[spcmafia]

Rough weekend with uncle Sam, as if it could ever be any better. Anyways, it was hard to see some disarray within the unit. Just a bunch of useless butter bars that cannot seem to talk to each other (we were always very fortunate with previous new officers before), and other senior leadership just checked out mentally. Low retention, and job mergers don't seem to help the situation.



The kicker of the story is that over my 8 years, I never received anything while I was actively "In" despite me never getting in trouble, never fail an exam, and having outstanding evaluations. Now that I'm technically "Out", my unit decided it was a nice idea to sort of "award" me. Im saying "award" because what I got, it is widely considered as an "Attaboy" more than anything.

Anyways, so there I am, eating my shitty food, and the Brigade Commander decides to arrive, introduce, do a speech, as we are all eating. No biggie.

The unit commander steps in, and calls me up. Im confused, so I just move and I get told to stand in the position of attention, he hands me a coin, salutes, and goes on about how he's rewarding me for my dedication to the unit. That he can't give me a Sergeant Tittle, but at least they want to recognize me.

Oh, and then someone else from brigade steps in, and gives me a, I shit you not, a bottle of maple syrup.



I mean I get the point of it, which I appreciate, but it was just bittersweet.



I know our company commander since he was only a butterbar and did some missions with him. So I did joke with him as I said " Sir, if you're thinking about bribing me into re-enlisting you should know that I'm not that cheap. I expect at least 3 bottles of maple syrup and a pack of cigs until I start considering it". We both laughed, and talked for a few minutes about the situation of the unit.