That “bad day” photo
Photo of an enlisted man’s car parked in the designated commander spot and the commander’s car parked so that it blocked the airman’s escape, made the social media circuit this past weekend speculating that an airman was about to have a bad day at Yokoto Air Base, Japan. Stars & Stripes tells the actual story;
“An airman and his wife had left their car there after having drinks the night prior and didn’t want to be irresponsible,” [Col. Kenneth Moss, commander of the 374th Airlift Wing] explained. “I reassured them I wasn’t mad.”
Moss did not identify the airman.
“Parking that way allowed me to thank an airman and his family as well as uncover a problem,” he said.
It turned out that not only had the couple made a responsible choice in not driving after enjoying a few drinks, the space wasn’t even marked as reserved when they’d parked.
The wing commander’s parking space is marked in two ways — a curbside label and a removable sign hanging from a frame. But the curbside label had fallen off and the sign was only hung when the commander had official business at the club.
“The signs were placed after the car was already in the spot so the airman did nothing wrong,” Moss said.
Category: Air Force
I remember going to a division office in Camp Pendleton and could not find parking. Out front, there was the Commanding Offier, the Sgt Maj, the Enlisted Man/Woman of the Quarter, Staff Parking, etc. but nothing for the customer. I had to get out of my car and ask were we park if we are here as a customer. They pointed me down to the sticker patch unpaved parking lot down the block. It struck me then that the military works in reverse, and in civilian life the staff parks in the back and the customer up front.
Agree, some places go way overboard with reserved parking. I’m good with the commander, the SEA, and the enlisted man of the month/quarter getting a reserved spot, but it does look tacky to have a dozen reserved, unoccupied spots right in front of the door.
There are a couple of restaurants in Sierra Vista AZ that have a reserved “E-4 and below” parking spot close to the door. I kinda like that.
The O Club at Bragg has (had) several reserved slots for General Officers or MoH recipients, and next to them, one slot reserved for “2LT/ AAM”
My wife still doesn’t understand why I get pissed when I pull into the local Lowes and the only empty space within 1000′ of the front door is the “Employee of the Month” space.
Being the jackass that I am, I move right into the employee spot, figuring that, if the person is such a hot employee, he’s understand that the customer comes before him.
I worked at a Lowes for 6 months while waiting on a security clearance, never even heard of anyone being named “employee of the month”. There’s a parking spot for them though. I’m gonna start using it.
If Joe Blow is such a hot employee, why isn’t he at work?
Some folks work non-standard (i.e. not ‘Day’) shifts….
“Parking that way allowed me to thank an airman and his family as well as uncover a problem,”
Yeah, sure it did. Nice save.
im waiting on the explanation for the lack of RHIP crap being a “problem.”
I was thinking the same.
The commander’s statement was for public consumption. His private statement will result in the airman undoubtedly becoming very familiar with looking closely at the bottom of porcelain plumbing items while holding a brush in his hand.
Did a couple weeks as “acting” 1SG when the actual one was on leave. Naturally, I parked in the slot marked “1SG” daily. He dropped by for something and started raising hell about my Jeep in his spot. C.O. says “You’re on leave, Top. It’s D’s spot till you come back”. Did I mention the 1SG was an arrogant incompetent bully that was universally despised by all?
I had one like that before I ETS’ed AD, there’s NO telling how many times either some CQ Runner or the recipient of an Article 15 (We had a shitty CO as well) rubbed his dick and balls on his coffee cup OR his K-pot got “Borrowed” from his Office during after hours cleaning and some Soldiers had fun farting into it after some after hours beer and pizza.
Department heads at one Navy Hospital had designated parking spots. CAPT ………., Radiology Department Head, comes to work one day, about 0800. Tells me he has blocked in someone with an officer insignia who was in his spot. Few hours later a USMC Major comes in, demands I move a car so he can leave. I tell CAPT … a NAVY Captain. Major got his car at about 1730 when CAPT left for the day. He had left but returned about 1600, but CAPT made him wait until 1730. Parking spot was well marked. CAPT told him if he took his spot again, he would have his car towed. Why the hostility? Major was a genuine asshole, even telling CAPT, “I want you to move your car.” CAPT was in scrubs, no identifiers, as he was doing fluoro that day … often a messy job, so Major didn’t know he was an O-6. But … if he had simply asked if he could move his car, there would have been no problem. CAPT was a really decent guy.
