What Odd Behavior have you endured from a Roommate?

2025-06-12T04:05:52-04:00

I was assigned a barracks roommate who behaved strangely. He liked to swing and play with his mall katana, and call it training. He was also very homophobic. To the point in which he only watched anime and lesbian porn to avoid looking at another man's wiener. Thankfully, the leadership sympathized with me, and moved him to another room. So he can be someone else's problem.

Response by CSM Chuck Stafford made Jun 12 at 2025 6:38 AM

2025-06-12T06:38:37-04:00

One man's odd is another's normal

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 12 at 2025 7:18 AM

2025-06-12T07:18:42-04:00

So, you found a way to pass the buck because you found him odd?

Response by 1SG(P) Dean Mcbride (MPER) (SPHR) made Jun 21 at 2025 9:05 AM

2025-06-21T09:05:14-04:00

I Panama (1960s), we had an open bay concept... Everyone slept in a large open bay - uniforms hung on ceiling racks, and a footlocker. Every morning, without fail, the Puerto Rican guy in the bunk next to mine would wake up with the same words... "McBride, gimmie a cigarrette". He told me his favorite brand was OPs... Other Peoples!

Response by SSG Roger Ayscue made Jun 27 at 2025 11:31 PM

2025-06-27T23:31:16-04:00

I had a roommate who went a little off center when he drank, which he did to excess at times. When he got drunk, he would sit up in nearly a fetal position and refuse to get off the bed because he was afraid of the demons in the room. He would, if he got drunk in a bar, break glasses on his own forehead, and he would swallow non-food items like collar brass, unit crests, etc. Eventually, he was taken for a ride from the barracks by the military police and given a new barracks room with padded walls.

Response by SSG Eric Blue made Jun 28 at 2025 9:53 PM

2025-06-28T21:53:36-04:00

In the Army when I was a geographical bachelor in Fairbanks, Alaska, the guy I was forced to room with at the time was a chain smoker. Even with the zero tolerance policy for smoking indoors, he was a problem. Wake up, smoke. Before 1st formation, smoke. After PT, smoke. After breakfast, smoke. I mean every g--damn time I was around that guy, he was smoking a cigarette! AND ALWAYS IN A NON-SMOKING AREA! I finally told him, "Look...IDGAMF if you ruin YOUR lungs with it because that's YOUR body! But if I have to stay here, you can't smoke! He laughed, took a draw off his cigarette, and blew the smoke in my face. I responded with a right elbow to his left temple which stunned him, got him in a chokehold, drug him over to the 3rd story window of our room, hung him out of it, and asked him, "IS IT STILL F---IN' FUNNY?!?" He never smoked around me again. Yes, that was the wrong way to handle it, but I already knew that I wasn't going to get anywhere with the chain of demand and NCO abort channel.

Response by CW3 Richard Doty made Jun 29 at 2025 7:03 PM

2025-06-29T19:03:14-04:00

I roomed with a Jarhead for a while. Really a good guy, and we're still connected. That said, one day he pulled out a 911 and asked me if I was okay with him having a firearm. He wasn't quirky at all, and I didn't think he would ever use it, so I simply told him to put it away and make sure nobody else knew (and emphasized that I knew nothing about it). That's exactly what he did, and I never saw it again. Still, in retrospect, he had no idea how I would react, so it was an odd move on his part.

Response by SrA Cecelia Eareckson made Jul 2 at 2025 9:10 PM

2025-07-02T21:10:06-04:00

Ages ago, and I was senior woman in the barracks. If anything had gone down, I would have been in the soup along with the roommate who had a friend smoking weed in our room. One story building, like no one could smell it. The friend must have seen something she did not like in my expression, because she swallowed the lit joint.

Response by SGT Matthew S. made Aug 6 at 2025 9:50 PM

2025-08-06T21:50:47-04:00

Never had odd roommates per se, but once spent a training rotation at NTC with the Soldier on the cot to my right that sat up & talked/acted out his dreams and the one to my left who slept with his eyes wide open - little eerie to wake him up and he didn't even blink. Just turned and looked at you.

Response by SSG Roger Ayscue made Aug 19 at 2025 3:05 PM

2025-08-19T15:05:54-04:00

Maybe he did not like looking at a penis except his own. Maybe is pervy uncle had made him fearful of other guy's johnsons. who knows, was far as training with a katana, why were there katanas in the barracks to begin with? When I was in, no one had a sword in the barracks unless it was the uniform swor that goes with the dress blues.