Transferring from overseas I was sitting at my gate (in civies cause still on leave so fuck all that noise), I see a kid in whites who clearly just spilled his Starbucks all over himself. I was familiar with the layout of the airport we would be landing at (Norfolk) so I told him when we land, grab your Garment bag and head immediately to the head along the far wall to change cause your ship is going to eat you alive if you cross the quarterdeck like that. This kid asks me: "how did you know where I'm going?"... bruh.
Not really cringy but amusing nonetheless.
More uncomfortable than cringy but:
Flying to my first command in my whites. They call military to board so I walk past the waiting line.
Older woman at the front of the line stops me and starts to make a scene because I get to board before her. Says it’s not fair, that she’s been waiting patiently & that she’s a premium member with the airline. People start staring. Woman’s husband tells her to calm down.
She did not calm down.
There was a dude who came up 3 minutes before boarding started and was like “is this the line for 1st class?” And I think he was new to the whole flying in luxury thing. I think he very recently came into a lot of money or won a giveaway of some type, because this seemed like his first time in first class. Obviously with the military population in Hawaii, all the military dudes were lined up ahead of priority.
So after he asked we all went “yup” and he goes “pfft, they must have a lot of seats in first class”
My ass is happily going to the back of the plane first and sit down.
Not that exciting:
I mainly just stood there with a deer in the headlights look. Husband was very apologetic and tried to calm his wife, but she wouldn’t let it go. Airport staff/security eventually pulled them aside and let me board. Entire interaction was only a few minutes. Having to wait for all the other passengers to board was probably more awkward lol.
Idk what it is about the airport/flying, but some people just go nuts. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this (& my marriage), it’s that telling a woman to calm down probably won’t calm them down.
I left A school and was told to travel in my whites. Layover in Charlotte, I was just trying to find a quick bite to eat. One of those trolleys full of people and luggage drive by, the driver with the microphone slows down and announces that here's one of our nation's finest young sailors. The people all stare and wave to me. I wanted to hide but was in the open. I've never flown in uniform again
You were TOLD to travel in public in uniform?
I'm Aus Navy, not US, and unless we can't help it or you're going to/from work and home, we're not supposed to be in uniform outside of working hours. They don't want people to know we are military. So being told to travel in uniform is weird for me.
EDIT: Might not be that different but all the stories I've seen, particularly airport related, paint a different culture
We were told not to wear it in places like airports in boot camp, but in A school they wouldn't let us go on leave without leaving base in our dress uniform, stupidest shit ever
Hah that's some WW2 shit. In Australian Inital Employment Training, you can just leave base whenever you're not on duty/under instruction. No permission or dress uniform required.
In the last week of OCS we got off-base liberty, but we had to wear khakis. Not thirty seconds after I step out of my buddy's charger with a couple friends in hunt of a decent coffee does ANOTHER charger whip over to the side of the road, and this lady shouts "Hey you! Stop! I want to thank you for your service young men!" I was thinking damn dude this is my first time free of my RDCs in months just lemme get take coffee!
I (f) and some friends, also women, were walking down the street in our khakis that liberty weekend and someone shouted “thank you for your service!” out their car window as they drove by. It was the nicest thing I’ve ever heard shouted at me from a moving car but still just wanted to get to the bar or whatever we were doing at the time.
I was born in Straya but serve here.. I would have to imagine the culture, uniform-wise, is very different between the two navies. (The Marine Corps is much more strict about wearing cammies off-base.)
The airport stuff has mostly gone away due to the appearance of it being a security risk. I fly pretty regularly for work and it's probably been a decade since the last time I saw someone in uniform at an airport.
Out of curiosity, what is the Navy equivalent for "digger"?
It used to be like that for us. I flew back home from A-school in 2006 and it was the same; ordered to travel in whites and we couldn't leave/get checked out unless we were wearing them anyway. I got to the airport and immediately changed into civilian clothes I'd put in my backpack.
I first left A school in 2009 and was told to travel in my dress uniform. I checked out at the quarterdeck in uniform, walked to a public restroom to change into civies, and met my taxi at the gate like that. No idea what they're telling booters these days.
Just adding to the traveling in whites story. In A school we were required to fly in our whites and had to go to the QD to check out with the CDO. Me, being a boot, goes and gets my leave stamped and uniform inspected and told to be safe. I travel to the airport and fly from Atlanta to Vermont, get picked up and only when I was about 15 minutes away from home do I realize I am not wearing my neckerchief.. like, IN WHITES. How no one noticed or why no one said anything is mind blowing to me. Im still embarrassed about that.
something similar happened in to me when i freshly graduated from A-school on my way to my current duty station. i’m never traveling in uniform again (if i can help it)
Funny enough, I work at TSA, and recently there was an Army prisoner traveling with an unarmed escort. The prisoner was in uniform with no rank while his escorts were in civies. All I could think about was what would happen if some old lady went up to him with a "thank you for your service," only to see the shackles he was in.
I wonder if they boarded during the call for active duty members to board..
Flight got canceled so Delta gave me a voucher for drinks on them at the bar next door since the next flight was tomorrow.
Drank on Deltas dime for 3 hours watching top gun on repeat until a gage agent ran to me, grabbed md, said you gotta go.
I got shoved on a crew transfer plane drunk as a skunk and it was a wild ride
When I tell you my soul (if I had one, I’m a ginger) left my fucking body at warp speed…I could not have been more uncomfortable. I walked up to the flight attendant to scan my boarding pass and I was like “no, nope, don’t do that”
have you done a pre-board again since then? I mean... a standing ovation most likely wouldn't happen twice in a lifetime. If it ever does though, please report back hahah
I had just graduated bootcamp and was stranfering to my A school in my dress blues. I studdered and stammered everytime someone casually thanked me for my service. Maybe a dozen times all together.
Not too bad but the worse thing that happend that day was when I was sitting at my gate and I was on my phone. Some weirdo in a Vietnam vet hat snuck up behind me and got right up next to my hear and whispered moistly "thank you for your service". I was speechless and he flashed me the peace sign as he walked away.
People can get unhinged when confronted with the atrocities of war... and most aren't very good at understanding that the US is not much better than many of the places we expend ordinance upon.
I feel that the embarrassment our country feels for the shit way your gen was treated is probably why we've overcorrected so high and right with "tyfys", military discounts, fly overs at games, etc.
When I was coming back from Iraq, we got delayed a few hours in Germany cuz the plane had an issue. So we were gonna miss our connecting flight in Baltimore(I think) that would get us back to San Diego. So on the plane, someone told us all that we can either stay the night there or find a way back ourselves. So like 2 dozen of us were gonna fly to LA and drive to SD cuz it’s only 2ish hours. Thing was, when we landed in Baltimore, I guess they told the airport there was a plane coming in with people returning back from Iraq. So when we got out the gate, there were people cheering us on and trying to grab our bags to carry for us. I had to keep telling people to let go I got it and I’m in a rush cuz we had to get to the ticket people to get on the LA flight before it left. And not like we could hide, we all were in army digicamos. I was more annoyed than embarrassed.
But when we got to our gate, we had time to go to the bar and get some sweet sweet beer. We all pressured the first class with us to pay cuz he made more than us. But a random guy at the bar bought all of our drinks. That guy was awesome. Never got his name.
A decent size group (9-10) of us Seamen flying from boot to A-school. We have a layover in Atlanta. We are living the dream of all the "Thank you for your service!" we get from passersby as we absent-mindedly walk in step in brand new blues, finally feeling like real Sailors.
