What is the worst or funniest social media incident that has happened to someone in your unit/base, and what punishment was issued if any?

Look, I'm a white dude and she said some pretty racist shit about white people....

... but what the fuck happened to free speech?

I had a troop at a couple of years ago that despised me. I had to ride his ass a lot about multiple PT failures, discipline issues, etc. I wanted to help this guy. I really did. He was incredibly intelligent and had the capability to really do something awesome with his life if he chose to (in or out of the USAF). He would just blow off everything I and his supervisor was trying to do to help save his career. Our flight CC told me multiple times to just give up. Write him off and spend my time on someone worthwhile.

I was NCOIC, and word got around the Airmen that he was talking incredible shit about me (by name) on Facebook. One of the SSgt-selects who was friends with him on FB felt it necessary to screenshot, print them out, and bring them to me. Some of the shit-talking was borderline libelous. He would leave out pertinent information about our counseling sessions, or complain from a 1-sided view about how the chain of command was picking on him. How we were unfair. Etc, etc, etc. My superintendent was furious, and wanted to start an investigation, but I asked him to let me handle it my way.

I told his supervisor to have the SrA report to my office; knock, facing movements, etc but remember to not salute. I asked him point blank if he was shit-talking me on Facebook. You could see his face begin to pale, as the blood drained out. He was caught completely off-guard, and scared he was about to get hooked up again.

I told him I don't care what he says on Facebook as long as it isn't libel. If he wants to get on there and say that he hopes I die in a car wreck, or he hates my guts, or whatever... that's ok. He didn't have to like me to work well with me. But as a Man, I expected from then forward that he acts like a Man and handle it properly.

Got a problem with me? Man up, speak your mind and be honest with me. No subordinate of mine will ever be in trouble with me for being honest, even if I don't like what they have to say. But I do expect truthfulness. If he wanted to handle it ol' school, well there's plenty of outside for that, too. But win or lose, I expected him to be a Man and bring his issues to me or whomever he has beef with.

He did a 180 after that, because he knew I had always been honest about his performance, and I expected the same from him. If he wanted to talk shit ---- go do it, but be a Man and be truthful. Typing some squirrelly half-truths for the other Airmen to see wasn't being a fucking Man.

tl;dr - Free speech solves more problems than it creates.

/r/AirForce Thread