Any time I go to tech school at Ft. Meade, I’m with all the other branches of service. It’s always funny to watch the Army cringe when we call enlisted people “sir” or “ma’am.” Only once have I been “corrected,” and it was in such a shitty way that I, in an equally shitty manner, completely ignored the bastard and kept calling him sir. Hey, that’s how we roll.
Members, there are another three AWACker comics for ya here. Sorry Davey T… 
If anyone is interested in what I did in Normandy, my story is available here. It’s also on the Air Force’s main site, but they only used a fraction of my photos, so you’ll get more of the imagery at RAF Mildenhall’s site.
Enjoy, and everyone have a great weekend!
-Farva
Back when i wore a different uniform we were always told not to call Sgt’s or Warrants *Sir* “Because I work for a living” being the reply
Sadly now that i am a “Sir” i’m pretty sure that it’s true.
Stress isn’t technically work
As for the animal abuse… does the Ether Bunny count? I never met him (TG) but i know that a few people are very scared to go out on the hammerhead at night to collect chutes now…
OK, other than CPO’s in the navy, when in the army or Air Force did we start calling NCO’s sir/ma’am?
wasn’t like that in the 80′s
For the Air Force it was during the McPeak era, when we became the “Kinder, gentler Air Force.” When Political Correctness was the phrase of the day and everyone had to go through Quality Air Force training. That is when NCOs started to be called “Sir” because it was “PC” to do.
I blame the corporate flavour of the AF to a degree…
But blaming is easy.
Therefore my interim solution are plant sprayers. Everytime a hard working person lucky enough not to be an O or W is called Sir/Ma’am, they shall be squirted. By room temperature water. Immediately. It’s like training cats…. start with sprayers, graduate to newspapers, and finally pure force application. To their behind.
Too bad Minot is too uptight to find humor like this during an exercise. Try and give a few folks a ride in the bucket of the Bobcat and everyone loses thier cool………..
From 2008 4 parter of Futurama.. saw your gravatar drinking a bottle of serial port.
That’s awesome! I need to find all the movies they did. I have all the seasons (thanks to the AAFES video shop in Turkey), but didnt even know they had movies until last year.
evidently comedy central picked them up in 07 or 08, been catching up, new season premiere next thursday. CC may let you view epsisodes on line.
now, thats just cold. When is Coffman going to get injected for all his recent pranks?
With how “well liked” Dahl is, I’m sure his buddies will be “getting even” with Coffman for him. Probably through him a party or something
re: new awackers strips, in the second one, would that be Austin May?
Might want to go back and read the description, particularly the part that says “It more or less features me and some of my closest friends from my first job and assignment.”
remember, I am math challenged, and that 1st stuff confuses me!
seriously tho.. looking good. wish the original awackers was around, never got to see it.
LOL!! Good one, Coffman!
Speaking of exercises, I received a call today stating that our equipment was “simulated broken”. I responded by simulating fixing it. Our Section CC called us a few minutes later “thanking us for the simulated work that we accomplished.”
*simulated LOL*
Back at tech school we had a rope that wanted other Airmen to call him “sir”. Good thing for him he never tried that with me.
I think a Major in our class learned about it and went to have the kid destroyed.
Funny you posted this today, I just had the same conversation with a Navy co-worker and he said they get “reamed” (STS) if they call any enlisted sir. I was brought up that everyone is sir, its a respect thing
Tell them that you were raised to respect your elders. No matter how old they are, it’ll be funny.
One time I met some young marines just a few years younger than me, and they called me sir… I though it seemed very professional and courteous. Maybe it helps to be a well-dressed civilian.
So just what is Barbie’s asses name? Coffman or Sir? STS
Read your D-Day article. Had you never told us about the trip here or posted the article here, I probably would have never known about any of it. I think I’ll try and talk the wife into going next year. Shouldn’t be too hard. (sts)
It’s taken me a while to get used to being call Sarge or Staff Sergeant whenever I interact with Soldiers or Marines but I feel that it is more respectful than simply ‘sir’. I wish the AF would shift back to those terms of address for NCO’s.
They never stopped… refer to little brown book…
In AFI 36-2618 the official titles of address for NCO is Sergeant or their rank. Marco can vouch…
I work with the Army now-and being retired USAF and having a Southern mother and Military dad (doomed from the begining) it has always bee Yes Sir/Ma’am. Boy to the enlisted get PO’d to the max when I say “Sir” or “Ma’am”. “It is Sgt/SFC/ CSM/whatever!!!!”. So needless to say I continue to do it. So much fun.
When something was drilled into my head from the minute I got off the bus at basic training, and has been my custom for the last 21 years, I’m going to keep doing it. I also lived in the south for many years. If you outrank me I’m going to call you sir/maam. Maybe the officers in the Army don’t do anything, I don’t know. That “don’t call me sir I work for a living” crap is about as stupid as saying the only difference between an Airman Basic and an Lt is a BS degree.
