onetime2

Have you ever been confronted by someone that came at you in a certain way and what you said in response could have made the situation much worse but instead you said something that completely changed the attitude of the person confronting you. (one hell of a run-on sentence but I'm not in an editing mood)

Alright, not sure why I just thought of these two instances but I was in the humor section and something triggered them.

Both situations occured during Officer's Candidate School for the Marine Corps.

First situation:

Our company is out in the field, me and another officer candidate are on our way back from the head at like 04:00. We see the company commander (a major) headed our way. He's giving everyone he sees hell. The proper greeting as we pass by an officer is a salute with a "Good morning sir!" as we pass in front of him. Candidate in front of me gives the greeting. Major screams at us "Hold it." We both stop. He gets in the other guy's face and says "What's so good about it?" Other candidate says "It's a good day to be a Marine, sir." Major takes a step back looks at both of us and says. "Yes it is. Yes it is. Carry on."
The major was in a good mood the rest of the day.


The morning of a stamina course run a bad ass platoon sergeant (platoon sergeants are chosen from the best/most hardcore drill instructors) is gaining on our platoon. He's asking knowledge questions (things we should know) as he overtakes people as they run. Comes up to me and asks "Do you know who I am?" Not sure what the answer was supposed to be (maybe he was looking for me to say "Gunnery Sergeant", or "Platoon Sergeant", or "Gunny Davis" or whatever. Half the point of the questions is that no matter what you answer, you are wrong. I responded "You're the squirrel with all the nuts, Gunny." (his favorite saying was "Because I'm the squirrel with all the nuts!"). He just started laughing his ass off. it was the first time I saw him break character. It was great.