Posted on Jul 1, 2014
What constitutes being "old school" in the military?
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I'm hearing/reading people saying "I'm old school, therefore..." So out of curiosity's sake, where is that ever-moving line?
Tradition
Humor
Memories
Military History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 1808
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Well, first is you must be OLD. I've yet to see more than a handful of active duty Flag officers or senior NCOs in any service who wear Viet Nam ribbons. That means I AM OLD. Second, you cannot give one flaming rat fart what officers say about the way things "will be done." You will still do it the RIGHT way. More than not, you must also be retired. It's completely impossible to be OLD SCSHOOL in today's military. That's would be an oxymoron!!!
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Interesting question. Yeah, I remember trading c-rat smokes and a whole bunch of the items these folks have listed. Oh how the times have changed. Just not my Army anymore. I'd say the line moves when you look at anything - vehicles, policies, uniforms, weapons, whatever and say to yourself (or anyone else for that matter) "Well, that's not how we did it (used it, worn it, etc) when I was __________ (fill in the blank). Then Sarge, you know are old school).
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Old school people tend to be set minded in their thoughts, actions and speech. They don't like change. A new C.O., section NCOIC, or airman who maybe younger, a woman, of a different religion, color of skin, too tall, too short, etc. Will always bring a snide remark or fustrated look from "old schools". Old school people either won't change for the better or for what's best for all.
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Does anyone remember the SMART book in basic training? I think it stood for Soldier's Manual of Army Tasks. It was your daily bible for every thing you needed to master as a soldier in the Army while at basic to graduate.
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Washed your uniforms on a washboard, when it rained, grab a bar of soap, and have a refreshing shower in the jungle, laughed at the person wearing white sneakers in boot camp, looked foreword to service week, sleeping in any possible position, oh the fun we had!
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Being AF, I didn't get transported in any cattle cars(seen them when they came to MCGuire to pick up Prisoners at the flightline that came back from Europe.
Did the melting of wax to do the floors ..
Used the t-shirt to polish shoes ..
Instead of writing up it was OJT time in the Kitchen.. (sanitation maintenance of kitchen equipment, going over CDCs ..).
Setting the example was a prime subject
In whatever we done; uniforms, the way we did our job position.. ect.,..
Everything was covered what was stated up top With exception of using Group, Wing, Squadron, instead of the company, brigAde, and battalion..
Did the melting of wax to do the floors ..
Used the t-shirt to polish shoes ..
Instead of writing up it was OJT time in the Kitchen.. (sanitation maintenance of kitchen equipment, going over CDCs ..).
Setting the example was a prime subject
In whatever we done; uniforms, the way we did our job position.. ect.,..
Everything was covered what was stated up top With exception of using Group, Wing, Squadron, instead of the company, brigAde, and battalion..
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SSgt Boyd Herrst
I didn't spend that much time wearing the khakis or AF Blues..
wore the cook's whites a lot as my job posit required. Our Safety shoes/half boots only required us to blacked and brush them and use
Plenty of the bear grease salve to keep them from getting water-logged.. so it was the salve (3 coats) put one on Rubin let dry, repeat, repeat.. then boot polish and brush in good and repeat 2 more times.. after that didn't do the beat grease for a while.. got a lot of life out of the safeties. I managed to wangle another pair when I went up to CFB Cold Lake..
the MCPL I worked with helped me get them.. so I spent time getting them conditioned. I was able to rotate the boots every day and had dry boots on every day. I tried to impress on my roomy to remember what the MTI said about our feet and how caring for them is important and taking care of our boots shoes is part of that.. I just want to hear him whining how his boots hurt him.. I was peculiar about all my uniforms looking sharp, even my whites.. I was fortunate, I had some whites fro my Reserve unit, so I was set with several sets. I was able to get my whites over to the rigger shop I had tacked everything myself then took them over . I was able to wait for them.. it must of been a super slow day.. He had all my whites in short time and looking good.. I got them back and ran them through the rinse then the dryer. Got them out jus slightly damp and pressed them. When I first got to the base I didn't have a iron board.. I rigged up one.. I found a decent piece of plywood the right size and thickness against the wall in the kitchen the bakers used. I found what looked like a cover made of tent canvas.. but soft. So I wrapped that around the board. Then Zi neeedd an Iron. I found a 2 quart Military sauce pan. Heavy too! It was quite clean.. I cleaned it better..
