What's the best prank you were ever a part of?

2015-05-06T07:13:55-04:00

Pranks are a part of life. The older we get the pranks subside. But even decorating the wedding car with cans and streamers started out as a prank. What was the best prank you were ever involved in? Either as the prankster or the victim?

Response by SCPO David Lockwood made May 6 at 2015 7:18 AM

2015-05-06T07:18:18-04:00

We wrapped our Command Master Chiefs car completely with cellophane. It took him 30 minutes to get in.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made May 6 at 2015 7:22 AM

2015-05-06T07:22:35-04:00

Pre-Military, but this was fun:

There was a guy at my school that did not like me, for no real rhyme or reason. There may have been a reason, but I didn't know. Well, he was spreading a whole bunch of rumors, blah blah blah, and I was tired of it.

He had a GMC Jimmy that he lowered, did a whole bunch of "Fast and Furious" things to it, so during the warmer, summer months, I placed a full pack of Oscar Myer bologna on. Because of the heat, the bologna removed some of the paint leaving it polka dotted. Needless to say, he wasn't particularly happy about it, and he never did figure out who did it. But, revenge was sweet.

Fun Office Warfare:

If you have access to somebodies Outlook (they leave their CAC in the Reader and unlocked) subtle ways to teach them lessons. Reset the Rules. My old XO was really bad with this, so I reset his rules so whenever I would send him an Email, it would a) Play an annoying sound, b) Forward him a copy of it, and c) Automatically print a copy of it.

Response by SPC Fred Krauer made May 6 at 2015 7:29 AM

2015-05-06T07:29:07-04:00

Pallet wrapped a guy's black 88 Monte Carlo during the summer. He needed a box cutter to get into his car.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made May 6 at 2015 7:37 AM

2015-05-06T07:37:05-04:00

I was an young E1 at my first duty station. I was outside a restricted area. Our fence had sensors which caused alarms. There were these little boxes the wires ran through (unbeknownst to me). My sup told me I had to conduct a VSV (voice sensor check). He told me I had to go to each box and yell into them. He had set this up with the alarm monitor and the rest of the guys in the area. So I go to the first box and say "rah", my sup yells "louder, say it louder!" "RAH!" I yell. He says "got it, next one". Fifty plus sensors later, everyone on my shift and a few non-security munitions guy all saw me yelling at a box that had no microphone. I was also given a garbage bag and told to run around the flight line to get an air sample. Finally, they told me to get the key to start the B52 to base op's (the key was a lever used to crank open a window). Yup, totally gullible. Truth be told, after 23 years, I may still do crap like this. Good times!

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made May 6 at 2015 7:44 AM

2015-05-06T07:44:28-04:00

2 come to mind. Knocking on the Maintenance Door, screaming for "Speed" our Maintenance Tech to come out (He was asleep on the Maint Bench) we had an emergency. Foggy Out of it he comes stumbling out and we Shot him with a CO2 Extinguisher that we had filled the Horn with Teletype Chaff (Frozen Pink Paper Dots all over his body). The other I dropped trou climbed face forward on the copier, had "Speed" hit the copy button. Made a copy of my Unmentionables, Stamped the Copy with a Routing Stamp and marked it as if I had forwarded it to the ICWO Intelligence Center Watch Officer (Female) and put it in the Supervisors Traffic to be checked. Yeah he about freaked and went running down to the ICWO one story down (Of course I didn't send a copy to the ICWO).

Response by CPT Alex Lamb made May 6 at 2015 9:09 AM

2015-05-06T09:09:20-04:00

My platoon had a prank contract in Afg.

One of the clauses stated: If a prank was deemed unsanitary or voted through a platoon "quorum" that was too far. Punishment would be inflicted upon the pranker to be chosen by the leadership.

So, a brilliant young trooper got into my office overnight and did wonders. Everything from altering my keyboard to pasting tampons covered in ketchup to my walls. Awesome job. Took me half an hour to fix it.

HOWEVER, one of his pranks was shaving his pubes with my shaving razor, which i found before I used. So. I took a picture of the office, wrote a note to the platoon Sergeant regarding the plan for revenge, placed it and the picture in an envelope, labeled the envelope "Do not open until I let you know -LT", and sealed it.

