One day the SJA NCOIC said to me, "Your collar is looking a little light there." It took me a minute to realize what he was saying -- it was the Private E1 no rank on my collar look. He said, "I'll see if we can do something about that." That he did. I soon received my mosquito wings -- the little Private E2 chevron rank. It wasn't much but it certainly was something. I was happy.
The day after my NCOIC gave me my new rank, I couldn't wait to come to work the next day proudly displaying my new status. Yeah, it was just E2 but that was better than E1 and a step before E3. The next morning I was getting to leave for formation --I grabbed my BDU jacket and pushed those little mosquito wing pins right onto my collar. I secured them with the backing, put my jacket on and proudly walked my way to formation.
At this time, our company formation was at the motor pool. It would later move to behind the company barracks, which was literally outside my door. But this day I walked over to the motor pool and as was the norm, the company mingled and stood around before the 1SG arrived. Once 1SG got there, we'd have to get into our squads/platoons and get ready to be called to ATTENTION (I realize this is a lot of military jargon but its not paramount to the story so I won't try to explain it all). An E6 from our company, someone I really didn't know at all, came up to me and said, "Did we loose the war?"
Oh come on! I'm NOT falling for anymore pranks. I know what an Alert is, I know what a GI Party is . . .there wasn't a war and we haven't lost anything. The SSG (Staff Sergeant E6) is grinning and looking at my collar. I look down and I said, "Oh that!" I thought he wanted to congratulate me and admire my new E2 rank! I was so proud I said, "Yeah, I got promoted!" I still didn't understand the reference to losing the war but . . . .SSG looks at me and says, "I see you got promoted. Your rank, it's upside down. You have it wrong on your collar."
I was so embarrassed I wanted to run but here comes 1SG and we had to get into formation. As soon as we were done I couldn't wait to get back to my room to fix my collar. I was so intent on getting it perfectly centered on my collar I really didn't take note if it was upside down or not and honestly, I had no clue one way or the other.
These were the little things I was never told or taught. I mean yeah, I earned an Expert Badge for the M16 rifle and I can launch a grenade and fire an M-60 machine gun and I got to basic training not able to do even 3 push-ups and 8 weeks later was able to knock out 27 -----but I wasn't quite savvy as to little things like --which way is up and which way is down for a chevron.
But I was learning --certainly the school of hard knocks route but learning nonetheless and that is basically, the making of a soldier.
The day after my NCOIC gave me my new rank, I couldn't wait to come to work the next day proudly displaying my new status. Yeah, it was just E2 but that was better than E1 and a step before E3. The next morning I was getting to leave for formation --I grabbed my BDU jacket and pushed those little mosquito wing pins right onto my collar. I secured them with the backing, put my jacket on and proudly walked my way to formation.
At this time, our company formation was at the motor pool. It would later move to behind the company barracks, which was literally outside my door. But this day I walked over to the motor pool and as was the norm, the company mingled and stood around before the 1SG arrived. Once 1SG got there, we'd have to get into our squads/platoons and get ready to be called to ATTENTION (I realize this is a lot of military jargon but its not paramount to the story so I won't try to explain it all). An E6 from our company, someone I really didn't know at all, came up to me and said, "Did we loose the war?"
Oh come on! I'm NOT falling for anymore pranks. I know what an Alert is, I know what a GI Party is . . .there wasn't a war and we haven't lost anything. The SSG (Staff Sergeant E6) is grinning and looking at my collar. I look down and I said, "Oh that!" I thought he wanted to congratulate me and admire my new E2 rank! I was so proud I said, "Yeah, I got promoted!" I still didn't understand the reference to losing the war but . . . .SSG looks at me and says, "I see you got promoted. Your rank, it's upside down. You have it wrong on your collar."
I was so embarrassed I wanted to run but here comes 1SG and we had to get into formation. As soon as we were done I couldn't wait to get back to my room to fix my collar. I was so intent on getting it perfectly centered on my collar I really didn't take note if it was upside down or not and honestly, I had no clue one way or the other.
These were the little things I was never told or taught. I mean yeah, I earned an Expert Badge for the M16 rifle and I can launch a grenade and fire an M-60 machine gun and I got to basic training not able to do even 3 push-ups and 8 weeks later was able to knock out 27 -----but I wasn't quite savvy as to little things like --which way is up and which way is down for a chevron.
But I was learning --certainly the school of hard knocks route but learning nonetheless and that is basically, the making of a soldier.
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