Many times over the years, I saw different people shake their head in disbelief at the stupidity of troops but this one is one of the best I saw.

During basic training, we had to learn the phonetic alphabet (alpha, bravo and so on). During field exercises, a sergeant kept challenging us on it by asking at random time "What comes after/before November?" Marking his notepad every mistake which had to be repaid with 5 push ups. We were a small group (15-20) and he could not believe how many of us could not answer until he heard one of the soldier starts singing the alphabet song before answering. That is when he realized that most of us could not tell wich letter came before/after any other letter without singing the stupid elementary school' song. We all knew the phonetic, we did not know the alphabet order.