What are the differences between a 2Lt with less than 6 months on AD and an AB? The only ones I can come up with are: They have a degree, they get paid alot more, and they can be pilots. Both ranks are mentored by NCO’s (According to the EFS it is the job of senior NCO’s to mentor officers).
An Lt has a level of maturity, a level of responsibility than an AB does not have. In basic, Airmen are taught to follow. Officers are taught how to lead. For enlisted learning to lead comes later. First they are taught to do as told.
I’d be careful making blanket statements like this in today’s world. We have Airmen coming in at 30 who have families, job experience and more because they want to serve or the economy has forced them into something with a little more security, and lieutenants who are fresh out of college and thinks it’s funny to flip off the camera when I’m trying to do my job. Responsibility, yes, but not necessarily maturity.
LOL! What? Really?
As an NCO who has had the privilege of having a few fresh from the Academy LTs put under me while they await training…that is a very bold broad statement. While some definitely fit the description, I would say it’s more the exception than the rule. Some of these young bars are far more immature than a young slick sleeve with nothing on their shoulders.
I can recount far more dumb LT stories than I can dumb Airman stories, maybe it’s from all the time I’ve spent at Laughlin.
Since I’ve been on both sides of the fence now, the NCO’s/Soldiers do the brunt of the hard work. I remember doing a boat load of work as a Private and the LT’s not doing any of the work I was doing and thinking that was the easiest job to have. Not anymore. As a Warrant Officer/Platoon Leader (I’m a cheaper LT), I have to come up with the training and planning for my platoon (to meet the mission of the unit), plus answer to the commander of all the good and bad my Soldier do. My Platoon Sergeant and the other NCO’s have to execute what we push out. They have to do the training, the corrections, the discipline and since I’ve been there, I know what they are talking about.
Cue cards? We Marines improvise our lines and upstage the exercise directors. HAM IT UP!
What’s really fun is that some headgear rank insignia (I’m talking to you, CPOs!) can be really hard to distinguish from officer rank…. the CPOs at joint assignments I was at said they got used to being saluted.
I remember saluting the first couple of Specialists I saw as an A1C. I didn’t know about the rank yet and I though the brass glint on the uniform jackets were Major insignia.
I do the Sir/Ma’am thing as I was raised to treat others with respect, but I do try to nix it around Army/Marine enlisted since I know it can cause unnecessary friction (unless they’re already caused some).
saw a way to beat the system today at a small unnamed shoppette on a army reserve center location somewhere nearby.
For some reason, there is a small insignia section, with USMC enlisted black metal insignia, out of army.
I watched a army Sgt buying USMC rank (the crossed rifles) and plan is to cut of the rifles. guy behind her, found army e-6 rank, needed e-5, cut off the bottom rocker.
Yeah, I’ve seen that… doesn’t actually work very well since the Marine rank usually has wider, flatter-looking bars than Army rank.
Farva, any chance we can get the option to link to Facebook?
Do you mean to link to your own facebook? because that is already possible
Bingo – We are taught from boot camp on, any civilian encountered is Sir/Ma’am/Ms. It is a matter of professionalism.
Big Ralfie – When I was in Staging prior to RVN, we were the ‘base camp’ and had to defend against an attacking force. When the ‘force’ went out, we set up base with C-Wire we had found in the desert, made ‘flare grenades’ from the gunpowder from gun belts that we found and C-Rat cans, and a number of other ‘surprises’. We were getting chewed out when our NCO told the Lt that the enemy didn’t play by the rule book either. End of hunt.
Youth is wasted on the candyass zeros fresh out the country club.
Here on this base (predominately Army), I get civi-Sir’ed constantly. I, too, was brought up to use sir/ma’am as a term of respect, and would have used it with one female SPC had she not been bitching about someone who had done similarly: “What does he think I am? Some dumb-ass LT?”. Since she was making my renewal CAC card, I decided to zip it instead of ma’aming her to death.
So you had an LT makingyour CAC card? Thats is frickin awesome! About time they did something usefull!
Nevermind, i’m a dumbass, just re-read your post….
When people call me ma’am, it makes me feel old! LOL!
While I do prefer my proper title of address, I don’t mind at all being called sir. This probably has to do with dealing with a lot of civilians during traffic stops and the like. We were told to call everyone sir/ma’am on these encounters as an initial sign of respect and professionalism regardless of rank. When they stepped out of line some of those pleasntries went out the window too. Kinda like when mom would use your full name when you did something bad as a child.
I’m in the same boat as everyone else. I use sir/ma’am as respectful way of addressing someone regardless of rank. Just the way I was brought up……….
I actually use to love exercise inputs, as long as they weren’t given to me. My normal response to a twitching airman was “he’ll be dead, soon.”
I haaaaaaaate exercises. Loathe, detest, and abhor….
That article on Mildenhall’s site was amazing Farva! Awesome job!