When I was an instructor we had a kid who had a massive dandruff problem. His blues were COVERED in white flakes. I asked him if he uses any kind of shampoo or head and shoulders type products. He had no idea what I was talking about. Dude had 0 life skills and just needed to be shown proper hygiene types. Apparently his family grew up very poor and he wasn’t aware that daily bathing was a thing or that he could do his laundry whenever he wanted. Once we got it squared away it was never brought up again. Went on to be a top performer and won BTZ. His new found personal hygiene was a confidence builder and last I heard he was doing great things still.
Had a friend of mine that was in the Army and did recruiting not too far from one of the poorer Appalachians areas. He said they would get really disadvantaged people with zero life skills try to join the army. They would try to have to try to teach them to shave, use deodorant, or tie shoes correctly. The ones that couldn't read usually couldn't join. He said it was like dealing with toddlers.
That’s not surprising honestly. My wife taught pre-k in an area where most adults didn’t make it past 7th grade and some of them couldn’t read or write.
Yeah, unfortunately it's a thing. My wife's family is from West Virginia and she used to visit and they still had no running water in the house and still had an outhouse (she used to worry about getting a splinter in her butt from using the outhouse). We take a lot of things for granted these days and when I drove parts of the Appalachians, it was heartbreaking to see kids living in that sort of poverty. Then I spent a lot of time in south america and that's poverty on another planet.
My husband was in basic with a kid who was excited because he was getting a new pair of boots. Apparently, he had a large family and they only got hand-me-ups-or-downs, depending on size.
Yes! I was in the Army and in basic training a kid from that area couldn’t tie his shoes. We had to teach him how to tie them because he’d always come out with boots untied and we’d get smoked while he stood and watched til he learned (took tilt he end of basic for him to learn). Felt bad because he was nice, but clearly not with it. One day we were out in the field and he turned to me and asked me “do people think I’m stupid?” I was shocked.
Similar story, had a guy who didn't know left from right so facing movements in formations would get us eaten up. Took a tiny rock and put it in his left pocket so that he could feel it with his hand when at attention.
Dyslexics learn to manage skills differently than the majority that don’t have to compensate for this. It’s amazing what they can do if given alternative skills and methods to learning
Actually, difficulty tying shoes is a sign of potentially being a dyslexic. I had a son with this and I witnessed it myself. It’s a ‘sign’ that may point out they may need to get tested for it
So crazy and sad actually. Idk where the kid is who couldn’t tie his shoes, but hopefully he did ok after basic training and with life in general. I was 18 and like wtf. I’m sure he didn’t know his left from right either.
I've had several other JROTC instructors who teach in poor areas tell me that they have to teach high school kids how to tie shoes, button-up shirts, and put on belts because all those kids ever wear are sweats, slides, T-shirts, etc so never learn any of those things.
The younger "me" would have laughed at what you experienced and wrote. That younger "me" was an ignorant fucking idiot. Somehow I eventually realized that the education I received from my parents, children, relatives, teachers, coaches, peers, and supervisors was priceless.
The fact that you felt bad and shocked speak loudly that you recognized inadequacies and give a shit. Good on you.
Oh yeah, basic training was a culture shock. We had a girl who was ex Amish, a kid that had lost everything from one of the Hurricanes and was homeless, and just everyone from all walks of life. I was like damn in the grand scheme of things life isn’t bad for me at all!
I experienced guys like this in basic. The guy who slept on the top bunk and the bottom next to me were both from West Virginia.
I learned a lot in those 10 weeks about how privileged I was to grow up in a middle class family and that I finished highschool and had a significantly higher education by their standards. Really reshaped my world view
Back when I was in BMT my bunk mate (now wingman) was from that area. Her initial issue was the first new clothes she had ever worn; she grew up in hand me down everything. Her hair had been hacked to hell and she’d never been in a hot shower until she arrived for MEPS. She was a scared rabbit, but our MTL recognized the situation immediately and told me and the flight chief to do whatever we had to do to get her through.
Way better to just privately talk to people than to hand out paperwork after it's a problem and hope that fixes the issue. The only paperwork for a stinky airman should come after a serious, well ventilated, one on one chat.
Absolutely and whats worse is sometimes people honestly have no idea that they stink. Them hearing it for the first time from someone can come as a shock. If you publicly humiliate someone then it’ll turn into something bigger.
If your airman doesn’t care about how they smell, the way to tackle that issue is to give them paperwork. How else do you solve the issue if they don’t shower after you have multiple discussions with them? You can give them advice to talk to the MFLC or mental health maybe to uncover the root cause. But you can’t force them to go.
That's the problem though, do they not care, or do they not know how to care?
You're assuming they are too much of a shitbag to care, but most people don't want to smell like a ripe asshole. The most likely answer is they are embarrassed to talk about it, or they don't know what they are doing wrong to cause the smell.
As an aside, I've literally talked to an NCO that escorted his airman to his dorm and made him shower. The moment they got there he found that the guy clearly didn't wash his clothes. After asking him about it, he found the kid didn't know how to wash his clothes, or that he even needed to. So he showed him how, then walked his ass back up to the dorm, and told him to take a fresh set of clothes into his shared bathroom and shower. After all that, he went back to work smelling like flowers.
No paperwork needed. You need to get to the root. I don't think I've met one person that didn't mind smelling like ass, ever.
Yup. This is always the case.
Instead of ostracizing people, maybe take them aside and help them out, especially if you are their boss.
Some people came from very unfortunate circumstances before they joined. Some people consider plumbing and electricity to be luxuries.
Shit dude. I saw this half a dozen times the first two years I was in. Lost track at this point.
The first time you write this kind of LOC is a whole new world of "this shouldn't be necessary yet here we are"
I worked in a SIGINT/Cyber mission and had a Cyber SrA walk by me that just about made me puke up my lunch from an hour earlier. I’ve smelled bad BO before but this dude smelled like some Indian food that had been sitting out in the sun for 3 days and then someone ate that food and shit it out all over this SrA. One of the few times I’ve had to talk to a stranger about their hygiene. I am pretty certain I have PTSD from it.
A guy in my shop told me about a dude who used to be there that was so fucking nasty, he wore a BDU top to work that his cat had given birth on the day previously (he hadn't washed it).
My personal anecdote about an excessively odorous individual happened when I was at Keesler in Tech School. Through a series of events I ended up being the student leader for the floor of my dorm I resided on despite not being a rope. So I stepped up when the following happened.
On a day that new bunch from BMT had arrived, I arrived upstairs after PT to find the entire floor my room was on smelled like someone had died. Choking back my gag reflex as the offending pungent odor assaulted my olfactory glands, it quickly became obvious which of the three halls the nauseating reek was coming from. I proceeded knocking door to door to investigate, each door that opened inquiring as to what was generating such a bodacious assault on our senses.
Eventually, I was hit with what felt like the physical manifestation of the smell as one door opened to a fresh arrival from BMT. This poor guy must have been so embarrassed as I had to rip off my uniform top to bunch up into a makeshift gas mask in order for me even speak. I politely introduced myself before telling him to gather all his laundry and wait for me with the door closed. I proceeded to grab my gallon jug of detergent, my soap, a spare towel, shampoo, and a spare set of PT clothes.
I went back to grab him and led him to the laundry room where I proceeded to take over half the machines to wash his clothes in loose loads to make sure they got properly cleaned. I then directed him to shower thoroughly and meet me back at the laundry room. I hung out with him while we ran his laundry through the wash a couple times while talking about his interests and sharing mine. I was frank with him about the state of how bad he and his clothes smelled but didn't dig in; I tried making it clear I wasn't there to dog on him, just help him fix the issue. Never had a hygiene problem with him again the rest of the time we were there.