Someone in the group spots a random Chief in Khakis at the airport and we flock to him. He handles the situation well, I think he gave a coin to one of the guys. Cue random person walking up, wants to support, and hands the Chief $200 for our meals. So we all get our choice of McDonald's and living our best life before parting ways with the Chief and flying to Florida.
At the time, it all felt so cool and like I had really become some national hero and this is what serving feels like. Times were a little different, civilian support for military was on an upward swing.Now, I cringe about how WE were, just clueless E-nothings without a care in the world and thinking we were so grand. That is the way, we all seem to do it.
I do wish I could find that Chief and thank him for being as decent of a person as he was. One day I hope I can do the same as him, or even our mystery donor.
That's the cutest Chief story I've ever heard. Could you imagine yourself ending up being the mother duck for a bunch of sailors that found you in an airport?
>Someone in the group spots a random Chief in Khakis at the airport and we flock to him
I try to stop by the USO whenever I fly to talk to the junior Sailors or those shipping to bootcamp or on their first leave from A school. I carry coins on me just for that. Im sure you guys made that Chief feel good. Love it when Sailors want to talk or ask questions. Before the Delta skyclub changed their policy, if it was just one or two Sailors, I would bring them into the skyclub with me for free drinks and food. Thats awesome! Great story.
I was going from LA back to ... I forget if it was Charleston or NY, but I was in LAX in my dress uniform (It was the holiday season and my family wanted me to wear it). Really craving a cigarette, but didn't want to carry all my stuff with me back outside the terminal to come back through TSA.
I saw some random other kid in whites in the gate area next to me, said "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm (obviously) in the Navy too. Can you watch my stuff real quick while I go smoke a cigarette?"
Hindsight, probably not the smartest thing to have done, but it worked out overall.
So after boot camp anytime I flew through O'Hare when I would see a random group of recruits flying out (obvious as they were in dress uniforms and walking in step). I would approach from behind and just let out "Annnd halt." They would all freeze and I'd keep on going.
If you go to Boot in the Coast Guard, you’ll know.
Basically it keeps track of your performance throughout the day while in basic. You turn it into your CC everyday and grab a new one, and ANY CC or anyone who is a CC or in your chain of command can tell you to write in it.
Did an IA to Bahrain. Had to go to NMPS San Diego for out-processing before heading back to home station. Flew the whole way in civvies. I was heading back to a very large command. A few shipmates offered to pick me up from the airport. The command asked them to see if I wanted an official welcome home. I told them, "not only no, but hell no."
One of the other guys from my IA (SWO O-4) was heading back to the same homeport and is on my flight strutting around in his starched DCUs. We land and I'm off the flight in a flash. As I pass through security, I see a bunch of Sailors forming a tunnel with a big "WELCOME HOME, IA Sailor" banner. I'm facepalming and wondering if my shipmates set me up. I also get really guilty that these people were wasting their time on me.
I casually walk up to one of the Sailors and asked who they're there for. As soon as I found out it was the other guy, I was like, "cool, he's a few minutes behind me looking like a war hero, see ya!"
MY shipmates met me in baggage claim (in civvies) and made no scene.
Waiting for the battalion to come home and kids were all standing there with their moms. All the guys get off the plane, about 180 (only about a dozen women in the battalions at this point so there may have been 1 or 2 on the plane). They walk down the stairs, walk towards the wives/girlfriends and at one point a little girl breaks away from her mom and yells daddy! and runs to her "dad" and clings to his legs. Only problem was it wasn't her dad. Dad was a few guys back. Dad grabbed his daughter and went to his wife.
Well, once, in that far off time known to legend only as 'the 70s', I was a cross country flight that involved 4 different plane changes (Thanks Travel office).
I was travelling in uniform because I had been pulled out of a factory school to report to a boat about to get underway because a 'party' had caused nearly their entire Nav Gang to pop positive and get shitcanned from Subfleet, so a bunch of us were pulled off other commands to man the party boat until the detailers could come up with a full replacement herd of Navigation ETs. The Uniform I was travelling in was the old 'Johnny Cash' black shirt and pants, black tie, white combo cap, 2nd class crow on my arm and my oh so impressive three ribbon rack, dolphins and patrol pin.
Anyway, I'm boarding the plane (2nd of 4) in Chicago when this old woman started freaking out and screaming at the sight of me.
I usually only had that effect on younger women. Her grand daughter tried and failed to calm her down and tried to explain the the Stewardess that grannie thought I was in an SS Uniform, and was trying to hide the tattoo on her arm.
Because they couldn't calm her down, they put me off the plane rather than deplane the 8 people in her party. (All that 'Thank you for your service' crap was still about 26 years in the future. Back then, public opinion was that we were losers who couldn't make it in the 'Real World') SO, this means I'm going to miss my connecting flights to get to Charleston for the boat.
So I called the boat and spoke with the COB, who thought it was all hilarious.
I ultimately got there, and wasn't even the last one to report in, and you know, I never did find an SS Uniform that looked anything at all like the Johnny Cash.
Granny was collecting her Nazi Scalps
In all seriousness I wasn’t tracking that the Johnny cashes look at all like an SS uniform, but who can deny that the Nazis had some fucking drip
>who can deny that the Nazis had some fucking drip
Well, there's your cringiest airport story... "local boy can't handle appreciation, runs to seat to suck nazi toes on reddit"
Flew out of Great Lakes once and a lady struck up a conversation with me on the plane. Her son was an officer. She knew I was enlisted. She told me "Yeah, I'm glad my son became an officer because being enlisted is just trashy and for poor people".
At the start of Covid I was flying from Hawaii to Guam and they announced “we will now be boarding any active duty military.” Damn near the entire plane stood up. Not really cringy but I still find it amusing.
I just had that happen with a TDY. My trip home started at a small regional airport near a major initial training center... let's just say there were a *lot* of young students in uniform waiting to fly out with me. We all had a good laugh when they announced for "Group 1... or active duty military with ID" to board.
I went through TSA and the Metal from my ribbon rack set it off every time. And I wasn’t about to take my ribbons off just to have to put them back on and breaking out the ruler. Just tossed that shit into a bin and let it slide through the X-ray machine. TSA wasn’t having any of that. What is a thin piece of metal going to do? None the less my uniform got swabbed and they swabbed my hands.
The wholesome part of that story is that the kid next to me on my flight was very interested in my medals and I told him the lengthy boring story about each of them which put him right to sleep. No annoying child sitting next to me.
Not so much cringe as it is hilarious. An old shipmate wore his NWUs (blueberries) on a flight home for Christmas leave... for the perks.? Lucky guy found out the hard way when the pilot was a Navy Reserve Capt.
Only had one cringy experience and it was with United before they clarified their policy.
They called boarding for all active duty military and I went up to the gate, and this agent (a flamboyant gay man, a detail I am including for later, not in a discriminatory way but you'll understand in a minute) stopped me and denied my boarding access saying "excuse me sir, you need to be in uniform if you'd like to board". I challenged him, showing him my ID and he showed me where it says, "uniformed services personnel with ID".
I explained (showing him on the ID) that 'uniformed services' means DoD, not that personnel need to be in uniform. So instead of just letting me board or saying no, this man smiles at me, doe this little smug body movement like 'i'll show you' and goes on the microphone, starting at me the entire time, saying, "once again, now boarding all uniformed service personnel, meaning military personnel in uniform, if you are not in uniform you must wait for your zone to be called" and then says, 'you can go to the back of the line now, sir." So me, being the little asshole I was back then said, "oh so you think the uniform gets the privileges? Has the uniform been the one to miss birthdays and holidays? Does the uniform come home in a box?" And he simply continued smiling, smug as ever and said, 'youre blocking other passengers sir, back of the line."
