave the go-ahead and we squeezed the clacker.

BOOM! Immediately, huge blobs of mud and rock came raining down on us! We hugged the trees to avoided getting clobbered.

Finally, it stopped raining mud and we went out to see the result. As I approached the hole, my driver said, "Ah, Sir, you need to see something." I looked over, and just 20 yards from where I jumped out sat my jeep! When I bailed, the driver did too! He never took it down the road.

Sitting on top of the hood of the jeep was a blob of mud and rock the size of a washing machine. The hood was bashed in, the carb was smashed right off the engine. The jeep was dead.

Of course, I figured my first mission in the US Army would also be my last. The Battalion Executive Officer drove up, took one look and said, "Anyone hurt?"

"No Sir"

"Did you learn a lesson here today?"

"Yes Sir"

He told me to get the hell back to my company and he would take care of the jeep. Nothing was ever said about it later, it never effected my appraisal rating, and I stayed another 10 years in the Army before voluntarily leaving during the RIF in 1992.

But I have always been very careful around explosives since.

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