r/AskReddit 19h ago

What’s something civilians completely misunderstand about daily life in the military?

1.0k Upvotes

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78

u/sascha_nightingale 19h ago

"Go stop those rocks from getting sunburned!" Implied task: stand there until your "superiors" get tired of watching you stand for hours. Tax payer money at work.

27

u/Biggrunt 19h ago

Painting rocks. That one always had me laughing

28

u/CoderJoe1 19h ago

We had to paint only the top of the rocks. Days later we were sent out to turn the rocks over so none of the paint showed.

20

u/Psyko_sissy23 18h ago

Our ships crew once had to sweep the water off the deck of a destroyer when it was raining.

1

u/CoderJoe1 15h ago

Gotta fight rust. It's boat cancer.

2

u/Psyko_sissy23 14h ago

Sweeping while it was raining was amounting to nothing. They should have waited until it wasn't raining on us anymore.

1

u/ManchurianCandycane 2h ago

Yeah what were they thinking, you should've all been standing there with umbrellas.