One is for Fighting One is for Fun.
Every army guy here knows EXACTLY what that means....
I never had to do it because my brother joined before I did and I heard his horror stories before I made the mistake. I watched a lot of guys go through the agony because they couldn't figure out they were carrying a
weapon.
I remember so clearly the time a new found friend of mine (just issued our weapons in boot camp) raised his hand and asked the DI what we were supposed to do with our gun during chow?
The DI marched over and got right in his face and asked him to repeat the question so ALL of us could clearly hear it!
I cringed as he yelled out "Seargant! The private would like to know what he is to do with his gun at chow Seargant! "
That DI smiled the kind of smile satan himself teaches in DI school, and as he walked back to the front of the platoon, he barked "You men will keep your
weapons with you at all times! You will eat with them, you will shower with them, you will sleep with them, they will be your new girlfriend while Jody is home with your old girlfriend!"
Then he yelled, "Private Smith! Front and center!" and the poor dog who asked about his gun ran up front and stood at attention. The DI then explained how private Smith obviously has his mind on the wrong things. His mind was thinking of home, of his girl, and thinking of his gun. To help him remember the difference between a weapon and his gun, the army has a helpful little song he would teach private Smith, and private Smith would skip chow today and practice the song while the rest of us ate. He would continue signing until the last troop was finished and back in formation.
Smith then ran around the outside of the chow hall yelling "This is my weapon!" while holding his rifle over his head with both hands. "This is my gun", and he'd grab his privates with one hand. Then both hands back on the rifle over his head "This is for fighting!" and once more grabbing himself "This is for fun".
It takes a platoon about 15 minutes to eat chow, and he ran around the building the whole time. One guy laughed and got to join him, that kept everyone else's eyes on their plates and wolfing food as fast as possible.
Smith never did learn the lesson and had to sing and run at least 6 times. Once when we were out on a 5 mile run, he had to run around the platoon as we were running down the road. I thought he would die.
Often our sergeant thought it would help if the rest of the platoon were motivated to help Smith remember the difference between a weapon and a gun, by doing push-ups while Smith ran around the platoon singing.
Man we ended up hating Smith....