I set my trouser on the board like how I wanted to iron them.. I pulled a piece of that soft canvas back out from under the board and lay it over the slightly damp trouser leg and got my hot temporary iron and proceeded to iron. I checjed it.. looking good and it was dry too.
I reheated my "iron" and repeated the process on the other leg. I got all my trousers and my shirts done. It took me a couple hours . And I put the canvas and the board and the saucepan away.. hopefully could pick a board and iron up at the exchange.. I had all my uniforms on hangers and I heard the thunder.. aha! Grabbed an over sized trash bag and cut a small slit
In the bottom and over the uniforms
Pull the hooked ends through and
Back to the barracks I went. It thundered a lot but the rain was light.. I got inside and got to my room... and hung up my uniforms.
I asked my roomy if he'd washed his uniforms yet.. I've said he was off next day.. and they weren't finished yet. I went in next day after going to the Orderly rm. I had to see the
Trng NCO about abetting signed up for a class at base ed and needed his endorsement that my CDCs ere done. Before I could go over and get signed up.. Did that and he said to hold on.. he called over and the Sgt there was gone for the day.
He saved me a trip .. So I went over to the Base Dining Facility .. and went in back to let them know I was there. SSG told me they wanted to see me at the OiCs and Chief's office. I stopped and checked my haircut... good, didn't have a mustache yet.. maybe in a few years.. I reported in and the SMSG
(soon to be Chief) Said the Lt. Would be available in a minute.. He said the 1SG and Cmdr. remarked how good my uniform looked.. and thrn the Lt. came out of her office but stood in the doorway.. Turn sideways A1C Herrst, now the other way.. let me get my camera ! It's in my car.. She was back pretty quick..
She snapped about 4 pics.. I don't mind a pic occasionally.. she said I could go back to work .. actually I hadn't started yet . One of the other Airmen told me what I was assigned to.. I still got the board and looked at the cook work plan. I had veg's to do which included the starches. I looked at the plan again then went out front on the line.. went back and told the SSG he had too many pans and not enough slots.. I took him out and showed him.. he told me I was right . He called the 1st Cook over and showed him.. now fix it ! He said.. he was cool he didn't yell at him
Maybe a little.. So we switched my two veg's to half pans, the rice was in a half and so was gravy.. a universal gravy medium brown worked with Chicken and beef. My idea.( I used beef and chicken base , and the roux). noodles in a long pan as were the two meats.. I had found about four bales of kitchen towels in a back room in the bakery. There were still several bales(12 to a bale) we had got pads too but those are for getting pans out of the oven not wiping stuff up with.
Nothing worse than having your hot pad greasy wet 'cause somebody wiped a mess with it. Good way to get hurt too . I was linebacker too and kept our line looking good.. I asked the civilian line server if she could please try and not be so sloppy with the gravy.. I think she had more on her than what was in the pan. I asked her to move down and serve the Veg's, the soup was in a new soup crock set up on the counter for self service.. all we had to worry about was keeping water in the well and soup in the food liner. The crock was on a tray with a tray liner we changed about ever 20 minutes.. depending what it was .. some times more .. They tried sticking me on the burgers quite a bit.. s'times I didn't mind. I showed them I was a good cook and knew what I was doing even if I was new.
New in the AF yes, but not to cooking.. The leaders had seen my jacket and knew what I was capable of.. When it was the 1st Cook's turn to shine and run the crew, he'd put me on the.burger line.. He put his bud as 1st Cook and I had my doubts.. ? Of course it wasn't my place to say.. s'times I just hadd to
Get in and show them how to cook.
I s'pose I am bragging about myself.. but s.'times they run around like keystone cops.. I told them the plan is right there .. work it ! I tell you from the lime e'time it seems veg's are getting low.. you stick me on so the civ f'd Svc worked can go onthe dock and suck on a coffin nail for ha half hour
Seriously guys?.. When you do that to.me all I can do is call back, I can't leave the line.. you got stay on top of what's happening.. you and I and the shift leader and the Chief need to have a meeting because whe the SSG is gone you fall apart !
They asked what'd I know about running a kitchen. That's when I heard the SMSG come up behind them., and he spoke up. He had the somewhat deep authoritarian voice. The temp 1st Cook about jumped out of his shoes when the
SMSG spoke up. You guys need to look at bis jacket.. I'm surprised the SSG didn't make him 1st Cook.
