To BTDT? What was the worst duty you ever had to do?

[Argyll]

For all the Military men here what's the worst detail you ever got landed with?
Mine was:
In the Falklands our Coy.was asked to supply 2 pallbearers for a local funeral,as there were no men in the deceased' family,a mate and I were "tasked" to assist!
What a nightmare 3 hours across country,the hearse was a landrover,the smell was making me boak,and when we arrived at the plot the guy who dug the grave got carried away it was damn near 10' deep,suffice to say the cords were a tad short!!The RAF Padre who was conducting the service was chewing the inside of his mouth to stop himself from laughing at the horrible predicament about to befall the coffin!
I was trying to tell him by shaking my head ,not to let the cords go,sure enough he asks the bearers to let the cords go,and this coffin fell 4 feet into the hole with a huge crash!The deceased daughters were besides themselves with grief,so didn't hear the thump of their mother's coffin hitting the bottom of this pit!
To make matters worse we were then expected to fill the grave in,about halfway it became apparent that the was a lot of soil missing,and nowhere near enough to fill the grave,I asked the guy where the rest of the soil was,he said it was quality stuff so he used it as topsoil for his veggie patch!!!!!! I rushed to the Padre to explain the situation as we were awaiting a Gazelle back to Fox Bay,he said it was the most bizarre funeral he'd done and to use our initiative,so the poor old soul is now lying under half a dozen 45 gallen drums,with less than 2' of topsoil!
The family asked us to stay for a drink with them,needles to say we declined and got out of there as fast as the chopper could fly,the whole thing was a nightmare from start to finish!!!!

[Red]

My worst duty assingment was that to mess hall duties,crap i hated mess hall duties.I had to peel very large quantities of plaintains,endure the searing heat in the kitchen which was almost as hot as a desert.Then to top that off,i had to then clean up all the tables,wash plates,arange the plates,sweep the hall,sweep the kitchen.And then report for toilet duties. :|

[Jack Mehoff]

KP Ranger

[Trident-za]

Without a doubt - putting a 3 or 4 day old corpse into a bodybag. The African sun is not kind to dead people. Hard to believe in God, after that.

[Chris1]

A 3 or 4 minute old corpse isn't that great either though really :/
Stuff like that aside
I can't really think of a exceptionally 'good' stitch up
Maybe as a young Rifleman I was landed with too many **** jobs to pick one :)
Stood out in the cold night on stag in Germany, during winter, on a weekend while everybody above the rank of lance jack was inside in the warm would be high up there :) , went entirely numb after about 15 minutes, got back to the 'warm' guardhouse and burned, if someone covered me in petrol and set me on fire I doubt I would of noticed the difference in sensation.

[XASA]

Burial detail NCOIC at Ft. Bragg for a month during the Vietnam War. We were burying six to ten KIAs a week. Problem was many of the soldiers-- most of whom were draftees-- on the detail were usually intoxicated or stoned so it was difficult getting them to pay the proper respect for the fallen at times. It's amazing how a threat of an Article 15 or company punishment can sober up a soldier.

[Uncle Sam]

Searching dead bodies in Haiti (eeww, the stench)...And Mine detection in Bosnia ! And I absolutely hated, with a passion, pulling Brigade CQ !

[Dave the Dawg]

9-11 search and rescue (later search and recovery) at the World Trade Center. The bodies (and parts) ranged from all too recognizably human to utterly unrecognizable, looking more like a dirty sweater lying in the mud. In the early morning hours of Sept. 12, I remember moving a box of water bottles that someone had set down earlier, and finding a foot underneath, perfectly sheared off at the ankle and pruned like it had just walked out of the shower. Most of the time, you had to search by smell (that sickly sweet cross between rancid fish and boiling cabbage), which required unmasking and breathing in all the **** in the air.

[Beowulf]

Having meals with the locals was always pretty rough. They would always drink tea ("chai") which wasn't so bad except they would drink it boiling hot in the middle of the summer. You can't help but feel like they're f-in with you when they give you boiling hot tea in 120 degree heat, and you're wearing body armor.

The food I ate most of the time was ok, we hired a local cook, and he would make us one meal a day at dinnertime. It was local food, but it was pretty good. What sucked was when we would go meet some village elder or police chief/general anywhere from 4-12 hrs drive outside the city. They would usually have a meal where everything is communal, i.e. a big bowl of rice that everyone would dig their hands into and get some.

They pretty much eat with their hands, and the flies are on everything...I'm not talking one or two flies like at your 4th of july bbq, I'm talking you can't see half of the food b/c it's got flies on it. That wasn't too bad though, you get used to it. Everyone will get the Afghani-ass-flu at least once, but once you get it you're okay.

-b

[UoUo]

9-11 search and rescue (later search and recovery) at the World Trade Center. The bodies (and parts) ranged from all too recognizably human to utterly unrecognizable, looking more like a dirty sweater lying in the mud. In the early morning hours of Sept. 12, I remember moving a box of water bottles that someone had set down earlier, and finding a foot underneath, perfectly sheared off at the ankle and pruned like it had just walked out of the shower. Most of the time, you had to search by smell (that sickly sweet cross between rancid fish and boiling cabbage), which required unmasking and breathing in all the **** in the air.

:(

God bless america.

[Haiw]

They pretty much eat with their hands, and the flies are on everything...I'm not talking one or two flies like at your 4th of july bbq, I'm talking you can't see half of the food b/c it's got flies on it.
Hey at least you got extra meat...

