# The Army teaches you how to stand in line



## jerry old (Jun 20, 2020)

The Army teaches you how to stand in line, long lines.

Remember the processing station where you spent two weeks getting your
clothing, the battery of test-lasting two days, getting your shots, the make work
details because they did not want recuits 'laying around.'
'Get them off their butts, put them in line.'
'A line for what?'
' A line to keep them busy?'
'How can they be busy standing in line.'
'March them around then.'
'They don't know how to march.'
'No, but they'll be off their butts.'

The most important, and the most lasting behavior they taught you: HOW TO STAND IN LINE.  You stand in line and wait, that's the army way.
You become accustomed to lines,  you develop the ability to enter a *comatose state* as you wait, wait and wait.
They tell you, 'Once you reach you permanent station, things will be better.'

In Basic and  AIT your CO eats an occasional meal in the mess hall.
The cooks never know when the CO will show up for a meal-it keeps them on their toes.  However, your still standing in lines.

Now you get to your permanent duty station. There is no longer company mess, there
is no longer company anything---- it is now BATTALION.
You thought you had learned how to stand in line,
Naw, now you get to stand in  battalion lines!

The mess hall was a two story building: they feed your battalion and another;
two battalions, that is somewhere around 1200 men.
Ah, your so happy that you had learned how to STAND IN LINE.

Should I digress  and discuss the delicious field rations.  Who knows, they may have
been edible if warmed.  Who can forget the wonderful Ham and Lima Beans with the
congealed grease?  When did the Pork and Beans Ration become gourmet dining?

I still check the employment ads, looking for employment where standing in line
experience is considered an asset-still looking.


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## JaniceM (Jun 20, 2020)

jerry old said:


> The Army teaches you how to stand in line, long lines.


Maybe that's where my father got an expression he said he learned in the Army:  "Hurry up and wait."


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## Aunt Bea (Jun 20, 2020)




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## Aunt Bea (Jun 20, 2020)

I've heard the term but I never knew where it came from.


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## MarciKS (Jun 20, 2020)

i'm horrible at waiting in lines. i have the patience of a gnat.


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## win231 (Jun 20, 2020)

MarciKS said:


> i'm horrible at waiting in lines. i have the patience of a gnat.


Or a vulture.  One vulture said to the other:  "Patience, my ass.  _I'm gonna kill something."_


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## MarciKS (Jun 20, 2020)

it's either wait in line forever or learn how to do their jobs for them in the self serve line. i'm not ringing my own crap up for the same price. i'm not an employee and unless they wanna pay me wages they can do it.


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## Meanderer (Jun 21, 2020)

*$*ome line*$* were better than other*$*!


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## Ken N Tx (Jun 21, 2020)

Sargent: I suppose you will pee on my grave when I am gone??
Private: No sir I am tired of standing in lines!!


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## squatting dog (Jun 21, 2020)

Some were worse.


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## oldmontana (Jun 21, 2020)

Meanderer said:


> *$*ome line*$* were better than other*$*!


I remember this.  Except in Germany we were paid in script.



After World War I and World War II, _scrip_ was used as "emergency money" or Notgeld in _Germany_ and Austria. ... Since ordinary money could be used in escape attempts, _they were_ given _scrip_ that could only be used with the approval of camp authorities, usually only within the camps.


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## squatting dog (Jun 21, 2020)

In Vietnam, we were paid in MPC (military pay certificate). Every once in a while, the Army would change the design (to prevent counterfeiting I think), and we'd have to return to a base camp and swap it out. I liked that as it usually gave us an overnight stay in a rear camp and that meant a real hot meal.


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## Lewkat (Jun 21, 2020)

oldmontana said:


> I remember this.  Except in Germany we were paid in script.
> 
> 
> 
> After World War I and World War II, _scrip_ was used as "emergency money" or Notgeld in _Germany_ and Austria. ... Since ordinary money could be used in escape attempts, _they were_ given _scrip_ that could only be used with the approval of camp authorities, usually only within the camps.


Also in France.  We'd have to go to the base bank to get greenbacks in order to exchange them on the market when we traveled.


