A joke my mum (ex-military) used to make was “There’s 3 ways to get things done: The right way, the wrong way, and the military way”
(For people who don’t get it, the joke is that the military often does stuff in a dumbass way not because they tried to do things the right way and got it wrong, but because they value consistency and predictability much more than doing something right vs. wrong. I suppose there’s probably a logic to it on the big, zoomed out view of things, but when you’re just a grunt, the way the military works can often seem nonsensical)
The military is definitely all about following regulations and protocol, even if they don’t make sense.
[…] the military often does stuff in a dumbass way
I was in the Air Force when I served, but I deployed with some Marines once. Their motto, which they repeated all the time, was, “If it’s stupid, but works… it wasn’t stupid.”
They used this as an excuse to try very dumb ways to problem solve everything. And it led to very creative ways to do things; some of which actually worked.
But myself and a couple other Air Force folks got a kick out of watching the Marines figuratively smash rocks together, hoping to ignite a fire.
My favorite quote from that deployment came from one of the young Corporals in my office. He had just returned from a week-long forward mission and got stuck in an airport for 24 hours before his connecting flight.
He said, “I was so bored, I actually read a book from cover to cover! I don’t think I’ve ever read an entire book in my life!”
I expected that to be a joke, but instead of laughing, the rest of the Marines just solemnly nodded along. Wow.
A joke my mum (ex-military) used to make was “There’s 3 ways to get things done: The right way, the wrong way, and the military way”
(For people who don’t get it, the joke is that the military often does stuff in a dumbass way not because they tried to do things the right way and got it wrong, but because they value consistency and predictability much more than doing something right vs. wrong. I suppose there’s probably a logic to it on the big, zoomed out view of things, but when you’re just a grunt, the way the military works can often seem nonsensical)
The military is definitely all about following regulations and protocol, even if they don’t make sense.
I was in the Air Force when I served, but I deployed with some Marines once. Their motto, which they repeated all the time, was, “If it’s stupid, but works… it wasn’t stupid.”
They used this as an excuse to try very dumb ways to problem solve everything. And it led to very creative ways to do things; some of which actually worked.
But myself and a couple other Air Force folks got a kick out of watching the Marines figuratively smash rocks together, hoping to ignite a fire.
My favorite quote from that deployment came from one of the young Corporals in my office. He had just returned from a week-long forward mission and got stuck in an airport for 24 hours before his connecting flight.
He said, “I was so bored, I actually read a book from cover to cover! I don’t think I’ve ever read an entire book in my life!”
I expected that to be a joke, but instead of laughing, the rest of the Marines just solemnly nodded along. Wow.