SMAB

Charge 7

Charge 7

Master Gunner
Many years ago, during one very long field exercise one of my troopies had had enough of Army acronyms. Even I had begun to have my fill. Petey decided that he was going to get the Army back and came up with his own. We started calling ourselves "SMAB" throughout the rest of the exercise at any opportunity that wouldn't get us in trouble for doing so. When it ended we even had t-shirts made up with a large stenciled "SMAB" on the front and the words "Don' tush dat" on the back. The latter was to commemorate our Sergeant Major who felt that every expensive article of military equipment was his own responsibility. He was an immigrant from Hungary and had fought in the '56 uprising. He had the bullet hole scars in his back to prove it having swum across a river to freedom after being machine gunned. He was tougher than any 20 of the rest of us put together and we loved him for it. The "Don' tush dat" was what he said anytime he thought we had no business being around something expensive. Anyway, we all trooped into the messhall with our t-shirts on and our Lt. Colonel was sitting there with his staff and called me over as my boys' leader to explain just what the heck was "SMAB" anyway? With pride in my section I proudly exclaimed "Smart Asses of the Battalion" Sir! He blinked for a second and our captain looked like he wanted to crawl under the table, but the colonel just said "That's a great morale booster. Go with it." and so we did.
 
out of curriosity-

(1) what could the repurcussions have been?
(2) where do you buy the jevos to wear it in front of them?

i don't know whether to laugh or thank God you lived to post on this forum!?!?!
 
1.) Uh, well if it had been seen to be conduct unbecoming or a breach of military discipline one only has to look up the articles of the UCMJ for the answer to that one. Fortunately, our colonel had a sense of humor and an even better sense of the need for morale.

2.) I didn't "buy" anything of the sort. Just what I was born with. Also as long as it wasn't hateful, inflammatory, vulgar, or detrimental to the service what we wore for t-shirts off duty was our own business. They all knew it was us and if they had wanted to stop it, they would've done so in a heartbeat. It never went out on the radio obviously but was strictly land line and sparingly at that.

BTW, that same colonel was well known for coming down like a ton of bricks on anybody who said "roger that" instead of "roger" on the radio. So he was strict when it mattered. Seconds count when the enemy can triangulate on you.
 
Just go to the PX and have one made for you - that's what we did. BIG stenciled "SMAB" over crossed FA cannons on the front and the wording on the back with quote marks. We chose FA red t-shirts with the lettering and emblem in yellow (FA trim colors)

Note to leathernecks: yes, I know those are your colors too. My dad always got a kick out of that and proudly wore the FA red colored baseball cap I gave him with yellow crossed cannons on it.
 
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