# Soldiers who think the rules don't apply to them **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 1, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250 "2013-05-01T20:11:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/1 "2013-05-01T20:11:46Z")
No, you can’t have a discount on that computer. No, you can’t go into the movies for free. No, you can’t park there. No, you can’t rape and murder your way through the Middle East without being prosecuted for it. No, you can’t crash a high school prom. > **[Kansas high school apologizes to airman who was barred from attending prom...](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/kansas-high-school-apologizes-airman-prom-flap-article-1.1331863)** > > A Kansas high school principal who barred a member of the Air Force from escorting his sister to prom has apologized to him in an attempt to quell a firestorm that's been fueled by a YouTube video of the debacle and the girl's heartfelt letter to the... What is with this fucking worship of people for being in the military? Who gives a shit that you’re an “airman”? The rule is no one over 21 at the prom. Why do you think you get to do whatever you want? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/2 "2013-05-01T20:28:26Z")
Air Force has soldiers? Who knew? And they’re in the military? I guess sorta. I kid I kid. ---
**Author:** ![panaccione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@panaccione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panaccione)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/3 "2013-05-01T20:48:23Z")
Yeah, I agree. This military worship thing is wearing thin. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/4 "2013-05-01T20:50:28Z")
I don’t understand: 1. Is this guy scum because of something someone else did in Iraq? 2. Is this guy scum because he wanted to escort his sister to the prom, despite being over the age limit? 3. Is it unreasonable to request a waiver to the age limit on account of being a blood relative? 4. Did he cause a disturbance with his salute? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/5 "2013-05-01T20:54:15Z")
Funny, I woulda thought that members of the military would be pretty familiar with the concept that rules apply to them. Anyway, OP, if you’re trying to make a general rant about military personnel behaving lawlessly you’re gonna need some better links. The one story you linked to isn’t even about an airman “crashing a high school prom”. According to the article, the sister of the airman in question had requested permission from school authorities to have her 22-year-old brother as her escort at her 21-and-under prom (he’d been deployed and she hadn’t seen him in a while and wanted him to be part of her special evening, I gather), and the permission was not granted. Consequently, the airman in question escorted his sister to the entrance of the prom venue, saluted, and left. AFAICT, he did not “crash” the prom nor give any indication whatsoever of thinking that “the rules don’t apply to him”. Why the situation became such a brouhaha, apparently, is that the sister wrote a letter to a local newspaper protesting the refusal of permission and it went viral and generated a lot of negative feedback. But nowhere do I see any suggestion that anybody involved, much less the airman himself, was attempting to break any rules or acting as though they were above the rules. TL;DR version: Lame pitting, supporting-evidence fail. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/6 "2013-05-01T21:04:37Z")
How did rape and murder get into this? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/7 "2013-05-01T21:07:20Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Why the situation became such a brouhaha, apparently, is that the sister wrote a letter to a local newspaper protesting the refusal of permission and it went viral and generated a lot of negative feedback. It probably didn’t help that this occurred in a town called Liberal, Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/8 "2013-05-01T21:10:28Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > How did rape and murder get into this? Not to mention computers, movies and parking? No idea. The middle of a Wednesday afternoon is a weird time for someone to be posting drunk, but I’m finding it hard to come up with another explanation of how anyone could have thought that OP constituted a coherent Pit rant. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/9 "2013-05-01T21:20:14Z")
I understand the need for this rule, but they really should have made an exception this time. The guy just got back from deployment and he wanted to escort his little sister to her prom. I really doubt he’s going to be sneaking in booze or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/10 "2013-05-01T21:26:08Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > I understand the need for this rule, but they really should have made an exception this time. Too late now, but apparently they’re now making a policy change to allow exceptions for family members/other special circumstances with individual approval. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/11 "2013-05-01T21:36:08Z")
I think giving active duty personnel a discount is a nice thing to do. I think discounting movies all the way to free is a nice thing to do. Both of these are in fact offered at times by merchants. I have never encountered military personnel demanding these, or frankly even asking about them. I have yet to see illegal parking by military personnel I would take issue with anyone, military or not, raping and pillaging their way through the middle east, much like I would take issue with them raping and pillaging anywhere else. I didn’t realize that was a “thing” I take issue with your post, for it being so monumentally stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/12 "2013-05-01T21:37:25Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > How did rape and murder get into this? It’s just a shot away. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/13 "2013-05-01T21:45:47Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Not to mention computers, movies and parking? > > No idea. The middle of a Wednesday afternoon is a weird time for someone to be posting drunk, but I’m finding it hard to come up with another explanation of how anyone could have thought that OP constituted a coherent Pit rant. He’s trying to prove he was right when he posted this > [@Why does this board lean Democrat?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-this-board-lean-democrat/656626/342): > > I don’t think the board chases off crazy right-wing opinions, I think it embraces them. Most of the active posters and most of the moderators want their Obama worship to be constantly validated through the most low-hanging confirmation bias available. So, if you want to be an open racist on this board, that’s fine. If you want to be a Fox News talking point recycler, no one has a problem with that. If you want to support loathsome Republican values such as homophobia and dominion over the bodies of women, stay and make a few ten thousand posts–having some punching bags from the President’s more dimwitted opponents around just makes the Democratic loyalists feel so GOOD about their own decisions! > > But if you offer a critique of Obama that’s NOT coming from a conservative noise machine principle, or you don’t subscribe to the animating myths underlying the two-party system in general about soldiers being heroes or Jesus being real and agreeing with whatever belief in the acceptable American window of politics you happen to hold, then you’re going to find yourself pointed towards the door in short order. That’s what upsets people, and we can’t have that. I call Troll Fail. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/14 "2013-05-01T22:14:35Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > How did rape and murder get into this? Dude, it’s _prom_. What do you think goes on at those things these days? Dancing and drinking fruit punch? > [@RandMcnally](#): > > I understand the need for this rule, but they really should have made an exception this time. The guy just got back from deployment and he wanted to escort his little sister to her prom. **I really doubt he’s going to be sneaking in booze or anything.** Or like he’s going to try to fuck her. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/15 "2013-05-01T23:02:17Z")
Who goes to prom with their brother? Weird. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/16 "2013-05-01T23:08:41Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > 1. Is this guy scum because he wanted to escort his sister to the prom . . . Yeah, if he went into it with typical prom-date intentions. ---
**Author:** ![Condescending\_Robot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@Condescending\_Robot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Condescending_Robot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/17 "2013-05-01T23:11:54Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Not to mention computers, movies and parking? You’ve never been in line behind someone at a store shamelessly begging for a “military discount”"? You must not do your own shopping. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/18 "2013-05-01T23:18:45Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > You’ve never been in line behind someone at a store shamelessly begging for a “military discount”"? You must not do your own shopping. See? So _edgy_! ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/19 "2013-05-01T23:25:01Z")
What kind of idiot doesn’t take a discount if _indeed_ a discount is offered? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250/20 "2013-05-01T23:56:24Z")
I saw an old guy taking the senior discount. The nerve! After he’d raped and pillaged his way through the Belle Vista Retirement Community Piggly-Wiggly store, of course. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/soldiers-who-think-the-rules-dont-apply-to-them/657250.md?page=2)