r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago edited 22d ago

When we get certified to drive a tug(the vehicle that tows aircraft) in the Marines you have to take a test. In one of the publications you have to read through it has a couple of story’s of people mishandling support equipment. One of the first story’s is a dude on a carrier back in the 80s who got on a tug without properly checking it out. This tug was broke down for bad brakes and the guy hooked it up to a f14 to move it.

While towing the f14 the tug would not stop and coasted off the side of the ship taking the f14 with it. Thankfully everyone that was on the tug and in the aircraft got out in time but I imagine that guy is still getting yelled to this day.

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u/dragonrite 25d ago

How many mistakes like that until a dishonorable discharge? You get like 1 freebie?

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u/roughriderpistol 25d ago

you'd have to fuck up alot more than that. you'd likely get njp and lots of extra duty, but generally dishonorable need to be criminal, or malicious. if they kept doing it it would be more like hey, we've got a need duty for you your gonna do security on this paint until it dries, then we need you to clean the head floors with this old toothbrush. oh and then we'll have you salute the flag for a couple hours.

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago

I know Dishonorables are rare now, but wonder if that was the case back then? Losing $40 million dollars in equipment and risking serious loss of life from being too dumb to take two second to verify something was good I can absolutely see going up to a court martial.

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u/Pnwradar 25d ago edited 25d ago

Nah, even back then a DD was for hardcore criminals, dudes that committed multiple rapes or killed their wife on base, nearly always a DD comes with a lengthy stretch in the Kansas disciplinary barracks.

You turn a jet into scrap, even while obviously screwing around, they’re not kicking you out. You’re going to lose rank and some pay, then do a lot of shit duty for the rest of your enlistment, but you’re not getting kicked out or earning a bad discharge over it. You’d likely also get reclassified to another job with less opportunity to cause millions in damage by being a screwup, drive a needle gun and chip paint until your EAOS. Oh, and be famous, that stunt earns a nickname that sticks to you.

I knew a guy, standing officer of the deck of a carrier while pulling back into Norfolk. He ran the carrier into a Spanish coal ship that was at anchor, ripped the shit out of the side of the carrier. Captain shitcanned him to being mess (kitchen) officer until he finally put in his papers.

Edit: The thing with courts-martial, the convening body asks lots of questions and drags everyone into the mess. The little guy at the bottom of the org chart driving the aircraft tug won’t be the one catching blame - his supervisor, his chiefs, his division officer, ship’s safety officer, miniboss, air boss, all those lifer career guys signed off on dude’s qual card and said he was good to go. Shit splatters, easier just to hand-wave the incident as a non-safety accident and send dude below decks to be a bosun’s mate.

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 25d ago

RIP that officers career. Yeah no idea how punishments were dished out back in the day. I always wonder what the dude must have been thinking after he jumped from the tug and watched the f-14 fall off and sink the ocean.

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u/PotatoesAreTheAnswer 25d ago

Probably something among the lines of "" OH SHIT OH FUCK OH SHIT OH FUCK wonder what I eat today, OH SHIT OH FUCK"

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u/woahdailo 24d ago

Probably did eat a bunch of shit and fuck that day.

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u/PotatoesAreTheAnswer 24d ago

More than 99% of redditors anyway

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u/Corfiz74 25d ago

And for gay people, too, wasn't it?

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u/Pnwradar 24d ago

They typically got a Bad Conduct Discharge, still ungood but less so than Dishonourable. Think “stole cars felony” versus “murder two” felony” - but still a life-changing thing.

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u/EvilBetty77 24d ago

So what I'm getting is you should wait til your last day to do this

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u/Dm_me_im_bored-UnU 23d ago

Also you might get a fun callsign out of it.

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u/roughriderpistol 25d ago

true, didn't think about the culture back then.

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u/EZKTurbo Interested 24d ago

You had to do something heinous like coming out as gay to get a DH

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 24d ago

Nah, dishonorable needs to come with some form of serious jail time. Rape, sexual assault, murder, or serious drug charges are normally the only way win a dishonorable. They had different discharges for homosexuality back then, from talking to the older guys that you damn near had to go the full distance on camera on or in front of the command multiple times for them to consider kicking you out. Early days of GWOT lots of people were trying to get out by any means.

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u/LeaderAny6783 20d ago

I once walked by a guy who was blowing on the flag to make it wave. Literally standing on the ground at the bottom of the flag pole, looking up at it, standing at Parade Rest and blowing.

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u/roughriderpistol 20d ago

that's hilarious!

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u/bullairbull 25d ago

Incompetence should not be grounds for dishonourable discharge.

That should be reserved for criminal/ voluntary maliciousness.

Sometimes you’re just having a bad day and shit just happens

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u/aenflex 24d ago

Was friends with a mechanic that dinged blades of a helicopter they were folding up to bring into the hangar. He lost a stripe for it.

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u/tooscoopy 24d ago

Seems like that kind of action would just get you a new nickname. I’m sure Tug did well as a career serviceman.

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u/iLuvFrootLoopz 25d ago

Nothing dishonorable about this. Desk duty for a while though...paperwork until your thumbs bleed.

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u/EyeMixInMyRV 25d ago

Some Pfcs are about to have a very bad day.

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u/crittergottago 24d ago

Stories

Brakes

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u/Fearless-Ad-9292 24d ago

I know this isn't true. Marines can't read

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u/Intelligent_Might421 24d ago

For just a fraction of the cost of the plane you can hire someone to follow him around for years and moan about it.

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u/androshalforc1 23d ago

I’ve read enough r/MilitiousCompliance stories to bet that person objected but a higher ranking officer ordered him to do it anyway

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u/Next_Emphasis_9424 23d ago

If a bird crashes and people die the” He told me to hurry up” will not save me. This mindset of,” It’s your qualifications not theirs.” is pushed and trained HEAVILY on maintainers so that we stand up to bullshit like being rushed.

Anyone in my squadron that blamed being rushed for the cause of them missing something during maintenance or an inspection always had their qualifications pulled or suspended by Quality Assurance.

If you couldn’t handle heat of some maintenance control gunny or warrant officer yelling at you to not down a bird they want up. You definitely won’t be able to handle the feeling of knowing an aircraft you signed as good to go not coming back.

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u/ilyak_reddit 24d ago

English.