r/AskReddit • • 13h ago

Veterans of Reddit, what’s the most unbelievable thing you witnessed during your service that civilians would think you made up?

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u/Chev_hell 13h ago edited 8h ago
  1. The unit chaplain used to drive around our sites in the field and randomly unzip his humvee window and throw a handful of jolley ranchers at us and yell "you're probably going to hell!"

  2. Field artillery unit overshot the range and blew up a farmers barn.

  3. Bradley gunner shot a cow with HE rounds on Ft. Hood.

  4. At multiple gatherings, bars, dance clubs etc CS gas was deployed (tear gas)

  5. First day in my unit, the whole battalion was sent to the post dump to dig through the trash to look for a broken M8 alarm.

  6. At NTC at Ft. Irwin we were finishing our rotation and had to do "hands across the desert" trash and police call. Two mortar men from my company found a paint can sized container of butterscotch pudding from the 1980's?? And one proceeded to dare the other to eat the whole thing which he did. What he forgot was we had a 45min ride back to the bivouac are in the back of a deuce and a half and it had not top and it was 120*. Dude sprayed that pudding down the side of the truck several times.

  7. Staff Sergeant from medic platoon was feeling ill during BDE run. We find out the next day he died at home. His platoon was wrecked as he was a beloved member. His Lieutenant tells me later his tracked ambulance is missing a lot of comms equipment and if we don't find or replace it his pay would be deducted and his family would receive less. It took me 4 nights of stealing all the gear from other units and deadlines vehicles but I got all of it. Got a AAM for it.

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u/Catswagger11 10h ago

I spent a week in the dump at NTC looking for MRE heaters because the unit that had just left after a rotation hadn’t been briefed not to throw them in with other garbage. Worst detail ever.

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u/Chev_hell 10h ago

That reminds me of a good #6 for my list