What Was Your Best Experience With a Superior While Serving? Share and Be Entered to Win!

During my first tour in Vietnam in 1969, our squadron gunnery sergeant invited several of the Crew Chiefs (HMM-265) to his hootch to celebrate his rotation back home and his ultimate retirement. He broke out a bottle of whiskey and we passed it around (my first taste of straight bourbon). He told a few stories from Korea and previous tour in Vietnam. Then he proceeded to give each of us a momento, which included a holster for a .38, a flashlight-green gooseneck, wire pliers and similar things that many of us already had. He gave me his K-bar that according to him was given to him by his gunnery sergeant in Korea, which had been given to him in World War II by a senior NCO. I don't know why he gave me such a valuable treasure. It has been a treasure to me ever since. I think of that gunnery sergeant often because he also gave me great leadership in establishing my trade as a mechanic in the squadron.

My best experience with a superior was when I was at standby waiting to be discharged. Don't remember her name but the LT saw I was " eat up" with my siblings who had recently become orphans, concerned that I (their matron) was not there to help them adjust.

She decided to ask me prepare for a gala that was being given to General Braddock ask me to embroider gold stars on red satin with the general's name, to be used in cushion for him. Don't remember if I finished the task but I do remember bringing home cloth I'd been embroidering on. In any event, I felt honored at being given that task to distract me.

As an AIC I traveled around PACAF for about 3 weeks with a CMSgt doing COMSEC briefings prior to the TEAM SPIRIT exercises. It was my first time doing anything of that magnitude and Chief gave me the responsibility of putting the briefing together and presenting it. The Chief took take care everything else. After a briefing I heard a Colonel tell Chief that my briefing should be given to the all the personnel coming in theater for the exercise. I was stoked and hoped that I would get the chance the following year but I went PCS 2 months before. That was my introduction to what a Chief in the Air Force was supposed to be. Only strike against for me being a North Carolina fan, was he was a Duke fan. Great guy!

I was an Infantry (11C) Specialist in the Army. I had just failed Land Navigation at Expert Infantryman Badge testing because I changed a point on my score sheet when somebody else told me they had the same point, and they were sure I was wrong. I told SSG Brinston what happened. He looked dead in my soul and told me that if I failed the next day that would be fine. He’d personally teach me what I needed to know in land navigation, but if I failed because I second-guessed myself or trusted someone else more than I did myself that he didn’t want me back in the platoon. He didn’t need soldiers who didn’t believe in themselves. The next day, I went back out to do navigation and sure enough some “hero” out there tried to “check my answers”. I heard SSG Brinston’s words in my head and told the dude to pack sand. I finished the navigation course and had gotten all 5 of my points correct. I never missed another land navigation point again after that. In fact, I never failed another anything the rest of my time in the Army. To this day, more than 27 years later I still hear his words every time I start to doubt myself. That challenge he gave me has become one of the greatest gifts I was ever given in my life. Cheers to you SSG Brinston, wherever you are.

My basic training Co, Capt Patrick J Ronan, kept me out of trouble, because he forgot, to notify 1st Sgt I had been sent home for 7days on emerg leave, he's the one who came and got me and took me to the airport.

The Commodore's AC went out off the coast off Vietnam in stiffening heat, compressor was bad, none available without a long wait, but a watercooler compressor onboard, with a hammer, bowed the back wall of AC unit and was able to have it working n 1 day. Best friend I had, when he would take the motor launch out when we were in port he always request me for an engineman, then have a basket of fried chicken and the fixens for the boat crew. we usually went to some remote place with his GF in that port, we would go off and swim and whatever and have a picnic, real great duty.