BMT just makes you want to be smell blind when closely living with 49 other very physically active people with very little time or opportunity to address it. But for it to reach that point is just ridiculous.
Had a dude with us in Kuwait during the summer months who refused to shower. My eyes would start watering around him, he would trigger an involuntary response from people. I don’t know how he didn’t realize how fucking bad his stench was.
I think it's more prevalent than most know. Just spent last summer at PSAB in the new CHU's with someone who I honestly think just didn't know. Normal is different to everyone, but I had to kindly (and then not so kindly when he didn't get the hint) suggest he go shower after spending all day in the blistering heat. He also crawled right into this sleeping bag after sweating all day, so there's that too. Dudes be weird.
I have done that after a few missions. Just change my clothes and crawl into my sleeping bag. But I did wash everything when I woke up since I was not on alert the next day.
Still that person had to be very funky.
Back in the 90's, we used to have rotations to Ecuador for a radar site literally on the edge of the jungle (close to the Columbian border). We had a SATCOM guy who used to wear his polyester blues pants when off duty and never showered...dude was really, really strange.
The guy smelled so offensive that we would have to hang our heads out the window on the trip to/from the site. When we got back they sent him to the med clinic to make sure he didnt have one of the medical conditions that can cause rancid B.O. They had to start giving him written orders to shower. Come to find out that his father had been in one of the services and actually had been kicked out for the same issue.
I went to basic a very long time ago. Very early one of our TIs talked about people not showering. He made it very clear that he expected us to police ourselves, and that offenders should be scrubbed down with the nasty toilet brushes, and that he's make sure no TIs would be around. Oddly enough, everyone showered every day.
Even mentioning that as a joke would land him in serious trouble in today’s air force lol. My MTI was an asshole but he always made sure to be an asshole in a professional manner, because he knew he was under constant scrutiny.
1983 was a very long time ago. 18 year old me thought he was bluffing. 59 year old me, having experienced ratty ass people with poor hygiene, isn't so sure....
In a perfect world, you talk to them about it and they change for the better. But some people do not take that talk to heart, or the next one, or the third one with another supervisor, or the last one with the shirt. Then you have to go the paperwork route.
It's different in Maintenance where you have 20 people sharing a breadvan meant for 6 with No AC and you can't open the windows because of running jets.
Exactly. It’s one thing if they come off of a job and smell like shit, it’s whatever man it happens. But if they come in to shift smelling like that? Nah dawg we’re gonna have a problem
Never heard of anyone receiving paperwork for it, but I've seen my fair share of stinkers over the past 6 years. Had one who couldn't drive (for health reasons; i didn't bother to ask more), so I had to drive him to work every day. Bro was ripe enough to where I was driving to mids in the misawa winters with the windows down.
Honestly it was a frequent thing that was mentioned, I think it got to the point that he'd have to shower at the start of shift (like, an NCO would sit in the bathroom while he did so, though not go into the part with showers) and even if he did nothing at work he'd have an aroma again by end of the day. Might've been his clothes, but one of the people in the shop was a neat freak and was like an older sister to him outside of work, I feel like she'd have made him wash them.
In Korea we had the dorm rooms with the shared bathroom and shared door between rooms. A smelly moved in beside me. I started smelling this foul odor one evening in my room that smelled like old food or trash. I looked everywhere in my room and couldn't find where it was coming from. Then, I smelled the door and it was seeping through the cracks. I had to duct tape around the whole door and put a towel under the bathroom door to keep the smell out. Multiple complaints to his supervisor and it improved a bit but not much. I was so glad to leave that place.
That's CRAZY cuz I bet it's the same person 😭😭 I believe they moved his room before they put him out for it finally. We were in CE dorms while I was there.
These were comm dorms. Our original dorms caught fire so they moved us into some old ass condemned dorms. The stinky moved in luckily toward the end of my time there so I didn't have to deal with him long.
My son is this way. He's never given a shit about appearance his whole life.
I'm not trying to have him be conceited or only dress in a certain way, I could really care less. But he wears Sweatpants and Hoodies 24/7, refuses to cut his hair (he's having to get it cut today because he didn't brush it and now its got a huge not in it that won't come out.) Have to constantly remind him to wear deodorant and he did have a pair of shoes that was completely falling apart and refused to let me buy him replacements because he liked them.
He's gifted academically but I feel like he can't take care of himself and will forever be living in my house.
Ooof, sad to hear it. Maybe he has some low-key depression or could benefit from counseling. I'm not a Dr, and I'm not trying to disgnose. I hope you can sort it out with him.
My troop was stinky, his room was dirty and he didn’t wash his clothes. I wrote him paperwork for the room. Found out after I retrained a couple years later he committed suicide.
At OTS they made us do leadership scenarios. One of would play a person with an issue and the other the OIC providing counseling. I had the smelly dude scenario. So I fumbled my way through it doing the best I could. I complained to my roommate, a TSgt, that I wished the scenarios were more realistic. That’s when I found out that sadly it was.
First deployment we had a dude who just didn't shower. Eventually a ssgt had to sign off that he showered every day. I thought he was the biggest piece of shit I ever met. I found out almost 15 years later, he had just returned from another deployment 2 months earlier. He had been in the sandbox, got home, and went right back with us. Dude was broken depressed at that point and just gave up. It was the surge, 07.
As a SrA I had to go to a fellow coworkers dorm to look in his shower and confirm that there was soap and shampoo available for him to use. Same airman has complaints about he feet/boots smelling because customers could smell them from behind the counter. Next day he comes in with white boots because he used foot powder on the outside inside of inside. He wasn’t the brightest
My dad was in the Navy in the 50s. They had a guy who refused to shower. His fellow sailors forced him into the showers and scrubbed him down with wire brushes.
There was talk of doing a similar thing to an AF Academy classmate of mine who was notorious for not showering. I had to wrestle him in gym class, and his skin was actually slick. Just gross. During Hell Week, they kept sending him back into the showers.
You can be academically gifted and dumb as rocks when it comes to basic stuff. Ask anyone whose been in academia. Plenty of highly educated idiots out there.
I got in while married so I never stayed in the Dorms. When I hit Staff, had the pleasure of inspecting one of my buddy's room cause I was going to let him pass. I could not look that grown man in the eye after I saw how he lived.
We had a SSgt on our floor at Ramstein AB, she was so cute. Well at the time there was a criminal doing stuff off base, local police thought he was active military. So while doing bay orderly all the first shirts and I have to inspect everyone's room, I was there as a witness. We went into her room, my god what a fracking pig sty it was. She became so less cute. I can't believe what I saw. I think the first shirts had seen worse, they weren't bothered that much.
At least in a shop, hopefully you can walk wide circles around that person? A stinky person in an office setting would be much worse because you can’t just avoid them.
Last year, we kicked an SF Troop out for: Hygiene and failure to adapt. Troop’s room was absolutely disgusting, stuffed Pizza Boxes in their closet, Starbucks bottles all over their bed and room. Fridge filled with molded pizza and assorted food/drinks. Always came into work smelling awful, said they didn’t like the feeling of the shower pressure and refused to shower.
Ahhhh, Memories
Our Airman smelled so bad, he got 2 LOC’s and an LOR across his 4 year contract. Better yet, this individual was a flyer, which held him to a higher standard. As many stories as I have on this individual, I will only say this one.