Referring to yours truly.. we finished that day and got things cleaned up in the kitchen and L/Oz put in the cooler which there wasn't much of.. Next day the SMSG had the Cook sheet made out and had me as 1st Cook. The other guy was back as 2nd cook . I informed the Sgt let me run production you just over see and make point outs This A1C will show you how it's done Sarge ! We had a meeting and I read who was where in the kitchen
And what they be doing., does e'body understand? I need reinforcement.. Amn Jackson what are you responsible for he told me, I asked the next man.. he told me. Does anybody have any questions?
None? Good let's go to work Airmen we got a meal to prepare ...
And away we went.. e'thing like clockwork., remember.. clean as we go... Always checking e'thing !
Lineman, how's line looking? He asked for meat loaf .. I got that out there.. I wanted to cut it on the line.. it had too much filler.. crumbs, it held but not as good as I would of liked.. so that day finished we got e'thing secured the paper work done and we were ready to go as soon as the night guys came on.. three fom the front and two from the back door .. I showed them the production sheet
What we had done for them and they'd return the fave for us .. And we were done ! It didn't take us long. About 10 minutes back to bks.. 0400 certainly comes early!
I had 1 more shift to work and I was off 2 days .. Got to my room and took care of personal business and
Got to bed and sleep..
wore the cook's whites a lot as my job posit required. Our Safety shoes/half boots only required us to blacked and brush them and use
Plenty of the bear grease salve to keep them from getting water-logged.. so it was the salve (3 coats) put one on Rubin let dry, repeat, repeat.. then boot polish and brush in good and repeat 2 more times.. after that didn't do the beat grease for a while.. got a lot of life out of the safeties. I managed to wangle another pair when I went up to CFB Cold Lake..
the MCPL I worked with helped me get them.. so I spent time getting them conditioned. I was able to rotate the boots every day and had dry boots on every day. I tried to impress on my roomy to remember what the MTI said about our feet and how caring for them is important and taking care of our boots shoes is part of that.. I just want to hear him whining how his boots hurt him.. I was peculiar about all my uniforms looking sharp, even my whites.. I was fortunate, I had some whites fro my Reserve unit, so I was set with several sets. I was able to get my whites over to the rigger shop I had tacked everything myself then took them over . I was able to wait for them.. it must of been a super slow day.. He had all my whites in short time and looking good.. I got them back and ran them through the rinse then the dryer. Got them out jus slightly damp and pressed them. When I first got to the base I didn't have a iron board.. I rigged up one.. I found a decent piece of plywood the right size and thickness against the wall in the kitchen the bakers used. I found what looked like a cover made of tent canvas.. but soft. So I wrapped that around the board. Then Zi neeedd an Iron. I found a 2 quart Military sauce pan. Heavy too! It was quite clean.. I cleaned it better..
I set my trouser on the board like how I wanted to iron them.. I pulled a piece of that soft canvas back out from under the board and lay it over the slightly damp trouser leg and got my hot temporary iron and proceeded to iron. I checjed it.. looking good and it was dry too.
I reheated my "iron" and repeated the process on the other leg. I got all my trousers and my shirts done. It took me a couple hours . And I put the canvas and the board and the saucepan away.. hopefully could pick a board and iron up at the exchange.. I had all my uniforms on hangers and I heard the thunder.. aha! Grabbed an over sized trash bag and cut a small slit
In the bottom and over the uniforms
Pull the hooked ends through and
Back to the barracks I went. It thundered a lot but the rain was light.. I got inside and got to my room... and hung up my uniforms.
I asked my roomy if he'd washed his uniforms yet.. I've said he was off next day.. and they weren't finished yet. I went in next day after going to the Orderly rm. I had to see the
Trng NCO about abetting signed up for a class at base ed and needed his endorsement that my CDCs ere done. Before I could go over and get signed up.. Did that and he said to hold on.. he called over and the Sgt there was gone for the day.
He saved me a trip .. So I went over to the Base Dining Facility .. and went in back to let them know I was there. SSG told me they wanted to see me at the OiCs and Chief's office. I stopped and checked my haircut... good, didn't have a mustache yet.. maybe in a few years.. I reported in and the SMSG
(soon to be Chief) Said the Lt. Would be available in a minute.. He said the 1SG and Cmdr. remarked how good my uniform looked.. and thrn the Lt. came out of her office but stood in the doorway.. Turn sideways A1C Herrst, now the other way.. let me get my camera ! It's in my car.. She was back pretty quick..