I enlisted in the Regular Army December 3, 1954 and was sent to Ft. Dix NJ for my basic training. Two years prior to this I joined the Mass. Nat. Guard. Since I was the only recruit in my platoon with prior military training, I was made "Acting Platoon Leader" on my second or third day. Our training officer was Lt. (JOHN) Thompson. Over the eight week period, he assigned me many various duties, which I tried to preform as best I could. Because of the growing respect I had developed for him which I hoped was mutual, I was doggedly determined not to let him down. At the end of this period of our training, we were told that we had one last phase to complete- a full gear forced march at double time which was, if I recall correctly, 4 miles long. 2 miles through a forrest trail the first half and 2 miles on beach sand for the second half. I was at the head of our platoon and as we advanced along into the beach sand area, I was beginning to falter. Further in, I was seriously faltering and a feeling of dread came over me. A few yards further and suddenly I felt someone grab the back of my collar and was pulling me along and the next thing I heard was "Do not even think about it" ! I can not tell you what it was, but suddenly I was faltering a lot less and was determined to finish at the head of our platoon, even if I had to cough up my lungs to do it. I admired and respected him and have never forgotten him through out my life! I was a white boy from Boston, and he was a young black man from (not quite sure) the South. In the years that followed, I have looked upon this and my remaining time in the Army, as my Epiphany into manhood. SSgt R.A. Ercolini

Oh this is easy, thanks for the question. I was in Panama and my NCOIC was Sgt. Hightower. When I arrived on base I had my meeting with him and I told him I was one of those guys that volunteer. He liked it because most of the guys in Transportation didn't do that. I got to go to all the countries in central and south America. When I got my TDY orders for Vietnam he came along also. He was E7 and I was E4 at the time.

autumn reforger 1983 I NBCNCO/ Co. driver my wife and one of my buddies wife figured out where we were from the Chaplin and brought out a big bag of brotchen and brots to us and our platoons and the Captain was pretty cool about it and got a good laugh out of it then looked at the girls and said that was really sweet of you but please do not do it again

When I met my new C.O. when he came to Thailand. He tapped me on the shoulder (down town, Ubon Thailand) and said, "I am your new commander and I am buying you a beer, and I want to see you in my office, first thing in the morning. He was so cool.Major Robert E. Lee got fired and Major "T" got pulled from going to Nam, and they sent Lee to Nam instead. His name is Major William I. Thibedoux. I hope I spelled it correctly. I would love to meet him again.

going to pizza hut

At my next unit I started hot and heavy and trying new things and getting the unit back to where they needed to be. I was very surprised how little the guy I replaced did and 45 days into my tour I was due for a performance evaluation. Usually everything under 90 days is consider Unobserved and I expected that outcome. Next thing I know I received an Observed 45 day performance evaluation that was that Officer's #1 overall report that was ahead of (2) 365 day Observed reports for the guy I replaced. I was in shock and didn't think that was fair to the other guy (though inside I definitely knew I earned it) but the Officer insisted and pushed it all the way to the top for review because that was very unusual. That Officer earned my respect, and even more so, because he was very good friends with the other guy but didn't want to do ME dirty. That was a great time and a great unit.

We had the opportunity to test some new equipment which would greatly benefit our unit and possibly more. We ended up making some 'illegal' modifications to some vehicles to make it all work and we had amazing results. We kept our RGT CO in the loop the whole time and he loved what we were providing him in capabilities. We had an inspection team come down and they tried to hammer us for the modifications we made, and usually things never went well for us because a lot of COs use CYA. The CO didn't even bat an eye, said he authorized it (which is not entirely true and he knew it, and we knew it), and said "was there anything else?". The inspectors were dumbfounded, said no, and left. Our CO didn't mention it to the group ever and let us continue to do our thing. He earned mass respect for that and we fought even harder for him. We had some long nights and weekends but we were proud of what we were doing. Once people started rotating and new staff arrived, the CO would only talk to me and that really irritated my immediate supervisors, but they never tried to learn everything or figure out the CO's intent. Once the CO left my days were numbered there too and I happily left to my next unit who by-name requested me to do the same type of innovations there too.

When I first enlisted in the Marine Corps I was so excited that I would be getting a chance to see the world, learn how to fight and maybe even buy myself a charger with 27% interest, as dumb jr enlisted tend to do. As we all know, that's not the way it ever goes, well..maybe the charger part. Anyways, I absolutely hated the Marine Corps and was a SysAd at the time and on one particular occasion, myself and a few other Lcpls had just finished setting up a computer network with Korea and everything was running smoothly. I'll spare you the jargon but a hotshot Major comes in and tells me that we have to redo everything because he doesn't think we set everything up correctly. I insist that everything is perfect, we spent literal days working on this setup and I was not about to take everything down. I went over everything, step by step , and he kept interrupting me and telling me I was wrong. I'm getting pretty heated by now but I'm in a room full of officers so there's not much I could do. I decide I'm done listening to this idiot so I tell him "Sir, everything is setup perfect and I'm not wrong here. You're wrong! Stop telling me how to do a job you have no idea how to do." As you can imagine he was PISSED! The guy was ripping me a new one, I though he was going to put hands on me, when out of nowhere comes in SgtMaj H who tells Major Hotshot to "calm tf down". SgtMaj H backed me up and told the Major that I was entirely right and that he had no F-ing idea how to do my job. It was the greatest feeling I've every felt while enlisted. Looking back, I shouldn't have done that, I was being an ass. I was so bitter about my time in the Marines and the good memories are very few but this right here...this was one of the highlights.