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## Lewkat (Jun 21, 2020)




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## fuzzybuddy (Jun 22, 2020)

No. No. It's not only the Army that believes whole hardheartedly in lines. Anchors aweigh, the Navy does too.* "Nuts to butts"*, The Navy believes you can always squeeze one more sailor in a line. Most people don't get as close together as sailors in a chow line.
BTW, in boot camp, they woke us up at 5:30. They gave us exactly 30 minute to S*S*S. At 6 AM, we had to be standing in line for mess, which didn't open to 7.
Besides standing in line, the Navy is big on "duty". Every couple of days, you have two hours, extra "duty" during the nighttime hours. In boot camp, I remember freezing my ass off from 2-4 AM guarding this huge steel beam. You needed two cranes to move it;  as  it was 80 feet long, and about 6 feet high. They were building a new theater. They were afraid somebody was going to pocket it.


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## Lewkat (Jun 22, 2020)

fuzzybuddy said:


> No. No. It's not only the Army that believes whole hardheartedly in lines. Anchors aweigh, the Navy does too.* "Nuts to butts"*, The Navy believes you can always squeeze one more sailor in a line. Most people don't get as close together as sailors in a chow line.
> BTW, in boot camp, they woke us up at 5:30. They gave us exactly 30 minute to S*S*S. At 6 AM, we had to be standing in line for mess, which didn't open to 7.
> Besides standing in line, the Navy is big on "duty". Every couple of days, you have two hours, extra "duty" during the nighttime hours. In boot camp, I remember freezing my ass off from 2-4 AM guarding this huge steel beam. You needed two cranes to move it;  as  it was 80 feet long, and about 6 feet high. They were building a new theater. They were afraid somebody was going to pocket it.


In reality, they all do.


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## 911 (Jul 18, 2020)

At 18 and being in the Marines, it was the first time that I heard the phrase, “Hurry up and wait.” Since then, I must have heard it a few thousand times.


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## Manatee (Aug 28, 2020)

I was in the Navy on an LST.  When we had troops on board, sailors always went to the head of the chow line.


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## Nathan (Aug 31, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> In Vietnam, we were paid in MPC (military pay certificate). Every once in a while, the Army would change the design (to prevent counterfeiting I think), and we'd have to return to a base camp and swap it out. I liked that as it usually gave us an overnight stay in a rear camp and that meant a real hot meal.
> 
> View attachment 110538


I have one of those somewhere, probably in a box or bag along with a couple boonie hats and odd memorabilia.


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## Jamesed (Sep 18, 2020)

jerry old said:


> The Army teaches you how to stand in line, long lines.
> 
> Remember the processing station where you spent two weeks getting your
> clothing, the battery of test-lasting two days, getting your shots, the make work
> ...


Gee I thought that the Military excelled in TEACHING *"HURRY UP AND WAIT!!!!"*


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## tbeltrans (Sep 22, 2020)

"The Army teaches you how to stand in line, long lines. "

...and that is why I avoid lines whenever possible.  If we go out for dinner, it will be in the middle of the afternoon, for example.  I never understood why anybody who just put in a full work week would want to wait an hour for a table at a restaurant on Friday night.  Maybe those are the people who were not in the Army. 

Tony


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## Knight (Sep 23, 2020)

The ops story made my day. I'm really happy now this many years later I joined the Navy.


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## Pappy (Sep 23, 2020)

Wait in line for your shots, wait in line for your pay, wait in line for your chow, hey soldier, wait right there. And as usual, situation normal, SNAFU.


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## Becky1951 (Sep 23, 2020)

I remember a funny story my dad told. There was one private everyone could not stand, one private had heard that the Sargent was going to need some men to dig a new latrin, when the Sargent told them to line up (horizontal) he then asked for volunteers, everyone took 2 steps back leaving that private up front. 

Of course a couple more privates were picked by the Sargent to help get it done..


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2020)

I get fidgety in line.


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## tbeltrans (Sep 23, 2020)

Phoenix said:


> I get fidgety in line.



Drop down and give me twenty! 

Translate: give me 20 pushups...

Tony


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## Phoenix (Sep 23, 2020)

Tell you what, you can do it and I'll watch.


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## Meanderer (Nov 7, 2020)




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## Lewkat (Nov 7, 2020)




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## Mat (Nov 7, 2020)

squatting dog said:


> In Vietnam, we were paid in MPC (military pay certificate). Every once in a while, the Army would change the design (to prevent counterfeiting I think), and we'd have to return to a base camp and swap it out. I liked that as it usually gave us an overnight stay in a rear camp and that meant a real hot meal.
> 
> View attachment 110538


It also meant you needed your shot records before they swapped the money  heh


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## Don M. (Nov 7, 2020)

That's another reason why I'm glad I was in the USAF.  Outside of a month of Basic training....which was shortened from 6 weeks originally, because my school was starting early, the USAF was little different than holding a civilian job.


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