Posted on Apr 6, 2015
PO1 Ricky Allen
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We've all got one - that moment in your civilian job when the CPO came out of ya, or the LPO came out...maybe even the CO or XO rose it's head. What's yours? When did your military bearing come to play?
Posted in these groups: Job fair logo Civilian CareerTumblr static tumblr mtb09amgp11s0247uo1 1280 Military Life
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Responses: 151
SN Michael Smith
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My story relates to my being raised by an SK. I was hired to work a summer for a community pool and the POSAG that was incharge had a way pissing off every vendor for supplies. I asked about placing orders for pool chems and was told to go for it. I got the catalog and wrote down SKU's of what I knew we needed then called the supply vendor. When I started reading off the SKU's the clerk was going "Whoa wait a minute, what are you reading?" I told him and he tells me to wait and let him get into the right computer screen.
My order was placed at 0930 and by 1600 that same day we had the supplies. The property manager asked me how I had ordered and gotten everything delivered so quickly. Told her it was just the way I was trained by my father. We never had any further problems with that vendor for the five years I worked those pools.
As for the POSAG he ended up quitting his position as head of maintenance and left before I closed the pools that first year.
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CPT Assistant Brigade Intelligence Officer (S2)
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Edited >1 y ago
I was talking to my team who complained they didn't know how to do something. I told them essentially "I've given you my intent, now figure it out and present me some COAs - I'm not going to tell you how to suck the egg."

They were stunned for a moment then chuckled and moved out.
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SP5 Rich Goulet
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I was standing in line at the DMV and they moved me up because I was a senior citizen. The guy (a navy vet) came out and sails “I didn’t mean parade rest.” I was got out over 50 years ago.
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SGT Tim Fridley
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It wasn't in the workplace but at a family reunion. One of my cousins was trying to get folks attention but all the folks kept on talking and so on. I gave a command voice of the old Army "Listen Up". You could hear a pin drop
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PO1 Ricky Allen
PO1 Ricky Allen
4 y
LOL that’ll do it every time!
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CPO Bernie Penkin
CPO Bernie Penkin
11 mo
Had a couple of funny ones like that. One of my church elders was trying to get folks to quiet down for an announcement. He was a retired AF LTCOL. His voice was a little soft. I turned on my Chief’s voice and said quiet down! You could hear a pin drop after that.

The other one was in Vegas. Two drunks were staggering in front of myself, wife sister in law and her husband. They were walking slow and every time we moved to get around them they would stagger in front of us. I finally let out a “Excuse me gentlemen!” in Chief voice and they literally jumped out of our way. My sister law started laughing hysterically and said that I had to use my Coast Guard voice.
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PO3 Timmons Terry
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Was training a new security officer at a site I worked a few years ago. Kid showed with his shirt untucked, hair was mess, belt was hanging down the side of leg, pants were wrinkly. Kid was an absolute dirtbag. So, with knife hand in the air, I forcefully told him to do a front flip and un-f**k himself and to drop and give me 20. The astonishing part is, the kid actually dropped and started doing push-ups. Not exactly sure why I snapped on him like that. I apologized for it a few days later and asked why he did the push-ups. He said it was because of the look in my eye that he was afraid to not do them.
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PFC Larry Cunningham
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Answering the phone with "HHC CEI Battalion, this is PFC Cunningham. This line is unsecure, how may I help you ma'am or sir."
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SGT Christiphor Ballestero
SGT Christiphor Ballestero
3 y
I do that with scam calls.... wonder why they always hang up......
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SPC Lyle Montgomery
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I was installing conveyors with a crew in a hospital. There were a bunch of Vietnames and cambodians working in the kitchen where we were installing the conveyor. They wouldn't move out of our way although I know some knew english, so I told them Ditty mau. This turned many heads but they moved. I guess they knew what that meant
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SPC Terry Page
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I did an awful lot of telephone support over the years, and still to this day use the correct phonetics when spelling things out and other radio communication protocol... and particularly as my hearing has gone south, a lot of "Say Again".
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SA Operations Specialist
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I pushed someone into a display when the siren went off. Reached for a gun I didn't have. Then explained proceedure point by point and stuck to them while we went through it by rote.
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SPC Trinity Downing
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I was in my first engineering job. I was leading 2 different teams and there was a problem on one of the teams. This very young teammate went straight to our site manager to get the issue solved. When it finally came to me it was all blown out of proportion. My very first response was to say "You just had to jump the chain of command? Why did you not come to me first?" I never heard the end of it the rest of the time I was with that company.
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PO1 Ricky Allen
PO1 Ricky Allen
>1 y
LOL - I’ve done that! We had someone do the same thing in my company and I cocked an eyebrow like, “Why you jump chain of command? That’s why he mad at you!” Everyone popped their heads out the cubicles and knew then I was a Veteran haha!
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