So I cleaned the entire office, set everything straight, except the razor, and left completely not knowing who got my office. I make sure I come back until AFTER the platoon came into work. Acting like I just woke up, a single trooper is dumbfounded with the clean shape of my office and starts asking me about it. I deny everything. He walks in, inspects everything, to include the razor, which he starts bragging about, letting me know it was him.

I call the "quorum" over the razor, which is deemed unsanitary, several options for punishment are put on the table and punishment is chosen by our platoon sergeant since I was pranked and couldn't choose.

Shave Everything except eyebrows. An option I didn't even put on the table.

As he's shaving everything in his billet. I tell my Platoon Sergeant to open the envelope. He sees the picture, laughter ensues, and reads the note.

"Someone is shaving their entire body today". Hilarity ensues.

Got him to admit he pranked my office, and earned a reputation for predicting the future.

Response by SFC Rich Carey made May 6 at 2015 9:36 AM

2015-05-06T09:36:38-04:00

Lets see, where do we being??? Duct tape someone to their cot, it was while we were deployed and staying in bunk houses. In the middle of the night sliding on our backs along the floor reaching the cot, we taped away. The guy never woke up while taping, the next morning, well, he missed chow..... Being ppart of MLRS the SPLLs were fun, pull up next to a wall tent and pull full throttle all the sides of the tent were flapping, oh there was folks in the tent, hehehe, wake up!!!! The coolest, one person drank a bit much, so while he was sleeping someone took black shoe polish and made eyes on his eye lids. Everyone was laughing and he couldn't figure out why, it was the funniest thing when he closed his eyes.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made May 6 at 2015 9:41 AM

2015-05-06T09:41:00-04:00

Some of my bay mates in my first AIT would go around and put Nare on people while they slept. Made one very wary when it came to sleeping

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made May 6 at 2015 11:06 AM

2015-05-06T11:06:39-04:00

OSUT, I fell asleep reading a book on a Sunday, woke up to a 2in layer of shaving cream on me. my sneakers(we were in PTs) were tied to the bunk AND to my boots(which all 3 pairs where tied together and to the bunk).

I was with a buddy on vaction, he is in the NG too. He fell asleep watching TV. So me and another buddy got behind him and screamed "AT EASE!!" He was up and half way to parade rest before he realized where he was.

A couple of ATs ago we had a drunk LT come into our bay after the battalion party. He was from HHC and they had just recently stole our guidon so we were not feeling all the charitable. One of the Sergeants gave him some "water" turns out he gave him straight 'shine.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made May 6 at 2015 11:53 AM

2015-05-06T11:53:20-04:00

The first night maneuver on my tank, the platoon had removed my NVG batteries. The three tank commanders were telling me to go here, go there, like piranhas at a feeding frenzy.

Every unit I commanded, I found a large rock with a smooth surface. I called it the Echo Rock. When someone did something stupid and funny, we would put their name on the rock.

Response by SPC Carl K. made May 6 at 2015 8:36 PM

2015-05-06T20:36:56-04:00

While in Korea, I had a CO I was always playing pranks on. I would fill all his desk drawers with packing peanuts, or I would do other such pranks. He would prank me back as well. This was between the two of us and no one else in the unit was any wiser. It was fun and it broke the boredom. He was an awesome CO.

Response by CPT Bruce Beattie made May 6 at 2015 11:41 PM

2015-05-06T23:41:57-04:00

At Peekskill Military Academy we had a cadet from Venezuela who had never seen snow. The kid was a pain in the butt for most of the cadet chain of command. One fine day in December, it started to snow. The kid asked a senior cadet, "What is it?" The other cadet, quick thinking, replied, " Oh my God! It's radioactive fallout!" After the kid didn't show up for formation a few hours later, we went to his room and had to pry him out from under his bunk!

