PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents MSgt Michael Ash’s legacy of their military service from 1972 to 1993. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
What Was Your Nickname or Callsign During Your Military Service? Can You Recall the Nicknames or Callsigns of Other Characters From Your Service and How These Were Earned?
I earned “Spiderman” in the most humbling way imaginable for someone working in classified intelligence. After contracting crabs, I captured one of the offending critters and taped it to a piece of paper like I was preparing evidence for analysis – occupational hazard of working in intelligence, I suppose. When I brought my “specimen” to the base clinic, the first medic I showed it to squinted at it and said, “Well, that looks like a little spider.” I had to patiently explain to this individual that it was definitely NOT a spider, and that we had a significantly more embarrassing situation to address. Finally, I got in to see an actual doc who confirmed my self-diagnosis and issued the appropriate treatment.
When I returned to my unit and told the story, the guys fell over laughing. From that day forward, I was Spiderman – though for very different reasons than Peter Parker. The name stuck, and I learned to own it. After all, if you can’t laugh at yourself in the military, you’re going to have a rough time.
Then there was Rico who earned his name early on when someone asked where he was from during in-processing. He launched into this elaborate description of his background and heritage with such pride and detail that it sounded like he was briefing on a target package. From then on, anytime we needed someone to brief the officer-in-charge or explain something complicated, guys would say “Get Rico – he’ll give you the full intelligence estimate.” Eventually everyone just called him Rico, and he owned it completely. The man could brief a phone book and make it sound like a national security matter.
The USAF Security Service Bond:
What made these nicknames special was the environment we earned them in. Working in windowless vaults, odd shifts, and classified spaces created a brotherhood that only people with our clearances could understand. These nickhames weren’t just jokes – they were our identity in a world where we couldn’t talk about what we actually did.
Read the Military Memories of our Runner-Ups.
PRESERVE YOUR OWN SERVICE MEMORIES!
Boot Camp, Units, Combat Operations
Join Togetherweserved.com to Create a Legacy of Your Service
U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard
SHARE:
0 Comments