Rites of passage

[donttouchanything]

I realize that every service has its little ‘rites of passage’ back when I was in the USAF stationed a Wurtsmith AFB we had a little thing called “Sonic sit ups”.

We’d wait until the “Jeeps” (junior echelon enlisted person) showed up in the day room and then we have a couple of the most ‘in shape’ guys start doing sit ups with their eyes closed. Of course the rest of us would be enthralled as they told us about how much sooner they could feel the “Burn” when deprived of sensory input. It never failed that some “Jeep” would want to jump in and be one of the gang and give it a try. They didn’t usually notice “Fat Phil” (nicknamed that because, he was, well, Fat) standing in the doorway watching everything wearing only a towel, ostensibly on his way to the shower. Fat Phil was guy for whom personal hygiene always seemed a distant thought.

Once the “Jeep” had taken the bait and done a few of the “Sonic Sit ups” Fat Phil would straddle them and they’d do a face plant straight into the crack of his ample pimpled ass. Good Times, good times.

 

[Malko]

Coming from the USN, here are a few:

New shipmate comes on board from bootcamp....
send him/her down to supply for 50 ft. of waterline.

send him/her down to supply to get some batteries for the sound-powered telephones.

send him/here down to supply for a HT punch. In turn supply would send them wherever they could find a HT (Hull Tech.) person who would them punch them in the arm therefore receiving the HT Punch.

one of the more ridiculous ones was sending a new person to stand the Mail Buoy watch.

Ahh, the silliness.

 

[bullmastiff]

LOL In AWACS we would assign a "life raft monitor" when crossing the pomd. We would sit them next to the overwing hatch, and he/she would just stare at the wing for 4 hours. Someone always made the mistake of going to the latrine with their headsets still hooked up. Of course we would hot mic them, so the whole jet could hear him in there doing his business, grunting and talkign to himself. LOL

 

[ShoreFly]

In my days as a KC-135 Flying Crew Chief, we used to send the F.N.G. (new guy) up for a flight and have him collect "air samples" at altitude in huge garbage bags.
- It was fun to watch them deplane holding a few bags filled with air.

Back in helicopters while on alert, we would lace the inside of the FNG's boots with sea marker dye while he was sleeping.
-After the scramble and recovery, you could denote the new guy by his new "jolly green" feet, which took weeks to wear off.

 

[bushmaster]

I will admit I fell for the "100 ft. of Flightline". Heh.

We had,

Key to the dropzone
Pricky 6 (Prick E-6)
Chemlight Batteries
Change the Transmission Fluid on the Trailors
Spin the turret 3 times counter clockwise to get the serial number........

 

[MikeD]

[ QUOTE ]
I will admit I fell for the "100 ft. of Flightline". Heh.

We had,

Key to the dropzone
Pricky 6 (Prick E-6)
Chemlight Batteries
Change the Transmission Fluid on the Trailors
Spin the turret 3 times counter clockwise to get the serial number........

[/ QUOTE ]

Check the blinker fluid on the tow tug.

Get the left-handed screwdriver.

 

[shooter13]

My favorite on the Enterprise is when new guys in Reactor Department were being given a tour odf the ship on there first day. This one time we had been underway for about 4 months and the guy giving them the tour brought them into the RC division lounge. There were like 20 guys sitting around watching TV. The guy giving the tour to these kids who were no older than 18, says "watch out for these guys, there all gay." My friend L#### Henderson(anonymity) who is a Big, very muscular, very dark black guy turns around and says to them in this crazy deep voice, "I always go first." They actually ran into each other trying to get out of that room.

 

[H46Bubba]

Oh don't forget the ID-10T form! That always works. I know one that actually backfired. We were TAD in Rota for two weeks while the ship was in port for maintenace availability. A P-3 squadron was there also. One of our guys new a couple oftheir guys so we went over and watched them do a aircraft wash. They sent this f.n.g airman recruit to go to the base supply and get some "prop wash" We're all snickering as he gets in the duty truck and drives off. He comes back a half hour later with this five gallon can. He walks up to the supervisor and says "here's the prop wash, it was the last can they had." The supervisor was dumbfounded as he said thanks. We all ran up and gathered around the can to look at it. Sure enough there actually is prop wash. It's a cleaner specificly desined to clean propellers.

 

[shooter13]

We would also send people, only real idiots, back to the shaft alley's with sardines to feed the shaft seals.

 

[Stone Cold]

I was on a Frigate (Small Boy, walking on walls, all the fun stuff) and every time we went to Yorktown we always got one of the FNG's to lower the mast for the bridge. On a FFG there's a hand crank to turn the PA speaker around, and we'd get all panicked and run up with the FNG and tell him he'd better hurry. There's also "mail bouy watch", BT (now HT) punch somebody already mentioned, ID10T form, get some flight line, batteries for sound powered phones, water line, ahh...the memories.

 

[chunk75]

My favorite three?

1. The monkey watch. 'nuff said.

2. Having a JG wave a crash axe under the MAD boom (magnetic anomaly detector) in order to 'calibrate' it.

3. I never did this (helo thing) but the H-3 guys would have new guys test the "alternate ICS"...in reality it was the relief tube. "no, you gotta put your mouth right down in there in order for the test to be good until next phase..." I imagine it would be especially nasty after a PI visit...

Chunk