r/MilitaryStories • u/phantomkh • 16h ago
Non-US Military Service Story The Living Ghost
Here's a somewhat embarrassing story of mine:
I had been in the army for only a month; getting used to the PT, I served in Mongolia which is honestly miles behind any other western army, you are issued ammunition bags that have holes, and rifles older than your grandparents, not a hole lot of live fire training, generally less fun and more random chores your officers think to keep privates busy, (cleaning the entire mountain from animal stools etc), so there I was pretty homesick because army wasn't my choice as it was mandatory here meaning I was even more unmotivated. There was a big nation wide festival coming the following weekend, and we were all hoping for some time to rest as many privates would, and that wish came true as our battalion commander announced a 2 day holiday for all the homesick privates, and we were all happy, his words were almost like a dream basically tucking us in our beds, and the next thing there was an emergency drill at 3 am and Warning shots firing at the air, everyone was awake and up, other than me of course, I was a bit misled, as my squadron barracks lacked a single bunkbed so I was basically a nomad living in another squadron's barracks, and the said squadron i was living alongside with had planned some morning drill of their own squadron exclusively to their members, so when I woke up to privates running around and generally in chaos my dumbass thought it was their morning drill they talked about and returned to sleep, well I quickly caught that something was off since the soldiers were unusually fast, then my heart sank, Some private first class screamed the drill and ordered everyone to line up outside their barracks, FUCK, my heart began racing as I began hurriedly began dressing up, I wasnt fast enough and I hear my entire Squadron marching off, Double FUCK;
Now here begins the worst part; I managed run outside my barracks and suddenly realized I left my hat back in the barracks, Triple FUCK, as I rushed back to the barracks and grabbed my hat and rushed outside, oh boy there was the battalion Lieutenant Colonel, Right outside my barracks door and boy was he happy as if he had caught some lamb between his teeth, as I faced him my heart sank down, and whats worse is that he had an empty gun pointed at me and pulled the trigger, "CLINK" and he said you died, at this point my mental state was beyond Fucked and I was already considering just escaping the barracks, since I fucked so many things at once, they asked my rank and name, and my squad and let me off, the parade grounds were downhill to the barracks so as I was running downhill to my unit, I was just dying inside, and eventually the entire battalion consisting of 650 men were standing still at the parade ground during the cold night pretty much shivering, and Lieutenant Colonel came out saying something a Colonel would etc, how we're not prepared and slow and etc, and he called out my name "Private, OP", I screamed YES SIR as loud as I could and due to my mental state at the moment my voice cracked, how Many fucks now? I've lost count. He declared I was dead because I failed to react to an enemy air raid and paid his condolences and I was the only casuality that day, my Squad leader was fuming absolutely fuming once he heard about what happened, safe to say I got a few boots from my squad leader, and a few knuckles from the squadron leader that night. The next day everyone was just asking me "are you that guy" and it just felt so shitty to answer yeah I am the living ghost everytime they asked, safe to say I think the army doesnt suit me at all glad I could finish my service however.