Today, I had to stop by the Quality Assurance office to do some paperwork I'd never done before. I've just received my CDQAR stamp, which is the highest level of safety qualification available. I was excercising my new responsibilities by looking for a missing part. Tore the whole aircraft apart, didn't find it, I hope it fell out the window.

Anyway, so I'm trying to get this paperwork straight. In QA is Gunny S, who kind of likes me, and his wife was there to eat lunch with him. She doesn't make a habit of it, she's rarely at the squadron. She doesn't seem to know how the Corps works.

My paperwork isn't quite right, so Gunny says something like "No Boviate, you need to sign off the supervisor block too, then bring me another copy." "Aye Gunny," I said, and walked out.

As I was leaving, I heard Mrs. S start to tell her husband that he shouldn't be so mean to me. I smiled, since by Marine Corps standards, he was being the soul of courtesy. He would not have been out of line screaming at me, it's just he's not that kind of guy.

So I straighten out the papers, come back, present them to him. He scans them over and says "All right, looks good. That's all you needed." I straighten out of parade rest and start to turn to leave, and she whispers "You should apologize to him!" to her husband. My impish nature takes over, and I come to attention and say "Gunnery Sergeant! I do apologize for my failure to complete my task correctly the first time. I am also sorry I forced you to have to correct me. I will try to not fall short of your standards in the future, Gunnery Sergeant!"

He chortles, and says "See that you don't, Corporal. Dismissed!"

I take a back step, about face, and march myself out of the room. Mrs. S looked like she wasn't sure whether to be embarassed, angry, or amused. I escaped before she made up her mind.

Posted by: Boviate at 06:05 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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