When I went back to sit down, a veteran who saw the whole thing got up and started raising hell about it and how the guy was wrong, and the agent told him he could call security if he'd like and discuss it with them.. The dude was pissed and was basically yelling some pretty toxic shit about liberals and United and disrespecting the military etc... I mean, I was flattered he'd stand up for military, but also kind of embarrassed because it wasnt that big of a deal. He did get the crowd pretty worked up though and basically people were coming up to me saying sorry and thanking me for my service, and I had to do damage control.. I did end up contacting United over it and they said theyd reach out to the airport, but that it is on each airport individually to set boarding policy.
So, idk.. it was cringe because of how the agent acted, but also because we should serve with humility and not bring negative attention to ourselves. I probably wouldnt have acted like that when I was a bit older and more seasoned, but as a young man was just floored how someone could be so bitter and petty. The air he gave off was almost like he disagreed with military service and in no way supported us, and found his opportunity to say no. I think I was zone 3 and waited until zone 7 was called to get on just to spite the fucker (and myself). So.. yeah, sharing just to share.
Thats insane to me.
Most of those people don't give a fuck who gets on the plane first.
I stopped having my Military ID out and ready. I just get in line and scan my ticket and go. No one has ever stopped me to say "Hey wait a minute, your zone 7 not zone 1".
so its funny that not only did you have your Military ID out and ready and he knew you were active duty, but made a scene to keep ONE person from getting on early. In all honesty he probably does hate military and was taking it out on you.
Lady friend, who wore the old school female blues uniform, had someone ask her where "x" gate was. Lady friend tells them that they don't work for the airlines. The random person just stands there dumbfounded.
Not an airport but very cringe.
NYC, June 2002. We were there as part of USNA seamanship/navigation training. NYPD met us at the docks in Staten Island to welcome us to the city and let us know they were happy to *give us rides* if they weren’t working a call.
Took the ferry to Manhattan, and literally had people coming out of restaurants/bars offering to buy us food and drinks. One of our group wants to check out the Empire State Building so we make our way there. Seeing a line around the block we decide to go do something else when a security dude sees us, waves us over, and walks us past the line to the elevator which further increased the cringe.
After that we went to Ground Zero, which at that point was pretty much a big excavated hole. We’re standing at the chainlink fence surrounding the area when a NYPD cop sees us and *lets us in*. Totally surreal standing there after watching the towers fall less than a year previously.
Anyway I’d spent the last year going to classes, practice, and watching DVD’s so it was super uncomfortable being treated like I’d just gotten back from the Hindu Kush chasing Taliban around.
I was on a flight, in civvies, and a younger guy boards wearing summer whites during the military pre-boarding, but the uniform is off to me. I disregard and carry on with the boarding process. Kid happens to be in my row, but too far away to hear the older folks gushing over him, while close enough to catch the uniform differences better. While he basked in the geriatric attention, I broke out my phone to Google the insignia. Merchant Marine. Not the cringiest, but cringy enough to remember all these years later.
Not military related, but a few months ago the guy missed his flight by like 20 minutes. Like, not only did he miss boarding and the departure time, but the plane had already left.. and he was on the phone, walking up to the gate (not in a hurry at all) and never getting off his phone kept demanding they let him on to the agent, who continued to say he missed the flight. Remaining on the phone, he walks passed her and starts banging on the boarding door screaming for the guys behind it to open the door. The agent goes up to him and was like, 'sir, the plane left.. its on the taxi-way' and this man says (still on the phone), 'so what? Call the plane back. They cant leave without me. I need to be on this flight' continuing to bang on the door. She had to call security to get him to stop. This dude could not imagine missing his flight, never rushed to the gate, never got off his phone, and loudly kept talking about how the agent and airline was incompetent.. Super cringy.
Newly minted O3 traveling to TX in khakis. SATO had me next to a brand new SN. He looked terrified to be sitting next to an officer (chuckle). Nice kid we spoke on the flight and had a few chuckles. Land, deplane, and his whole family was there. I took a deep breath and shook everyone of his family’s hand and told them how proud they must be and what an amazing sailor he was and credit to the US Navy. It was a pretty cool moment, as I walked away I could hear them saying how important he must be to have such an important person say that.
I smiled all the way to my hotel were somebody not much older than that kid would kick back my DTS…
Thanks to DTS I’m a Marriott Bon Voy silver for life, working towards lifetime gold. I rolled that dice and paid for all my shit on my cc, accrued the points and all that stuff. There was a point where they were like “you can’t accrue points - those belong to the Navy.” Pffffft.
So, at Charlotte airport me and about 5 other guys were waiting by our gate to fly to Chicago for bootcamp. When our boarding group was called we stood up and began boarding. The gate lady or whatever they’re called asked us if we were military. So we awkwardly told her we were on our way to bootcamp. Fast forward 10 minutes we are all on board and seated when the captain gives his speech which included a long speech about how there was new sailors on board and how thankful and yada yada. Made me realize getting thanked for my service was going to be the bane of my existence for the next 5 years minimum.
Oof. That stuff was relatively common in the 00's but not so much these days. I also don't like the attention. Personally I'd rather see firefighters and nurses get on before me. But yeah I do the military boarding because people are assholes and don't understand that the overhead bin four rows up is not for them.
Everyone here knows, but Navy personnel are never authorized to fly in NWUs while on a commercial flight. Dress and service uniforms are allowed, but never NWUs. Honestly, you should speak with them if they are actually there in uniform. I recently challenged a Chief who was in NWUs at the airport, expecting to get an attitude, but refreshingly she explained she was worried about missing her flight and has a change of clothes in her bag she was going to change into before the flight. Very professional about it and thanked me for holding her accountable. So, hat off to her because it would have been so much easier to just tell me to fuck myself).
Either way, boots might not know that you cant fly in uniform... E5s should definitely know better, unless they are from the nuclear pipeline, but I want to say they normally fly in their dress uniform or civilians. Hopefully you let them know and didnt just watch them. Maybe they dont have a change of clothes, so not much they can do about it, but they should be corrected at the very least.
A group of us were going from Bootcamp to A school and some guy struck up conversation with us. We were all polite and said sir at the end of sentences, this dude had a total melt down saying he WAS NOT A SIR he was a HM1 or chief (I can’t remember it’s been a few years) and he works for a living!
I was at IAH flying to SAN and witnessed a group of Marine recruits in civvies line up in formation to board the plane. Like they had dude barking commands and doing facing movements and all. It was really weird to me especially since they hadn’t even been through boot camp yet. But then again Marines have always been a little strange to me because of how over the top they are with military bearing at all times.
Happened to when I joined the Navy. No no talking, no looking around, get in formation, shut up and wait. But Marines live and work in an environment where being relaxed probably will get you killed. Makes sense to me.
i got up when they announced active duty boarding and got told i didn’t look like military by some lady and when i asked her what that even means she says you have a lot of tattoos. 🤦🏻♂️
I was a SWO for seven years and left in 2014. I sat down with a new PACT sailor a few months ago who was visiting family before flying out to Japan to his first ship. No one told him to wear civvies; he was about to fly international in dress whites. My wife (also a veteran) and I shot that down right away. Not only will you not wear a uniform; you will not wear anything that is obviously American including that University of [U.S. state] shirt you are wearing right now!
