The Funny Stuff You Heard or Saw After PIR

[CaptainFatso]

I'm sure that everyone here heard or saw something funny or odd after PIR. Here's a place to share it!

I'll start....

• My daughter was with a sizable group waiting for her flight to Pensacola. One the new sailors saw a man with gold on his sleeves and rendered a salute while wishing him a good morning. It turns out that the recipient of the salute was not a military officer, but an airline pilot.
  
  
• While at the airport, they encountered a woman with a toy poodle. The females in her group just had to pet it and so they did. Apparently one of the male sailors realized how odd the scene must have looked to the owner of the pet and apologetically said, "Don't mind us. We've been bottled up for eight weeks and have forgotten what a dog looks like."
  
  
• When we took pictures of our daughter, she had this nutty habit of standing at attention.
  
  
• Eating was an experience. She was both exceedingly polite and barbaric. The waitress was the recipient of several "Yes Ma'ams". However when she went to eat it, she did so with both hands thrusting food into her mouth.
  
  
• There was a man smoking near the entrance of a restaurant that we were about to eat in. As we neared, she took a HUGE circular arc to avoid being anywhere near him. It turns out that the RDC said she would ASMO them if they returned smelling like smoke.
  
  
  
  
  
  

[JessicaB-Sailor Mom]

I've heard reports that many new Sailors were awestruck to just look around the town. (They are bused in to RTC in the dark).

My son said it was weird to be riding in a car and not marching.

[ebigirl]

I had a similar experience re: eating in a restaurant: My son was full of "yes ma'ams and no ma'ams", and when everyone was finished ordering and the waitress was gone, I leaned over to my son and wispered in his ear, "I know the ma'am stuff has been engrained in your brain, but I'm still MOM"!!! He gave me a big hug and kiss and said, "Yes mom"!!

While waiting for PIR to start, we were chatting with other loved ones around us. One woman had a baby boy that was about 9 months old, in the cutest sailor suit! She was the fiance of one of the sailors, there with her soon to be mother-in-law and his sister. My husband took a couple of really cute pictures of the baby and told them that he would e-mail them the pictures if they would give him an e-mail address. PIR started right then, and he never got the e-mail address. We did find out that their sailor was headed to the same A school as our son.

We went to the airport at 4AM to meet our son and spend what precious hours we had left with him. When we arrived, he was with his group that were headed to Calif. for A school. My husband looked around and then said, "is there a sailor in this group named _____ who has a baby named ______"? Total silence....kind of weird that some guy you've never seen before is asking this question, right? Finally, our son said, "it's ok guys, this is my dad and he just needs some info from ____". The father of this precious baby stepped forward, said "Yes sir, my name is ___ and my son's name is ____". The sailor was stiff as a board until my husband said, "I just need you mom's e-mail address as I took some pictures of your son at PIR and wanted to send them to her". The entire group let out a sigh of relief, and the baby's father lit up like a Christmas tree! I can only imagine what was going through his mind before he knew what my husband wanted.

 

[Anti M]

I've been out of the Navy for ages, and I still eat far too fast, and stand up very straight.  Saluting also takes a long time to wear off.  

[Angie]

Anti M.  I am right there with you....Always stand up proud and tall!  Always eat to fast (still can't figure out why people eat soo slow...I mean dang, someone might tell you you have to go somewhere and won't get to finish eatting, lol)

 

Also the Ma'am and Sir are still in me...

 

What about when you see some young punk all jacked up, wearing their hat side ways, pants riding low, talking with a ya..and what up...I want to smack them upside the head!

[Anti M]

LOL< try 12 years in Japan, I bowed for years after I got back!

We had one petty officer who studied karate in his off time, get a medal.  After it was pinned on, he bowed deeply.  Good thing the CO had a sense of humor!

[CaptainFatso]

12 YEARS in Japan! I'll bet there was some re-adjustment.

I wonder what the re-adjustment is like for females returning from tours in the middle east.

[Anti M]

I lived in the ME, both Iran and Saudi.  Not as a sailor, before I joined the Navy.  We lived in the Iranian Air Base outside of Shiraz, so we were pretty much American at home.  Didn't interact much in Saudi.  Plus, the military and the civilian contractors keep their people a bit isolated in those areas.  So, more of a relief to get back to normal.   In Saudi, we lived in a guarded building and could not go out to wander around by ourselves.  So I didn't pick up any habits, other than being leery of men flashing me while I waited for the company bus to take me to the compound. We went to the souk in groups, never alone, always with a male.  In Iran, we ran in herds, but we were teenagers.  We could go anywhere public, didn't wear the coverings, but we were followed by the secret police all the time.  We knew who they were after a while.   Time of the Shah, different repressive regime.

Going into town was more like visiting in Shiraz, rather than being integrated into the neighborhood like we were in Japan.  I didn't live on base in Yokosuka, I spoke as much Japanese as I could manage, I hung out with my Japanese friends, ate in local places, and even shopped at the tiny market down the sidewalk.  So I acculturated more than in the ME, and I think this would hold true for most Western women over there.

[CaptainFatso]

Yep... HR knows to put those with a DD214 with an honorable discharge at the top of the resume stack and to send the wannabe gangstas to the competition.

Funny thing... A couple of months ago I ended up hiring a sailor who decommissioned the very Perry Class Frigate I commissioned.