What are the weirdest Army (or other branch) Traditions you know of?

When I was in 1/27 Inf (25th ID), the platoon I was in had a tradition of dumping a bucket of crap on newly promoted troops. Garbage, ketchup, mud, beer to symbolize the trials & tribulations of a grunt...it was one of the only tradition I ended once I became PSG.

During PLDC, we went to a dine out ceremony. One of the rituals was drinking ”grog". It consisted of the following. The cadre wheeled in the "punch bowl" that looked like an old interior of an outhouse, with a toilet seat to boot. One of the Sergeants read on the podium the battles were the army was involved & the liquor from that area. The other Sergeant poured a reddish liquid inside the " punch bowl".After they finished with the ceremony, we brought our canteen cups,scooped the grog from the " punch bowl" & drank it. It tasted HORRIBLE!, If we did a bad skit or did an infraction, the punishment was to go and get a cup full of grog.

On my old company(761st Chemical company at Ft. Ord, CA, a smoke & Devon unit). We used to have 2,000 gallons collapsible water tanks called blivets. During desert storm we had one for the field shower. When someone got promoted, got tossed on it(yes I got tossed). Later, to have a good laugh after morning formation, we tossed someone. Even the 1SG was thrown once! One day,a group of soldiers from the headquarters platoon went to the supply tent,after a few minutes they came out carrying the supply sergeant completely naked. They threw him so hard that he flipped in the air and went head first in the blivet! We kept the tradition the last time we did it was on our company's COC ceremony! Both the old & new CO were tossed. Those were the days!

Marine Corps has to have the weirdest.

When Marines die and go to heaven, they have to pull GUARD DUTY!!

We got tossed into the "Alligator pond" at Ft. Stewart on our last day. There was 1 alligator in that pond, by the way!

As a Submariner when you earned your Dolphins they would throw you off the pier and then you would have to drink a water pitcher with alcohol, soda and what ever the bar tender put in to it till the dolphins were in your month and of course they would tack them on you.

The Marine Corps has some very strict (i.e. no committee discussion allowed) traditions. A couple of them go hand-in-hand. A Marine is NEVER covered (wearing a 'hat') indoors, nor uncovered out of doors; additionally, a Marine will NEVER render a salute if uncovered (mostly, of course, indoors). Here's the twist: A Marine indoors, while armed, MUST be covered, and will therefor render a salute to an appropriate recipient. Confused yet?! Boot camp took care of the confusion for all who survived it. Years and YEARS later I was pondering this quirky rule, and came up with my own answer. Makes sense to me. The Marines were originally founded to provide a police and fighting force aboard American [Naval] ships. This was back 'in the day' when I [believe] that officers suffered a legitimate threat from an often disgruntled and always dangerous crew. Marines were therefor on board to act as a body guard force, as well as being the combatants when required (the Navy guys were busy manning the ship). Any Marine (perhaps while on guard) who was armed, needed to be instantly recognized as so, and thus the tradition of being covered while armed, and uncovered when not, aided the officers in knowing who around them carried a weapon and [may] be a threat. Additionally, the armed (and covered) Marine would render a salute to nearby officers, following the old tradition of knights greeting one another with an open palm displayed, to symbolically gesture a "no weapon, no threat" message. The British standard of saluting with the palm displayed forward more directly reflects that older style. And, woe be to the man who remained uncovered and was found to be carrying a weapon...! This is purely my take, and I've never researched it (what're the odds I'd actually find an answer...?!). And, I'm sticking to my story.

As an Army officer, we were told that , unlike other services, Army officers were NEVER to carry an umbrella. Officers of the other services were permitted, but we were to rely on only the plastic , elastic cover that fit over our uniform cap. Very strange custom !

Tossing a hat in cooper river on the return from sea.

In the Korea in the early 80s the new guys had to participate in a "thunder run". Very few were able to complete it but there was copious amounts of alcohol!!!