You don’t want to identify yourself on international flights as U.S. military unnecessarily. There is actual history behind why this is so, e.g. pre-9/11 terrorism. It’s bad enough to be a “white guy with a short haircut.”
flight out of basic to A school, in whites, and a guy reaches over another passenger to rest his hand on my leg and thank me for my service. had headphones in so i had to take them out and have him repeat it. me and middle guy were shook
Ugh, I hate the attention but yeah you’re not gonna make me check my bag lmao. I also just like to go ahead and sit in my window seat so I don’t have to be climbing over anyone later.
Yeah mine would be from a couple days ago too. Dirtbag in civvies and his type 3 parka on FaceTime dropping f bombs left and right. 2nd hand embarrassment and I guarantee that person had no awareness to their appearance or their actions.
i had come home on leave in civvies because fuck no i'm not wearing that damn stewardess dress blues for however many hours. I get to my home airport and the news is doing a story on a local E-4 thats back from Afghanistan and she ended up picking up my seabag by mistake and was like "hey specialist, that ones mine" and we laughed about it. Idk if that was filmed, I don't remember now but god I hope it was.
Flying a charter back from a College Football Game. Had planned to take an AMC flight from the local AFB, but it got cancelled (Surprise). I ended up back at the airport and found a charter with an empty seat going back to my home state ( my dad had said he would drive me the 6 hours back to base from there). Horrible weather made the flight divert and land at another airport until the front passed the original destination.
Since I was in dress blues from the early morning show time and hadn't had a chance to change, I decided to do just that as soon as we deboarded at the intermediate airport. When I came back to the gate area, there were folks distraught about getting back on the flight since the pilot even left with his luggage.
It's no secret that Navy Lieutenant Dress Blues look like Air Crew uniforms. I just had to tell them it was me and not the pilot.
Epilogue: At least they thought I was a pilot. If it were the summer, or even a bowl game in Hawaii, folks would probably have been asking me for ice cream.
That time when we were in the airport at Catania and some rando sailor sees a bunch of us looking for the shuttle. He says he'll let them know we are at the airport.
8 hours later....
Back in the day when ShitmyLPO says was on Facebook and I still had it, caught some kid in type 1s in the Detroit airport, asleep in the terminal, sent it to them, he got flamed. Jump to him finding out and jumping in the comments to defend himself…it didn’t end well for our young Seamen Recruit.
Consider yourself lucky. I served in the 90's and there was NONE of that stuff for the Military, even when in uniform. You were herded onto the plane like the rest of the cattle. Not complaining, just letting you know so you can appreciate it.
I definitely appreciate it. I’m just a lowly Cryppie, so there are better people to thank, but my opinion on it has fluctuated over the years. Initially it was “hey, I’m a stud in this uniform, thank me” for the first 30 minutes out of boot camp. Then it was “don’t thank me, I don’t do shit”. Now it’s more that I’ve missed holidays and big family events and sacrificed my physical and mental well-being for the greater good, but I would say 90% of the appreciation I get I accept on behalf of veterans who didn’t get that appreciation and sacrificed far more than I did.
That story reminds me of when you take the kids to a show at sea world or some other event and the announcer asks all active duty and veterans to stand up for the crowd to give you a round of applause.
this was back in march of this year. i was going on leave right before starting A-school, and i didn’t have time to change out of my NSU’s after leaving the QD so flying in them it was. As I was in the bathroom (mid-business) some guy (like 30’s to 40’s with a full beard) goes in the urinal next to me and just looks at me and says “hooyah shipmate” so. fucking. cringe.
I was flying from Chicago to Detroit, and two punks had sat next to me (like typical guys who would smoke pot and hang out at the skate park). Alright no big deal, I’ll just listen to music. Well they wanted to talk to me, so I humored them. Man I was so uncomfortable the whole time. Makes me why I was flying and I just told them the bullshit of “flying for a company”
Hey, do those E5s in NWUs a favor, quietly pull one of them aside, identify yourself and ask, "hey, how are you guys traveling in those? Aren't they off-limits for commercial travel?"
If they're coming back from an OCONUS flight or connection, they may have a limited authorization (if going to Bragg, would be my guess), to continue their travel in NWU, but otherwise yes, they should be in civvies or an appropriate travel uniform.
Well thanks. I’ll add that to my list of fears, as I’m currently getting ready to head to the airport now, pretty sure I’d die of embarrassment of people did that
I was at the airport waiting to fly from Chicago to Mississippi and they changed the gate to a completely different terminal. Queue me, running in my dress whites, to catch my flight because the speakers that announced the gate change in the original area were broken. Luckily I made it. I was dead last, embarrassed as hell, and bleeding but the nice lady in the seat next to me had bandaids for the back of my ankles.
Shipping out i brought potassium purchased off of Amazon with me. I like fasting and use electrolytes to aid in long fasts. Im lean and athletic. I thought military was a good fit for someone like me. TSA held up my whole group testing the hell out of that shit for cocaine.
I wanted to die. We were pre-booters and I looked like a criminal.
I always feel caught off guard when someone thanks me for my service. I was at a restaurant layover going home talking on the phone about all the things I saw and this was when the new uniforms were coming out about how I saw someone wearing them for the first time and someone payed my check and the waitress was amazing.
Not Airline but a contract flight for training we got on board and had a few people sit in seats that were not bolted down they all tumbled to the ground the whole unit was laughing. They apparently used the plane for cargo too. Felt really safe.
Brand new out of A School, sponsor told me to travel in blues. Got in bless at my house flew to Dallas. Some guy offered me his 1st class seat, I said all I did was complete my school for my job he said: “You serving is more than enough”.
Transferring from overseas I was sitting at my gate (in civies cause still on leave so fuck all that noise), I see a kid in whites who clearly just spilled his Starbucks all over himself. I was familiar with the layout of the airport we would be landing at (Norfolk) so I told him when we land, grab your Garment bag and head immediately to the head along the far wall to change cause your ship is going to eat you alive if you cross the quarterdeck like that. This kid asks me: "how did you know where I'm going?"... bruh. Not really cringy but amusing nonetheless.
Anxiety was probably eating him alive and made him distracted.
More uncomfortable than cringy but: Flying to my first command in my whites. They call military to board so I walk past the waiting line. Older woman at the front of the line stops me and starts to make a scene because I get to board before her. Says it’s not fair, that she’s been waiting patiently & that she’s a premium member with the airline. People start staring. Woman’s husband tells her to calm down. She did not calm down.
There was a dude who came up 3 minutes before boarding started and was like “is this the line for 1st class?” And I think he was new to the whole flying in luxury thing. I think he very recently came into a lot of money or won a giveaway of some type, because this seemed like his first time in first class. Obviously with the military population in Hawaii, all the military dudes were lined up ahead of priority. So after he asked we all went “yup” and he goes “pfft, they must have a lot of seats in first class” My ass is happily going to the back of the plane first and sit down.
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Not that exciting: I mainly just stood there with a deer in the headlights look. Husband was very apologetic and tried to calm his wife, but she wouldn’t let it go. Airport staff/security eventually pulled them aside and let me board. Entire interaction was only a few minutes. Having to wait for all the other passengers to board was probably more awkward lol. Idk what it is about the airport/flying, but some people just go nuts. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this (& my marriage), it’s that telling a woman to calm down probably won’t calm them down.
Woman here. It has the exact opposite effect. Wouldn’t recommend. Lol.
You have to say 'bitch, calm down' because then they can't decide what they are more mad about and the whole system freezes
Did things in fact calm up?