A field grade asshole? Say it isn’t so. That jump from bars to oak leaves seemed to turn a lot of decent officers into angry Napoleons.
Nah. Napoleon was well=liked by his troops. He got the nickname ‘Little Corporal’ (le petit coporal) because he sited the guns at Lodi, which was a corporal’s job.
When he escaped his 1st imprisonment, instead of going through Provence, he chose the mountain road to Grenoble, and Massena failed to intercept him. He did not gather much in the way of troops at Grasse, but when he proceeded northward through the Dauphine, former troops began to flock to him.
So Napoleon was stuck in Lodi again?
Lodi NJ is where Napoleon opened up his bakery that baked NYC type Napoleons and charlotte rouses.
Nah, the assholery is there, they just keep it hidden from superiors. Every promotion gives them a new layer of subordinates to defecate on, so their reputation spreads.
Funny how nobody goes from asshole to nice guy when they get promoted, eh?
When someone’s last day at the command was coming up, I told them that it was tradition that they park in the General’s parking place and he was the one that put out that guidance.
No one ever followed through with that.
I used to make it a point to park in “Captain” parking places on Navy bases whenever I found one. After all I was a Captain (US Army).
Navy quashed that though by adding “Navy” to the signs.
BHWHAHAHAHAHA !!!!
Nice job well done..
+20 Cool Points for that!!!
I got blocked in once In reserved space at the Ford plant. Cars on both sides and the idiot on my front bumper. ( I backed in) Sitting there waiting, one of the cars on the side pulled out and I wiggled out eventually. As I left, another Taurus pulled into the spot I had gotten through and the blocker remained, guarding an empty space.
Back in the day at good ol 4/40 Armor we had a 1Lt. NBC officer who wasn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier. He owned a sweet classic T-Bird he’d restored that he was pretty proud of, his parking space was by the parking lot entrance/exit and he didn’t like to use it because someone might clip his car. He would pull into other people’s spots and most just let him, except the CO, XO, and CSM. CSM got sick of finding said T-Bird in his space and told the young Lt. if he found his car in his spot again he was going to come outside to find four flats. The Lt. kind of “laughed” and said something along the lines of okay Sergeant Major, gotcha. Day or two later I’m on SDNCO runner and CSM came in sputtering about that stupid Sumbitch Gillam, he dropped four valve stems in the SDNCO desk drawer and went into his office. I went and looked out in the parking lot and there’s the T-Bird on four pancakes in the CSM’s parking space. The explosion when the Lt. arrived in the CSM’s office was one for the ages… Oh, and Lt. Gillam? He lost about 98% of his ass and never parked in the CSM’s space EVER again, best runner duty I ever pulled!
Here is a better idea. Don’t have reserved parking for officers or senior NCO’s. I would feel bad being treated better than my enlisted soldiers.
1st off we all know the Army still things single guys don’t have cars. 2nd, a large proportion of enlisted soldiers are married and commute to work. There is never enough parking near your unit. The designated parking is usually a ways down the street. Now try being a 1SG who has to drive to squadron 5 times a day. It’s not about being treated better, its about the ability to do one’s job efficiently. Finally, rank has its privileges.
Oh poor baby!
Only pregnant women should have reserved parking spaces, preferably near the door. And in the shade.
No offense, but screw that noise Ex-PH2. Pregnancy is a condition, not a disease. It has been happening since time began. Nothing special about it at all.
Do you have any idea what it’s like to have a 9-pound baby sitting on your bladder, Trapper?
If not, then speak not of diseases and conditions.
Under the facts as presented, the airman could sue the commander and win.
Martin’s Food Store. Pulled in. Saw a space. As I turned into it, there was a sign: Reserved for Parents with Toddlers. Yeah, I parked elsewhere. Cripes. How about another for drivers over 80 and make the spot twice the size of all others? Or how about one for “Lazy Phuks” or “Handicapped kids.” I would have added LEOs but they have any space they want beside the yellow curb.
