Anyone have any funny cadet stories to share?

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:21:24 -0500

When I was an instructor, I had an opportunity to be an official observer of the an ROTC Ranger Challenge at a nearby RTI. Many of the regional colleges fielded a team for the challenge. Also included was a Marine Corp ROTC team. They were ineligible for any trophy but competed just for the challenge.

I was manning the Land Nav Station. I would give a quick brief, hand out protractors, compasses and maps and start the time. When the Marines came over, I gave the brief, let them plot their points. I was about to give them their compasses when the group leader said "we're Marines Sergeant..we don't need compasses!" and proceeded to head out. The cadre Captain came over to ask how they were doing. I said, "well Sir let me put it this way...Your cadets went that way; the course is that way!", pointing in the opposite direction. The Captain just shook his head, thanked me and walked off.

My intention is to make this fun. Please don't turn this into a flame war.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 16 at 2014 11:24 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:24:52 -0500

Back in the mid-90s, we had 4 cadets attached to my unit for the summer. During a unit exercise at Fort Bliss, one of the cadets was tasked to drive the U-Haul truck for one of the SF teams. Needless to say, he misjudged the height of the truck and hit the top part of a "height bar" at a drive through. It was pretty funny and the guys teased the cadet throughout the rest of the exercise.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 16 at 2014 11:29 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 23:29:57 -0500

I had a fellow cadet at "camp" that kept dying every time was a leader. It was never his fault, but how the cards were dealt. We had grenade go off by us and a SAW open up on us. Well we noticed this after the first two times and from then on instead of just listing the next two in succession we listed everyone down to the last person to be in charge if we all died. It was our way of poking fun of him. It really was odd how every time he did die as a leader, but we always got the mission accomplished.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 17 at 2017 11:19 PM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 23:19:52 -0400

Happened to a buddy of mine at basic camp at Ft. Knox. One of his platoon mates from some school up north was having a hard time dealing with the Kentucky heat that summer, and it was fine in the barracks, but field time in a makeshift FOB of sorts known affectionately as Tent City to cadets, found the young Sophomore in quite a slump. I suppose the whole resiliency thing wasn't really a part of his training in General Studies at Slippery Knock college in nowhere USA. Anyways, Tent City featured port a johns, and our young hero decided he had to go one day during afternoon chow. He goes in in full kit, and five or so minutes pass. All of a sudden the door busts open and the guy runs out pants around ankles yelling "It's Hot". He's losing his shit taking off all his gear and in the chaos faceplants on the dirt. Of course the Drill Sergeants rush over to address the issue, but they see the whole thing and cannot keep it together.

Response by COL Jon Thompson made Mar 24 at 2017 4:24 PM

COL Jon Thompson — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 16:24:06 -0400

Here is my personal story. I was an MSI cadet in 1985 and was part of a group selected by the MSIVs for a special training event. We flew in UH-1s to a camp in northern Wisconsin that our college ran. There we went through a variety of training events. One of these was to cross a 1-rope bridge. I got on and the next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground. I had fallen off and knocked myself out when I hit the ground. I came around when one of the other MSI cadets said, "Jon, your fly is open." I guess that was the stimulus I needed as I reached down to check as I was lying on the ground.

Response by SPC Todd Alexander made Mar 24 at 2017 10:46 PM

SPC Todd Alexander — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 22:46:47 -0400

I got a detail during the summer on Ft. Bragg. I was cadre for ROTC cadets. RTO for a SF bird and a SF SM, I was from 82nd. We did 6 cycles. We had a blast stealing their weapons at night after road marching their ass off! The excuses from the cadet commanders were classic
!

Response by Jhon Caprisi made Aug 6 at 2017 7:30 PM

Jhon Caprisi — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 19:30:24 -0400

Have plenty

Response by Cadet SFC Rev. David Doellinger made Jun 7 at 2018 9:09 AM

Cadet SFC Rev. David Doellinger — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:09:07 -0400

One of the cadre was asking how to properly pronounce my last name when I was an MSI. I said it is, "Dell." Then the "linger" part sounds like "singer". The SFC said, "Oh Dell like the computer." I said yeah. He said, "and linger like a fart?" So he proceeded to call me "Computer Fart Boy."

Response by SFC Harry H. made Jan 24 at 2019 3:40 PM

SFC Harry H. — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 15:40:48 -0500

When I was with 10th Mountain, we would go down to West Point to to train the Cadidiots. We would play OPFOR after training them on basic Infantry tactics. Generally we would sit on caches and defend them when they would come around. We also played Gorilla type warfare too. One day a buddy and I were set out on LPOP to watch an intersection. While sitting there, we had a squad size group approach our position within a few feet. There was no OC with them which was a bit strange but we continued to observe. They sat down right in front of us and broke out their maps and protractors. They began to shift their ruck sacks off their shoulders and get a bit comfortable. You could see the RTO trying to make comms with no luck. So at one point we decided we had the upper hand and we were going to attack. We safety killed them and stole their maps and freqs before "Z"ing out their radios. Pretty dick move now that I'm thinking about it, and specially knowing after the fact they were lost. They kept asking us for help, we just asked for their West Point rank to wear on our boonies and moved back into the woods to link up with our squad. Later that evening after our squad leader came back from the leaders meeting he came to us and began asking questions about the cadets that we encountered. Apparently they have been lost for a day and a half wondering the woods. Also apparently another squad pretty much did the same thing to them but took their MRE's. LMAO! Good times. Not sure if that constitutes as a funny cadet stories but it was fun.