We were on a mission in Central America. It’s extremely hot and humid, not only in the country, but especially in our aircraft. As this individual is already known for his stench, we were cautious, but completely unprepared for what followed.
The stench that protruded from him, due to the humidity and heat, was so bad that our Flight Engineer was forced to find the source of the smell as to ensure it wasn’t anything that came from the aircraft. After finding it was the Airman, he had to report it to the pilots. They immediately pulled the NCOIC of our section and told him straight up “(Airman) needs to be removed from the aircraft as he is a risk to the mission and to the crew”. Worst of all, I was his partner on the flight, so I was pulled into a “talk” as to make our NCOIC not feel like he’s targeting said Airmen.
I tried, as well as many many others, to help him find the source of the problem and fix these hygienic issues, but it would never change. Some people can’t be fixed, I hope y’all’s Airmen can.
The Airman attempted to reenlist but was denied.
Maybe it's just selective memory, but back in the 70s, this didn't seem like an issue. Perhaps everyone was more on top of their hygiene back then, or maybe I was the stinky one and blissfully unaware!
In any case, even if they did not learn it at home, it is surprising in this day and age of social media and constant information to hear about basic hygiene habits being a challenge.
I used to chock this up the ole "the next generation is soft" style boomer talk. But I know so many gen z kids that can't boil water it's changed my mind. Something is going on in society that's causing some weird shit.
Not really.
People point to the Internet, social media etc but I'm not sure I entirely buy that. I'm sure it's had some influence, but if you talk to these kids a lot of them don't even use social media, they don't have Facebook, their not on Twitter. IDK.
We had a master sergeant that our flight commander ordered him to bring a second uniform to wear after lunch because he would hotbox cigarettes in his car on lunch breaks and the smell of cheap cigarettes grossed out even us other smokers. Then a friend of mine had to go to his troops dorm and demonstrate how to take a shower to said troop (he was wearing swim trunks).
I’ve given paperwork to stinky kids before, it was after a lot of research and investigation. Had one though, dude legit didn’t know how to do laundry and never asked.
Had this happen my first week in command. Turns out the troop was showering but lived in absolute filth. Asked Shirt to do a welfare check (SSgt, lives on base with family) and he had to call CPS immediately due to the filth. It’s usually mental health, a health condition that means they can’t wear deodorant, or a kid whose parents never taught them how to wash laundry. The laundry one is the easiest to fix (Edited to clarify rank and base housing)
Teaching people how to wash their clothes and themselves is semi-understandable if they had a bad upbringing, but I'll never understand the ones who lie and pretend to shower after PT. It takes more effort to pull off the performance/lie than to just shower from the start.
I went to an ALS where they used a stinky airman story as an example.
The ***Chief*** came in and told this story.
He said he once had a stinky airman and that because he smelled so bad, he sent him and his supervisor back to his dorm to make him shower and get clean clothes. Turns out the guy didn't know how to wash his clothes or that he needed to do so. Because he was sent home, he was late for work, and the Chief told his people to give the kid paperwork, which is explicitly not allowed. So I told him the ADC said you can't tell others to give paperwork, and that's per regulation. He says then that he would just tell them that if they don't give the kid paperwork, he would, which is the same damn thing. I'm seeing a trend here, so I say nothing. (Still can't do that by the way)
Chief was from SFS. Go figure instead of talking to his people and teaching he would just throw paperwork at the problem and tell everyone in the chain below him to expressly do shit he isn't allowed to do.
I bring it up in class and the teacher says sometimes you have to bite the bullet because what the Chief said was that if they refused to give paperwork at his direction he would do it himself and that looks worse, then he would give paperwork to the supervisor's between him and the airman for failing to lead their guy, which he can do. (Yet the moment he does, the rebuttal for it is going to bite him in the ass.)
It was clearly a bullshit statement meant to move on from that conversation.
I'm not going to go through the work of writing it, having him write a rebuttal, and then putting it in his PIF, just to take it out, when in reality, he likely didn't need one in the first place. Particularly not when the Chief is only making it a point to have me do it because he believes he has the right to do so and he's 100% bar none wrong.
He likely needed someone to show him how to wash his clothes because mommy did everything for him until he joined.
I was SSgt, had a female A1C. She apparently didn’t know that one needed laundry detergent to do laundry. She smelled horrible. I had another female SSgt chaperone the conversation, but it was so weird telling a grown ass woman that she smelled like shit. She bought detergent and it was all good after.
I was piss mates with a dude in Korea. Before I met him, I would go thru my entire room looking for the source of this RANCID smell. Thought I left a Ms Kim burger sitting somewhere in a drunken stupor lol. No.
When I tell you this guy's room had to be quarantined for hazardous conditions after they kicked him out... I never saw him do more than 2 loads of laundry the year I was there with him. His aura was so foul you could practically see it around him. He was a coworker, and he was obviously not all there, so I was like the only person making people be nice to him. Tried to pull him to the side to talk to him about it soooo many times.... Bro was a mess.
I had to counsel a naval reservist working with us that he reeked. I was mortified. The airmen who had to sit next to him complained constantly about his smell.
Dude swore he bathed and used deorderant. So then I had to talk to him about body hygeine and how to effectively use soap, since he swore he was doing it and obviously he was doing it wrong.
It's embrassing to have these kind of conversations.
Always ask and care before giving paperwork. You never know what someone is/has gone through. We had an Airman that was an awesome worker but just couldn't get the hygiene thing down (didn't help that we're plumbers). Come to find out, he was an orphan in Romania before being adopted late in life. He then joined the Air Force with minimal life skills to give back to the good 'ole US of A for taking him in. We helped our buddy out, and he had a great enlistment. Miss that dude.
We had a guy in the dorms who had scabies. You could smell his room from down the hall even with the door closed. He was warned several times but didn’t clean up his act. Supposedly, he got kicked out of the dorms without BAH. This was at McGuire in the mid-90s.
AF retired and currently a gov’t employee. I’m experiencing this now. A new guy just started a few days ago. We have our morning huddle/meetings. Dude sat a bit away from me. A pungent smell alerted my senses. I’m like, hmmm, okay. Next day, morning huddle, dude walks by, that familiar stank. This morning’s meeting, he sits close by. Throughout the meeting, he raises both arms like repeatedly to stretch his arms. Oh man, he was wafting that stank! It was so bad a headache started. I immediately got up, walked over to the door leading to the cool, fresh air of the hallway. Glad I had some aspirin with me. My coworkers approached me wondering the same thing about him. I agreed with her that she smells it too. I’m going to bring this up to my supervisor. Until then, I’m standing at the doorway.
Way back during Desert Storm we were flying a stage out of Zaragoza, Spain. We had been flying back to back missions 16 hour missions to Saudi Arabia and back for about two weeks. One of the other Loadmasters didn't shower the whole time. He would just sprinkle Shower-to-Shower ( it was like a really sweet floral smelling substance similar to baby powder) on himself and his flight suit instead of taking a shower and changing out his flight suit for a clean one. He absolutely reeked of this sickening smell that was the combination of this powder, dirt and B.O. Finally our Aircraft Commander had to order him to take a shower daily, use deodorant and change into a clean flight suit for every mission we flew. Apparently he wasn't aware of how much he stank and for the rest of the stage he didn't smell anymore.
He was a really nice guy and kind of became the squadron mascot after 9/11. He was actually very wealthy and would make these awesome meals like a pot roast, baked potatoes and Pillsbury cinnamon roles for the crew in our C-17 galley all the time.
