Orders are orders (Part 1, long)

[Joyius]

My mother is the daughter of a brigadier general, and I'm his favorite grand-child, and I'm fairly sure that grandpa would never have acted this way had it been him. I'm hope he got what he deserved!

[An Haddock]

Find that driver and buy the dude a few beers.

[vang]

It's also very possible that the driver had no choice but to tell the truth. The CF didn't sound like he was planning things out, with not going to grab his ID. Also if he'd taken the time to brief the driver on the BS he was going to spill, you'd think he'd have then taken the driver in to the meet with him to nod along and agree. Instead his attitude sounds like he was in a rage and banking on his rank and bluster to get what he wanted rather than planning things out.

So as long as the RCO didn't prompt the driver with the CF's version of events first, but just said "Tell me what happened", the driver pretty much had to tell the truth if he had half a brain. He wouldn't know exactly what the CF was telling people, so any lies he told wouldn't match up with either version of events. Then he's got the RCO angry that he's obviously making things up, and a CF who's obviously got control problems angry that the driver "messed up" his cover story.

Not to knock down how good it was for the driver to tell the truth. There's plenty of people who'd either panic or be dumb enough to stick by the "boss" even when it's obviously an incredibly dumb move. I just think it's a very likely scenario, and means that the CF dug his own grave badly by not planning out his lies beforehand.

[Rainman]

This is pure, unadulterated truth. Back when I was a butterbar, I did a bit of time at the Pentagon as a very junior aid to an AF 3 star. The Lieutenant General was speaking to a brand new Brigadier, aparently a long time friend who'd he had helped get deep-dipped. One thing I'd overheard stuck in my head, "Don't think you're important because you have a star. I've got a pool of 40,000 colonels who I can replace you with." The only jump that is harder to make than colonel to brigadier is that from Master Sergeant to Senior Master (SFC to 1SG/MSG for you Army pukes.)

lol, butterbar. . . I remember that one, you gotta love military lingo. I always got a kick about how in the Army we always called PV2 rank "Skeeter Wings" or how we called our helmets "brain buckets"

[lobo94]

And don't forget Jody. For those of you not familiar, Jody is the person back home who pursues the military member's significant other while the military member is off serving their country. The villain of many a marching or running cadence.

Speaking of cadences, when I was stationed at Fort McClellan, Alabama, back in the early to mid 90s, my first company commander liked to call cadence when we were doing our morning runs. Especially the "fun runs" when we ran all over the post. Let's just say some were gruesome, and very few were safe for civilized company. These were reserved for when we were running in the back 40.

And to show motivation, some folks would take turns running around the formation, carrying the company guidon, or flag. Those really motivated would also run around other unit formations. Such challenges never went unanswered.