Getting Chief'd

So the Air Force has this new term whereby you get corrected for your uniform being wrong, forgetting your reflective belt or other basic administrative BS.  It is affectionately known as being "Chief'd."  The genesis being that our highest ranking enlisted members, Chief Master Sergeants, are usually the ones doing the spot corrections. Currently the uniform standards are the highest priority for leadership here at KAF and this has a trickle down affect on those who believe themselves to be up and coming "senior leaders."  Anyone can chief you, it doesn't actually have to be a Chief Master Sergeant.  Eventually everyone will get Chief'd, here is my story...

About 4 days ago while sitting around our TV room I decided I needed to drop off my laundry.  The conundrum is that August is Ramadan, Islam's holiest time.  As such, we are restricted on uniform combinations to prevent upsetting the people we are trying to kill...for my Canadian friends that is an example of irony (Canadians don't get irony).  Anyways, the one chance we have for wearing just shorts and a T-shirt right now is walking to and from the gym and really no where else.  So on this particular day I decided I would drop of my laundry while going to the gym.  The laundry facility is no kidding 100 feet away and I felt justified in doing so, there is one individual here at KAF who disagrees.

So as I walk out of the laundry and start across the road I hear "AIRMAN...EXCUSE ME...AIRMAN!!!"  For those of you who don't know the Air Force has adopted a term similar to the Army's soldier and the Navy's sailor. The problem is soldier, sailor, and marine are not ranks within their respective services.  An Airman in the US Air Force is the rank at which our basic trainees graduate so they are the youngest individuals we have.  As such it annoys me greatly when I get referred to as "Airman."  Not an ego thing but just a Beastism if you will.

I turn around and say "Yes, what can I do for you?"  I immediately recognize that this individual is NOT our Wing Commander, Base Commander, or any other type of individual who can cause me great harm so my initial fear factor quickly fades and I decide it's game on!  One of the basic abilities of your run-of-the-mill fighter pilots is a graduate level ability to mess with people; it is just in our DNA, and this guy was not a fighter pilot. The next words out of his mouth are incredibly important but unfortunately for him our exchange went something like this:

Him - "Are you going to the gym?"

Me - "Why else would I be dressed like this?"

Him - "Where is the gym?"

Me - "You don't know where the gym is?"

Him - "Where do you live?"

Me - "Do you know where Florida is?" as I point off in some random direction (this is also ironic since I am from Florida and my room on KAF is on Florida Rd)

What you may notice here is that I have successfully answered every question with a question, try this sometime it isn't that easy.  Also at this point I realize that this guy truly believes in what he is doing as do I, your classic battle of wills!

Him - "Does it make sense to you to wear your PT uniform to drop off laundry?"

Me - "Does it makes sense to you for me to walk 6 blocks to the laundry facility just to walk back 6 more   blocks so I can then change into a PT uniform to walk back the 6 blocks to the gym?

Him - "Doesn't matter, that is not authorized" Here he breaks the line of questioning

Me - "It makes sense to me and that is all that matters"

Him - "You can't wear your PT uniform to drop off laundry!"

Me - "Looks like I just did!"

At this point he is starting to realize I don't care about his rank or authoritative tone; I know lieutenants that can chew ass better than him and I am not impressed.  This has him clearly frustrated because when he rolled down the window on his air conditioned vehicle he probably thought he would make the Air Force a better place, and he may have were anyone else crossing the road at that moment.  But I am getting nervous taht I may have to lie in the bed that I have made and that could be bad thing depending on who this guy turns out to be.  That final comment was my way out of the conversation and as I turned and walked away from this guy I started having visions standing in front of my commander trying to explain why he and I are about to head over to the Wing Commander's office after I just verbally bitch slapped his exec or something. 

Standing by my guns though, I strolled down the sidewalk until I felt confident he wasn't following me wanting to keep this going.  My first chiefing and it felt good, God I love this place! 

Thanks for listening,

Beast

ps- I never did go to the gym, hahahaha!