Thread by @garius

Don't think I've ever told my favourite Drop Bear prank story on here. So here's a quick thread.

It starts on a peacekeeping deployment, and highlights why you need to be VERY careful what you tell new arrivals. /1 sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/…

So this story really belongs to an old boss of mine, who we'll call 'The Major'. It's about one of his peacekeeper deployments. I believe to Sierra Leone.

One of the ways, naturally, that soldiers let off steam on what was a pretty dark deployment sometimes was through pranks.

Generally speaking, The Major and their other officers ignored this, AS LONG AS it didn't disrupt operations, hurt anyone, offend anyone (local or peacekeeper) or go to far. They recognised the value of the stress relief.

One of the most common things to do was prank newly arrived units or soldiers in the same way as one might send a new painting apprentice out for "rainbow paint." i.e. find something silly and ridiculous that they soon wise up to.

Enter the drop bears.

Because a bunch of squaddies soon learned of the standard 'beware of drop bears, they're dangerous' meme/prank from some Australians also deployed over there.

And they thought it was HILARIOUS.

So started doing it themselves, to new arrivals.

OLD HAND: "Have you had your acclimatisation briefing?"

NEWBIE: "Yeah. The snakes sound terrifying."

OLD HAND: "Snakes?! Fucking drop bears mate. They're what will get you.

NEWBIE: "Drop Bears?"

OLD HAND: "Fuck! They didn't tell you lot?! Okay, gather round..."

And lo, they'd be dodging round trees in case a drop bear fell on them, until they got the joke etc. etc.

Which was all fun and games, until the first time a very important local person turned up at the base and demanded to know what they were doing about the drop bear problem.

Because it turns out that humans are the same THE WORLD OVER. As a species, half of us are TERRIBLE at believing rumours, and the other half have no qualms about exploiting that weakness.

So when the locals started asking new soldiers why they were dodging trees, they'd say drop bears. After enough of this, like the soldiers, a bunch of people started to believe that there WAS a drop bear problem, caused by non-native wildlife brought over by the peacekeepers.

Of course, again like the soldiers, a bunch of people quickly realised it was a prank, but some didn't, and THESE people were then exploited by that chunk of humanity that is great at spotting good excuses for not doing stuff we're meant to have done.

"Why are you late back from the bar and have a black eye?"

"Got jumped on by a drop bear."

"Why haven't you sorted out the garden like I asked?"

"I was going to, but this HUGE drop bear came out of our tree when I started. Has it gone now? Thank God!"

etc.

The local VIP knew that drop bears weren't real, of course, but his efforts to convince some people of this were somewhat limited by the fact that EVERY time a bunch of new squaddies arrived they'd start dodging trees, and the rumour cycle would kick off again.

So The Major and the VIP had to work out what to do. The easiest thing was to ban the prank to prevent future spread. Done.

But then they both decided that the simplest way to kill it dead with the hardcore believers out there already was... well... to kill the drop bears.

So The Major ordered a snipe hunt up, patrols were sent out to loudly/visibly 'hunt the drop bears' (if asked). This meant that where the local VIP simply couldn't persuade someone they were fictional, he could at least now say that the peacekeepers had shot them all.

And from that point on, The Major (and others) learned that you have to be VERY, very careful what you do on deployment. Because EVERYTHING you do can be seen, but not always the context within which it is being done.

That you need to realise that you cannot avoid creating a world-within-a-world. One that will naturally have humour and private jokes that can easily get lost in translation.

And that can have consequences, or create dangerous situations you don't even see until it is too late.