Response by CPT Robert Holden made Nov 6 at 2019 12:19 PM

CPT Robert Holden — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 12:19:14 -0500

I realize with GPS land NAV With a compass is old school but it’s sort of the point . Heaven forbid we ever lose the GPS satellites. I’m old school I’ll stick with a compass and map and rely on GPS in the car. I also spent many years teaching map reading so hopefully my lessons sunk in.

Response by SSG David Stafne made Nov 6 at 2019 4:58 PM

SSG David Stafne — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 16:58:05 -0500

Not all Cadet stories are about them doing stupid things but sometimes about getting them to squirm under pressure.

The Summer of ‘91 as a SSG (11-Bravo type) I went to West Point to help teach their Light Infantry Week (Battle Drills, Patrol Base Ops, Recon and Ambushes); these Cadets just finished their 1st year at the Academy and spend the week in the field. The thing about West Point is there’s a lot of Brass there, Colonels are a Dime a Dozen and VIP Visits are almost non-stop.

During our 3rd week of training Cadets our OIC drops this nugget on us; the Head Coach of the Army Football Team is joining us for 24 hours, not as an Observer but to be integrated into a squad and he has NO Military experience. Nobody volunteered to take the Head Coach until I remembered that one of the Cadets in my Squad was not only on his team but slotted to be his starting Quarterback and this Cadet was just assigned the M-60 That morning.

Every M-60 Gunner needs an Assistant Gunner to carry most the ammo and the Tripod, so I assigned the Head Coach as the AG, making him subordinate to his Sophomore QB. First order of business was introduce our M-60 Gunner to his new AG, with the instructions to the AG follow all commands from his Gunner and that the two are never further apart more than Arms Reach for the next 24 hours. Then I put them through an hour of Crew Drills!

The Coach hung tough for the entire 24 hours. Watching the Cadet “coaching” his Head Coach was quite interesting. In the end the Head Coach had nothing but high praise our team of instructors!

Response by MSG Dan Kilpatrick made Nov 6 at 2019 10:53 PM

MSG Dan Kilpatrick — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 22:53:54 -0500

Had a cadet at NTC as I was in the OPFOR, in the late 80's. Every one had sleeping bags on top of cots. We put peanut butter on the end of his sleeping bag. Later in the evening a coyote came and was licking the end. I never saw some go from horizontal position to the vertical position on top of the BMP as fast as him, and better yet, he was still inside his bag! Great entertainment for years!

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 7 at 2019 8:11 AM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 08:11:08 -0500

So I was doing land nav at one of the landnav spots here on Fort Sill, and been walking around looking for my last point for a hot minute, each of the points are on a sign that’s attached to a metal pole about 5’ tall, well after walking around and seeing points that had fallen down off their poles I’d started to lose faith in this place, and low and behold I found a lone 5’ metal pole. Got a call asking where I was, and I said looking for this sign so I can verify this point, I found the pol, but didn’t find the sign, I looked about 50’ in each direction of this pole for it, needless to say it doesn’t exist. This spot was about 100m off the road. Camp Eagle is definitely not a good landnav spot in my opinion haha, a few others I’ve talked to had the same issues with other points. I do enjoy landnav however

Response by SSG Darrell Peters made Dec 29 at 2019 2:41 AM

SSG Darrell Peters — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 02:41:05 -0500

I am a native of Kentucky spent a lot of time in the woods growing up. I swear I got a group of Cadets for Land Nav that never saw a tree before. Some were from Chicago, Newyork. I asked what would you do if you didn't have a compass and how would you determine distance an what time it was? They were clueless. I put a stick in the ground marked the shadow and in about 10-15 min marked the shadow again. I asked one cadet; " According to the Shadow about what time is it? I tell you the kid said: "Sergeant I don't know. He was wearing a digital watch." I asked another Cadet According to the shadows which way is North South East and West? Blank Stare.
One Cadet asked; "Sergeant, Why don't we just use GPS?" My response; Cadet, imagine you are taken prisoner of war and by the Grace of the almighty you escape, where are you going to get a GPS?

Response by Sgt Dale Briggs made Nov 1 at 2020 6:11 PM

Sgt Dale Briggs — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 18:11:57 -0500

Lol, I can see that. Who needs a compass when you have the sun and moon to navigate. Oh damn I forgot you need a sextant to do that. At least he wasn’t leading a platoon in combat and got someone killed. Surely Land Nav was taught, if you don’t know where you are well it’s all down hill from there. That’s as basic as it gets, where in the hell am I.

Response by Sgt Dale Briggs made Sep 29 at 2021 2:18 PM

Sgt Dale Briggs — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 14:18:10 -0400

Lol, I couldn’t land Nav with a compass with a good map, I was just lost. On paper I was 100%, put me in the woods we walked in circles. It’s a skill, at night really forget it, it’s walking into trees, terrified of snakes, the staff lets you wander around tries to catch you cheating.