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

My buddy was walking down the hall, and as he's approaching the commander who is walking in the opposite direction, the commander turns to my friend and says "oh...here", and handed him his new rank. Quick, easy, no ceremony...lucky bastard!

As an A1C I was told I had to brief our Group CC about maintenance. I was told there would be a slide show and I would just have to read the stats off of it. When I arrived to brief him, I looked to the Captain running the slides and he said there were no slides for me. My OIC and NCOIC told the commander that they told me to bring the slides. I stood in front of all my upper leadership and just started making stuff up. That's when they promoted me to SrA below the zone. I was mortified and ecstatic at the same time

I was on leave living in family housing at RAF Lakenheath. That morning I was watching the Stanley Cup on AFN and my mother in law who was visiting said there was a lot of people coming up to the door. I opened the door and it was my squadron commander and and 10 people from my section in OSS. He handed me a set of MSgt stripes and put a pair of those paste on stripes on my T-shirt.

We came out of the field and I had shut down Field opns and maned it the last nite..The 1sgt told my Plt Sgt that the E-7 list was being released and that I had made 7...He ask were I was and was told I was asleep....Next day I had the day off because of the extra thngs I had done...1 SGT came out to formation and told the company I had made the E-7 list...A buddy of mine came over and woke me up and told me I had made...Went over to OR and got my seq number it was 5

We were in a briefing and our commander told a 1st Lieutenant he was out of uniform and started screaming at him for a few minutes. Then, he said 'no hard feelings, Captain'. and handed him his captain's rank.

My own promotion to E-5 was weird to say the least. My unit was at REFORGER and I was left back in the States due to the fact my wife was pregnant and due while we were deployed. Of course CQ still had to be pulled and for the enlisted, it was pretty much every other day, 24 on/24 off. One evening I go in to pull my ACQ duties and the NCOIC says, "what are you doing here?". Of course I answered, "I have ACQ tonight, Sergeant". He said, "No you don't. NCO's don't pull ACQ". I was confused and he handed me the orders. I was never even pinned. Just put the new insignia on my uniform and carried on.

Commander called me, said to get over to our work section (Howard AFB base weather station) immediately, he'd just received a bill for a microwave oven that supposedly I'd purchased with our unit's IMPAC card. He was quite upset. I hurried over to see him holding a folded over piece of paper, with other folks standing around looking scared and worried. He ranted about the unauthorized purchase, and continued with "I don't even know where to start about THIS!", while shoving the paper into my hands. Inside was a set of MSgt stripes. Promotion results had come out that morning. I was completely nonplussed. Day had a great ending as my 5 months pregnant wife had an ultrasound done, and the doctor announced we were to have a son.

I was in 3rd armoured div. My warrant officer packet had been submitted. I was a SSG with 7 and a half years in. My boss got a call from the chief of staff and send SSG urban to division HQ tomorrow 10 am. We are pinning him. Now all these SFC/msg/SGM have to salute me.

Over the weekend, after passing out, I was put in the hospital because I was within hours of death by peritonitis. I ended up with stitches from belly button to just above my privates. The unit did not know where I was for two days.

My commander, a LTC practical joker, and SGM came to visit just after I woke up groggy from surgery. All I remember was him saying was " Mumble, Mumble, Mumble,...YOU MADE SFC!.". I was so surprised, I sat straight up in bed and popped some stitches which requires a later surgery.

I checked my AKO and saw that I was a Specialist and not a PFC anymore. I called my team leader and asked him about it.


TL: "Sweet, Ill talk to the squad leader and we'll get you pinned as soon as we can."
Me: "thats.....thats it......O....Kay......"
TL: "Yup, Specialist is a consolation prize for lasting this long. it doesn't really mean much because all you have to do is show up."
Me: "uhhh Roger Sergeant. Ill keep that in mind."

Good times.