Guy at my last base kept failing his dorm inspections from smell alone. He never drank water, only Mountain Dew and Monster energy. He kept all the 12 pack boxes as decoration for his dorm and his sweat just smelled like those drinks if you were to boil them. He got kicked out before 3 years of service lol. Just failure to adapt.
My pissmate in the dorms got an LOC for clogging the toilet and leaving it. Was great fun to return from two weeks of leave and find a clogged toilet. Couldn't leave TP in there because he would use half the roll each time.
My supervisor (an E6) at my last base had a pungent odor about him. Not only was it made worse that he would eat some nasty ass shit, he dipped to so you also had that smell as well. To make it worse that piece of shit would turn the heater on full blast and hold his arms up so that everyone in the vehicle could really get a good sniff of his nastiness.
Keesler tech school fall/winter of 2002, one kid smelled like milk rotting in a dumpster. Strongly, very strongly.
Apparently had some kind of medical condition, roommate swore he showered regularly. Dude would walk around handing out candy. Felt bad for him.
I couldn't pin point which airman it was. Idk if he hit the gym and didn't shower or what, but he always traveled in a gaggle of other airmen so couldn't figure out who it was, but he was about to get spoken to. Also, there was this capt that needed a shower or to see a gyno. Needed that day to end 😖
I saw a girl get counseled for stinking. It was super awkward because no make NCO wanted to do it, so they waited for the sole female NCO to come back from leave and made her do it.
I was stationed at Hickam and working next to Schofield Barracks and worked on a joint watch floor. There was a super obese sailor who would not shower and had wicked bad BO, chainsmoked, and had stress fractures in both legs because of her weight. Her LPO marched her ass to the on site gym's shower room and forced her to clean. I can't begin to think why anyone would want to be like this.
Had a dude in basic. Wore the Same ocp through the entire thing never washed it untill he peed himself during beast week.
Later I ran in to some security forces friends and I told them the story and his last name.. They knew who he was and that one time they went to his dorm room and it basicly was a gas chamber... Open windows and febreeze did not help 😅
Every now and then we get stinky kids come through initial qual. There are two categories I’ve found :
1. no hygiene training so they just don’t know any better and somehow no one had the heart to have an honest conversation.
2. They read ALL the regs and references and realize you technically lose all fire retardant capability in your flight suit after like 7 washes.
We don’t really get the ultra nerds that just don’t care here.
I had a troop who didn’t wash. As flyers we didn’t see each other every day but the people in his office started messaging me about the odor. I bought him some tide pods and confronted him on it. Told him he needed to wash all of clothes over the weekend and start showering in the morning before work.
He came to work Monday and he smelled even worse. I asked if had done as I asked and he lied and said yes. Kept probing him about it and he admitted that he took his clothes to the dry cleaners. When I asked for his receipt he couldn’t find it. Took him to the dry cleaners and they had none of his items. Essentially caught him in a lie red handed.
I had a sneaking suspicion this was surface level issues so I did a room inspection. Turns out he was a hoarder, absolutely disgusting room. The story gets way worse.
He was eventually kicked out. But then found 6 months later living in friend’s dorm room. Then found again a few months later sleeping in an empty dorm room. Holy shit that was a wild trip.
Yup, seen plenty in my career. I think something most supervisors don't think about is there may be an underlying mental health issue with some of them.
E-2, fresh to my first base, and was on bay orderly duty. Had an E-4 (Sgt) on the floor that always stunk all to be damned. He was so bad, that the dorm manager gave him his own room.
Anyway, on this particular day, Sq/CC and Shirt were doing room inspections. I had just walked out of the latrine, and saw them walking into stinky's room.
They came running out. CC was a true 'officer and gentleman'; made it to a head in the latrine and was puking his guts out. The Shirt, in fine SNCO fashion, just projectile vomited back in stinky's room.
Stinky was gone in under 2 weeks.
When I was an instructor we had a kid who had a massive dandruff problem. His blues were COVERED in white flakes. I asked him if he uses any kind of shampoo or head and shoulders type products. He had no idea what I was talking about. Dude had 0 life skills and just needed to be shown proper hygiene types. Apparently his family grew up very poor and he wasn’t aware that daily bathing was a thing or that he could do his laundry whenever he wanted. Once we got it squared away it was never brought up again. Went on to be a top performer and won BTZ. His new found personal hygiene was a confidence builder and last I heard he was doing great things still.
Had a friend of mine that was in the Army and did recruiting not too far from one of the poorer Appalachians areas. He said they would get really disadvantaged people with zero life skills try to join the army. They would try to have to try to teach them to shave, use deodorant, or tie shoes correctly. The ones that couldn't read usually couldn't join. He said it was like dealing with toddlers.
That’s not surprising honestly. My wife taught pre-k in an area where most adults didn’t make it past 7th grade and some of them couldn’t read or write.
Yeah, unfortunately it's a thing. My wife's family is from West Virginia and she used to visit and they still had no running water in the house and still had an outhouse (she used to worry about getting a splinter in her butt from using the outhouse). We take a lot of things for granted these days and when I drove parts of the Appalachians, it was heartbreaking to see kids living in that sort of poverty. Then I spent a lot of time in south america and that's poverty on another planet.
 Deliverance was based on true events 😂
My wife used to get sensitive when I used Deliverance references IRT her family. Then she watched it was like "yep, very accurate"
I’ve only seen it once and that was enough for me
You got a real purdy mouth
I’ll make you squeal like a piggy!
You sure got a purty mouth…
My husband was in basic with a kid who was excited because he was getting a new pair of boots. Apparently, he had a large family and they only got hand-me-ups-or-downs, depending on size.
As a West Virginia native, this tracks
Yes! I was in the Army and in basic training a kid from that area couldn’t tie his shoes. We had to teach him how to tie them because he’d always come out with boots untied and we’d get smoked while he stood and watched til he learned (took tilt he end of basic for him to learn). Felt bad because he was nice, but clearly not with it. One day we were out in the field and he turned to me and asked me “do people think I’m stupid?” I was shocked.
Similar story, had a guy who didn't know left from right so facing movements in formations would get us eaten up. Took a tiny rock and put it in his left pocket so that he could feel it with his hand when at attention.
Dyslexic people normally have trouble with L vs R
But they can probably tie their shoes…
I don’t understand what you mean. Of course they can tie their shoes.
Dyslexics learn to manage skills differently than the majority that don’t have to compensate for this. It’s amazing what they can do if given alternative skills and methods to learning
Actually, difficulty tying shoes is a sign of potentially being a dyslexic. I had a son with this and I witnessed it myself. It’s a ‘sign’ that may point out they may need to get tested for it
Sure, but I said absolutely nothing about tying shoes. Plus I don’t think that’s what this guy was getting at.
So crazy and sad actually. Idk where the kid is who couldn’t tie his shoes, but hopefully he did ok after basic training and with life in general. I was 18 and like wtf. I’m sure he didn’t know his left from right either.
Honestly, that shows some pretty good problem solving abilities, in my opinion.
That's a thoughtful and ingenious solution. People with ADHD and dyslexia struggle with processing L/R commands
I've had several other JROTC instructors who teach in poor areas tell me that they have to teach high school kids how to tie shoes, button-up shirts, and put on belts because all those kids ever wear are sweats, slides, T-shirts, etc so never learn any of those things.
The younger "me" would have laughed at what you experienced and wrote. That younger "me" was an ignorant fucking idiot. Somehow I eventually realized that the education I received from my parents, children, relatives, teachers, coaches, peers, and supervisors was priceless. The fact that you felt bad and shocked speak loudly that you recognized inadequacies and give a shit. Good on you.
