Orders are orders (Part 1, long)

[CallCenterGirl]

You had brass balls with the brass. Lol. Good for you! Orders are orders and he should have known that. I never would have made it in the military.

[Marmalady]

[I REALLY wish I could have tracked down Driver too and bought him as much beer as he could drink, as his honesty is what probably saved me in the end, despite what CF would probably do to him

Thank goodness there are still people who choose doing what's right over what's easy. I do hope he managed to transfer or whatever and get away from CF.

[spark]

Wow.

I think, btw, that it says a LOT about what a dick CF must have been to work with that the driver would throw him under the bus like that, knowing what it would do to his own career. I suspect there's a long story there.

[Shalom]

Thank goodness there are still people who choose doing what's right over what's easy. I do hope he managed to transfer or whatever and get away from CF.

You know, there's more to it than that.

The OP only had to deal with this colonel for maybe a half hour at most, not counting the time in the RCO's office.

This poor driver had to deal with him day in and day out. If the shithead treated a random motor pool guard like this, how do you suppose he treated his driver?

Perhaps the driver got tired of having to dig out from under a pile of shit every day, and was using this as a golden opportunity to get in a little well-deserved revenge in a forum where nobody was going to shut him up. I do hope that he got a transfer, though. (edit - and hopefully that FC was told by no uncertain terms by his own superior officers that retaliation would land his own ass in a sling. In the short run, I'm sure he made the driver's life hell, but if the story got out about what really happened, that driver will become the instant hero of any enlisted man who'd had to suffer in silence when idiocy came down from above.)
.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I like this tale! Both because "Colonel Fuckhead" got what was coming to him, and because you didn't spin out the tale too long and force me to get... "creative" in expressing my displeasure.

[lobo94]

Quite a tale. Well done. well told.

To be fair, going from colonel to brigadier general, only so many colonels actually do that, and I'd like to think word got to whoever handles those promotions about what a jerk CF was. You have to figure, this likely wasn't an isolated incident...a little bit of jerk here, a smidgen of being an anal sphincter there, a dash of donkey...and then we start getting into raters and senior raters...and ultimately, the brass says, not only no, but Hades no, and CF is invited to retire. Unless he sees the writing on the wall and retires, or he's content to be a colonel until he makes his 30 years or gets up and outed, whichever happens first. "ponders it" Nah, he'd probably decide to stick around.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Great story, and hurrah to both you and CF's driver...you both have nads of steel!

[Rainman]

lol I wish I could say it was a case of bigballitis, but in truth i saw it as the lesser of two evils.
1. Piss off someone, who granted is of very high rank, but who I have never seen before, who has never seen ME before and will probably forget my name when all is said and done.

OR

2. Piss of my NCOIC, who I see and work with everyday and has MUCH more influence in how nice/not nice my quality of life is.

Basically, while I knew I was right, it came down to me being more afraid of my SGT then I was of CF.

[Jay 2K Winger]

lol I wish I could say it was a case of bigballitis, but in truth i saw it as the lesser of two evils.
1. Piss off someone, who granted is of very high rank, but who I have never seen before, who has never seen ME before and will probably forget my name when all is said and done.

OR

2. Piss of my NCOIC, who I see and work with everyday and has MUCH more influence in how nice/not nice my quality of life is.

Basically, while I knew I was right, it came down to me being more afraid of my SGT then I was of CF.

Good man. If I had to choose between pissing off High Muckety Muck That I Rarely Encounter and Immediate Muckety Muck That I Work Alongside, I'd choose the former, too.

[wolfie]

Wow.

I think, btw, that it says a LOT about what a dick CF must have been to work with that the driver would throw him under the bus like that, knowing what it would do to his own career. I suspect there's a long story there.

Spark, considering this happened on a military base, the driver shouldn't have thrown the Colonel under a bus - tanks are heavier, and make better moron-crushers.

[Nemesis44UK]

That was awesome sauce. I felt every sting of your pain, having been in a similar situation to yours

[Jack Doe]

To be fair, going from colonel to brigadier general, only so many colonels actually do that...

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.)

[PepperElf]

This poor driver had to deal with him day in and day out. If the shithead treated a random motor pool guard like this, how do you suppose he treated his driver?

this. retribution exists. i just hope the command was able to protect the driver from the wrath of the O6.

i don't know how bad the army is about it - the navy does have some protection put in place, but it only goes so far. If that O6 is say, your Captain/Commanding Officer then... yeah you could be in a world of hurt. "It's the Captain's ship, Captain's rules" is pretty much how ships run.

But when it's not a commanding officer there's some leeway. Like how one schoolhouse I was in had security rules banning cell phones, cameras, personal computers, flash drives - etc. And how one of the instructors caught an officer yapping away on a cell in the hallway. (O5 I think). When asked to turn his phone in to the quarterdeck the officer wiggled his rank insignia as his reply. However it didn't go anywhere nearly as bad as the OP's O6 story... the instructor informed the quarterdeck watch of the violation and the command master chief (E9) went up and ripped the O a new one... not only for violating security protocol but for disrespecting an instructor and disobeying issuing a lawful order.

and believe me, even though the O5 may out rank the CMC it's not a good idea to butt heads, especially when the CMC is in the right.

[RenRen79]

An easy way out would have been, when the Colonel was trying to get out of the motorpool, you inform him that your standing orders are that you can not allow any vehicle to leave the motorpool without ID, dispatch, etc, etc. You inform him that you are going to call your NCO. That's what he is there for. But very good job on following your guard duties. Alot of people would have seen the rank and let him go.

[rose_metal_nz]

Woohoo! Great ending