Being recognized for the good work that I was doing as an aircraft mechanic by an E-7 and CO who referred me to Cobra training then after training making me a crew chief.

I had a Squadron Commander (BA) when I was a young SSgt. He was a Gulf War POW (Capt) and he was probably the most effective and yet humble commander I had in my entire 26 year career. He later came back as our Group CC (COL) and he was still the same person. I requested him to re-enlist me before my PCS as a M(Sgt) and he remembered who I was. Before we did the re-enlistment we sat down in is office and talked about the AF his time as POW and my time stationed at Mtn. Home. He is one of those guys you can say you were proud to have worked for.

Being put on a medivav in 1969 by Captain Kern Dunigan, a Medal of honor recipient

First unit stateside at Ft Bragg after Germany straight out of AIT, don't recall his name but I remember his face ... and position, a Major, our Bn S3. I arrived there as a SGT, and got sort of dual-slotted in S3 and Bn FDC, as the 3 Shop had a computer terminal that was intended to help the Ops folks stay updated on the firing batteries' activities and be a source for them to send movement orders and such. This is mid 1980s. Fast forward 10 years or so, late 90s, I'm a new SFC instructor at the Field Artillery School at Ft Sill. A TDY trip assignment to Ft Drum, NY is available. I'd been on one of these before as a SSG, the junior of a 2-man team. This time my section chief slots me as team leader of 3. We have to hand-carry the classified hard drives with which we need to upgrade the systems the 10th Mountain artillery folks are using, which creates some hassles with airport security in Chicago where we need to connect flights. Bad weather in early Feb. has us missing our connection from Dallas through O'Hare to Syracuse, NY, so we scramble to get the next bird of any airline bound for SYR. We make it to Drum Friday night in our rental car with our carry-on bags and the hard drives. Checked bags AWOL. Saturday we get into our classroom where the computers are already set up for our 2-week class and get busy on the software upgrades in our civvies. We're thinking we might need to start class Monday 0800 in civvies and wing it from memory if our checked bags don't catch up with us ... not to mention fresh socks, undies, lesson outlines, practical exercise booklets, etc. Halftime of the SuperBowl we get a call from the on-post motel front desk saying our bags have arrived from the Syracuse airport. Yay! Guess who is the Division Artillery Commander of 10th Mountain Division now? Yup, COL (Bn S3 from Bragg)! He remembers me as a sharp, squared away NCO, tells his staff to be as helpful as possible if we need admin support, like copying, phone access back to Sill, etc. (unlike the lukewarm treatment we got on previous trip from previous Cmdr). Our last night at Drum before returning to Sill he even invites my team to dinner in Watertown as a "thank you". Next monthly promotion and award assembly (in schoolhouse lecture hall) I get a surprise - that COL wrote my whole team up for ARCOM's.

The best encounter I ever had with a superior happened one night during a training exercise. It was winter and the temperature at that point was hovering around 10 degrees. While every other leader was huddled around a fire in the center of our position, my squad leader was out there with his men, trooping the line, checking our morale, and encouraging us. He could have hung out with his peers and stayed warm by the fire, but he didn't because his men were out there, in the cold, doing their job, and so was he. That moment made my respect and devotion to him as a leader unwavering.

The best encounter I ever had with a superior happened one night during a training exercise. It was winter and the temperature at that point was hovering around 10 degrees. While every other leader was huddled around a fire in the center of our position, my squad leader was out there with his men, trooping the line, checking our morale, and encouraging us. He could have hung out with his peers and stayed warm by the fire, but he didn't because his men were out there, in the cold, doing their job, and so was he. That moment made my respect and devotion to him as a leader unwavering.