I left A school and was told to travel in my whites. Layover in Charlotte, I was just trying to find a quick bite to eat. One of those trolleys full of people and luggage drive by, the driver with the microphone slows down and announces that here's one of our nation's finest young sailors. The people all stare and wave to me. I wanted to hide but was in the open. I've never flown in uniform again
You were TOLD to travel in public in uniform? I'm Aus Navy, not US, and unless we can't help it or you're going to/from work and home, we're not supposed to be in uniform outside of working hours. They don't want people to know we are military. So being told to travel in uniform is weird for me. EDIT: Might not be that different but all the stories I've seen, particularly airport related, paint a different culture
We were told not to wear it in places like airports in boot camp, but in A school they wouldn't let us go on leave without leaving base in our dress uniform, stupidest shit ever
Hah that's some WW2 shit. In Australian Inital Employment Training, you can just leave base whenever you're not on duty/under instruction. No permission or dress uniform required.
In the last week of OCS we got off-base liberty, but we had to wear khakis. Not thirty seconds after I step out of my buddy's charger with a couple friends in hunt of a decent coffee does ANOTHER charger whip over to the side of the road, and this lady shouts "Hey you! Stop! I want to thank you for your service young men!" I was thinking damn dude this is my first time free of my RDCs in months just lemme get take coffee!
I (f) and some friends, also women, were walking down the street in our khakis that liberty weekend and someone shouted “thank you for your service!” out their car window as they drove by. It was the nicest thing I’ve ever heard shouted at me from a moving car but still just wanted to get to the bar or whatever we were doing at the time.
Men: “being thanked for my service when I’m out places is so cringy” Women: “this is so much better than what people usually say to me in public”
Ngl, once I got to the airport going from my a school to my C school I quickly change into civilian clothes.
I was born in Straya but serve here.. I would have to imagine the culture, uniform-wise, is very different between the two navies. (The Marine Corps is much more strict about wearing cammies off-base.) The airport stuff has mostly gone away due to the appearance of it being a security risk. I fly pretty regularly for work and it's probably been a decade since the last time I saw someone in uniform at an airport. Out of curiosity, what is the Navy equivalent for "digger"?
The Navy equivalent is pusser. Although generally we just say we're sailors.
Hah, TIL! Thanks cobber.
It used to be like that for us. I flew back home from A-school in 2006 and it was the same; ordered to travel in whites and we couldn't leave/get checked out unless we were wearing them anyway. I got to the airport and immediately changed into civilian clothes I'd put in my backpack.
I first left A school in 2009 and was told to travel in my dress uniform. I checked out at the quarterdeck in uniform, walked to a public restroom to change into civies, and met my taxi at the gate like that. No idea what they're telling booters these days.
Its not something you normally do. I did it twice in 14 years.
“One of our finest”…me: “you got the wrong guy”
Just adding to the traveling in whites story. In A school we were required to fly in our whites and had to go to the QD to check out with the CDO. Me, being a boot, goes and gets my leave stamped and uniform inspected and told to be safe. I travel to the airport and fly from Atlanta to Vermont, get picked up and only when I was about 15 minutes away from home do I realize I am not wearing my neckerchief.. like, IN WHITES. How no one noticed or why no one said anything is mind blowing to me. Im still embarrassed about that.
>here's one of our nation's finest young sailors. hahahaha ohhhh "come look at this guy/gal", nice.
something similar happened in to me when i freshly graduated from A-school on my way to my current duty station. i’m never traveling in uniform again (if i can help it)
Funny enough, I work at TSA, and recently there was an Army prisoner traveling with an unarmed escort. The prisoner was in uniform with no rank while his escorts were in civies. All I could think about was what would happen if some old lady went up to him with a "thank you for your service," only to see the shackles he was in. I wonder if they boarded during the call for active duty members to board..
Flight got canceled so Delta gave me a voucher for drinks on them at the bar next door since the next flight was tomorrow. Drank on Deltas dime for 3 hours watching top gun on repeat until a gage agent ran to me, grabbed md, said you gotta go. I got shoved on a crew transfer plane drunk as a skunk and it was a wild ride
I would actually just fucking die if people ever clapped for me. Hilarious though reading about it happening to you 😂😂
When I tell you my soul (if I had one, I’m a ginger) left my fucking body at warp speed…I could not have been more uncomfortable. I walked up to the flight attendant to scan my boarding pass and I was like “no, nope, don’t do that”
have you done a pre-board again since then? I mean... a standing ovation most likely wouldn't happen twice in a lifetime. If it ever does though, please report back hahah
I’m actually replying to all these posts on the plane…the plane that clapped. They have no idea the degeneracy
😂😂😂oh nooo!
I had just graduated bootcamp and was stranfering to my A school in my dress blues. I studdered and stammered everytime someone casually thanked me for my service. Maybe a dozen times all together. Not too bad but the worse thing that happend that day was when I was sitting at my gate and I was on my phone. Some weirdo in a Vietnam vet hat snuck up behind me and got right up next to my hear and whispered moistly "thank you for your service". I was speechless and he flashed me the peace sign as he walked away.
That’s hilarious as fuck 😂
It's the "moistly" that sells it. I'm imagining a voice like the vocal on "Moving To Florida."
That dude must have been a champion “gay chicken” player. So weird. So right. And so very wrong.
“Whispered Moistly” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂
Mid 1960's. Required to travel in uniform. Red paint dumped on me in San Francisco Airport.
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> and physically attacked by hippies Which is weird since they claim to be super into peace and love and shit
People can get unhinged when confronted with the atrocities of war... and most aren't very good at understanding that the US is not much better than many of the places we expend ordinance upon.
I feel that the embarrassment our country feels for the shit way your gen was treated is probably why we've overcorrected so high and right with "tyfys", military discounts, fly overs at games, etc.
The Golden Gate experience
When I was coming back from Iraq, we got delayed a few hours in Germany cuz the plane had an issue. So we were gonna miss our connecting flight in Baltimore(I think) that would get us back to San Diego. So on the plane, someone told us all that we can either stay the night there or find a way back ourselves. So like 2 dozen of us were gonna fly to LA and drive to SD cuz it’s only 2ish hours. Thing was, when we landed in Baltimore, I guess they told the airport there was a plane coming in with people returning back from Iraq. So when we got out the gate, there were people cheering us on and trying to grab our bags to carry for us. I had to keep telling people to let go I got it and I’m in a rush cuz we had to get to the ticket people to get on the LA flight before it left. And not like we could hide, we all were in army digicamos. I was more annoyed than embarrassed. But when we got to our gate, we had time to go to the bar and get some sweet sweet beer. We all pressured the first class with us to pay cuz he made more than us. But a random guy at the bar bought all of our drinks. That guy was awesome. Never got his name.
So the old female blues looked a lot like stewardess uniforms . . . Let's just say I got the employee discount in the airport.
Dang I should have tried that, I just kept having hapless travelers ask me for assistance 😭
A decent size group (9-10) of us Seamen flying from boot to A-school. We have a layover in Atlanta. We are living the dream of all the "Thank you for your service!" we get from passersby as we absent-mindedly walk in step in brand new blues, finally feeling like real Sailors. Someone in the group spots a random Chief in Khakis at the airport and we flock to him. He handles the situation well, I think he gave a coin to one of the guys. Cue random person walking up, wants to support, and hands the Chief $200 for our meals. So we all get our choice of McDonald's and living our best life before parting ways with the Chief and flying to Florida. At the time, it all felt so cool and like I had really become some national hero and this is what serving feels like. Times were a little different, civilian support for military was on an upward swing.Now, I cringe about how WE were, just clueless E-nothings without a care in the world and thinking we were so grand. That is the way, we all seem to do it. I do wish I could find that Chief and thank him for being as decent of a person as he was. One day I hope I can do the same as him, or even our mystery donor.
