Do you have any good and humorous chow line disaster stories?

There was also a few times on the Nimitz where someone would be coming around a blind corner carrying their food tray and crashed into me. I knocked their tray out of their hands and kept walking.

I cracked a joke in the line once and had a very angry Marine confront me over it. Why on earth would a SSGT confront an E-2 like he was at a bar and I knocked over his motorcycle.

I guess I was lucky. Never had any bad food in the service, but dropping a tray in a crowded dining experience would have qualified.

Food poisoning would have certainly have made for some bad stories, though.

This is not a Chow Line story, but it might merit some mention. One of my last PHA's, I was unsure about how to go about it. (Trust me, even though I'd been through several in my career, it was still not clear about the process). So, that year, I decided to go to a MEPS Center. Still somewhat uncertain, I put on my uniform (it was a military facility, sooooo...) and went. Just to be clear, I was in the Reserves; getting my PHA in the Reserves was not the same as getting a PHA on AD.

When I got there, wholly cow! I was told (politely and respectfully) by the Facility Commander (a Major) that I SHOULD NOT WEAR THE UNIFORM. Because I was a Lt Col, and everybody else (except staff, of course) were Basics (something called "awe of rank"). And, well, wholly cow! Undeterred, I stripped, went through the cattle call, got the paperwork signed off, and went home.

I'm glad I went through the process. It was enlightening. Enjoyed being side-by-side with new recruits. No troubles: I considered it an honor.

One of my airmen called the box lunches at midnight chow we were getting while deployed "box nasties." SSgt behind the counter was very angry. Next day the chief of services contacted our chief and demanded that said airman work a day in the dfac. My chief told them he would do that, if they could give up 5 of their dudes to work the flightline for a day because "my airman is worth 5 of yours." That was the last we heard from them! No disrespect ment to my services peeps, just that one ssgt who couldn't make a to go box ...