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In the 1990's I was a residence hall director on a college campus. My building was 450 freshmen men, four floors, brick, no AC, in Missouri. Aside from the normal parties, fights, fire alarms, vandalism...probably the most nerve racking was a phone call in the middle of the night, my door monitor said there was a resident in the building with a gun(!). Of course we called campus police, state trooper and 911 and gathered my resident advisors. We figured out who it was...and escorted the police to his room. They knocked, but no response...since I had the master key, I got to open the door and get the heck out of the way. Thankfully he was passed out on his bed, drunk.

He had stumbled home, got a BB-gun (that looked very much like a hand gun), and went to the computer lab. Held the gun to another resident's head and asked if he wanted to die today? Not a good move on his part.

Now discovered drunk in his room, the trooper tried to wake him up...he took a swing at one of them, and it was then GAME ON! They had him on the floor and cuffed in no time flat. He got kicked out of the building forever, but strangely was allowed to stay in school. This was probably 1992.

Thankfully no deaths or suicides in my building...I did that job for 5 years.

On the fun side, I later ran campus activities department, and got to be the liaison, driver, "handler" for some really cool people. Dave Chappell (this was well before his TV show and fame...he was a great guy to my students), Jim Lovel, Alan Page, Whitey Herzog and a host of other small time bands. Wycleff Jean did a concert in our arena. He and his manager were jerks.

During the summer while I was in college I worked construction. We had a contract to replace a steam line on a military base. Before digging up the old line, the steam had to be turned off which involved going down a man hole into a VERY hot environment and turning a large valve several revolutions. I volunteered to do it. They strapped a rope around me so they could pull me out if I passed out. I could only stand to be down there about 30 seconds due to the heat so it took three trips to turn the valve completely off. When I was done an older guy said that was probably the dumbest thing I had ever done. I'm thinking why didn't you tell me that before I did it.

I work in shipping so I have my favorite shipping stories. About a decade ago I was asked to pack and ship an official NFL regulation ball inflator. A quarterback who had a place in the Yellowstone Club and in New England wanted it sent home. This quarterback (a real Patriot), was very sensitive about making sure his footballs were properly inflated.

More stories tomorrow but it's bed time.

We watched a tornado go by once. It looked a lot closer than it was.

Two employees got in a fight once. One guy provoked the other one and the guy he provoked knocked him down. An old lady customer saw the whole thing. When she walked up to us she said “ Ive never heard such language in my life “ then she said that boy hit the other boy haaaard. They both got fired , but the one who got hit won the worker’s comp case…

We also had a tech get his finger cut off when he jumped down out of the truck . He had his hand on top of the door frame, and when he jumped down his wedding ring got hung on the lip of the frame…it couldn’t be re attached.

One morning in March 2019 a cab driver knocked on my Firehouse door and let us know the building behind us was on fire. We got rolling, my LT called dispatch for the box assignment and away we went.

The building was under construction and there was a chain link fence surrounding it. There was heavy smoke pouring out of the second floor above us. One of the Ladder 2 guys cut the fence while another FF and I got ourselves ready to make entry with a line. In that amount of time the fire went from smoke to fire blowing far enough above us that the plastic bits on my Engine started to melt. Needless to say we didn’t make entry and the pump operator disconnected all the lines and moved the engine.

Had the fence not been there, Gordy and I would have been well up the stairs to the second floor. The fire went to five alarms.

It was one of two fires in my career that really could have gone bad.

That’s me kneeling and John O’Driscoll, the truckie that cut the fence.

I'll go out on a limb here and say First Responders, LEOs, firefighters, and many military members

can comment here with some rather robust comments.

Personally, my job description as a Boatswain's Mate had it moments of wildness.

crazy and even funny (drill instructor).

After a career of routine insanity, a single selection becomes challenging.

I think it might even be fair to say that much of what was a routine day at work

conjures up many of those thoughts above.

Which makes the real crazy stuff seriously emotional memories.