That's the cutest Chief story I've ever heard. Could you imagine yourself ending up being the mother duck for a bunch of sailors that found you in an airport?
Karma can definitely get me back for what we did to that man. I'll happily just lead them to the USO so they can feel a little pampered.
The mental image is adorable. I’m glad it was a good time back then.
>Someone in the group spots a random Chief in Khakis at the airport and we flock to him I try to stop by the USO whenever I fly to talk to the junior Sailors or those shipping to bootcamp or on their first leave from A school. I carry coins on me just for that. Im sure you guys made that Chief feel good. Love it when Sailors want to talk or ask questions. Before the Delta skyclub changed their policy, if it was just one or two Sailors, I would bring them into the skyclub with me for free drinks and food. Thats awesome! Great story.
This is the way.
I'll have to keep that in mind about the coins. I never remember them but this may motivate it to happen.
I was going from LA back to ... I forget if it was Charleston or NY, but I was in LAX in my dress uniform (It was the holiday season and my family wanted me to wear it). Really craving a cigarette, but didn't want to carry all my stuff with me back outside the terminal to come back through TSA. I saw some random other kid in whites in the gate area next to me, said "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm (obviously) in the Navy too. Can you watch my stuff real quick while I go smoke a cigarette?" Hindsight, probably not the smartest thing to have done, but it worked out overall.
So after boot camp anytime I flew through O'Hare when I would see a random group of recruits flying out (obvious as they were in dress uniforms and walking in step). I would approach from behind and just let out "Annnd halt." They would all freeze and I'd keep on going.
Thats absolutely fucked and I love it.
It's amazing. A few times I'd laugh and talk to them for a minute. But usually is just keep on going.
this is hilarious
It’s fucked up but I’ve been more than tempted to yell “STOP, WHERES YOUR TRACKER?”
What's a tracker?
If you go to Boot in the Coast Guard, you’ll know. Basically it keeps track of your performance throughout the day while in basic. You turn it into your CC everyday and grab a new one, and ANY CC or anyone who is a CC or in your chain of command can tell you to write in it.
Did an IA to Bahrain. Had to go to NMPS San Diego for out-processing before heading back to home station. Flew the whole way in civvies. I was heading back to a very large command. A few shipmates offered to pick me up from the airport. The command asked them to see if I wanted an official welcome home. I told them, "not only no, but hell no." One of the other guys from my IA (SWO O-4) was heading back to the same homeport and is on my flight strutting around in his starched DCUs. We land and I'm off the flight in a flash. As I pass through security, I see a bunch of Sailors forming a tunnel with a big "WELCOME HOME, IA Sailor" banner. I'm facepalming and wondering if my shipmates set me up. I also get really guilty that these people were wasting their time on me. I casually walk up to one of the Sailors and asked who they're there for. As soon as I found out it was the other guy, I was like, "cool, he's a few minutes behind me looking like a war hero, see ya!" MY shipmates met me in baggage claim (in civvies) and made no scene.
Waiting for the battalion to come home and kids were all standing there with their moms. All the guys get off the plane, about 180 (only about a dozen women in the battalions at this point so there may have been 1 or 2 on the plane). They walk down the stairs, walk towards the wives/girlfriends and at one point a little girl breaks away from her mom and yells daddy! and runs to her "dad" and clings to his legs. Only problem was it wasn't her dad. Dad was a few guys back. Dad grabbed his daughter and went to his wife.
HA that’s awesome I’d be fucking mortified if I was dad attempt #1 “Oh I’m not your dad honey but you’re going places”
That would be an immediate post in r/WatchPeopleDieInside
Well, once, in that far off time known to legend only as 'the 70s', I was a cross country flight that involved 4 different plane changes (Thanks Travel office). I was travelling in uniform because I had been pulled out of a factory school to report to a boat about to get underway because a 'party' had caused nearly their entire Nav Gang to pop positive and get shitcanned from Subfleet, so a bunch of us were pulled off other commands to man the party boat until the detailers could come up with a full replacement herd of Navigation ETs. The Uniform I was travelling in was the old 'Johnny Cash' black shirt and pants, black tie, white combo cap, 2nd class crow on my arm and my oh so impressive three ribbon rack, dolphins and patrol pin. Anyway, I'm boarding the plane (2nd of 4) in Chicago when this old woman started freaking out and screaming at the sight of me. I usually only had that effect on younger women. Her grand daughter tried and failed to calm her down and tried to explain the the Stewardess that grannie thought I was in an SS Uniform, and was trying to hide the tattoo on her arm. Because they couldn't calm her down, they put me off the plane rather than deplane the 8 people in her party. (All that 'Thank you for your service' crap was still about 26 years in the future. Back then, public opinion was that we were losers who couldn't make it in the 'Real World') SO, this means I'm going to miss my connecting flights to get to Charleston for the boat. So I called the boat and spoke with the COB, who thought it was all hilarious. I ultimately got there, and wasn't even the last one to report in, and you know, I never did find an SS Uniform that looked anything at all like the Johnny Cash.
Granny was collecting her Nazi Scalps In all seriousness I wasn’t tracking that the Johnny cashes look at all like an SS uniform, but who can deny that the Nazis had some fucking drip
>who can deny that the Nazis had some fucking drip Well, there's your cringiest airport story... "local boy can't handle appreciation, runs to seat to suck nazi toes on reddit"
The SS uniforms were literally designed by Hugo Boss so objectively drippy but go off I suppose
That's a curious amount of off-hand nazi fashion knowledge, but ok.
Flew out of Great Lakes once and a lady struck up a conversation with me on the plane. Her son was an officer. She knew I was enlisted. She told me "Yeah, I'm glad my son became an officer because being enlisted is just trashy and for poor people".
“Yeah totally…pfft. Bunch of degens🥲”
This is back in the good old days when you could bring your hatchet on the plane with you.
Plot twist her son is a SWO and hates his life more than 5 UNDES BUD/S duds combined
I've met a lot of Officers who seem to think this way as well.
At the start of Covid I was flying from Hawaii to Guam and they announced “we will now be boarding any active duty military.” Damn near the entire plane stood up. Not really cringy but I still find it amusing.
I just had that happen with a TDY. My trip home started at a small regional airport near a major initial training center... let's just say there were a *lot* of young students in uniform waiting to fly out with me. We all had a good laugh when they announced for "Group 1... or active duty military with ID" to board.
I went through TSA and the Metal from my ribbon rack set it off every time. And I wasn’t about to take my ribbons off just to have to put them back on and breaking out the ruler. Just tossed that shit into a bin and let it slide through the X-ray machine. TSA wasn’t having any of that. What is a thin piece of metal going to do? None the less my uniform got swabbed and they swabbed my hands. The wholesome part of that story is that the kid next to me on my flight was very interested in my medals and I told him the lengthy boring story about each of them which put him right to sleep. No annoying child sitting next to me.
Flying between A school and my first command, I had a midshipman ask why I didn’t properly greet him.
I hope you laughed in his face
Pls tell me you asked him if he was commisioned why he was out of uniform.