At Norwich University we had an old field piece that was fired by a cadet MP every morning as a part of the Reveille Formation. The breech of the gun had a plug in it with an opening machined in it to hold a blank 12ga shotgun round. Unfortunately, the barrel could accept a roll of toilet paper. If the toilet paper was in the barrel when the gun was fired it would result in a blizzard of toilet paper spread all over the upper parade ground. The cadet MP would receive a slew of demerits and spend hours marching tours for not having checked the barrel before firing the gun. This did not happen frequently, but enough to keep the MPs on their toes!

Response by SSG Richard Reilly made May 8 at 2015 3:29 PM

2015-05-08T15:29:37-04:00

When it was the birthday of the general I worked for I blockaded his office door with cans of Diet Dr.Pepper. His Aide helped.

A Civilian turned 50 and I filled her office with black balloons.

My Soldier had a birthday and I plastic wrapped his cubical.

The General's Aide had a Birthday and I foiled her desk and everything on it.

One of my Attorney's had a Birthday and I 100 mile an hour taped all things on his desk to the wall like it was on his desk...

So um...I don't know. But I have pictures of several of these.

Response by CPT Pedro Meza made Sep 10 at 2015 5:32 PM

2015-09-10T17:32:38-04:00

Before departing for Latin America in 85, I impersonated my Playboy E-7 at the NCO club and arranged for the pregnant gal I was dancing with to come to his hotel room later that night, the rest of the team was in on it, we all had a great laugh.

Response by SPC William Weedman made Oct 24 at 2015 8:21 PM

2015-10-24T20:21:09-04:00

We had two soldiers in our unit who were always pulling pranks on each other that various friends got involved with. The finale as the senior of the two was out processing I was involved with. Early Sunday morning he comes up to my room, wakes me up and asks if I had photos of the other soldier and a young soldier I was friends with (both females) I did and gave them to him. About an hour later he returns the photos and says "Check this out" He had created a gag wanted poster with their faces on it along with their alleged nicknames. If anyone read it, it was obvious from the start it was a gag as they were "wanted" for pranks in poor taste among other "crimes". Not only was it posted on every bulletin board on post (a small post in Korea) he convinced the various CQ staff members to post it inside the locked bulletin boards next to the duty rosters. The cooks put it up next the chow list, the gate guards posted in and out of the guard shack, the best was he convinced the drivers of the post circulating buses to post it on the board next to the time list as the buses circulated among the camps. The pair spent all day Sunday and part of Monday searching for and tearing down the posters, and life was a bit rough until they found them all. I am still in contact with all three and it still makes us smile. I just wish I had kept the poster he gave me, it hung on my wall locker in the barracks until I PCS'ed.

Response by SSG Mike Merritt made Oct 12 at 2016 11:40 AM

2016-10-12T11:40:02-04:00

When I was at SOI at Camp Geiger: We had a private who was a thief, he stole all of our candy that we were taking into the field. Once we caught him, we took him out for drinks, then once drunk we saran wrapped him to his rack. We moved the rack with him in it to right beside the hatch at the NCO club. It was almost closing time and we waited in the bushes to see what was going to happen. Well, a crusty old Master Guns came out, walked around the cot, called out to the inside of the bar and proceeded to piss all over the privates head. Out came a few other drunk senior NCO's and the joined n the fun. We all couldn't help but to burst out laughing and the SNCO's had us carry him screaming, piss wet and still drunk back to the barracks. He never stole our shit again....

Response by SGT Andrew Sherman made Oct 12 at 2016 12:26 PM

2016-10-12T12:26:30-04:00

I had a SPC use a paint brush to brush off the microphones before a performance. Told him the mics were with us in Iraq and the dust and sand needed to be removed before every gig, otherwise they'd sound bad.

Response by SPC Herold Bush made Oct 12 at 2016 1:10 PM

2016-10-12T13:10:14-04:00

This will be very location specific prank and not to offend anyone I will keep it simple, Take a turtle to the Paradise Club in Son-ju-ri (was one of those heavenly spots a few clicks from the DMZ) and leave them there. O yeah make sure they are the first through the door.