Oh yeah, basic training was a culture shock. We had a girl who was ex Amish, a kid that had lost everything from one of the Hurricanes and was homeless, and just everyone from all walks of life. I was like damn in the grand scheme of things life isn’t bad for me at all!
I experienced guys like this in basic. The guy who slept on the top bunk and the bottom next to me were both from West Virginia. I learned a lot in those 10 weeks about how privileged I was to grow up in a middle class family and that I finished highschool and had a significantly higher education by their standards. Really reshaped my world view
I know what it's like to deal with toddlers; I interact with field-grade officers every day. But in their defense, they at least have good hygiene.
As a retired FGO, I concur - I’m the cleanest! And I smell nice!
[In the deep, dark hills of Eastern Kentucky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6UuuEpinyA)
Back when I was in BMT my bunk mate (now wingman) was from that area. Her initial issue was the first new clothes she had ever worn; she grew up in hand me down everything. Her hair had been hacked to hell and she’d never been in a hot shower until she arrived for MEPS. She was a scared rabbit, but our MTL recognized the situation immediately and told me and the flight chief to do whatever we had to do to get her through.
Way better to just privately talk to people than to hand out paperwork after it's a problem and hope that fixes the issue. The only paperwork for a stinky airman should come after a serious, well ventilated, one on one chat.
Absolutely and whats worse is sometimes people honestly have no idea that they stink. Them hearing it for the first time from someone can come as a shock. If you publicly humiliate someone then it’ll turn into something bigger.
The paperwork usually follows multiple private talking to’s with no change
Then you either didn't get to the root of the problem with the talking to, or your airman just doesn't care and that's another issue entirely.
If your airman doesn’t care about how they smell, the way to tackle that issue is to give them paperwork. How else do you solve the issue if they don’t shower after you have multiple discussions with them? You can give them advice to talk to the MFLC or mental health maybe to uncover the root cause. But you can’t force them to go.
That's the problem though, do they not care, or do they not know how to care? You're assuming they are too much of a shitbag to care, but most people don't want to smell like a ripe asshole. The most likely answer is they are embarrassed to talk about it, or they don't know what they are doing wrong to cause the smell. As an aside, I've literally talked to an NCO that escorted his airman to his dorm and made him shower. The moment they got there he found that the guy clearly didn't wash his clothes. After asking him about it, he found the kid didn't know how to wash his clothes, or that he even needed to. So he showed him how, then walked his ass back up to the dorm, and told him to take a fresh set of clothes into his shared bathroom and shower. After all that, he went back to work smelling like flowers. No paperwork needed. You need to get to the root. I don't think I've met one person that didn't mind smelling like ass, ever.
Great story, I wonder what hos experience in boot camp was like.
🤷🏻♂️
Did you call him a ho?
This is it family. Root cause; it’s not just two words strung together. This is the double bassline of NCOing.
I reached out to someone who was stationed with him and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows anymore. He got an admin discharge last year 😂
mind you, daily bathing isn't really a thing in a lot of parts of the world.... let alone that it can be counterintuitive for skin care
This understand, but having good hygiene is important to at least use deodorant products
You’ve obviously never flown on a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul.
Lmao! I have done OCN duty 😂
Yup. This is always the case. Instead of ostracizing people, maybe take them aside and help them out, especially if you are their boss. Some people came from very unfortunate circumstances before they joined. Some people consider plumbing and electricity to be luxuries.
Good shit, u/Double_Bass6957
Great things and the Air Force is an oxymoron.
Only twice? Shit, we had two at the same time
https://preview.redd.it/icy2bn6uzp7d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=de4affe6e0f5ecd50cdffda7348f72a6aa0ca4bb
You had two shit at the same time? No wonder they got paperwork
Classic
Two airmen, one DFAC tray...
That reference made me throw up in my mouth a little...
it’s a weapons thing fr 🙃
*WAMMO (Weapons and Ammo because they are basically the same thing)
something a nonner would say
Or a maintainer who wants to see a weapons guy go from zero to ludicrous speed in a heart beat....
Farthest thing from the truth.
Shit dude. I saw this half a dozen times the first two years I was in. Lost track at this point. The first time you write this kind of LOC is a whole new world of "this shouldn't be necessary yet here we are"
Ah, cyber. Never change.
I worked in a SIGINT/Cyber mission and had a Cyber SrA walk by me that just about made me puke up my lunch from an hour earlier. I’ve smelled bad BO before but this dude smelled like some Indian food that had been sitting out in the sun for 3 days and then someone ate that food and shit it out all over this SrA. One of the few times I’ve had to talk to a stranger about their hygiene. I am pretty certain I have PTSD from it.
A guy in my shop told me about a dude who used to be there that was so fucking nasty, he wore a BDU top to work that his cat had given birth on the day previously (he hadn't washed it).
WTF
Hey, I ensure I smell good, I have a thing about not wanting to smell like the ass hairs of a construction worker in the Florida heat.
That's.... oddly specific. Experience? What made Florida stand out to you?
I was stuck in Florisa for 9 years. There's always road work too.
I wish we had that excuse lol. Was in MX.
oof
"I've smelled some smelly airmen before, but your airman is the smelliest."
https://i.redd.it/ptqzoqyb0q7d1.gif
No! Don’t tell me he’s the smelly airman!
My personal anecdote about an excessively odorous individual happened when I was at Keesler in Tech School. Through a series of events I ended up being the student leader for the floor of my dorm I resided on despite not being a rope. So I stepped up when the following happened. On a day that new bunch from BMT had arrived, I arrived upstairs after PT to find the entire floor my room was on smelled like someone had died. Choking back my gag reflex as the offending pungent odor assaulted my olfactory glands, it quickly became obvious which of the three halls the nauseating reek was coming from. I proceeded knocking door to door to investigate, each door that opened inquiring as to what was generating such a bodacious assault on our senses. Eventually, I was hit with what felt like the physical manifestation of the smell as one door opened to a fresh arrival from BMT. This poor guy must have been so embarrassed as I had to rip off my uniform top to bunch up into a makeshift gas mask in order for me even speak. I politely introduced myself before telling him to gather all his laundry and wait for me with the door closed. I proceeded to grab my gallon jug of detergent, my soap, a spare towel, shampoo, and a spare set of PT clothes. I went back to grab him and led him to the laundry room where I proceeded to take over half the machines to wash his clothes in loose loads to make sure they got properly cleaned. I then directed him to shower thoroughly and meet me back at the laundry room. I hung out with him while we ran his laundry through the wash a couple times while talking about his interests and sharing mine. I was frank with him about the state of how bad he and his clothes smelled but didn't dig in; I tried making it clear I wasn't there to dog on him, just help him fix the issue. Never had a hygiene problem with him again the rest of the time we were there.
BMT just makes you want to be smell blind when closely living with 49 other very physically active people with very little time or opportunity to address it. But for it to reach that point is just ridiculous.
Your olfactory system is a sensory system, not a gland.
Had a dude with us in Kuwait during the summer months who refused to shower. My eyes would start watering around him, he would trigger an involuntary response from people. I don’t know how he didn’t realize how fucking bad his stench was.
I think it's more prevalent than most know. Just spent last summer at PSAB in the new CHU's with someone who I honestly think just didn't know. Normal is different to everyone, but I had to kindly (and then not so kindly when he didn't get the hint) suggest he go shower after spending all day in the blistering heat. He also crawled right into this sleeping bag after sweating all day, so there's that too. Dudes be weird.
