Somehow, hearing an Officer say"ten...hut" just doesn't sound right. The most times I heard it was from an NCO. I had a Top who had the effect on everyone's body of wanting to snap to automatically when he walked in. When he spoke with his "inside" voice, your ears would ring for a while. A poor 2nd Lt. who was the CO of the launch pits would ease his office door closed when Top came into the orderly room. Dress Greens were his uniform and when we all changed to khakis, he still wore his dress greens and campaign cap, year `round and I never saw him in a set of fatigues.

Originally Posted by Chief Bones

"Can a ***** ***** NCO bring a non rate to attention if the situation warrants it for purposes of correction?"

What s*ithouse lawyer came up with this crappy question and argument.

Trooper you need to take your dusty copy of the UCMJ down from the closet in the outhouse and answer your own d*mn question. Every reference you need is contained in that manual.

As an E-4/E-5 NCO (any military branch, if a non rate E-1/E-2/E-3 (any military branch) screwed up I would have locked his heels to attention so fast his eyeballs wouldn't have had a chance to settle back into his head from snapping "eyes front".

If I had gotten an argument from Mr "dumbsh*t", I would have taken him to the Bosun's Locker and adjusted his attitude.

I can't believe that the Marines have forgotten one of the major reasons for the Marine's Thursday Night Smokers. Recalcitrant juniors regularly had attitude matches with a senior who finally said enough. It was either that or write junior up and screw up an otherwise talented young Marine.

TO ALL OF YOU REAL JARHEADS OUT THERE - AM I RIGHT OR AM I WRONG? OOH RAH!

Nice go Chief. Like I said this is a topic of discussion. The issue has yet to present itself. It is the opinion of all but 1 NCO and a few junior Marines that think you can not be locked to the POA (in my shop). I was just asking the question in case there was a MCO or other reg out there that I had somehow missed. Nothing I have read or heard of says an NCO can not do this. So that must mean that I CAN do this. Meh, if/when the situation arises I will take the appropriate actions.

As to wall-to-wall, treeline, smokehouse or other euphemisms, sadly those days are over. If they weren't then I can guarantee things would be much different than they are nowadays.

Remember, the Army and the Navy have changed since the day I raised my hand and swore to protect and defend.

I joined the Army in the last days of resolving a "problem" between an NCO and a junior enlisted that just didn't want to get with it by use of the "wall-to-wall" waltz. Back then the NCO would take the young trooper out back of the barracks, both men would remove their uniform shirts (thus no chevrons) and resolve their differences. Once the situation resolved itself, the uniform shirts went back on again and nothing further was ever mentioned about it.

According to some of the "real old" hands, maybe it is a good thing that those good old days are a thing of the past. There were the scattered exceptions - NCOs that would set out to pick a fight with a trooper just because they felt like it. They were very very rare exceptions. Most NCOs that had to resort to this mode of "learned response" training did it with great reluctance.

The rare Navy Chief that had to take a young sailor to the bosun's locker were even more reluctant and circumspect because of the closeness of a ship's crew. There are NO secrets aboard a Naval ship - the word quickly makes the rounds.

Sadly, your comment: "As to wall-to-wall, treeline, smokehouse or other euphemisms, sadly those days are over. If they weren't then I can guarantee things would be much different than they are nowadays" are being echoed by more and more NCOs as the military continues the politicization of the military.

The "pansy" liberals have softened the lines between those that lead and those who follow so much that we recently had a post on this very forum where a young Senior "Cadet" was concerned about a junior female "cadet" sitting at the mess hall tables chatting away like a magpie with senior officers and calling them by their first names.

I'm glad I'm numbered in the retired ranks. The changes are not necessarily for the better.

I gotta agree with the Chief. When I was a fuzzy butt Pvt, PFC and Lcpl the thought of not snapping too when told to by an NCO never entered my mind. Wouldn't have mattered to me if he was the NCOIC of Scuttlebutt Maintiance at Cash Sales or my squad leader. You did it because they were an NCO.

As far as tree lines. In my experiance it was generally the Salty Lcpl's who got that treatment. Because the NCO didn't want to ruin their jacket.

well as i was walking around the base the other day this topic came up and i would look at all the NCO's and SNCO's, and i would realize if one of them would have the need to call me to the POA, i probably would not be the one to say f$$k off, as when i become an NCO i would expect the respect if i needed to put someone at the POA. i wonder if i can retract my last statement and say yes, as a Junior Marine i would go to the POA if an NCO called me to it.