She snapped about 4 pics.. I don't mind a pic occasionally.. she said I could go back to work .. actually I hadn't started yet . One of the other Airmen told me what I was assigned to.. I still got the board and looked at the cook work plan. I had veg's to do which included the starches. I looked at the plan again then went out front on the line.. went back and told the SSG he had too many pans and not enough slots.. I took him out and showed him.. he told me I was right . He called the 1st Cook over and showed him.. now fix it ! He said.. he was cool he didn't yell at him
Maybe a little.. So we switched my two veg's to half pans, the rice was in a half and so was gravy.. a universal gravy medium brown worked with Chicken and beef. My idea.( I used beef and chicken base , and the roux). noodles in a long pan as were the two meats.. I had found about four bales of kitchen towels in a back room in the bakery. There were still several bales(12 to a bale) we had got pads too but those are for getting pans out of the oven not wiping stuff up with.
Nothing worse than having your hot pad greasy wet 'cause somebody wiped a mess with it. Good way to get hurt too . I was linebacker too and kept our line looking good.. I asked the civilian line server if she could please try and not be so sloppy with the gravy.. I think she had more on her than what was in the pan. I asked her to move down and serve the Veg's, the soup was in a new soup crock set up on the counter for self service.. all we had to worry about was keeping water in the well and soup in the food liner. The crock was on a tray with a tray liner we changed about ever 20 minutes.. depending what it was .. some times more .. They tried sticking me on the burgers quite a bit.. s'times I didn't mind. I showed them I was a good cook and knew what I was doing even if I was new.
New in the AF yes, but not to cooking.. The leaders had seen my jacket and knew what I was capable of.. When it was the 1st Cook's turn to shine and run the crew, he'd put me on the.burger line.. He put his bud as 1st Cook and I had my doubts.. ? Of course it wasn't my place to say.. s'times I just hadd to
Get in and show them how to cook.
I s'pose I am bragging about myself.. but s.'times they run around like keystone cops.. I told them the plan is right there .. work it ! I tell you from the lime e'time it seems veg's are getting low.. you stick me on so the civ f'd Svc worked can go onthe dock and suck on a coffin nail for ha half hour
Seriously guys?.. When you do that to.me all I can do is call back, I can't leave the line.. you got stay on top of what's happening.. you and I and the shift leader and the Chief need to have a meeting because whe the SSG is gone you fall apart !
They asked what'd I know about running a kitchen. That's when I heard the SMSG come up behind them., and he spoke up. He had the somewhat deep authoritarian voice. The temp 1st Cook about jumped out of his shoes when the
SMSG spoke up. You guys need to look at bis jacket.. I'm surprised the SSG didn't make him 1st Cook.
Referring to yours truly.. we finished that day and got things cleaned up in the kitchen and L/Oz put in the cooler which there wasn't much of.. Next day the SMSG had the Cook sheet made out and had me as 1st Cook. The other guy was back as 2nd cook . I informed the Sgt let me run production you just over see and make point outs This A1C will show you how it's done Sarge ! We had a meeting and I read who was where in the kitchen
And what they be doing., does e'body understand? I need reinforcement.. Amn Jackson what are you responsible for he told me, I asked the next man.. he told me. Does anybody have any questions?
None? Good let's go to work Airmen we got a meal to prepare ...
And away we went.. e'thing like clockwork., remember.. clean as we go... Always checking e'thing !
Lineman, how's line looking? He asked for meat loaf .. I got that out there.. I wanted to cut it on the line.. it had too much filler.. crumbs, it held but not as good as I would of liked.. so that day finished we got e'thing secured the paper work done and we were ready to go as soon as the night guys came on.. three fom the front and two from the back door .. I showed them the production sheet
What we had done for them and they'd return the fave for us .. And we were done ! It didn't take us long. About 10 minutes back to bks.. 0400 certainly comes early!
I had 1 more shift to work and I was off 2 days .. Got to my room and took care of personal business and
Got to bed and sleep..
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A service number
Did PT in fatigues often carrying your M-1
bathed from your Steel Pot
Did PT in fatigues often carrying your M-1
bathed from your Steel Pot
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