Response by SPC Warren Carmichael made Oct 13 at 2016 10:44 PM

2016-10-13T22:44:50-04:00

Out in Reforger, the CO was pcsing so 1Sgt and myself shrink wrapped him to his cot with playboy mags, empty bottles of beer and other alcohol, rubbers. Took pictures of it all and gave it to Hume as a going away gift. Also shrink wrapped his pov when he had me pick it up from his quarters and drop it off at the HQ coming back after a two day tdy.

Response by Lt Col George C. made Jun 21 at 2021 11:58 AM

2021-06-21T11:58:47-04:00

As a brand new 2LT Air Traffic Control trainee, I was assigned to a tower crew for initial OJT. The crew chief, an E6 thought he'd have a little fun with the new LT and directed me to leave the tower cab and not come back till I brought back 1000 feet of Flight Line. Now I was a noob but I'm not stupid, so I left and took the rest of the day off. Next shift, in answer to "Where the *&^% were you? I innocently answered I was out looking for flight line. The best one I ever pulled was as a Captain, one of my NCOs was PCSing and we put him in for a Commendation Medal which was approved and presented by the Commander. Back in those pre-word processor days, you had to type the certificate out on a typewriter and it had to be perfect or you had to start again, so we had several errored versions of the certificate on hand. Our victim had placed his prized presentation certificate centered on his desk and was enjoying a small reception being held in the office. Meanwhile, I snuck in and replaced his perfect certificate with one of our unusable ones - then later when he was back in his office, I walked in with a sloppy wet mug of coffee and casually happened to set it down right on this bogus certificate leaving a beautiful coffee ring. Apoplexia ensued!

Response by SPC Michael Terrell made Jun 25 at 2021 10:43 AM

2021-06-25T10:43:41-04:00

I was an AFRTS Engineer. I was stationed at Ft. Greely. We were one of the last two TV stations that were B&W. We were budgeted to convert to color, but the Base Information Officer was telling everyone that it was impossible t convert the station, with a bunch of made up excuses.
I was tired of phone calls, wanting to know if he was lying.
1: You can't put a color antenna on a B&W tower, We already had a color antenna. They stopped making B&W antennas in the '50s.
2: There isn't enough power for the new equipment. It used less power that the old B&W Equipment.
Needless too say, I was ed up. Even though we had no color equipment, I mad a 35mm slide that said 'AFRTS Channel 8' on two lines. I borrowed a Heathkit color bar generator (That still exists) and transmitted our station ID in color, at the start of our 6:00PM newscast. 15 seconds later, Lt. Broushard was n the phone screaming, "Soldier! You just made a fool of me!" I replied, but sir? You claim to be a self made man!" He never spoke to me, again.

Response by Maj John Bell made Jun 25 at 2021 8:59 PM

2021-06-25T20:59:39-04:00

1st day aboard the USS Inchon in a transatlantic crossing, we (the embarked Marines) still haven't learned our way around. Ran into a USNA classmate who made the prank happen.

When the BnCdr was aboard another ship for a conference, the wall panel that had the door to his state room was removed and a solid wall panel was put in place.

Response by 1SG Michael Farrell made Jun 26 at 2021 2:54 AM

2021-06-26T02:54:16-04:00

I think this might have been a draw. I was a young SGT and part of a team where I was the lowest ranking guy, but treated by the group as just one of the guys. We spent a lot of time on the road visiting ADA battery Tacsites either for training or mock Tactical Evaluations which were big deasl. One of the guys was a SFC named Dino, who was one of those guys who would just keep on a schtick until he had everybody howling with laughter. HIs wife bought him a very fancy ash tray which if nothing else dates this as a long time ago. My Lieutenant was a one of those hands-on science/engineering types and among other things he had gotten really good at taking the charge out of M60Blanks and saving it because "we might need it sometime, Farrell-Man,' to which I'd normally reply "Great LT, I've got a meeting with (and fill in the blank with whomever he really didn't want to talk to). Well, we got to the point where we all had film cases filled with the stuff. It was "fun" to spike ashtrays with a bit of this stuff. Anyway, Dino showed up one day and he was very over the top; I came back from the meeting (they were real, and I didn't want my Lieutenant to talk to these guys either) and sat down over at my desk. There was a W4, a W3, a Captain who was supposedly in charge, but with that sort Warrant Officer power in the 1977, he was happy to go meetings he didn't want the Chiefs to go to. I Turns out, I learned later that they spiked Dino's ash tray which was very narrow at the top but the whole thing was huge. One of these guys would sprinkle some of gunpowder and they stir it up in the ashes. Somehow, he didn't rub out a cigarette in the spiked stuff.

