When I was stationed in Korea the first time, I had the oppurtunity to work with some of the most 'wrong' individuals I've ever met. And I was accepted into this group as one of the 'wrong brothers'. We were exactly that, brothers that always acted 'wrong'. Now what do I mean by wrong, you may ask. Well, I'll get to that here. Mostly, it was just sniping at each other, setting each other up for jokes, remarking about each other (and any topic really) in the least politically correct manner, if possible. We got raw, edgy, and downright mean as far as an outside observer might think. But this was the nature of our bond. And it was a very strong bond. As in the title, it was a brotherly bond. Well, here's an example of how wrong we could be.
During the second year of this assignment, one of my wrong brothers (referred to as HO in a prior article but as Different Hanja now and in future posts) went on a temporary duty (TDY) assignment back to the states. He went back to test some new equipment that never did work out and we never used. But the Army had a contract with this company and we had to put the new stuff through it's paces. This trip lasted at least 6 weeks, I think, maybe a little more. Well, during this time, we got a batch of brand new soldiers. They were all new guys straight out of DLI and AIT. They spent the first few days inprocessing and getting to know everyone in the unit. They kept hearing about the soldiers that were gone on the TDY and especially about SGT Different Hanja.
Specifically, they kept hearing about how cool SGT Different Hanja was. He ran a bar, he was a good friend to some of the other 98G's in the platoon, he had a great sense of humor, and everyone couldn't wait for him to get back. Well, they came to my office one day to inprocess through flight standards. One of them told me that they had heard that I was very close friends with SGT Different Hanja and asked me what he was like. They heard all these stories and just knew he had to be really cool.
Now, at this point I had two choices. I could tell them that everything they heard was right. He was one of my closest friends, he was very funny, he was one of the greatest guys to fly with, you could always count on him to help a buddy, he was quick with a joke (and a light up your smoke), just an all around great guy (and wrong, too). Or, I could have a little fun at his (and their) expense. I chose the wrong road.
I told them that he was, in fact, a great guy. I also told them that they would very likely think he was a great guy. But, I told them that he had a weird personality quirk. He only allowed himself so many friends. It was a weird quota thing. I told them that even if they liked him, there was no way he'd like any of them because he was all full up on people he liked. I told them that they should be extra careful and respectful around him when he came back. I even went so far as to say that I was glad I was on his list of friends and the same rank because if I was in their shoes, I'd get tired of jumping up to parade rest and saying SGT when I talked to him. They bought this all hook, line, and sinker. It took very little effort on my part to convince some other people in the unit to back me up on this, as they also thought this would be great fun.
Not long after this, Different Hanja came back to Korea. By this time, the new guys had adjusted into the platoon fairly well and were fairly used to the social dynamics of the platoon. The first time Different Hanja walked into the office, they all jumped up to parade rest and waited for someone to tell them to sit down. When he addressed them, they once again came to parade rest and gave answers peppered with more SGT's than you could easily count. This just irritated him, which caused them to become more nervous. It became a beautiful cycle. Different Hanja was a laid back kind of guy that got along well with most people. He was not a TED (Typical Enlisted Dork - we did have quite a few of them in the platoon at this unit) that demanded junior enlisted soldiers stand at parade rest or use SGT in every sentence. Like myself, if someone did something like that he'd turn around expecting to see the 1SG behind him. Instead, he'd deal with people in a relaxed manner and only if necessary would he "lock someone up". He was one of those guys that got respect because he deserved it, not because he demanded it.
Well, he came to me and asked me what was wrong with the new guys. He noticed that they weren't acting like this to NCO's senior to him and couldn't figure out why they were doing it to him. I casually remarked to him, "Well, it could be that I might have told them that you were a bit of an uptight jackass..." and then launched into an explanation of everything I had done. It was magical watching what I had done dawn on him. One of those perfect moments. I had a great deal of laughter and all he could say was - well, I can't really write what he said without clicking the adult content button and I'm trying to keep away from doing that, so let's just say it translates into nice English with "That's wrong!" I earned wrong brother #1 status for a long time after that one. It didn't take long for the soldiers to learn of the joke I played and they did in fact get to become close to Different Hanja.
To this day, that is one of my favorite memories of that time. And to this day, if I bring it up down in Companions, I get more of "That's wrong!" from Different Hanja. It's all good, though, because as wrong as either of us has ever been, we are still brothers.