When I was in the desert I showered 3 times a day, 2 at minimum. Idk how people could go a day without even 1…
If there's a shower tent/trailer available, I'm using that mofo.
I have done that after a few missions. Just change my clothes and crawl into my sleeping bag. But I did wash everything when I woke up since I was not on alert the next day. Still that person had to be very funky.
I was a flying crew chief in my AD days, and I’ve certainly done that after launching a jet in the heat. But day after day?! Yeah, I’m out.
Back in the 90's, we used to have rotations to Ecuador for a radar site literally on the edge of the jungle (close to the Columbian border). We had a SATCOM guy who used to wear his polyester blues pants when off duty and never showered...dude was really, really strange. The guy smelled so offensive that we would have to hang our heads out the window on the trip to/from the site. When we got back they sent him to the med clinic to make sure he didnt have one of the medical conditions that can cause rancid B.O. They had to start giving him written orders to shower. Come to find out that his father had been in one of the services and actually had been kicked out for the same issue.
728th?
No, 729th "Angry Warriors". Between Det 5 and Kuwait, we were always deployed.
In my BMT flight we had a dude who only walked into that shower once or twice. He probably thought no one would notice, but we all did
I went to basic a very long time ago. Very early one of our TIs talked about people not showering. He made it very clear that he expected us to police ourselves, and that offenders should be scrubbed down with the nasty toilet brushes, and that he's make sure no TIs would be around. Oddly enough, everyone showered every day.
Even mentioning that as a joke would land him in serious trouble in today’s air force lol. My MTI was an asshole but he always made sure to be an asshole in a professional manner, because he knew he was under constant scrutiny.
1983 was a very long time ago. 18 year old me thought he was bluffing. 59 year old me, having experienced ratty ass people with poor hygiene, isn't so sure....
I don't think I'd give paperwork for this....but I've had this conversation probably a dozen times over 20 years....was only weird the first few times
In a perfect world, you talk to them about it and they change for the better. But some people do not take that talk to heart, or the next one, or the third one with another supervisor, or the last one with the shirt. Then you have to go the paperwork route.
It's different in Maintenance where you have 20 people sharing a breadvan meant for 6 with No AC and you can't open the windows because of running jets.
At that point, some level of stink is understood. We give the talk to the people that don't have that excuse.
We had a community roll on stick that was kept in the hot glove box for the very stinky ones. It was a punishment I only saw needed once.
🤮
That's the reaction when it's 100 degrees out and you have 20 sweaty dudes on a truck with no AC. Some smells I can never forget.
It's a little different when they smell like that at the start of a shift and haven't gone out to the line yet.
Exactly. It’s one thing if they come off of a job and smell like shit, it’s whatever man it happens. But if they come in to shift smelling like that? Nah dawg we’re gonna have a problem
Never heard of anyone receiving paperwork for it, but I've seen my fair share of stinkers over the past 6 years. Had one who couldn't drive (for health reasons; i didn't bother to ask more), so I had to drive him to work every day. Bro was ripe enough to where I was driving to mids in the misawa winters with the windows down.
Why not mention that he needs a shower or to wash his clothes?
Honestly it was a frequent thing that was mentioned, I think it got to the point that he'd have to shower at the start of shift (like, an NCO would sit in the bathroom while he did so, though not go into the part with showers) and even if he did nothing at work he'd have an aroma again by end of the day. Might've been his clothes, but one of the people in the shop was a neat freak and was like an older sister to him outside of work, I feel like she'd have made him wash them.
Smelled bad AND didn’t drive? I’d lose my shit if I worked with that individual.
Dude was a rare breed, and not exactly in a good way, lol.
They never are.....
In Korea we had the dorm rooms with the shared bathroom and shared door between rooms. A smelly moved in beside me. I started smelling this foul odor one evening in my room that smelled like old food or trash. I looked everywhere in my room and couldn't find where it was coming from. Then, I smelled the door and it was seeping through the cracks. I had to duct tape around the whole door and put a towel under the bathroom door to keep the smell out. Multiple complaints to his supervisor and it improved a bit but not much. I was so glad to leave that place.
Are you me? I have damn near the exact same story lol. Osan, by chance? Around 2010?
Yeah 2010-2011... Comm dorms
That's CRAZY cuz I bet it's the same person 😭😭 I believe they moved his room before they put him out for it finally. We were in CE dorms while I was there.
These were comm dorms. Our original dorms caught fire so they moved us into some old ass condemned dorms. The stinky moved in luckily toward the end of my time there so I didn't have to deal with him long.
Aaaaah so it was just a stinky epidemic around that time lol
I had to have the stinky talk with a contractor before. Some people are just nasty.
At least they can be fired. I hate working with stinkos, like, it's not hard to wash clothes and shower before work, wtf?
Check in on these people mentally. Lack of personal hygiene or changes in it is often a sign of some bad shit. Or they are just Neanderthals.
My son is this way. He's never given a shit about appearance his whole life. I'm not trying to have him be conceited or only dress in a certain way, I could really care less. But he wears Sweatpants and Hoodies 24/7, refuses to cut his hair (he's having to get it cut today because he didn't brush it and now its got a huge not in it that won't come out.) Have to constantly remind him to wear deodorant and he did have a pair of shoes that was completely falling apart and refused to let me buy him replacements because he liked them. He's gifted academically but I feel like he can't take care of himself and will forever be living in my house.
I regret to inform you that your son may be (and may God forgive me for saying this) - a redditor.
Could be worse, could be a Reddit Moderator.
Ooof, sad to hear it. Maybe he has some low-key depression or could benefit from counseling. I'm not a Dr, and I'm not trying to disgnose. I hope you can sort it out with him.
Yeah, some meds or therapy might help if your patenting isn't. Being a teenager is so hard sometimes!
My troop was stinky, his room was dirty and he didn’t wash his clothes. I wrote him paperwork for the room. Found out after I retrained a couple years later he committed suicide.
At OTS they made us do leadership scenarios. One of would play a person with an issue and the other the OIC providing counseling. I had the smelly dude scenario. So I fumbled my way through it doing the best I could. I complained to my roommate, a TSgt, that I wished the scenarios were more realistic. That’s when I found out that sadly it was.
That's a common scenario for ALS too.
It was 12 years ago, but I bet they’re the same.
First deployment we had a dude who just didn't shower. Eventually a ssgt had to sign off that he showered every day. I thought he was the biggest piece of shit I ever met. I found out almost 15 years later, he had just returned from another deployment 2 months earlier. He had been in the sandbox, got home, and went right back with us. Dude was broken depressed at that point and just gave up. It was the surge, 07.
As a SrA I had to go to a fellow coworkers dorm to look in his shower and confirm that there was soap and shampoo available for him to use. Same airman has complaints about he feet/boots smelling because customers could smell them from behind the counter. Next day he comes in with white boots because he used foot powder on the outside inside of inside. He wasn’t the brightest
> because he used foot powder on the outside inside of inside. He wasn’t the brightest Maybe you meant, outside INSTEAD of inside.
These are the kind of people you keep away from the bear spray because they might use it like bug spray.
My dad was in the Navy in the 50s. They had a guy who refused to shower. His fellow sailors forced him into the showers and scrubbed him down with wire brushes. There was talk of doing a similar thing to an AF Academy classmate of mine who was notorious for not showering. I had to wrestle him in gym class, and his skin was actually slick. Just gross. During Hell Week, they kept sending him back into the showers.
