Has anyone ever been in a screaming match or any altercation with their superiors?

Yes, several times. Not a screaming match though. I was in training at Ft. McCoy as a First Sergeant and called out a Major on his less than knowledgeable process/procedure. I could have handled myself a bit better, thought it was going to be a career ender. Back briefed my command chief at home station who in turn briefed my CO on the altercation. I was given a pass and told to enjoy my deployment. In the end I am upset with myself for being drawn in to a pissing contest with a skunk.

Of course...this is going to happen! Only if I was correct and always one one one...never in front of the troops.

Provision are made for issues like that by Emergency Leave. Addressing the back might be best handled in the chain of command (CSM/CDR) if not resolved by your company CO/1SG.

"Praise in public. Punish in private."

I was fortunate enough during my 11 years Army M.I. to have superiors whom I respected and who, in turn, respected me. So I never had any outright yelling at each other encounters, there were some 'heated disputes" in which opinions were freely and frankly shared. Either I changed their mind or I got on with the task as directed.

I did however, have a run-in with a subordinate who came to work having left most of his senses in the bottom of an empty beer mug. As soon as I smelled his breath I directed him to go back out to the break-room for a couple of hours. He kept insisting that he could work just fine, getting louder & louder. Finally I had to grab two hands-full of his BDU blouse and switch to "wall-to-wall counseling" and told him to "Get the hell outta Ops until I sent somebody to get him." It was a slow night so his absence didn't have any impact on our mission. Next day I bought him lunch and we had a good long counseling session, which I played as just two guys - the Old Hand & the New Guy - having a good jaw over lunch. He responded well and we never had any more problems.

No, never, though I did have an O-3 that chewed me up and down, over his error, when I was the Battalion S-3 Operations Clerk. My job was to make sure training got done and scheduled, so I did it. His road march was well past when it should have been done, so I scheduled it, with the O-4s blessing, and signature.

The O-3 wasn't happy and came storming into the S-3 office, I was the only one there, and no officers in the BN HQ at the time either, and I was the one who scheduled it. Tore me a new one, while standing at attention. I took it and went about my day, though in a rather foul mood of course.

The O-4 came back and checked on me, which he had a habit of doing, and knew something was wrong. He asked me a few times "Is everything ok Specialist." My answer was the same every-time, a simple "Yes, sir" then he called me into his office and asked what was wrong, so I told him.

The O-3 was called to the O-4s office and read the riot act, he avoided me like the plague, his 1SG thought it was funny as hell.

Those were the days.

No response unless I know the other side of the story.

I have an odd way of looking at raising ones voice. There is a time and place to do it. Normally it’s when the person I am talking with needs to understand that I am angry. After people raise their voice a discussion is normally over. A discussion takes two people listening and talking with each other. Normally when this started I just shut up and let them go. I have refused unlawful orders and I have not followed orders which were just wrong. In both cases I was threatened with punitive action and when it got to the next to the next person in the chain of command, it was dropped. This did not please them and they would not recommend me for anything. However doing the right thing over the easy thing has always made me able to live with myself better. I listen to both sides and then try to go from there.

I had been the number one ranked E-8 for the past three cycles when I became eligible for E-9. I went to the Commodore's office to sign my fit-rep when I noticed that both me and an E-8 peer had both been MP'd. I suggested to the Commodore that he EP the other Senior Chief who had been there for the past two years because I was the new guy there and it would look bad to a promotion board to have both of us as MP (No EP). He said he had agreed to and taken the recommendation from the Command Master Chief to do as he did. I asked him what he advised I do to re-establish my EP standard and he said, "Nothing at all Senior. Just keep doing what you do." I barely controlled myself, walked out and went straight to the CMC's office. I walked in and closed the door. He had his feet on the desk. I asked him why he had sabotaged my first promotion opportunity at E9 and he said, "You are too young to be a master chief and you wouldn't have been promoted anyway." I asked him what he knew about the Master Diesel Inspector position for E9 Enginemen (as opposed to being a Command type) and he said he'd never heard of it. I put my hand on his bundled feet and thrust them off the desk, thanked him (sarcastically) for taking that away from me and told him he was a sorry POS as I walked out. I never spoke to the clown again and he never mentioned this event to a single soul. I applied for CW02 three months later (since the CMC had zero say-so on officer programs) and picked it up the first time. The anger and ignorance truly motivated me. Best career move I made in 22 years of service.

#1 He violated Red Cross emergency protocol ! Which over rides any company troop movements! No Commander or NCO has the authority to deny emergency leave for a death of a child even if its a miscarriage & your wife has trouble dealing with it!
Case in point I was training @ Ft. Irwin CA & became injured before we moved into the sandbox & I was temporarily assigned to the E.O.C. & since I was the senior enlisted other than the CSM over me. I coordinated all emergency leave through the Red Cross! While there I had a request come across my desk for a soldier in my company. And upon 3 different leave denials from my 1st Sgt & Company Cdr ! I drove into the box found the soldier & asked him if he wanted to go be with his wife & he said yes & just as I told him to get in the Humvee my CO over heard my conversation & ordered me to ATTENTION & said if I interfered with his order of no leave I would be busted down to a E1! And I replied with all do respect Sir you do what you feel that you need to do but Im goin to do what I need to do so I immediately reported back to the post CSM & the CSM ordered the MP's to arrest the Captain & 1st Sgt & for me to get the soldier immediately to the airport! On the way to the Airport I asked Corporal Prather who worked as the company clerk why they denied his leave he told me that they treated him as the company bitch!
By the next morning the CO was dishonorably discharged & the 1st Sgt was reprimanded!
All in all it took a E4 with the right knowledge to bring down a Captain & a 1st Sgt after retuning to post the other officers had a new found respect for me !