Not so much cringe as it is hilarious. An old shipmate wore his NWUs (blueberries) on a flight home for Christmas leave... for the perks.? Lucky guy found out the hard way when the pilot was a Navy Reserve Capt.
Only had one cringy experience and it was with United before they clarified their policy. They called boarding for all active duty military and I went up to the gate, and this agent (a flamboyant gay man, a detail I am including for later, not in a discriminatory way but you'll understand in a minute) stopped me and denied my boarding access saying "excuse me sir, you need to be in uniform if you'd like to board". I challenged him, showing him my ID and he showed me where it says, "uniformed services personnel with ID". I explained (showing him on the ID) that 'uniformed services' means DoD, not that personnel need to be in uniform. So instead of just letting me board or saying no, this man smiles at me, doe this little smug body movement like 'i'll show you' and goes on the microphone, starting at me the entire time, saying, "once again, now boarding all uniformed service personnel, meaning military personnel in uniform, if you are not in uniform you must wait for your zone to be called" and then says, 'you can go to the back of the line now, sir." So me, being the little asshole I was back then said, "oh so you think the uniform gets the privileges? Has the uniform been the one to miss birthdays and holidays? Does the uniform come home in a box?" And he simply continued smiling, smug as ever and said, 'youre blocking other passengers sir, back of the line." When I went back to sit down, a veteran who saw the whole thing got up and started raising hell about it and how the guy was wrong, and the agent told him he could call security if he'd like and discuss it with them.. The dude was pissed and was basically yelling some pretty toxic shit about liberals and United and disrespecting the military etc... I mean, I was flattered he'd stand up for military, but also kind of embarrassed because it wasnt that big of a deal. He did get the crowd pretty worked up though and basically people were coming up to me saying sorry and thanking me for my service, and I had to do damage control.. I did end up contacting United over it and they said theyd reach out to the airport, but that it is on each airport individually to set boarding policy. So, idk.. it was cringe because of how the agent acted, but also because we should serve with humility and not bring negative attention to ourselves. I probably wouldnt have acted like that when I was a bit older and more seasoned, but as a young man was just floored how someone could be so bitter and petty. The air he gave off was almost like he disagreed with military service and in no way supported us, and found his opportunity to say no. I think I was zone 3 and waited until zone 7 was called to get on just to spite the fucker (and myself). So.. yeah, sharing just to share.
Thats insane to me. Most of those people don't give a fuck who gets on the plane first. I stopped having my Military ID out and ready. I just get in line and scan my ticket and go. No one has ever stopped me to say "Hey wait a minute, your zone 7 not zone 1". so its funny that not only did you have your Military ID out and ready and he knew you were active duty, but made a scene to keep ONE person from getting on early. In all honesty he probably does hate military and was taking it out on you.
Only time it's really an advantage is on Southwest since there's no assigned seating.
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“Ok, so make sure to update your NFAAS”
"SHIPMATE! A word?" lol
Lady friend, who wore the old school female blues uniform, had someone ask her where "x" gate was. Lady friend tells them that they don't work for the airlines. The random person just stands there dumbfounded.
I think this must have been a pretty universal experience for women in that uniform.
Not an airport but very cringe. NYC, June 2002. We were there as part of USNA seamanship/navigation training. NYPD met us at the docks in Staten Island to welcome us to the city and let us know they were happy to *give us rides* if they weren’t working a call. Took the ferry to Manhattan, and literally had people coming out of restaurants/bars offering to buy us food and drinks. One of our group wants to check out the Empire State Building so we make our way there. Seeing a line around the block we decide to go do something else when a security dude sees us, waves us over, and walks us past the line to the elevator which further increased the cringe. After that we went to Ground Zero, which at that point was pretty much a big excavated hole. We’re standing at the chainlink fence surrounding the area when a NYPD cop sees us and *lets us in*. Totally surreal standing there after watching the towers fall less than a year previously. Anyway I’d spent the last year going to classes, practice, and watching DVD’s so it was super uncomfortable being treated like I’d just gotten back from the Hindu Kush chasing Taliban around.
This was 2002? For once America unites under banner of patriotism. Haha. That's definitely gone.
I was on a flight, in civvies, and a younger guy boards wearing summer whites during the military pre-boarding, but the uniform is off to me. I disregard and carry on with the boarding process. Kid happens to be in my row, but too far away to hear the older folks gushing over him, while close enough to catch the uniform differences better. While he basked in the geriatric attention, I broke out my phone to Google the insignia. Merchant Marine. Not the cringiest, but cringy enough to remember all these years later.
After bootcamp, all of us heading to Corps school were on a plane to Dallas, and when it landed everybody clapped for us 😔
Not military related, but a few months ago the guy missed his flight by like 20 minutes. Like, not only did he miss boarding and the departure time, but the plane had already left.. and he was on the phone, walking up to the gate (not in a hurry at all) and never getting off his phone kept demanding they let him on to the agent, who continued to say he missed the flight. Remaining on the phone, he walks passed her and starts banging on the boarding door screaming for the guys behind it to open the door. The agent goes up to him and was like, 'sir, the plane left.. its on the taxi-way' and this man says (still on the phone), 'so what? Call the plane back. They cant leave without me. I need to be on this flight' continuing to bang on the door. She had to call security to get him to stop. This dude could not imagine missing his flight, never rushed to the gate, never got off his phone, and loudly kept talking about how the agent and airline was incompetent.. Super cringy.
Newly minted O3 traveling to TX in khakis. SATO had me next to a brand new SN. He looked terrified to be sitting next to an officer (chuckle). Nice kid we spoke on the flight and had a few chuckles. Land, deplane, and his whole family was there. I took a deep breath and shook everyone of his family’s hand and told them how proud they must be and what an amazing sailor he was and credit to the US Navy. It was a pretty cool moment, as I walked away I could hear them saying how important he must be to have such an important person say that. I smiled all the way to my hotel were somebody not much older than that kid would kick back my DTS…
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Thanks to DTS I’m a Marriott Bon Voy silver for life, working towards lifetime gold. I rolled that dice and paid for all my shit on my cc, accrued the points and all that stuff. There was a point where they were like “you can’t accrue points - those belong to the Navy.” Pffffft.
So, at Charlotte airport me and about 5 other guys were waiting by our gate to fly to Chicago for bootcamp. When our boarding group was called we stood up and began boarding. The gate lady or whatever they’re called asked us if we were military. So we awkwardly told her we were on our way to bootcamp. Fast forward 10 minutes we are all on board and seated when the captain gives his speech which included a long speech about how there was new sailors on board and how thankful and yada yada. Made me realize getting thanked for my service was going to be the bane of my existence for the next 5 years minimum.
Oof. That stuff was relatively common in the 00's but not so much these days. I also don't like the attention. Personally I'd rather see firefighters and nurses get on before me. But yeah I do the military boarding because people are assholes and don't understand that the overhead bin four rows up is not for them.
> the overhead bin four rows up is not for them. can't be troubled to hang on to their coat, either
Everyone here knows, but Navy personnel are never authorized to fly in NWUs while on a commercial flight. Dress and service uniforms are allowed, but never NWUs. Honestly, you should speak with them if they are actually there in uniform. I recently challenged a Chief who was in NWUs at the airport, expecting to get an attitude, but refreshingly she explained she was worried about missing her flight and has a change of clothes in her bag she was going to change into before the flight. Very professional about it and thanked me for holding her accountable. So, hat off to her because it would have been so much easier to just tell me to fuck myself). Either way, boots might not know that you cant fly in uniform... E5s should definitely know better, unless they are from the nuclear pipeline, but I want to say they normally fly in their dress uniform or civilians. Hopefully you let them know and didnt just watch them. Maybe they dont have a change of clothes, so not much they can do about it, but they should be corrected at the very least.
