I was enlisted, and I worked for Sergeant H and Sergeant B. Both men were physical specimens. Both could shoot. Both were funny. Both were better than us in every way that had any bearing on the profession of arms. Neither would ever join Mensa.

Sergeant H never said an unkind word to any of his subordinates. I mean he'd shout "you! Get your pussy ass up there! You can do better than that!" That's not unkind. Sergeant H reserved his wrath for bad officers, and even then it was always one on one, not that we couldn't hear him through the door. He'd make you drop and then get down there with you. He was the first man up, the last man down, and the hardest worker. He dressed you down in private and praised you in public. He was a snaggle-toothed combat vet and the manliest gentleman I've ever met. We'd do anything for him. God how we all loved that guy.

Sergeant B was a self serving sociopath. He was young and pretty and a better runner and rifleman than anybody else in the battalion. This won him SOME respect, but not much. He wore designer underwear, smelled nice, and laid pipe like nobody I had ever met. He was cruel. He would pick on us. He never ever got dirty. He called us pussies.

One day he threw an open soda can at my new car as I drove past. I kept driving. Then I thought about what Sergeant H would do. Next day I walked up to Sergeant B and told him, in front of everybody, to get fucked. I told him never to touch my car again. I figured he'd hit me, or write me up on an Article 15. He just said "OK" and never picked on me again. To my shock I learned that HE was the pussy. I ran this by Sergeant H and he laughed and said "ain't that funny how it works out like that?"

I ran into both later in life. Sergeant H winked at me, smiled, said "I remember you" and went about his business because he's a fucking badass. Sergeant B wanted to tell me about how badly he had fucked up his life, got divorced, drank too much... I had some place to be, so...

The takeaway? Sergeant H would never assert his alphaness on an Internet forum. He wouldn't call eager converts pussies. He wouldn't insult people. Not just because he was barely literate, couldn't type and considered computers to be little more than providers of porn on demand, but because he was a leader. He'd make you better at everything and he'd make you respect yourself more.

And what would sergeant B do on a forum like this? Who gives a shit? Nobody liked that guy.