military life, super condensed pt. 1
After about 10 months of living nothing but the military life, I have made some interesting observations. There is a certain hierarchy to who the "bitch" or "gopher" is. It sometimes involves rank, sometimes proficiency and confidence, or sometimes you just plain get screwed over.
For example, we recently had a VIP visit the base, and a driver was needed to escort the entourage and VIP around the base for various meetings and PR stuff. This task would usually fall on the lowest ranking soldier who was working that day, but for some reason yours truly was picked. I believe that it was because I had just gotten a haircut and I usually keep my uniform pressed and sharp looking, so therefore I was the "bitch" for the day. My duty involved driving and opening various doors, and sitting in a pretty nice Suburban, listening to the Russian radio stations.. All together it was not so bad, so I lucked out... I even got a shiny new coin, which is basically like a pat on the back you can show off to your friends and platoon sergeant to really piss him off.
But this other time, I got volunteered for the smallpox vaccination program, which meant I had to be the first to be inoculated and take the longest, most boring class ever. That was because I was pretty high speed and dependable, not the "soup-sandwich" I am now. So because of my competence, I had to give around 2000 smallpox vaccinations to grumbling, whining soldiers at all times of the night and day in some of the crappiest conditions. Sometimes as they were leaving for the airport to fly out, with their children and wives crying next to them.. Man that sucked...
And my last example... I had just arrived at my unit and an Expert Field Medical Badge test was being held. Since I was a PFC at the time I "volunteered" to go... heh, heh. I was just out of training, so I was pretty much lost in the sauce. This course also only has about a 20% pass rate so it was a recipe for disaster. I washed out on the second day, which oddly enough was the EMT section. Talk about embarassed. So once again the bitch hierarchy had screwed me over.
Oh well I go to the E-5 board in a month or so, so I guess I'll be a little higher up in the hierarchy and less likely to get screwed. If any of you other military types have any funny "bitch" stories, I would like to hear them. Oh yeah, Air Force and Navy people can write too, I love you guys.