I was skipping lunch to catch on travel documents so I stayed in the office. Dino had been late so he was trying catch up and he was in the office across the corridor where the ADA guys worked from. All of o sudden there was a blam! I thought he'd fallen down somehow, and got up to laugh at hima nd help him or give first aid short of CPR or whatever was necessary...

He was standing, staring at his desk top which was smoldering and really all messed up...his hands were shaking and I believe he was grabbing his chest because of intermittent pains. I asked what happened and he said he put out a cigarette and the desk exploded...I said OK and let me get you a cup of coffee man and sit and down.

So, obviously, I was the guy who put all the gunpowder in his ash tray. Or at least, the rest of the team convinced him of that. Since he made a big deal out being "Sicilian" and quoting stuff like "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold!" and stuff like that, so I wasn't aware of any curse of revenge. I was off on a weeklong evaluation someplace else on NATO's dime, and got back on a Friday afternoon. Most of the HQ was gone but I went up to check my desk and find my mail and BS with S3 Sergeant Major for a bit. It was winter time, so I was cold, damp, and just wanted to go home. So, as I was going through my stuff, I lit a cigarette, and BOOM...ashtrray was cracked, little stuff moved around and some of the papers in my outbox were on fire. I was too tired to react so I just put out the flames, muttered some curses directed at my " "Buddies", gathered up the stuff that needed to go home with me and realized that the SGM and the S3 were looking at me in a bit of shock. Well, in fairness, they didn't know the stuff that we got into in the field.

"What's wrong?" "What the hell was that SGT Farrell?" "Oh, SFC Wood said he had something I needed to see and I guess that was it." "Are you guys playing around with demo?" "Demo? Do either of the Chiefs strike you as the sort of leaders that would let us play with demolitions?" Ok, you're ight. Have a good weekend..."

On Monday, Dino was constantly being asked by the S3 and any other officer who thought ti was funny that I hadn't reacted at all where he learned to blow things up with any one noticing...Good times.

Response by PO1 Charles Smith made Jun 26 at 2021 12:44 PM

2021-06-26T12:44:07-04:00

Ummmm... having been on submarines, there were always pranks going on Sonar/esm loved to pick on OOW; "hold Hammer 4 bearing 224""Whats a Hammer 4?""Pounding nails" was a favorite. But sometimes It got turn around. A new machinist was assigned by a Senior chief to get 10' of chow line; he return with 5 guys in tow, telling them the Senior Chief wanted them.
One time, some persons who shall remain forever Unnamed, were peeved with the CO, so they stole his stateroom door. The CO then took the XO's stateroom door. XO puts up blanket, cannot find stateroom door even after 3 weeks of searching boat while at sea. XO got too comfortable with blanket, soooo the door was returned but blanket left up. Glad we were not on station when XO had collision with stateroom door as it could be heard throughout the boat.
Poking holes in the ocean gets boring. EOOW noticed that people were starting to doze. Made the engineering spaces all man the sound power phones and held singalongs with each station using their own song and critiquing them; ERLL won with the "Hershey Highway" to the tune from the "Beverly Hillbillies.
These were some of the milder type of things going on; The water wars were down right, um, wet. I think the only person who did not get wet was the CO; I think we were afraid of how he might get us back w/o using his rank or position.

Response by Cpl Ronald Everitt made Jun 27 at 2021 12:14 PM

2021-06-27T12:14:36-04:00

In admittance of having done or been the boths topic I'd chosen choice (and would like to think even if it were not for Press affiliation) to remain in the Audience if it had been a multiple choice survey (survey?),and from that angle at the ripe old age of 69 like a good many of we such Boomers as a Survivor of more wars than only my DD 214's Vietnam one,glad it wasn't because happy is,happy does...something as that anyway.