I Ordered Delivery Tonight and the Army Showed Up

[Burnsy]

I ordered 2 grilled cheese sandwiches with soup for delivery tonight because my wife has some respiratory issue (likely bronchitis, she gets it almost once every winter, to the doc tomorrow) and that is what she wanted. Didn't have the ingredients to make it myself and she didn't want me to leave to go get them.

Guy knocks on my door, I open it and there stands a 20 something in fatigues and boots, no coat. It's -3 out without windchill. He is not in surplus stuff. Crisp, clean and pleated. I am not ex .mil and know nothing about uniforms but the shirt had two places for Velcro patches on each side of the chest. Both had patches, one on the right (his left) had a Velcro patch that said "ARMY" on the left, (his right) was a Velcro patch that appeared to be a last name. There were Velcro patches on either shoulder but I don't know what they mean, one I could not see in the low light and the other was three of these ^. What you get when you hold shift and hit the number six on your key board.

The guy was sir this and sir that and basically snapped my food at me in quick movements. I was waiting for the weirdo to salute me as I handed him my signed copy.

WTF was that? A way to trick people into thinking they should give him a bigger tip?

 

[printcraft]

Sounds strange.... In for the info....

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Are you near a college? ROTC guy making some extra cash? I dunno. Without knowing what patches or insignia, it's tough to tell.

 

[Burnsy]

Sounds strange.... In for the info....

Not much more to tell. I closed my door and locked it, turned off my porch light and wondered what the hell was all about. Then I unpacked the food. I thought we were about to have dinner but my wife is a travel agent and her phone rang. She is on with Southwest still about a canceled flight for a wedding party. Grilled cheese and soup is cold. I stuck a thermometer in her ear a few minutes ago while she was on hold. 101.4 .

Was weird as hell though.

 

[sloughfoot]

Army messhalls do home delivery? I heard the military has budget problems... Oh wait, are you a General?

 

[ScouT6a]

Stolen Valor. He just robbed a real delivery boy of all the glory.

 

[Burnsy]

Are you near a college? ROTC guy making some extra cash? I dunno. Without knowing what patches or insignia, it's tough to tell.

I an in NWI. Merrillville, Lowell, Crown Point etc. Dunno if that helps. Either way, I would think a coat in these temps would be prudent. Just the uniform with all the snappy "sirs" I don't think the "ARMY" would look well on that in the recruits free time as a good thing. Seems a bit stolen valor, I just orderd some melted cheese on bread.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I an in NWI. Merrillville, Lowell, Crown Point etc. Dunno if that helps. Either way, I would think a coat in these temps would be prudent. Just the uniform with all the snappy "sirs" I don't think the "ARMY" would look well on that in the recruits free time as a good thing. Seems a bit stolen valor, I just orderd some melted cheese on bread.

The military does have rules about what you can do in uniform, but I've been out for so long I don't remember (and it could have changed fifty times) if you could work another job in BDUs. You are allowed to work other jobs as long as they aren't something that would put soldiers in a bad light.

 

[Drail]

It is truly sad if our military is forced to work in the fast food industry just to make ends meet. Was he wearing a cover? (hat) I know that when I served you absolutely could not work a civilian job and wear the uniform. You could not even fly commercial airlines unless you wore a Class A uniform. Now I see troops in fatigues in the airports every day. It's a Brave New World.

 

[Woobie]

I really would like to know what patch was on his left sleeve (current unit of assignment) and the last name, which you correctly surmised was the patch on his right chest. If the patch in the middle of his chest was three ^ (chevrons) his rank was Sergeant. No rank for a ROTC cadet. My guess, and my hope, is he isn't in the military. Otherwise he's being a goober and shouldn't be wearing sergeants stripes.

 

[Drail]

I tend to agree with you.

 

[bart1533]

Sounds like a wanna be...lol..

 

[halfmileharry]

At least he was polite. A step above my last delivery man.

 

[rosejm]

I want to know where you could order Grilled Cheese and Soup for delivery?

That's a plan I can get behind!

 

[mainjet]

I don't know what to tell you about this guy in regards to if he was or was not military. However, what is wrong or weirdo about a guy that says yes sir and no sir and is professional? I don't see weirdo in that story. I will not judge if he is military or not.

If he is not military or ROTC or something then he may have some problems but I would think that his store manager would deal with that. But until we know different he is not a weirdo in my book from your description.

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

So... the important question... Was the food good?

 

[Cameramonkey]

And three chevrons is a Sargent as I recall. (correct me if I am wrong) Given what he was doing and how he acted with the attempt at delivering your food like he was going through the changing of the guard at Arlington, my gut says "stolen valor" wanna-be.

I'd call the delivery place to ask "WTF?".

 

[AmmoManAaron]

I want to know where you could order Grilled Cheese and Soup for delivery?

That's a plan I can get behind!

I'm on-board for this too!

 

[femurphy77]

It is truly sad if our military is forced to work in the fast food industry just to make ends meet. Was he wearing a cover? (hat) I know that when I served you absolutely could not work a civilian job and wear the uniform. You could not even fly commercial airlines unless you wore a Class A uniform. Now I see troops in fatigues in the airports every day. It's a Brave New World.

It's been truly sad for a long time! I'm a brat (Dad retired CW3 about 20 years ago) and have lived in military towns a large part of my life. I've had a lot of buddies throughout my life that were military and have known a LOT of them to work second jobs just to make ends meet. Being a married low ranking NCO with 2 or 3 kids is no place to be if you like the American dream, you know the one. . .white picket fence, good education for the kids an extra car for the stay at home wife etc. I don't know how it is now but 20 years ago if you didn't rate on base housing your choices in town were limited. The local slumlords knew what your housing allowance was and managed to get every dime of it and then some.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I really would like to know what patch was on his left sleeve (current unit of assignment) and the last name, which you correctly surmised was the patch on his right chest. If the patch in the middle of his chest was three ^ (chevrons) his rank was Sergeant. No rank for a ROTC cadet. My guess, and my hope, is he isn't in the military. Otherwise he's being a goober and shouldn't be wearing sergeants stripes.

Yeah, I missed that in the OP. 3 chevrons is a sergeant. ROTC cadets do have rank insignia, but its dots, not chevrons.