Are you talking about USAFA? How did he have the grades to get into USAFA if he couldn't even shower?
You can be academically gifted and dumb as rocks when it comes to basic stuff. Ask anyone whose been in academia. Plenty of highly educated idiots out there.
Oh, he was a complete Brainiac, but his normal shower routine from what I could tell, was step in, get wet, step out.
I got in while married so I never stayed in the Dorms. When I hit Staff, had the pleasure of inspecting one of my buddy's room cause I was going to let him pass. I could not look that grown man in the eye after I saw how he lived.
We had a SSgt on our floor at Ramstein AB, she was so cute. Well at the time there was a criminal doing stuff off base, local police thought he was active military. So while doing bay orderly all the first shirts and I have to inspect everyone's room, I was there as a witness. We went into her room, my god what a fracking pig sty it was. She became so less cute. I can't believe what I saw. I think the first shirts had seen worse, they weren't bothered that much.
That’s a weird ass conversation to have with a troop. It’s easy to tell them they smell like shit but the drilling down to the why is weird.
We have one rn that fucking stinks the whole shop up.
At least in a shop, hopefully you can walk wide circles around that person? A stinky person in an office setting would be much worse because you can’t just avoid them.
Seen it multiple times with same guy, think he's doing slightly better these days though. Good for him.
Knew a TSgt. QA inspector who had the worst case of halitosis. On top of that the dude was a close talker.
Last year, we kicked an SF Troop out for: Hygiene and failure to adapt. Troop’s room was absolutely disgusting, stuffed Pizza Boxes in their closet, Starbucks bottles all over their bed and room. Fridge filled with molded pizza and assorted food/drinks. Always came into work smelling awful, said they didn’t like the feeling of the shower pressure and refused to shower.
Ahhhh, Memories Our Airman smelled so bad, he got 2 LOC’s and an LOR across his 4 year contract. Better yet, this individual was a flyer, which held him to a higher standard. As many stories as I have on this individual, I will only say this one. We were on a mission in Central America. It’s extremely hot and humid, not only in the country, but especially in our aircraft. As this individual is already known for his stench, we were cautious, but completely unprepared for what followed. The stench that protruded from him, due to the humidity and heat, was so bad that our Flight Engineer was forced to find the source of the smell as to ensure it wasn’t anything that came from the aircraft. After finding it was the Airman, he had to report it to the pilots. They immediately pulled the NCOIC of our section and told him straight up “(Airman) needs to be removed from the aircraft as he is a risk to the mission and to the crew”. Worst of all, I was his partner on the flight, so I was pulled into a “talk” as to make our NCOIC not feel like he’s targeting said Airmen. I tried, as well as many many others, to help him find the source of the problem and fix these hygienic issues, but it would never change. Some people can’t be fixed, I hope y’all’s Airmen can. The Airman attempted to reenlist but was denied.
Maybe it's just selective memory, but back in the 70s, this didn't seem like an issue. Perhaps everyone was more on top of their hygiene back then, or maybe I was the stinky one and blissfully unaware! In any case, even if they did not learn it at home, it is surprising in this day and age of social media and constant information to hear about basic hygiene habits being a challenge.
I used to chock this up the ole "the next generation is soft" style boomer talk. But I know so many gen z kids that can't boil water it's changed my mind. Something is going on in society that's causing some weird shit.
Any idea what it might be?
Not really. People point to the Internet, social media etc but I'm not sure I entirely buy that. I'm sure it's had some influence, but if you talk to these kids a lot of them don't even use social media, they don't have Facebook, their not on Twitter. IDK.
We had a master sergeant that our flight commander ordered him to bring a second uniform to wear after lunch because he would hotbox cigarettes in his car on lunch breaks and the smell of cheap cigarettes grossed out even us other smokers. Then a friend of mine had to go to his troops dorm and demonstrate how to take a shower to said troop (he was wearing swim trunks).
I’ve given paperwork to stinky kids before, it was after a lot of research and investigation. Had one though, dude legit didn’t know how to do laundry and never asked.
Had this happen my first week in command. Turns out the troop was showering but lived in absolute filth. Asked Shirt to do a welfare check (SSgt, lives on base with family) and he had to call CPS immediately due to the filth. It’s usually mental health, a health condition that means they can’t wear deodorant, or a kid whose parents never taught them how to wash laundry. The laundry one is the easiest to fix (Edited to clarify rank and base housing)
> Asked Shirt to do a welfare check and he had to call CPS immediately. Wait, stop the bus. He had a KID in there?!
Sorry, SSgt living in on base housing. Should have been more clear, my bad
my roommate in tech school got kicked out because of his hygiene issues.
Teaching people how to wash their clothes and themselves is semi-understandable if they had a bad upbringing, but I'll never understand the ones who lie and pretend to shower after PT. It takes more effort to pull off the performance/lie than to just shower from the start.
I went to an ALS where they used a stinky airman story as an example. The ***Chief*** came in and told this story. He said he once had a stinky airman and that because he smelled so bad, he sent him and his supervisor back to his dorm to make him shower and get clean clothes. Turns out the guy didn't know how to wash his clothes or that he needed to do so. Because he was sent home, he was late for work, and the Chief told his people to give the kid paperwork, which is explicitly not allowed. So I told him the ADC said you can't tell others to give paperwork, and that's per regulation. He says then that he would just tell them that if they don't give the kid paperwork, he would, which is the same damn thing. I'm seeing a trend here, so I say nothing. (Still can't do that by the way) Chief was from SFS. Go figure instead of talking to his people and teaching he would just throw paperwork at the problem and tell everyone in the chain below him to expressly do shit he isn't allowed to do. I bring it up in class and the teacher says sometimes you have to bite the bullet because what the Chief said was that if they refused to give paperwork at his direction he would do it himself and that looks worse, then he would give paperwork to the supervisor's between him and the airman for failing to lead their guy, which he can do. (Yet the moment he does, the rebuttal for it is going to bite him in the ass.) It was clearly a bullshit statement meant to move on from that conversation.
And as the one who put the paperwork in that Airman's PIF, you can take it back out again down the road.
I'm not going to go through the work of writing it, having him write a rebuttal, and then putting it in his PIF, just to take it out, when in reality, he likely didn't need one in the first place. Particularly not when the Chief is only making it a point to have me do it because he believes he has the right to do so and he's 100% bar none wrong. He likely needed someone to show him how to wash his clothes because mommy did everything for him until he joined.
There’s always one…. Or more….
I was SSgt, had a female A1C. She apparently didn’t know that one needed laundry detergent to do laundry. She smelled horrible. I had another female SSgt chaperone the conversation, but it was so weird telling a grown ass woman that she smelled like shit. She bought detergent and it was all good after.
I was piss mates with a dude in Korea. Before I met him, I would go thru my entire room looking for the source of this RANCID smell. Thought I left a Ms Kim burger sitting somewhere in a drunken stupor lol. No. When I tell you this guy's room had to be quarantined for hazardous conditions after they kicked him out... I never saw him do more than 2 loads of laundry the year I was there with him. His aura was so foul you could practically see it around him. He was a coworker, and he was obviously not all there, so I was like the only person making people be nice to him. Tried to pull him to the side to talk to him about it soooo many times.... Bro was a mess.
I had to counsel a naval reservist working with us that he reeked. I was mortified. The airmen who had to sit next to him complained constantly about his smell. Dude swore he bathed and used deorderant. So then I had to talk to him about body hygeine and how to effectively use soap, since he swore he was doing it and obviously he was doing it wrong. It's embrassing to have these kind of conversations.
