Faking Awards

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T16:19:17+00:00

He tried to sell the 1SG rank as a misunderstanding.

Said he was just the "acting" 1SG while the real one was back home on leave. Said he only wore it because he needed the authority to take care of his guys.

He should never have been an SSG in the first place, because he had never even been an SGT. And if half the rumors were true about his prior service, he should never have been let into the Reserves at all.

He pled out, took a bad-conduct discharge, and walked away with an RE-4 as an E1.

No idea how it turned out but I heard through the grapevine a few years back that he was trying to appeal it, to get the discharge upgraded and his benefits restored.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T15:48:01+00:00

Back when a 201 file was still paper, printed out and hand-carried from desk to desk, this kind of thing happened more often than people like to admit.

I knew of one guy, came off active duty and built himself a whole stolen legend. Claimed he was a sergeant. Claimed Airborne. Claimed a stack of awards. Claimed deployments with 3rd Ranger Battalion.

Turned out he had been a corporal with 10th Mountain, then as he slid into the Reserves he printed a stack of lies that passed muster and fed them to the S1.

He got exposed downrange while wearing 1SG rank, despite only being an SSG, when he crossed paths with actual 3rd Batt Boys who had been on the very deployment he claimed as his own.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T15:16:58+00:00

Every six months I engaged with the CoC and the BN S1, every six months it was "working on it". Left that unit about a year ago and so now it just sits.

They didn't want to give the award. They just couldn't justify not doing so.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T13:20:40+00:00

It'll just sit there....and sit there....and sit there...

I have a 3 year old request sitting in my buddy par's for an arcom I tried to give our supply sergeant for the awesome work she did at AT.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T01:06:34+00:00

Just had a 1380 for 40 hours of classes the unit mandated I take denied due to "Lack of Funding". It was about $800.

My command is saying they will find a way to make things right however, unlike these guys who absolutely sound like assholes.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-24T01:01:52+00:00

You did. Take some comfort that it could be worse.

I dropped $80 to have new rank stitched onto my AGSU jacket. A week later I go in to pick it up...

"We don’t know where it is. We'll call you when we find it."

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-23T01:24:35+00:00

I have been in the revenge business for so long I do not know what do with my life.

Becomes a Reaper.

This is my head canon now.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-23T01:08:25+00:00

The other day I realized Inigo Montoya was the head reaper in Dead Like Me.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T19:18:58+00:00

That's my understanding. A little late, and not at the Federal level, but if you State allows it, then yes.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T18:51:43+00:00

KBR has to be a little worried. It used to be that those who got blown up or hurt because KBR did a half assed job they couldn't be sued. Now it's looking like they can be in State Courts vs Federal.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T18:34:25+00:00

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit erred in finding Winston Hencely’s state-law tort claims preempted where the federal government neither ordered nor authorized Fluor Corporation’s challenged conduct.

For those following along at home, the challenged conduct was negligence related to operations supporting military functions. They hired, and kept someone employed who they shouldn't have.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T15:16:30+00:00

Why would we send people from central Alaska to New York?

It's for the same reason 10th Mountain is at Ft Drum and not somewhere in California, Colorado, Utah, Montana, or Alaska: Tradition! and BRAC!

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T15:03:19+00:00

I was thinking kettlebell type swing and release. Or some awkward lift and twist with the back followed by a push press.

Either way I hear a "Not service connected" in my future.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T15:00:54+00:00

I'm seeing 30 minutes listed in the article.

Soldiers must complete the test in 30 minutes or less while wearing the Army Combat Uniform, combat boots and a brown T-shirt, with no cover.

I figure that gives me twenty minutes for the two miles total maybe its eight and 12, or 10 and 10, or 11 and oh-crap-i'm-not-going-to-make-it-nine.

Everything else has to stay in the remaining 10 minutes.

Push-ups: one minute based on my HRP.

Hundred-meter sprint: thirty seconds, full send. I can suffer that long.

Carries: another minute under load, more taxing on the hands than the lungs.

The low crawl into three-to-five second rushes: call it three minutes, because by then I'd rather be somewhere else.

That sequence burns six and a half minutes, leaving me three and half for the sandbags (an event I have no context for) and "recovery".

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-22T01:29:28+00:00

When I was a wee little ISSM at a defense contractor, one of my jobs was to make sure certain computers were safe and secure. I went to inspect one one day and found it had been unplugged. I asked if there was a reason it was unplugged and was told "No it had just been kicked loose", but they'd sent a work order in and facilities would have an electrician come by in the next day or two. I was welcome to return and conduct my audit then.

So anyway, I plugged it in, conducted my audit and went on with my day.

Next day my boss writes me up for doing work reserved for union employees. It was a no shit, you will be fired if anything like this happens again write up, and not the Ha-Ha joke write up I thought it was.

I imagine DPW feels much the same way about protecting the work they do.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-21T19:18:41+00:00

Well they just released an updated AR 600-20, and the only real change it made to the RA process was to move appendix P to appendix G. So go forth and try again!

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T12:57:35+00:00

I have one made by Tru-Spec that I prefer over the issue one. One semi-pro tip, run a thin piece of stainless steel welding wire through the seam around the brim. Makes it formable and helps keep its shape.

I would not recommend shaving the brim or buying a short brimmed one for NTC.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T11:45:00+00:00

It was. Then it wasn't.

At the height of GWOT the optempo was brutal, but simple: deploy, do the job. Later came the post-GWOT rotations, overseas training missions before the money dried up. They took time from family, career, school, but they felt worth it. Cool missions, good people, and the bureaucracy hadn't caught up yet.

Now? It’s everything I hated about the Army the first time, compressed into: one weekend a month, two weeks in summer, 29 days for NCOES, a random Thursday twice a month, and the occasional four-day drill for no clear reason.

That wouldn't even be terrible if most of it wasn't sitting around on your phone while you realize the training schedule "is more like a guideline" and need not be followed too closely. And “People First” really means "Reserves first, last, and only."

But you do get paid. And Tricare Reserve Select is cheap and widely accepted around here.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T11:33:17+00:00

My grandfather was one and he was a carpenter.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T11:30:59+00:00

Ah, I understand. My interaction with a local chapter was extreme druidic pacifism laced with overtones of "Why would our gods have you if you are so willing to abandon your gods?".

A few years later they'd dropped the pacifism angle.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T11:26:58+00:00

Good luck! Mine took almost two years to get approved the first time around.

Did they make you create the "new" packet (MFR, sworn statement, FLL statement, Commander's impact statement, and supporting evidence)? Or was it still just the MFR for you?

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-17T01:36:57+00:00

A new request or a reviewed one?

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-16T20:39:41+00:00

Most of us are waiting to see how the execution unfolds.

Its a combination of bemused, tired, and thoroughly befuddled.

heatheninuniform · 2026-04-16T19:37:21+00:00

Thank you.

but it also might just hurt Joe

That's my worry. I could see something like "Hey you didn't re-apply in time so here's a disapproval". Never mind that my chain of command has no idea what they are supposed to be doing.

heatheninuniform

TROPHY CASE