Poison Ivy
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Sherman, set the Wayback machine........
Fort Benning, bunch-o-decades ago, Basic Training. A little background: one of the fellow E-nothings in our platoon received a bonafide neo-nazi newspaper during mail call. Guys wearing gray uniforms, stiff arms salutes, the whole kit and caboodle. Not in an envelope, just mailed to him plain by one of his friends. That didn't go over well with the drill sergeants. That kid immediately got the nickname Fascist, and it stuck.
Later on that cycle, typical FTX day, playing Army and camping out. We moved into a position which we were to secure and then later set up camp and spend the night. I was on perimeter security, and took up a position using a tree as cover. All around the area was Poison Ivy. I've never been concerned about Poison Ivy or Poison Oak, as I am one of the lucky 15% or so of people who do not react to the stuff at all, so I don't pay it any mind. One of the drill sergeants walks by and starts yelling at me "you idiot, you're laying in Poison Ivy!!!". I told the drill that I don't react to it and never have, and he just stared at me for a bit and asked me how I knew. I told him about growing up with the stuff, how other kids would suffer but it never bothered me. Then a light bulb lit up over his head.
He hollered for Fascist to "come here", which he promptly did. He then ordered me to low crawl through a large patch of Poison Ivy, and for Fascist to follow me through the patch. After that short trip, the drill sergeant ordered us both back to our positions. I continued with the the exercise without incident. A couple hours later the other guy was taken to the hospital. He didn't return during our cycle.
Drill Sergeants have their ways.
Edit: Some of the comments are questioning whether the paper was a bad prank. It was not. When the drill saw it at mail call, he yelled something like "WTF is this?", and the guy answered that it was from a group he belonged to.
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