(the kind that wake me up at night)

Photos leave out the things I remember most.

The sounds.

The smells.

And the feelings of the emotions of the people I shared the experience with.

Never really figured out why the worst deals always happened

in the freezing cold and pitch blackness of night.

Fortunately, we all made it out alive.

A-Jay

@DogBone_384 and @A-Jay - thank you both for being on the 'front line'

Andy - Boats 1? Chief Boats? Dad was a Navy PO2 when he got out after 4 years.

My own experiences were a little more mundane - Underwater Search and Recovery for a few years....worst was finding a guy a few days after the crawfish found him.

Just now, MN Fisher said:

@DogBone_384 and @A-Jay - thank you both for being on the 'front line'

Andy - Boats 1? Chief Boats? Dad was a Navy PO2 when he got out after 4 years.

Once we advance to E7

Our name changes to "Chief".

(Lynn as well)

When we call USAA, they always answer "Good Afternoon Chief"

And proceed to use military time.

I know it's weird, but we like it.

A-Jay

1 minute ago, A-Jay said:

And proceed to use military time.

I know it's weird, but we like it.

Dude - I got out of the Air Force in 1984 and my watch/phone are STILL set to military time.

2 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Dude - I got out of the Air Force in 1984 and my watch/phone are STILL set to military time.

Phones, all clocks, the GMC, and the Humminbirds in Lund.

A-Jay

When i was in the US NAVY SEABEES stationed in Pt Hueneme Calif, every time our battalion came back from overseas deployment I was assigned TAD to the US Marine corps weapons dept as a M60 and M16 instructor and rifle range coach. I was stationed out at Pt Mago artillery rifle range on the Pacific coast 25 minutes north of Malibu Beach.

Just so happens the range is bordered by a nude beach on the south flank and all the Malibu girls would come up there. We always had a soldier on that flank as a lookout and beach watch with high powered binoculars looking for boats who didnt get the maritime report and to stop anyone from wandering into the live range.

Our bullets were going through the targets over the beach and into the water. Whoever got the beach watch that day was very happy. After a day of shooting I and a few guys would always in uniform walk the beach and mingle with the nude girls, I was 21 yrs old at the time, I was very intimidated by these hot girls and didnt have the nerve to ask one out.

I've got a fun one that I remember.

In 2016, I went on a foreign trip to Peru. After work one evening, the diplomats in Peru I was working with took me to an outfit that had buggies to cruise the sand dunes. Something I'll never forget.

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Personally, my job description as a Boatswain's Mate had it moments of wildness.

crazy and even funny (drill instructor).

You should dust off your uniform and teach the youngins on the Eagle how it's done. Bring a couple rods too... I'll take you smallmouth fishing (though New Hampshire smallies might disappoint you when compared to Lake Menderchuck!).

8 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

The fire went to five alarms.

That means 5 companies responding?

Well I did wildlife damage control for 17 years so I could write a book. One guy I worked with was named Murray so my boss always threatened to title the book “tuesdays with Murray” 😂