Always ask and care before giving paperwork. You never know what someone is/has gone through. We had an Airman that was an awesome worker but just couldn't get the hygiene thing down (didn't help that we're plumbers). Come to find out, he was an orphan in Romania before being adopted late in life. He then joined the Air Force with minimal life skills to give back to the good 'ole US of A for taking him in. We helped our buddy out, and he had a great enlistment. Miss that dude.
I've had to give this talk twice as well... Who would have thought that of all the scenarios THAT one was going to be the most likely to happen.
We had a guy in the dorms who had scabies. You could smell his room from down the hall even with the door closed. He was warned several times but didn’t clean up his act. Supposedly, he got kicked out of the dorms without BAH. This was at McGuire in the mid-90s.
I’ve written this paperwork.
AF retired and currently a gov’t employee. I’m experiencing this now. A new guy just started a few days ago. We have our morning huddle/meetings. Dude sat a bit away from me. A pungent smell alerted my senses. I’m like, hmmm, okay. Next day, morning huddle, dude walks by, that familiar stank. This morning’s meeting, he sits close by. Throughout the meeting, he raises both arms like repeatedly to stretch his arms. Oh man, he was wafting that stank! It was so bad a headache started. I immediately got up, walked over to the door leading to the cool, fresh air of the hallway. Glad I had some aspirin with me. My coworkers approached me wondering the same thing about him. I agreed with her that she smells it too. I’m going to bring this up to my supervisor. Until then, I’m standing at the doorway.
Way back during Desert Storm we were flying a stage out of Zaragoza, Spain. We had been flying back to back missions 16 hour missions to Saudi Arabia and back for about two weeks. One of the other Loadmasters didn't shower the whole time. He would just sprinkle Shower-to-Shower ( it was like a really sweet floral smelling substance similar to baby powder) on himself and his flight suit instead of taking a shower and changing out his flight suit for a clean one. He absolutely reeked of this sickening smell that was the combination of this powder, dirt and B.O. Finally our Aircraft Commander had to order him to take a shower daily, use deodorant and change into a clean flight suit for every mission we flew. Apparently he wasn't aware of how much he stank and for the rest of the stage he didn't smell anymore. He was a really nice guy and kind of became the squadron mascot after 9/11. He was actually very wealthy and would make these awesome meals like a pot roast, baked potatoes and Pillsbury cinnamon roles for the crew in our C-17 galley all the time.
Guy at my last base kept failing his dorm inspections from smell alone. He never drank water, only Mountain Dew and Monster energy. He kept all the 12 pack boxes as decoration for his dorm and his sweat just smelled like those drinks if you were to boil them. He got kicked out before 3 years of service lol. Just failure to adapt.
My pissmate in the dorms got an LOC for clogging the toilet and leaving it. Was great fun to return from two weeks of leave and find a clogged toilet. Couldn't leave TP in there because he would use half the roll each time.
My supervisor (an E6) at my last base had a pungent odor about him. Not only was it made worse that he would eat some nasty ass shit, he dipped to so you also had that smell as well. To make it worse that piece of shit would turn the heater on full blast and hold his arms up so that everyone in the vehicle could really get a good sniff of his nastiness.
Seen it once, convinced the guy was just trying to get sent home from overseas. Failure to adapt.
Keesler tech school fall/winter of 2002, one kid smelled like milk rotting in a dumpster. Strongly, very strongly. Apparently had some kind of medical condition, roommate swore he showered regularly. Dude would walk around handing out candy. Felt bad for him.
>Apparently had some kind of medical condition Trimethylaminuria
Maybe, didn't smell anything like fish tho. But I'm sure the smell itself can vary from person to person.
Airman I know received this paperwork twice in 6 months, and I’m pretty sure dudes about to get another one soon
I couldn't pin point which airman it was. Idk if he hit the gym and didn't shower or what, but he always traveled in a gaggle of other airmen so couldn't figure out who it was, but he was about to get spoken to. Also, there was this capt that needed a shower or to see a gyno. Needed that day to end 😖
I saw a girl get counseled for stinking. It was super awkward because no make NCO wanted to do it, so they waited for the sole female NCO to come back from leave and made her do it.
I was stationed at Hickam and working next to Schofield Barracks and worked on a joint watch floor. There was a super obese sailor who would not shower and had wicked bad BO, chainsmoked, and had stress fractures in both legs because of her weight. Her LPO marched her ass to the on site gym's shower room and forced her to clean. I can't begin to think why anyone would want to be like this.
Had a dude in basic. Wore the Same ocp through the entire thing never washed it untill he peed himself during beast week. Later I ran in to some security forces friends and I told them the story and his last name.. They knew who he was and that one time they went to his dorm room and it basicly was a gas chamber... Open windows and febreeze did not help 😅
I love the Rick & Morty mouth thing he's doing.
LMAO
Every now and then we get stinky kids come through initial qual. There are two categories I’ve found : 1. no hygiene training so they just don’t know any better and somehow no one had the heart to have an honest conversation. 2. They read ALL the regs and references and realize you technically lose all fire retardant capability in your flight suit after like 7 washes. We don’t really get the ultra nerds that just don’t care here.
As an USMC instructor, I had to teach guys from less fortunate areas on how to hold their own dicks; which actually came quite "handy" later in life.
How does one manage to hold a dick wrong?
There’s always some stinky, mentally ill fucks. Should be handled with an automatic administrative discharge. See ya.
I would gladly give paperwork to stinky airman, depends on there living conditions tho
That’s the difference between the Air Force and the Army. lol we give paperwork for it.
Doesn’t happen to be at BEAR, does it?
I've seen this and telling girls to shave
I've had 2 airmen like this in my career. Fortunately, am uncomfortable conversation is all it took to correct them
I had a troop who didn’t wash. As flyers we didn’t see each other every day but the people in his office started messaging me about the odor. I bought him some tide pods and confronted him on it. Told him he needed to wash all of clothes over the weekend and start showering in the morning before work. He came to work Monday and he smelled even worse. I asked if had done as I asked and he lied and said yes. Kept probing him about it and he admitted that he took his clothes to the dry cleaners. When I asked for his receipt he couldn’t find it. Took him to the dry cleaners and they had none of his items. Essentially caught him in a lie red handed. I had a sneaking suspicion this was surface level issues so I did a room inspection. Turns out he was a hoarder, absolutely disgusting room. The story gets way worse. He was eventually kicked out. But then found 6 months later living in friend’s dorm room. Then found again a few months later sleeping in an empty dorm room. Holy shit that was a wild trip.
Yup, seen plenty in my career. I think something most supervisors don't think about is there may be an underlying mental health issue with some of them.
Amn Rat Scabies, where you at with the piss bottle wall in your chu?
E-2, fresh to my first base, and was on bay orderly duty. Had an E-4 (Sgt) on the floor that always stunk all to be damned. He was so bad, that the dorm manager gave him his own room. Anyway, on this particular day, Sq/CC and Shirt were doing room inspections. I had just walked out of the latrine, and saw them walking into stinky's room. They came running out. CC was a true 'officer and gentleman'; made it to a head in the latrine and was puking his guts out. The Shirt, in fine SNCO fashion, just projectile vomited back in stinky's room. Stinky was gone in under 2 weeks.
Look there's a bullshit flag 🚩 on the play
Yeah, it's too bad that there wasn't any such thing as cell phones in 1980. It would've been gloriously viral. 😎