Favorite tricks to pull on newbies:

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:21:06 -0400

Here's a list of some of my favorite things to pull on privates, lieutenants, or just new guys in general... add your own too!

For Aviation: Send them off in search of
Can of rotor wash
100' of flight line
A.S.H. Receiver (Hueys used to have ash trays in them...)
Can of frequency grease
Can of squelch

For Artillery: Have them conduct a "boom" check (done by having a LT or PVT stand at the business end of the cannon, and yell "BOOM" into it while someone is inside listening to make sure that the cannon isn't clogged up)...

For Armor: Have them look for soft spots in the armor (by tapping on the armor plates of a tank with a quarter or similar hard object and circling the spots that sound "different".)

For all MOSs: Have them find:
Can of blinker fluid
Chem-light Batteries
Box of grid squares
Blinker battery
I-D-10-T card (if you don't get this, look at it carefully, and try to imagine the numbers are letters...)
Body Armor and Hard Plate wash
Prc E-9 (pronounced Prick E-9)

For PSYOP: Have them find
Tinfoil Caps
Propaganda Ink or Propaganda Markers (while showing them some purported Propaganda)
Can of Loudspeaker Squelch

For SF:
Green Beret Dye (note: Don't let them bring you regular green dye you use to dye clothes with... this is a "special" dye...)

An Alpha Male Fitting (or Glue)(works better if you have some envelopes in your hand when asking for this)

For Navy SEALs:
Flipper Lube/Grease
NoRetreat Spray (You have to understand SEAL mentality in that it is rumored they don't know how to retreat from anything - even if overwhelmed and facing insurmountable odds)

For Coast Guard: One of the things that was done in the Coast Guard, was after a SAR mission, we'd get off the helicopter. The helicopters have piss tubes for the crew for long rescue missions. One of the crew would sit in the pilots seat and use it, while another crew would point out the dripping under the bird from a tube to a new airman "Hey! That might be a fuel leak, go smell that and let me know if it's fuel!" Almost every time, they'd dip their fingers in it and hold it up to their noses...