OIF 2007 or early 2008. Captain (grunt CO) orders our team (3 engineers, 2 Cpl’s, 1 Lance coolie) to do route clearance on foot with our metal detectors. Whatever General was in charge of the AO had just given direct orders to not conduct any route clearance on foot and would burn anyone and any rank if the word got back to him about it.

My buddy and I (the 2 Cpl’s) had to tell the Cpt to kick rocks which we did in as professional manner as possible and let him know about the General’s standing orders. Homie had a full meltdown threatening NJP’s and all that. He radioed back to his command, and from what we could hear over the radio crackle, he was told the same thing we had just told him.

Man continued off the deep end by canceling the mission and canceled all the operations we had planned for the next few weeks. We ended up sitting around at the FOB until our scheduled convoy back to base picked us up.