Can a corporal in a team leader position have me do corrective action (“smoke” me)? And was I wrong to tell him to eat a bag of dicks?

Soooo wrong! He should have taken action against you for your disrespect. If you know more than him why aren't you a Corporal?

And here I thought all y'all E4 Mafia cats were smarter than going online and publishing evidence of such activities as blatantly disrespecting an NCO...

Regardless of you having more experience, mouthing off to him was dead wrong. You should’ve tried, in a calm way, explain why his way was not correct. You’re lucky you weren’t charged for disrespecting a superior!

Potentially, you could both be wrong.

You are wrong regardless of rank - if you say that to anyone in a leadership position to you. Also, a corporal is as much an NCO as any other.

Secondly, he would be wrong in every case except you being corrected for failing push-ups on your pt test.

A corrective action needs to relate to your "crime" so to speak. And - I know everyone seems to do it - push-ups for anything other than what I previously stated would "legally" be considered a punishment. Punishment is reserved for commissioned officers.

MST alert
Do we have to post with phrases like that?

You have to look at multiple factors here. 1 he's a BRAND NEW NCO, 2 he just reclassed, 3 he's like an LT he was taught this in school but in the real world its something different. As a lot of responses on this post are VERY one sided. You both were in the wrong. Before the discussion had gotten to a point where he could've flexed his rank on you (if you're an NCO you've probably done this more than enough times to count) you should have explained it using a FM, TM or unit/company SOP. But instead the both of you let it go too far. Yes it's wrong of NCO's to flex their rank and CPL's get shit on all the time. But it was also wrong of you to tell an NCO to "eat a bag of dicks" not only is that dosrespect to a Non-Commisioned Offcier but it could have also escalated to SHARP complaint and knowing the army in this day and age it wouldn't surprise me. Also your NCO has a very large ego. As someone who already has reclassed 12B-91F he should know that he is going to have to rely on lower enlisted and higher enlisted to teach him everything he needs to know about the unit,SOPs, TMs, FMs and way of life in the new MOS. It's like going from a light unit to a mechanized or an armored unit. As an NCO. you as the NCO are still required to know the vehicles, soldiers, tm, fm, sop but that is uncharted territory so he should have leaned on you, you being the SME vs challenging you and him not knowing much.

Your very wrong the corporal was put in charge anyone put in charge no matter higher or same rank you have to obey and give total respect to rank and position.Now if you said excuse me so and so no disrespect but eat a bag a dicks at least you showed respect. I agree you should have been wrote up fined for what you said

So let me get this right. A corporal, which IS and NCO... told you an e-4... to drop and you not only refused but you were insubordinate to him? You are lucky to even BE a spec 4 after dong that and in the way you did it, with the attitude. It's not up to you to decide if he is wrong. And certainly not in that manner. If he was wrong you pull him to the side respectfully and tell him what was wrong. He either corrects or he does not. You are ate up from the floor up and yes, you were wrong.

I have no clue. But I once held the paygrades of E-2 through E-7. No matter what branch of service you serve there is that fine line of being in a position of Leadership and being a Subordinate. And the consequences of failed Leadership outweigh eating a Bag of Dicks. Get "Smoked" (step-Son 11 Bang Bang) and chalk it up as a success.

You’re lucky it was just corrective action. He could’ve recommended higher action. It’s ok to “discuss” alternatives with leadership, but it must be done with tact. And never disrespectful, especially around other jr enlisted.