Let’s see, where did we leave off? … Ah, down to one star now. Coming into work the next day was great, people were still talking about the story and since the Brigade Command Sergeant Major was lenient towards me at our meeting the night before, everything seemed fine for the most part. There wasn’t any confirmation as to what the punishment was going to be but it was sounding more and more like a company grade Article 15 (consider it a misdemeanor).
At some point in the morning I was told that my final sentencing was going to take place later on in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I’m getting all sorts of friend requests on facebook; my notification inbox was through the roof with notification after notification and the overall feedback was great based on reading comments and receiving messages from random people. The story made it to all continents with the exception of Antarctica but that shouldn’t even count as such. Until that place unfreezes, it’s nothing more than a giant block of ice in my eyes... I digress.
Reading the comments alone was making me laugh out loud as the overwhelming majority were positive. People of all ages and walks of life were contacting me; military and civilian, both foreign and domestic. I’m talking Brazilians, Australians, Jews, Asians, Africans, Europeans from the East, West and all that in between were all sending me news articles circulating throughout their areas. Not to mention a hoard of Betta Fish Facebook profiles sending me friend requests. Hell, Willy has more friends than I do at this point; out of about 2,700 friends on my list, maybe sixty percent of them are Betta Fish. Why do I accept their requests? Because everyone needs friends, Willy included.
It wasn’t just the Army Times who had posted stories about me and Willy at that point; The Washington Post, Daily Mail, even CNN had featured the news on their website. The guy who supposedly killed Osama Bin Laden (if that’s what you believe of course) had talked about our selfie on live, national television which was cool until we actually heard his voice. Willy and I weren’t too thrilled with his words to be frank but everyone has an opinion of course. At least we’re still allowed to fly on Delta Airlines buddy.
The final meeting came and it was surprisingly formal. Our military (I suppose just about all militaries for that matter) is all about tradition so there was a bit of a process that went behind being issued this Article 15. First you start by knocking on the door and you state your name, rank and I believe the reason for coming or something along those lines. They call you in the room and you have to walk in step as you would while marching (the typical left, right, left yada yada yada) then halt, left face and salute. Something similar to that. Inside the room was my battalion commander, command sergeant major as well as my two immediate supervisors. They gave a rundown of the situation, explained why what I had done was wrong and then stated the corrective action that was being taken as a response (In this case it was twelve days of extra duty).
The command sergeant major invited me outside for a cigarette right after and we had a good conversation. “You knew this was coming, right Tater?” “Yes sergeant major, it’s completely understandale.” He asked what my plans were for after the army so I told him that I was going to college starting in the fall and that I’d like to eventually start my own business, maybe even become a mayor one day. As we were parting ways the sergeant major shook my hand and seemed impressed, as if he saw my full potential; whether or not that was the actual case is beyond me of course but it helps keep me motivated.
Now, let’s get something straight with the punishment here because I didn’t get kicked out of the army like some people think. This lady back home introduced me to her friend once by saying something along the lines of “This is the kid who jumped out of an airplane with a fish and got kicked out of the army for it! HeHeHe!” I was quick to correct her but still, it was disappointing to hear such fake news. Plus on top of that, a lot of the civilians think that extra duty means that we have to remain on active duty for an additional twelve days. Thankfully, that was not the case here.
A typical day in garrison starts around 0545 and ends at five in the evening. That’s sort of how daily life went in the military but at the same time not really…. It’s complicated. With extra duty however, the day still begins at 0545 but ends at midnight. So when everyone (sort of) stops working and goes home in the evening, those on extra duty start doing random details such as cleaning, mowing the lawn and all sorts of fun stuff like that. This runs for a certain number of days consecutively which in my case was twelve. Every time I showed up, the person in charge would talk to me about the incident for a good fifteen to twenty minutes and would then send me on my way home for the night. Maybe once or twice did I actually pick up a mop but even that only took about thirty minutes.
The whole incident was supposed to end that day as I had accepted the consequences and was ready to bury the hatchet. Despite the fact that I was technically being double punished, their reasoning behind giving me an Article 15 were understandable. There were no intentions of doing a follow up interview. However, some people in the military believe that just because they hold rank, they can do whatever they want.
That lady from the Army Times reached out to me in regards to doing a follow up interview but once again, I had initially declined her request. This was out of respect for some of my leadership; especially that sergeant major and platoon sergeant but I also just wanted to lay low, do my time on extra duty and exit the service as fast and smoothly as possible. But no, someone wanted to keep the game going.
There was one specific NCO (who’s name will never be worth mentioning) that didn’t want to let this go. The asshole decided to place me on 24 hour guard duty shifts every other day from then until the date of my separation which wasn’t for another month or two. So think about that, having to stay awake for twenty four hours straight one day, then rest for twenty four hours and repeat.
What pissed me off the most was that this guy was cracking jokes from the first day and acted as though the story was hilarious. That’s a major reason as to why I didn’t think there was going to be any backlash. It wasn’t until rumors of that Serious Incident Report started floating around that his attitude started to change.
He called me into his office a day or two after they’d read me the Article 15 and gave me a rundown of what to expect from then on out. I replied with “roger that” and reported to my first guard shift. As soon as I had pulled into the parking lot I called that reporter from the Army Times and boom. Just like that, the game continued…
~Until Next Time~
Comments