Does basic training count?

We were in our final phase of basic just before graduation. They give you a bit more space than they do at the beginning. They had assigned a "platoon sergeant" who marched us from place to place, sometimes unsupervised. One day we were headed to chow. I have no idea what happened but one day our assigned PS decided he was done mid march. Confused the Assistent PS took command and marched us to chow.

Cut scene for those not in the military. When you arrive at chow it's very structured and organized. You march forward one by one into line. Get your food and march to the tables. The tables are laid out in very long rows, each side of the row accommodating between 30-40 recruits. The first guy to start a row watches and waits for the last man to finish a row. Each recruit standing at attention waiting for the row to be full staring straight ahead. When the last man is in line he screams "Last man on line!" And the first man yells "ready!!!! ....eat!" At which point everyone sits down and eats. The first man watches his watch. At 2 minute time it's time to leave. Needless to say you better be done eating by this time or you're SOL.

Anyway back to the story. I get my food and head towards my line. I find myself standing next to the PS who just "quit". We arrive and by some magical intuition the drill sergeant already knows about his tantrum. Our drill sergeant starts making comments about how he's a quitter and a failure.

Let me describe our drill sergeant to you. Ex delta force. Emigrated from Africa to the U.S. and had been the highest ranking DS for 6 cycles running. He was a bad ass motherfucker. This bastard could easily whoop any one of us. I thought, until this day, that I had seen him angry. I was wrong.

After about a minute of taunting comments from the DS this stupid mother fucker standing next to me breaks formation, he slowly turns his head and makes eye contact with our DS. I know in my gut that shit is about to go crazy. I see his mouth open and my heart stops. He starts saying "Irresponsible? You think I'm the irresponsible one? You try leading these fucking babies."

Holy. God. The atmosphere in the room changed. It got dark. Instantly. Our DS stood up from his table and made three short but long and fast strides toward us. In classic DS style he pressed the rim of his brown round into the forehead of the recruit who spoke to him and said in a low and bone chilling tone with teeth grit.."the FUCK...did you say to me?"

Not willing to swallow his stupid, this guy repeats himself staring straight into death.

Let's back up and remember there is a table between us. These are the kind that seat about two on each side. Like you'd find in a diner.

Our DS picked up the table and fucking threw it over his left shoulder like it weighed as much as a baby pigeon. It crashed into a gaggle of recruits throwing food everywhere. He put his nose into this kids face and wove a tapestry of obscenities I only wish I could remember. Four DS rushed in and grabbed him by the shoulders. I had been here long enough to realize this was no staged act and side stepped my way out of the dead zone as quickly as possible. On either side of this kid it was like a recruit accordion. They cleared out as fast as possible trying to maintain some type of order as to not be reprimanded themselves.

I remember being told to get back in line for food and I remember marching back to the bay. After doing some random tasks for about 15 minutes we were called down to the drill floor.

Our DS was standing there. He looked odd. I can't even place a finger on it but the tone he took on was something I hadn't seen since I had been there. Almost as if he wasn't in complete control of himself. He was almost regretful.

We stood there for a solid 3 minutes before he finally spoke. I still remember the exact words he said to this day. "I have never come so close to killing a recruit since my pinning as a DS. Private <x> will not be rejoining you as he has recycled back to phase 1. I have hereby resigned as your DS and will be leaving fort <suck>. I wish you all the best."

We graduated 3 days later. This was over 15 years ago.