Looks like we’ve established that fragging means killing. I have to admit being genuinely surprised; I thought it was just something you did to make an officer rethink his attitude. Thanks all.
I disagree. If you think a guy is so bad that he’s endangering your life, would you screw around trying to injure him and risk him witnessing such an event? Risk having yourself thrown in jail?
[Charlie Sheen] Fuck military justice, I say we frag that fucker tonight.
[/Charlie Sheen]
IIRC 
It was a popular topic when I was in VN and I’m sure there were some people killed that way.
Although nobody died, I did have two personal experiences with booby-traps. We discovered one that was set up by Vietnamese workers. The handle of a grenade was pushed into a sandbag and then a second sandbag was used to hold the grenade and handle together after the pin was pulled out. It was arranged so that it looked like the grenade had been dropped and was lying in the sandbags on the bunker. Picking it up would have activated it. When we looked we couldn’t see the pin ring so we were suspicious and had the EOD guys come and pick it up. It was a live grenade.
More to the point of someone trying to kill one of our own, someone in my unit did set up a booby-trap, using a Claymore mine, to kill a senior NCO. It was discovered and disarmed before it was tripped. Everyone was pretty sure who the perp was, but nobody could prove it.
Just out of interest, what had this NCO done to make the guy hate him so?
And what does NCO mean anyway? I assume O is for Officer, but the only explanation for NC I can think of is Non-Commissioned, and that doesn’t make sense to me.
thats it … non comissioned officier
It used to mean at one point (this may be very wrong) a officer that rose throuhg the ranks unlike say a officer from west point who received a comission upon graudating a school
Althouhg now days all officers have to go throuhg a school of some sorts so its sort of lost its meaning …
Never heard that one. An NCO is an E-4 or E-5 (at least in the Marines). Private, PFC, and Lance Corporal are “Non-Rates”, Corporal and Sergeant are “Non Commissioned Officers”, and Staff Sergeant, Gunnery Sergeant, and above are “Staff Non Commissioned Officers”. What we all think of as Officers ( the 2ndLt up through Generals) are “Commissioned Officers”. Warrant Officers are just that.
Priceguy, The truth is nothing, except piss off the wrong guy. My unit was a little odd in that most of the NCO’s came from an artillery background, but we were an aviation unit. This particular NCO, an E-7, wanted everyone to muster-up every morning for formation, pick up all the cig-butts in the area and generally pretend that we were stationed stateside, rather than at a fire base in the middle of the DMZ. He did pick on, and ride a couple of guys pretty hard about uniforms and polished boots etc. I don’t think he did anything that would warrant killing him, but then I was also an NCO and reported directly to the maintenance officer so I didn’t have to put up with his petty “let’s play Army” bullshit. At the time we were getting hammered pretty regularly by rocket and mortar attacks, and flying a lot of sorties, so people were tired, tempers were short, and nobody wanted any extra BS. The guy was a jerk and used his position to bully people and just make their life miserable. He just dug a little too deep and made someone snap.
The guy we all think did it was a little off anyway, and he was one of the guys that took the brunt of this guys wrath.
UB’s definition of NCO is correct.
Its a shame that people have to be so petty. Your NCO obviously did not seem the big picture around him. Personally, I wouldn’t have planted any explosives near him however, or done anything else to compromise his life. Just cause he is petty, doesn’t mean that I have to be. If he did that to me, I might have told him that there was a war on, or if I wanted to be a smart-ass, a “police action.” But I am sure that would not have settled things, I am sure it would have only angered him towards me.
People are like that outside the military, how exactly are you supposed to wake up such a person?
that should read “see the big picture around him.”
I can read reading, but I can’t read writing. Or something.
Ficer67, well, the fact that this guy knew someone intended to kill him was a wake-up call. I left about 3 weeks after it happened, and during that time he was withdrawn and didn’t bother anyone. Kept a low profile, as they say.
IRL, I’m not too shy, (read: old and cranky), so I don’t mind telling someone that I think they are a petty MF. However, in certain circumstances, this trait can be career limiting.