And here’s your pie
The military truly teaches service.
Through every aspect, enlisted military life is a lesson in humility.
It’s a hard thing to get used to. I know it was tricky for me, that’s for sure. You really don’t know how wrapped up in yourself you are until you’re at the behest of others, day in, day out.
Whether it’s picking pubic hairs out of urinal cakes, cigarette butts by the thousands, mucous out of water fountains, scrubbing floors, making others’ coffee, cleaning others’ weapons, or any number of tasks – there’s a new standard in humility that can be reached through the uniform.
We enlisted call it having a serving of “humble pie.”
I was loading up the water cooler with boxes and boxes of water a few weeks ago when a young lieutenant came out and started helping me lug in the loads. “Need some help?” he asked.
“Sure, sir. Thanks Just a few more should do it.” I said, and started talking with the guy.
A few minutes later a major came around. “Jeff, what the hell are you doing?”
“Sir, just helping with the water.”
Motioning him over, the major said, “Son, enlisted men are tools. Learn to use them.” And they went off to their meeting.
And there’s civilian humble pie too. God bless you guys, but a lot of you make a lot of money.
I was walking home from work, following three guys talking about their trip to Germany.
“John’s in love,” one said, cackling.
“What? Her? Please, it was just for the few days.”
“You flew her to Germany, John. That’s love.”
“The ticket was just $1,000. That’s like — what, three days work?”
Wow, and I thought getting $1,800 a month was decent.
Mmmmmm, pie.
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Talking Salmons 
We’re not supposed to talk about stuff like that, but since I’m here, I’ll straighten some things out.
First off, yeah, we make a lot of money, but I’ll tell ya, RMS makes 25-50% MORE than KBR for doing the same thing, sometimes less.
Think about this, we work 12 hours a day out here, when added up, it’s ~2.25 weeks worked in 1 single week…that’s why we make “so much”.
KBR is the lowest paid contractor out here, which I guess is the reason for being so big. Yeah, we get tax breaks, but depending on what department you work for, you can get “sent home” for sneezing in the wrong direction and wind up having to pay taxes…plus, you guys have weapons, we can carry a “legal” knife…yet we are constantly reminded that we’re in a “War Zone”…anyhow, I’m done with my rant, just wanted to point a few things out..
It’s all good. Just a sore subject for some guys.