Tore Him a New One
Reddit user s14sher knew that joining the army wouldn’t be easy. There are endless people who yell demands and bark orders at every time of day. But he certainly wasn’t expecting to get any lip from a city police lieutenant. Luckily, the sergeant major stepped in and tore him a new one.
“I joined the Army Reserve in 1983, in between my junior and senior year in high school. Going to drill one weekend and we were doing war games with another reserve unit.
They mailed everyone a letter with the challenge and response to be let in to the unit. As a lowly private, I was standing guard at the entrance and had to say the challenge.
Everything’s going good until a city police car pulls up and the cop is a new lieutenant. I give the challenge and he just looks at me. I say it again and he said to just let him in because he didn’t know it. He starts getting belligerent and I ask him to turn off the car and step out.
He gets out and starts yelling at me. The Sergeant Major heard the commotion and comes over and tears the young lieutenant a new one.
It was very satisfying to watch and I learned that day that even though a 2nd lieutenant outranks a sergeant major, it really doesn’t matter because the sergeant major had been in for 20 years and didn’t put up with any crap.”