I have always thought that this country is the only country in the world rich enough to need parking lots for high school students. Now it looks like we are the only country rich enough to need parking lots for its military enlisted personnel.
Call me a Grinch, but somehow I find those situations a little disturbing.
When I worked security for a large school district, one of our duties was registering the student vehicles. The first year I did registrations, after the info was entered into the computer system, I checked on something that had caught my attention. 7 Seniors had registered brand new Ford Expeditions. They were registered in the young person’s names, not mom and/or dad.
At some of the more affluent schools here (Cypress Creek comes to mind) new and late model student cars are the norm. Beemers are common.h
Try moving a waste basket from a shoveled parking space in South Boston after a snow storm.
This might help:
https://caughtinsouthie.com/news-politics/parking-spot-wars/
The blame for this lies squarely on the club manager who should be required to take a disciplinary action against the employee who placed the sign behind the airman’s car. Can we communicate with Yokota to find out if any action was taken?
Probably had been given an order to “put the sign up at 1030” so he put the sign up at 1030.
And who could ever forget this famous DAB Parking War story?
https://portlandtribune.com/component/content/article?id=71559
😎
Yep, he rammed an innocent pallet of potting soil with his Caddy and then got his Bi-Mart membership revoked.
Three types of O-6 I’ve worked with- those who were selected for Flag, those who were passed over for Flag, and those who were in competition for Flag.
Guess which were a PITA to be around?
All three.
In Okinawa, the tradition was that the day of the Chief’s exam, all the examinees would park in the lot reserved for Chief’s and Officers. Lots of fun and the only ones who didn’t get it were the new JO’s.
Good thing it wasn’t one of those reserved general spaces in the PX parking lot.
Fucking ridiculous ass military shit.
Yeah, reserved spaces for everyone but the Mayor and the Dog Catcher! I remember parking in a “NCO of the Quarter” space knowing damned well I had been NCO of the quarter during the previous year.
As a 1stLt in 2ndBn 8th Mar back in the late 80s one of my many additional duties was the Bn Legal Officer and one day our BC came screaming into my office with his face purple with rage.
He used to park his classic Mustang across two parking slots and some poor Jarhead had accidentally backed into him but that wasn’t what got him. When he called the MPs for an accident report for insurance purposes the cheeky SSgt MP gave him a ticket for illegal parking! God I thought he was going to have a stroke…and this was in the 2/8 HQ parking lot!
The BC was a great commander and we all ribbed him about it for months after but boy was he hot!
I used to hang out in a gin mill when I lived in Laurelton Queens NYC and one of the regulars had a bunch of car keys at home and he only used one at a time to drive to the watering hole and when he parked his car, the ignition key went down the sewer and he walked or was driven home.
That would get VERY expensive these days, due to the chips in the keys.
During Chief’s initiation season, there’s always at least one group of CPO selectee’s that put a Handicapped Parking sign in the Command Master Chief’s parking spot.
On my 3d day, 1984 on active duty at Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital as a new Navy LT surgeon I came into a large pkg lot at 0500 hrs. Every parking space had the same “reserved” painted on the cement block on the ground. There must have been 400 spaces, 99% empty.
When I came out at 1500 hrs a Toyota had blocked me in. At the time I was bench pressing > 300 lbs, so I lifted the front of the car and turned it 90 degrees, and I left in my car and went surfing. The next day I find out it was the 0-6 Chief of Nursing and they had worked it out it was me. I did apologize as a the new guy..she accepted but did ask how the hell I could lift her car. She was clearly a tall weathered diesel dyke..but laughed when I flexed my pythons. Saw her years in D.C. on a bus and we had a great laugh as I gave her a long overdue hug. CAPT Bones USN (ret)
Up in Tonopah, 1987, our commander, Col Mike Short was tired and upset that the troops kept hitting wild horses on the range between the man-camp and the work area. He put out a memo stating the next person who hits a horse is getting a letter of reprimand. 3 days later Col Short hit a horse.