One crazy story that stands out was working at a steel mill. They always called us for a dead animal smell in their trailers. They had a bunch of small single wide trailers they used for break rooms, safety training videos, etc. Murray and I started slithering under the stinky trailer armed with respirators, shovels, garbage bags, and tongs to remove the stinker. Usually you can see the tarp/vapor barrier underneath such a structure sagging where the dead animal is (and of course follow your nose). When we start smelling the stench stronger, we can see a big sagging area nearby. I cut a hole in there and put a mirror and flashlight in to see what we might be dealing with. I could see a bunch of fur on a rather large creature, I told Murray he’s gotta see this for himself. He was looking into the mirror and mumbled thru a respirator “is that a red fox?” About that time, we started hearing a strange chirping sound. And right after that sound, a full grown nursing female dog is running around under the trailer with us. Murray says “Russell, grab that shovel!” I says “what the hell do you want me to do with a shovel? He replied “keep that dog off me!” 😂. Luckily the dog was friendly and didn’t try to kill us. But we still had no explanation for what in the world was going on. We begin to cut the tarp to let what we thought was a fox fall down into a garbage bag (always fun with maggots raining down). Turns out it was a dead male German shepherd mix, pretty odd to be up off the ground in the insulation where we usually found dead possums and stray cats. Here’s the kicker, remember the chirping sound? There were 8 live puppies on top of the dog carcass, and that’s why there was a living nursing female dog running around in the crawl space supervising our activity. We put them in a bucket and dragged them out of there along with the dead dog. When we finally made it out to fresh air, we had a few dilemmas on our hands. What do we do with 8 puppies and how are we going to bury this big dog in the middle of summer with the ground being rock hard clay? We started attempting to dig a hole near the train tracks and luckily somebody rolled up and said “you can just throw that mess into the dumpster, they empty it every night” so that’s where we put the big male dog. I think we would still be there trying to dig thru that clay if he hadn’t said that. As for the puppies, I took them to the local animal shelter. You can imagine how they smelled from living on a rotting carcass. I’m sure they had fun trying to bathe those! I felt kind of bad for momma dog, she was running all around my truck trying to nurse her pups but we figured the shelter was a better place for them than under a trailer on top of a dead animal. No clue why she put them there, maybe warmth? Another day, another dollar……

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Well I did wildlife damage control for 17 years so I could write a book. One guy I worked with was named Murray so my boss always threatened to title the book “tuesdays with Murray” 😂

One crazy story that stands out was working at a steel mill. They always called us for a dead animal smell in their trailers. They had a bunch of small single wide trailers they used for break rooms, safety training videos, etc. Murray and I started slithering under the stinky trailer armed with respirators, shovels, garbage bags, and tongs to remove the stinker. Usually you can see the tarp/vapor barrier underneath such a structure sagging where the dead animal is (and of course follow your nose). When we start smelling the stench stronger, we can see a big sagging area nearby. I cut a hole in there and put a mirror and flashlight in to see what we might be dealing with. I could see a bunch of fur on a rather large creature, I told Murray he’s gotta see this for himself. He was looking into the mirror and mumbled thru a respirator “is that a red fox?” About that time, we started hearing a strange chirping sound. And right after that sound, a full grown nursing female dog is running around under the trailer with us. Murray says “Russell, grab that shovel!” I says “what the hell do you want me to do with a shovel? He replied “keep that dog off me!” 😂. Luckily the dog was friendly and didn’t try to kill us. But we still had no explanation for what in the world was going on. We begin to cut the tarp to let what we thought was a fox fall down into a garbage bag (always fun with maggots raining down). Turns out it was a dead male German shepherd mix, pretty odd to be up off the ground in the insulation where we usually found dead possums and stray cats. Here’s the kicker, remember the chirping sound? There were 8 live puppies on top of the dog carcass, and that’s why there was a living nursing female dog running around in the crawl space supervising our activity. We put them in a bucket and dragged them out of there along with the dead dog. When we finally made it out to fresh air, we had a few dilemmas on our hands. What do we do with 8 puppies and how are we going to bury this big dog in the middle of summer with the ground being rock hard clay? We started attempting to dig a hole near the train tracks and luckily somebody rolled up and said “you can just throw that mess into the dumpster, they empty it every night” so that’s where we put the big male dog. I think we would still be there trying to dig thru that clay if he hadn’t said that. As for the puppies, I took them to the local animal shelter. You can imagine how they smelled from living on a rotting carcass. I’m sure they had fun trying to bathe those! I felt kind of bad for momma dog, she was running all around my truck trying to nurse her pups but we figured the shelter was a better place for them than under a trailer on top of a dead animal. No clue why she put them there, maybe warmth? Another day, another dollar……

What a train wreck.

I'll take a 20 ft wave falling on my head twice over that stinky mess. Good grief. I will say I may have ended that day with 8 new GSD puppies.

Naming them would have been fun.

