Mechanic bulldozes entire field, taking down army infrastructure after commanding officer orders him to level field 'no matter what'

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    "As you please lieutenant..."
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    Level that entire field? You got it Lieutenant.
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    Story from my grandfather's time in the RAAF. He was a heavy mechanic / transport officer. Worked around a lot of heavy machinery and did maintenance on runways. He was assigned to a base on a pacific island somewhere and he was working on a bulldozer in one of their maintenance sheds. An uppity just out of duntroon Lieutenant walked up to him and demanded that he level a field with
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    the bulldozer as they were preparing for an exercise. He told him to "Level that field and level every god da n thing on that field" My grandfather replied that he wasn't trained in the use of the bulldozer, he was just repairing a part on it. The Lieutenant snacked back and said "A commanding officer just gave you an order, now get in that bulldozer and level that field."
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    Pop though, fk it, what's the worst that could happen and he jumped up in that dozer and started leveling the field. Here's where it got malicious. In the area of the field there was a brand new Jail that had been constructed. It was a temporary wooden building for use while the Air Force waited for supplies to build a more sturdy concrete building.
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    The construction had only been recently completed and nothing had been moved into the building yet. Anyway, during his journey to flatten the field for the Lietenants exercise, my Pop accidentally clipped the wall of the Jail and caused it to begin collapsing. At this point, he knew he was f ed. He was going to be in trouble no matter what he did. So
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    he thought "well fk it, the Lieutenant told me to flatten the field and every thing on the field" Pop just ended up bulldozing the entire Jail and flattening it out along with the rest of the field. He ended up being court-martialed for destroying RAAF property. He represented himself and only asked that he question the Lieutenant that asked him to do the work on the field.
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    "Lieutenant, did you ask me to level the field with a bulldozer" "Yes, but I didn't tell you to level the Jail as well." "But you did instruct me to use the bulldozer to level the field" "Yes, I did." "Lieutenant, did I warn you that I wasn't instructed on the use of the bulldozer"
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    "YES bu-" "Lieutenant, did you tell me to level 'every thing. on that field" "YES BU-" "Lieutenant, is the Jailhouse on the field that you instructed me, someone not trained in the use of a bulldozer to level?" ....
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    "yes, Corporal, the jailhouse is on that field" The only trouble my Pop got into with this one was the adjudicator of the case told my Pop to "Listen far more carefully to the orders of a superior officer".
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    prankerjoker. 2 days ago It sounds like your grandfather leveled up his malicious compliance.
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    DraftPunk73.2 days ago He did a lot more leveling than just his MC skills.
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    DynkoFromTheNorth 2 days ago But he did listen carefully. And did as instructed. The only thing they could've told your grandfather was to run these instructions by the lieutenant's direct superior.
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    EinFitter 2 days ago Ah, Lieutenants. They never change. Some of my old man's stories from his time as an NCO and the arrogance of the Lieutenants are wild.
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    GrofZelen 2 days ago • In the SADF, we used to call 2nd Lieutenants "bicycles" because of there only being one pip on each shoulder. One of the funniest things I saw was a 2nd Lt get saluted by our Sgt Major of the Army at the time, Koos Moorcroft. Poor guy went white as a sheet while saluting back. WO1 Moorcroft is a legend in the SADF but is technically outranked by any officer. That 2nd Lt knew exactly who had saluted him lol.
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    EinFitter 2 days ago Just did a brief readup on him. What a lad! Massive respect to those lads that can do parachute jumps. Also the longest serving man in the Sgt Major of the Army position, about to be overtaken by the current one's term.
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    uraijit 2 days ago • "Listen far more carefully to the orders of a superior officer". "So, listen to what he says, or to what he means?"
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    Silent_Layer3370 OP 2 days ago • I think it was something along the lines of "be careful when interpreting the officers of a superior office" or "take more care when interpreting orders of a superior officer" To be honest it's been 12 years since I last heard this story from my Pop.
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    OlyScott 2 days ago He was lucky that the Lieutenant was that honest. The Lieutenant could easily have said that he told him to be careful of the building. A lot of people would have.
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    Silent_Layer3370 OP · 2 days ago · edited 2 days ago . This was in the 50's / 60's and the Lieutenant was young. Probably a combo of being raised by a "good family" and being too naive to lie.
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    Impressive Change593 2 days ago and that's why the chain of command exists edit: you can respect other officers but you follow orders from your superior and your superior only
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    ImanAzol 2 days ago . Not nearly that severe, but I was "sent" to handle an aircraft cargo payload (from my unit) that the loadmaster didn't like. I explained to my superior that since I wasn't a loadmaster, no opinion I had would be considered. He said I would be an "excellent choice" anyway.
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    The loadmaster explained that the pallet box wasn't square on the pallet (it hung off about a foot), so they couldn't secure the load, and it would have to be completely unpacked, adjusted, and repacked before flight. The juniors arrived, I explained what the loadmaster had said, and the general response was an insubordinate, "We'll just tell them that's how it is and to take it."
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    Um, no. You don't just "tell" a loadmaster what's going on his aircraft. Not even the aircraft commander does that. Finally, the senior NCO showed up, with mine, and demanded to know what the problem was.
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    I explained again that the loadmaster had given instructions, nothing I would have to offer would change that, the enlisted didn't want to comply and I wasn't involved in the flight at all, so it was still his problem, not mine, have a good day.
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    Dipshitistan 18 hr. ago It sounds like he listened quite carefully to the orders of a superior officer. No idea what the adjudicator was on about.

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