Worst military day?

SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:26:49 -0500

Describe your worst day ever while on active duty?

I have two, both were when I was sick. I don't play sick very well.
I contracted MUMPs in Somalia, and got some form of dysentery while in Ranger School...Worst possible few days in my life. I think I got the swine flu as well as a civilian, worst week of my life.

Other than being sick, we had to try - out for Dive School, the school was called Pre-SCUBA, it was basically death by drowning....okay, near drowning, or as our NCOs would say, we are drown - proofing you. Every day for about two weeks were the most anxious I've been while on active duty. What about you?

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 10 at 2015 7:30 PM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:30:58 -0500

I didn't have a worst, day, SSG(P) Private RallyPoint Member. They were all good!

Response by PFC Oriana Franklin made Jan 10 at 2015 7:42 PM

PFC Oriana Franklin — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:42:36 -0500

Worst day was when I got into a rollover in Afghanistan next was when my team got blown up by a s vest next was when a team member killed himself and the co

Response by SPC James Mcneil made Jan 10 at 2015 7:47 PM

SPC James Mcneil — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:47:03 -0500

The first one. I was NOT ready for that.

Response by CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 10 at 2015 7:57 PM

CWO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:57:40 -0500

Had women (wife/mother) come by unit hugging on me asking when we were going to find her husband and son, both went down with their fishing boat sank. That really sucked!

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Jan 10 at 2015 7:54 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:54:00 -0500

My worst day? Easy. It was the day I called DA to find out where my orders were. I was completing a tour of duty in Hawaii and had volunteered to return to Vietnam. It was then I learned that I was being RIF'd.

Why?

I was then told that I was not considered "desirable" for retention because of an Officer Efficiency Report that had been filed in which I had to borrow points just to get my name on the paper.

What OER? How could such a thing be filed without being told of it? Weren't we supposed to be given a chance to respond if rated that badly?

That was when I was told that I had declined to respond when I signed it.

I signed it? No, I had never seen it. Who signed it for me?

What was really bad about that day was the fact that I learned that not all officers were honorable...

Response by LCpl Brandon Barnes made Jan 10 at 2015 8:00 PM

LCpl Brandon Barnes — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:00:52 -0500

February 7, 2007. I had been fap'd over to a training squadron when mine deployed since our unit was over TO. When I got chow that morning there was stuff all over the news about a bird shot down in Iraq. When I got to work, my Sergeant pulled me aside to tell me that he was sorry to have to tell me this, but 364 lost a bird. I asked if the crew made it, he told me he couldn't say. I asked who was on the flight, same answer. I felt like crap and like I had cheated the system by not being there, and I didn't even know who of my friends had been hit. And here I sat comfortably stateside. That was the day the service became "real" for me.

Response by SSG Stan Morrison Jr made Jan 10 at 2015 8:07 PM

SSG Stan Morrison Jr — Sat, 10 Jan 2015 20:07:23 -0500

While at BCT at Fort Jackson, we were road marching to the gas chamber, I was overcome be severe abdominal pain and fell out of formation at fell to the ground. I was unceremoniously thrown into the back of a pickup truck and hauled to the TPU. Once there, after being ridiculed by several NCO's that I was avoiding the chamber, I was in the toilet, was violently ill. Next thing I know I'm in the ER and admitted to the hospital. Where they proceeded to make me drink quarts of water, each time throwing it all up. It was terrible. I spent 3 days in the hospital. I thought I would get recycled but I didn't. A couple days later I was back there again. It was a strange week.

Another time at AIT at Fort Leonard Wood, I was assigned to help clear weeds around a grenade bunker. Weeds happened to Ivy Poison, to which I am allergic. Me a couple other troops gpt it so bad, we had to get shots, no PT for a few days either.

Response by PO3 Jeff Lane made Jan 11 at 2015 2:56 AM

PO3 Jeff Lane — Sun, 11 Jan 2015 02:56:37 -0500

I was in VF-114 and two great pilots from our squadron took off on a cross country flight with another aircraft. One F14 crashed in I believe Arizona. The pilots didnt eject and both were killed.
Observers on the ground said the aircraft had engines running and its wings were swept back when it crashed. There was no answer to what happened. The pilot and the reo where great officers and I knew them well. Ill never forget the funerals, the sadest days I can remember while in the service.

Response by SMSgt Mark Miller made Sep 2 at 2016 5:32 PM

SMSgt Mark Miller — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:32:14 -0400

No where near what you've endured. I was Public Affairs [should be pretty cushy huh?]. My first New Year's I has on-call duty [as befitting the new guy] and had to respond to a fatality at the front gate. An active duty member, distraught over the fact that his girlfriend had gone to a party with someone else, tried to commit suicide by driving over the center-line; he survived; The parents [both under 30], a seven-year old, and a six-month old died at the scene. I got there about five minutes after it happened and had to deal with the media and carnage way until the next morning. In the run-up to Desert Storm a C-5 crashed on take-off from Ramstein. I was called in to work to try and clean up the audio from the "black box". For a couple of hours, I listed to the same two minutes over and over as the pilot practically narrated the entire event; his last words were "goodbye".