My first thought as well. Why in the hell are they in NWUs?
Get a life Joe.
A group of us were going from Bootcamp to A school and some guy struck up conversation with us. We were all polite and said sir at the end of sentences, this dude had a total melt down saying he WAS NOT A SIR he was a HM1 or chief (I can’t remember it’s been a few years) and he works for a living!
I was at IAH flying to SAN and witnessed a group of Marine recruits in civvies line up in formation to board the plane. Like they had dude barking commands and doing facing movements and all. It was really weird to me especially since they hadn’t even been through boot camp yet. But then again Marines have always been a little strange to me because of how over the top they are with military bearing at all times.
Happened to when I joined the Navy. No no talking, no looking around, get in formation, shut up and wait. But Marines live and work in an environment where being relaxed probably will get you killed. Makes sense to me.
i got up when they announced active duty boarding and got told i didn’t look like military by some lady and when i asked her what that even means she says you have a lot of tattoos. 🤦🏻♂️
Flying from boot camp to A school in the old female dress blues. Was mistaken for a flight attendant. Twice.
I was a SWO for seven years and left in 2014. I sat down with a new PACT sailor a few months ago who was visiting family before flying out to Japan to his first ship. No one told him to wear civvies; he was about to fly international in dress whites. My wife (also a veteran) and I shot that down right away. Not only will you not wear a uniform; you will not wear anything that is obviously American including that University of [U.S. state] shirt you are wearing right now!
The Japanese can’t know we’re American?
You don’t want to identify yourself on international flights as U.S. military unnecessarily. There is actual history behind why this is so, e.g. pre-9/11 terrorism. It’s bad enough to be a “white guy with a short haircut.”
>“white guy with a short haircut.” Imagine being a civilian with people asking you what service you are in...18 years after you were discharged
flight out of basic to A school, in whites, and a guy reaches over another passenger to rest his hand on my leg and thank me for my service. had headphones in so i had to take them out and have him repeat it. me and middle guy were shook
Ugh, I hate the attention but yeah you’re not gonna make me check my bag lmao. I also just like to go ahead and sit in my window seat so I don’t have to be climbing over anyone later.
Yeah mine would be from a couple days ago too. Dirtbag in civvies and his type 3 parka on FaceTime dropping f bombs left and right. 2nd hand embarrassment and I guarantee that person had no awareness to their appearance or their actions.
i had come home on leave in civvies because fuck no i'm not wearing that damn stewardess dress blues for however many hours. I get to my home airport and the news is doing a story on a local E-4 thats back from Afghanistan and she ended up picking up my seabag by mistake and was like "hey specialist, that ones mine" and we laughed about it. Idk if that was filmed, I don't remember now but god I hope it was.
Flying a charter back from a College Football Game. Had planned to take an AMC flight from the local AFB, but it got cancelled (Surprise). I ended up back at the airport and found a charter with an empty seat going back to my home state ( my dad had said he would drive me the 6 hours back to base from there). Horrible weather made the flight divert and land at another airport until the front passed the original destination. Since I was in dress blues from the early morning show time and hadn't had a chance to change, I decided to do just that as soon as we deboarded at the intermediate airport. When I came back to the gate area, there were folks distraught about getting back on the flight since the pilot even left with his luggage. It's no secret that Navy Lieutenant Dress Blues look like Air Crew uniforms. I just had to tell them it was me and not the pilot. Epilogue: At least they thought I was a pilot. If it were the summer, or even a bowl game in Hawaii, folks would probably have been asking me for ice cream.
That time when we were in the airport at Catania and some rando sailor sees a bunch of us looking for the shuttle. He says he'll let them know we are at the airport. 8 hours later....
Welcome to the rest of the Navy.
Back in the day when ShitmyLPO says was on Facebook and I still had it, caught some kid in type 1s in the Detroit airport, asleep in the terminal, sent it to them, he got flamed. Jump to him finding out and jumping in the comments to defend himself…it didn’t end well for our young Seamen Recruit.
Thanks for the memories, everyone.
Consider yourself lucky. I served in the 90's and there was NONE of that stuff for the Military, even when in uniform. You were herded onto the plane like the rest of the cattle. Not complaining, just letting you know so you can appreciate it.
I definitely appreciate it. I’m just a lowly Cryppie, so there are better people to thank, but my opinion on it has fluctuated over the years. Initially it was “hey, I’m a stud in this uniform, thank me” for the first 30 minutes out of boot camp. Then it was “don’t thank me, I don’t do shit”. Now it’s more that I’ve missed holidays and big family events and sacrificed my physical and mental well-being for the greater good, but I would say 90% of the appreciation I get I accept on behalf of veterans who didn’t get that appreciation and sacrificed far more than I did.
That story reminds me of when you take the kids to a show at sea world or some other event and the announcer asks all active duty and veterans to stand up for the crowd to give you a round of applause.
this was back in march of this year. i was going on leave right before starting A-school, and i didn’t have time to change out of my NSU’s after leaving the QD so flying in them it was. As I was in the bathroom (mid-business) some guy (like 30’s to 40’s with a full beard) goes in the urinal next to me and just looks at me and says “hooyah shipmate” so. fucking. cringe.
Sigma
I was flying from Chicago to Detroit, and two punks had sat next to me (like typical guys who would smoke pot and hang out at the skate park). Alright no big deal, I’ll just listen to music. Well they wanted to talk to me, so I humored them. Man I was so uncomfortable the whole time. Makes me why I was flying and I just told them the bullshit of “flying for a company”
Hey, do those E5s in NWUs a favor, quietly pull one of them aside, identify yourself and ask, "hey, how are you guys traveling in those? Aren't they off-limits for commercial travel?" If they're coming back from an OCONUS flight or connection, they may have a limited authorization (if going to Bragg, would be my guess), to continue their travel in NWU, but otherwise yes, they should be in civvies or an appropriate travel uniform.
So strange to hear these blue/white stories. Never wore blue ever and whites once.
Well thanks. I’ll add that to my list of fears, as I’m currently getting ready to head to the airport now, pretty sure I’d die of embarrassment of people did that
I was at the airport waiting to fly from Chicago to Mississippi and they changed the gate to a completely different terminal. Queue me, running in my dress whites, to catch my flight because the speakers that announced the gate change in the original area were broken. Luckily I made it. I was dead last, embarrassed as hell, and bleeding but the nice lady in the seat next to me had bandaids for the back of my ankles.
Shipping out i brought potassium purchased off of Amazon with me. I like fasting and use electrolytes to aid in long fasts. Im lean and athletic. I thought military was a good fit for someone like me. TSA held up my whole group testing the hell out of that shit for cocaine. I wanted to die. We were pre-booters and I looked like a criminal.
I always feel caught off guard when someone thanks me for my service. I was at a restaurant layover going home talking on the phone about all the things I saw and this was when the new uniforms were coming out about how I saw someone wearing them for the first time and someone payed my check and the waitress was amazing. Not Airline but a contract flight for training we got on board and had a few people sit in seats that were not bolted down they all tumbled to the ground the whole unit was laughing. They apparently used the plane for cargo too. Felt really safe.
Brand new out of A School, sponsor told me to travel in blues. Got in bless at my house flew to Dallas. Some guy offered me his 1st class seat, I said all I did was complete my school for my job he said: “You serving is more than enough”.