[ibstolidude]

Having meals with the locals was always pretty rough. They would always drink tea ("chai") which wasn't so bad except they would drink it boiling hot in the middle of the summer. You can't help but feel like they're f-in with you when they give you boiling hot tea in 120 degree heat, and you're wearing body armor.

The food I ate most of the time was ok, we hired a local cook, and he would make us one meal a day at dinnertime. It was local food, but it was pretty good. What sucked was when we would go meet some village elder or police chief/general anywhere from 4-12 hrs drive outside the city. They would usually have a meal where everything is communal, i.e. a big bowl of rice that everyone would dig their hands into and get some.

They pretty much eat with their hands, and the flies are on everything...I'm not talking one or two flies like at your 4th of july bbq, I'm talking you can't see half of the food b/c it's got flies on it. That wasn't too bad though, you get used to it. Everyone will get the Afghani-ass-flu at least once, but once you get it you're okay.
-b
at the risk of 4094502959025 PM's about the abuse of antibiotics

Did you ever eat a meal so bad you were given the "CIPRO chaser?"
I ate **** that it was felt warranted a preemptive strike.

Hell of a weight loss program though, ;)

[Beowulf]

Did you ever eat a meal so bad you were given the "CIPRO chaser?"
I ate **** that it was felt warranted a preemptive strike.

Holy shyte dude......My TC and ATL drank that warm milk stuff they had....and ATL had some local ice cream. I was not gonna try dairy products, although I had some cheese with my favorite meal.

It was ****ounced "care-ay-e" Kebab meat, eggs, cheese with a red sauce. It was pretty good, but a little scary to eat. Had to make sure they cook the eggs really well.

[Chops]

"CIPRO chaser"

woot

Try Filipino bush cuisine..... some of it's still moving... after you've passed it..

rgds

c

[ibstolidude]

Did you ever eat a meal so bad you were given the "CIPRO chaser?"
I ate **** that it was felt warranted a preemptive strike.

Holy shyte dude......My TC and ATL drank that warm milk stuff they had....and ATL had some local ice cream. I was not gonna try dairy products, although I had some cheese with my favorite meal.
- the lovely stuff with the mint sprigs...
like warm yogurty milk..

uhh i feel sick thinking about it.

[ArmedPacifist]

It's too personal to talk about.

[buckeyedoc]

KP Ranger

I concur, Sir.

[Ichhabe]

On my first tour in Lebanon we had do lay down a OP-position that were situated in an "open" graveyard.
Anyone been to a graveyard in Lebanon knows what I am talking about when I use the word "open". We saw corpses in every state of decay. From fresh to just bones. The earie part was that after a few hours there we got so used to the deads that we lunched among the graves.

Then in Kosovo, assisting in the opening of massgraves.
We had to check for ****y-traps cause the Serbs tend to leave small surprises in those graves.

The most heart breaking was when we investegated a 6 year old girl's tragic death in Afghanistan after she had stepped on a mine. The first reports that came out was that American soldiers had thrown snacks and food from MRE's to the local children, causing the little girl wandering on the inside of a mine fence. We were glad to learn that this was not the cause after all.

And of course, the worst. When one guy in my squad hit a mine while prodding casing him to be blind and the Polish Captain that later lost a leg due to a mine accident.
Won't either forget the Bosnian mine clearer that also lost a leg there at BAF and all those EOD-guys that lost their life down in Kandahar when that weapon cache blew up.
Even though we never learned to know them, their loss of life deeply concerned us, cause after all, mine clearers and EOD-personell is a small community and we saw them as part of the family.
Even up to this day, my thoughts are going to all these guys.

Will never forget any of them, even though some I never knew or saw, somehow they are in my mind, always....

[Tane Angle]

Well, there are a lot of serious ones, but those don't need saying here. I guess I'll go for the funny, but gross-out option. This isn't really a assigned detail or anything, but getting sick from water/food in more than one country was always a blast. Beirut Belly :( .

[Beowulf]

and all those EOD-guys that lost their life down in Kandahar when that weapon cache blew up.
Were you in country when this happened? Just curious. I have a lot of respect for EOD, very dangerous and underrated job.
All Best,
-b

[Royal]

I was going to go for the grave exhumation, but thinking about it the worst was being a pall bearer for a mate murdered by PIRA. I was still 17 at the time so had not deployed with my unit (you were/are not allowed to serve in Northern Ireland until you are 18).

That's the one that always comes to mind first on Remembrance day - it certainly had the biggest psycological effect on me.

[Ichhabe]

and all those EOD-guys that lost their life down in Kandahar when that weapon cache blew up.
Were you in country when this happened? Just curious. I have a lot of respect for EOD, very dangerous and underrated job.
All Best,
-b

Yeah, I was there.( From 15. March to the end of June 2002.) Some of us in the squad voulenteered to go down to Kandahar to help out if so were needed.
We were ready to go on a minutes notice, but it turned out that it was not neccessary.

[Duke]

We were burying six to ten KIAs a week. Back then, the Johnson Administration changed KIA to KHA or "Killed Hostile Action" for PC reasons. Thank God, Reagan switched back to KIA.

[11F5S]

I never heard KHA used....KIA, DNH (Died Non Hostile) accident, homicide, suicide etc., DOW (Died of Wounds), DWM (Died while missing)
MIA or KIA/BNR (Body not recoverd) but never KHA.

[Trigger]

Hmmm.
You guys have all had some really awful duties, but I'm glad to see that when warranted you were able to make light of the situation.
I salute every single one of you.
Hell the worst I ever had to endure was cleaning up after my fellow drunken squids decided to spew from every orifice.
After reading your stuff, I'll never complain about that again.