What's the most unusual way you have seen someone receive notification of promotion?

Way back in '03 while attending an SRP prepping for our first deployment I was an E4 waiting in either the finance line or the Deros line and the person at that station addressed me as Sergeant. When I corrected them that I was only a SPC; they corrected me and said if it says SGT in their system then it is Official. The next day the CO called me in front of the formation to pin me.

While in tech school I grabbed my LES during lunch (yeah, paper LESes, I'm old). I opened it before class got started and noticed my pay had jumped. I checked the rank and sure enough I made A1C without knowing it. I told the people around me "Holy crap, I'm an A1C now!" my instructor overheard me, noticed I was wearing AB stripes (none) and gave me paperwork for being out of uniform. I dropped my ABUs off to get stripes sewn on, but for the two days it took to get them back I had to sew my own stripes on. Let me tell you, one was almost shoulder height, the other almost touched my elbows, and I'm pretty sure both were crooked, but I sure as hell wasn't going back to class out of uniform again!

It was 2003 and we were deployed to a FOL. An Airman and I were woken up just a few hours after our 12+ hour shift and told to report to the First Sergeant and the Commander. Once we arrived, they tried to play it off like the Airman did something wrong. They then smiled and congratulated him on making SSgt (E-5). The Airman looked at me with a weird look and I gave the same look to the Shirt and CO. After a few seconds of the awkward silence, they finally realized that he was an A1C and had the wrong guy.

I got my promotion to O-4 in the mail...no kidding.

Most unusual way I've been notified was when I made E-8. I had taken a month-long holiday to the U.K. during the Olympics and Queen's Jubilee, as well as to do a coast-to-coast trek along Hadrian's Wall. I had deliberately kept "off the grid" for the vast majority of this. Coming back, I was sitting at the Minneapolis airport, where a three-hour layover had turned into six, when I got a call from my buddy, Don, who I happened to drill with. First words out his mouth were, "James, I just saw a set of orders with your name on them."
Confused, I replied, "Really? Where am I going?"
His response," HQ, 204th RTI, as the Senior Course Developer. Congratulations, 'Master Sergeant'."
Another very close friend could be heard in the background, shouting a few choice words of profanity, as well as a 'congratulations'. ;)

I was stationed at Osan AB in Korea and was working a 12 hr graveyard at Central Security Control when the group commander and my flight sgt came in. The group commander asked if anyone in the room was on the list and my flt sgt said yes him and him pointing to two other guys in the room and not me. Well I thought another year of passover and I was so sure I had scored well. They left and a few minutes later my wife called from the states (she also was in the Air Force and worked in a communications squadron so she could get autovon lines fairly easy) and asked if I had heard anything yet. I told yes the commander was just here and I was passed over. She gave me her condolences and said you'll get it next year. I left out of CSC and took a smoke break to collect my thoughts when all of a sudden I heard someone yell out my name. I quickly put out my cigarette and went towards the voice who happened to be my flt sgt. He was standing there with the commander and he started apologizing saying he didn't see my name at first. I told I had just talked to my wife and told her I didn't make it. The commander then said well you better call her back, because you did. Right after they left I pulled out my ATT card and tried to call her at work, but they said she had just left. After I got off work I tried her at home but she wasn't there yet. Needless to say with the time change it took me until the next day to get ahold of her to tell her the news. If only we would of had cell phones back then!

A few weeks after having attended the promotion board in Afghanistan. I was awakened out of a dead sleep by my Mentor/ Team leader by him kicking open the particle board door to my cube in the B hut and jumping up and down on my bed until the wood frame gave way. As we both crumbled to the floor, he belly flopped onto me, face inches from mine, leans in and whispers in my ear "guess who made points".

I remember getting a call from my 1SG after I had just gotten home from TDY. I was tired hungry and thirsty and horny and didn't want to hear whatever he had to say. He proceeds to tell my im on the list. I'm thinking okay what got F'd up now that put me on his shit list. He responds by saying " the E-7 list dumb ass!" It was unexpected because it was my first look and hadn't even updated my records or was even thinking about it. I just wanted some chow.

When I was promoted from E-3 to E-4, I got sick with Strep Throat. I was in my rack trying not to hack all over everyone. My LPO came over and said you need to have your chevron on your uniform by Monday.

I was called in to the company area off of leave (honeymoon) to be promoted to Sergeant.