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

I was on ADVON at Fort Polk in preparation for a deployment to Kosovo. My squad leader walked up to me when he arrived and said, "Congrats, you and ________ just made Sergeant. Now, get back to work."

I knew my packet for SGT had been submitted and approved/recommended for promotion, but I was waiting on results/orders. Before I had orders in hand, it was AKO that told me. I had logged into AKO to check my email when I noticed my rank had changed. Sure enough, in my email was a notice that I had a new document iPermed. It was my promotion order.

I had two. The first one was in '03. I was assigned to the MGS platoon in 1-5 IN and had planned my re enlistment to happen on top of an M60 static display. Went through the re-enlistment ceremony and started to climb down from the tank when I noticed that the 1SG and commander were still standing on it. 1SG yells out get back up here. I was totally clueless. The CO then says that my paperwork is wrong, that the paperwork gives my rank as Spc when it should read Sgt. They then proceeded to pin my stripes on. 1SG nearly knocked me completely off the top of that tank blood pinning me but it was worth it.
The second one was in '10. I was in reserve component as a Spc. Was preparing to go to Reserve component DSS. BN CSM passed by me while my Squad leader was doing an inventory of my gear prior to my school date. He watched us for a few minutes then stated to my senior that I wasn't prepared for DSS. He grabbed the Spc rank off my ACU blouse ripped it off and proceeded to slap on Cpl stripes turned on his heel and said that I was now ready. It took my senior telling me and handing me the orders before I realized what happened.

I watched a SPC(P) get thrown a SGT patch by his PSG from across the hall. With a confused look on his face, he looked at the smirking SFC and asked why he threw it at it. The SFC merely looked at him and said -- loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear -- "put it on, sh*thead! You just got promoted."

My last promotion in the Corps, The I MAF C.O. pinned it on. He bent forward and whispered that me and the Commandant of the Marine Corps have something in common.............................. We both reached our highest rank.

I was with a Hawk Missile Bn in Germany 1968. One morning I had KP and (horribly hung over) had pots and pans. Oh, you reported at 0400. About 0900 I heard someone bellow my name from the dining room and was told to report. I ran out to the the dining room and the Btry Cdr and 1st Shirt were there. They promoted me to Sp5 and took me off the remainder of my KP. I think I was more happy to get away from the smell of the mess hall as I was being promoted to E5.

We had an admin in our Reserve unit that was literally over a year behind in posting/awarding promotions. I waited for 6 months after receiving my promotion letter from the USAR, then went down & had CPT's rank sewn onto my BDU's. When I showed up at drill as a CPT, I was questioned, and produced the promotion letter that was already 6 months old. Despite all that, the POS person managed to remain in the unit for his tenure, managed to ruin the careers of several soldiers and finally retired out, and is no doubt still a POS as a human being.

its not easy being a soldier. its never about you but your unit, your buddies. your weapon isn't to save your life, its to save your comrades lives.

I was on leave visiting family and completely forgot about the release date. I got about 5 or 6 text messages from co-workers telling me congrats. I had no clue what they were talking about until someone said Congrats on Staff.

Due to an "early disclosure" by an acquaintance in Personnel, we were able to place a new SSgt strip between the ham and cheese slices on a coworker's sandwich. He was thrilled with the new stripes, but worried about how to act surprised when the commander notified him later in the week.