A-Jay

12 hours ago, MontanaBasser said:

That means 5 companies responding?

No. A box (1 alarm) assignment is 3 engines, 2 trucks, and our heavy rescue. Add two companies for each alarm that's called after that. We had mutual aid from Boston, Braintree, Weymouth, Milton, and Dedham. Mutual aid companies come to the scene and cover unmanned stations during the active incident.

Quincy is a small city whose Mayor and City Council do a good job keeping us and the police well staffed, trained, and equipped.

I'm not a first responder or military so my stories are a little different. I make games and once worked on a TV show (more on that later).

My dangerous moments are mostly around video game fans having some real unhinged folks lurking in basements. I've had multiple people make credible threats (FBI assessment) against my colleagues and my life. It's a big reason why I try to stay anonymous on the internet. I'm NOT famous, but I am easily Googleable. I've had people doing contracting work show up at my house knowing who I am with questions about my work, etc.

Funny moment! I worked on the Apple+ steaming show Mythic Quest and got to write some dirty jokes for them. I wrote a joke about "TTP" (you'll have to Google that yourself) that Rob Mcelhenney said was one of his favs in his career which is a personal highlight. Also the current owner of Twitter tweeted about that one, but not sure how I feel about that dude these days 😅.

Quite a few years back I was a locate contractor for a utility company here in Michigan. Where I am we located their natural gas lines. I was a supervisor at the time and I responded to a damage to one of their lines my tech had located. I pulled up to within a half a block away from the damage and could see fumes coming from the storm sewer. I told one of their guys and he took one look and his entire demeanor instantly changed! He had me start taping off a large area and once word spread gas was in the sewer, things went a from just another leak, to things could get real bad really quick! There is a real small ignition window for natural gas and when it gets into a confined space, that ignition window can be reached easily. Thankfully nothing happened that day.

I now work for that utility company and I respond to gas damages weekly and sometimes multiple times a week. That one damage was the only time I was worried things could go south.

A lot of the craziest stories are NSFW and wouldn't be appropriate for the forum. The fights, the bodies, the insanity of humanity is all there. It's really crazy how much the last 20 years bleeds together.

I think one that stands out the most was early on working in the jail in KCK. A female deputy was patting down a new arrest that KCKPD had just brought in when she was suddenly screaming "gun! gun! gun!", and wrestling with him. There was only a couple of us in booking but we were all on top of him in an instant, but that was one very dangerous situation.

We also had Marc Sappington come back to us for court when I worked there. He was known as the KC Vampire for killing, dismembering, eating and drinking the blood of his friend. He came back from prison for a court hearing when I was working the intake window with my buddy who is Hispanic. Sappington looked Ernesto up and down and kind of hissed that he had "Never had Mexican before".

A few years ago, I was tasked with taking John Robinson to his clemency hearings. Robinson was a serial killer, convicted of killing 8 women and hiding their bodies in barrels in rural Johnson County, KS. At this point, he's later on in life and it's a long walk to the court room, so I got a wheel chair to push him to court in so he wouldn't have to walk and risk him falling. The only one available wasn't in the best condition and he immediately started complaining about it. I wasn't really thinking as my partner and I got on the elevator with him and I said "Yeah, we're kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel around here". I heard my partner snort, but I was focused on what I was doing and didn't really pay attention to him when he fell behind me while I was walking and I could still hear him making noises. When we got to the courtroom, he texted me "You said scraping the bottom of the barrel to John Robinson", and that's when I realized that he was right, I had said scraping the bottom of the barrel to the guy known for hiding bodies in barrels. It's a story that my partner still likes to tell to anyone that will listen.

12 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

A lot of the craziest stories are NSFW and wouldn't be appropriate for the forum.

My best friend from college, best man at my wedding, was a cop...things he told me I wouldn't repeat to anyone...he knew I could take it given my USAR experiences.

You guys have a tough job, and thankless in many cases. You got my thanks, Clayton...in spades for all you guys do.