Logging into my military email today and seeing the unread emails that APPEAR TO BE FROM A REPLY ALL
Ah, it begins with a simple "my Microsoft Teams doesn't work so, I'LL ASK EVERYONE ON THIS NGB DISTRO"
Instead of stopping the madness, named recipients FORWARD THE MESSAGE ON while ALSO being confused why they're on the distro

At this point, it all appears to be civilian National Guard employees replying all to each other in confusion about why they're getting this email
OH NOW PATIENT ZERO HAS REPLIED ALL asking us to please delete

Sorry, once the Pandora's box is open, there's no closing it. We're all on this ride together
Ah, Missouri has chimed in to be the ADULT IN THE ROOM to tell everyone to stop replying all

Which is basically just
GEORGIA into the history books with the first "please remove me from this distro," a plea for mercy into the dark void where only misery exists
Louisiana weighs in with an appeal to decency, and I quote:

"THE POOR LADY DID A 'REPLY ALL.' PLEASE STOP EMAILING EVERYONE, EVERYONE. SHE DIDN'T KNOW. STOP REPLYING TO HER REPLY ALL"
DUDE WEIGHS IN TO REPLY ALL TO SAY THAT HE BELIEVES SOMEONE ELSE OF HIS SAME NAME IS MEANT TO BE ON THE DISTRO, NOT HIM

this is approaching absurdist levels
HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL, WE HAVE AN ADJUTANT GENERAL COMING IN FROM THE TOP ROPE IN AN APPEAL FOR SANITY

"I feel obligated to commit the exact son I'm about to rail against"
West Virginia taking trolling to the next level with "Good luck on your teams account" reply to all

Truly boss status

At this point, we've all committed to the nightmare
The countless desperate pleas of "please stop replying all" messages are continuing

They are but the pitiful screams that feed the Outlook gods
Phyllis has intervened to tell us that all is good, no worries, and I'll be honest, I envy her zen. I really do.
Arkansas with the timeless "Stop being dumb and responding to these emails"

I'm sorry, Arkansas, dumb was issued in double allotments today
Oh good, the Deputy J6 of an entire state just replied all, telling us how distro lists work

Burn it all down
Ok, reading this never ending chain, I'm beginning to wonder how anything actually gets done around here. I'm losing my remaining faith in the human race.

Someone just said good morning and it's 1500.
It's... It's still going

There's an E6 from Louisiana who's absolutely trolling ME with just a "Good morning Team" reply all
There are still people replying all. STILL.

Apparently deductive reasoning is just something that doesn't happen for some people.
I'd like to thank the E-5 from Oklahoma and the E-7 from Alabama and now the E-5 from Washington for destroying my faith in the NCO Corps by continuing to reply all
We've got California's senior enlisted advisor and an O-5 from NGB appealing for sanity, a cyber dude telling everyone how to ignore these threads, and an Alabama E-6 talking about the friends he's made from this debacle
Ok, now there's just a straight conversation going on that can be summarized as "maybe the real friends were the emails we read along the way"
Logging in today and...

What in the hell...

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY NEW EMAILS???
The Help Rhonda Reply-All of 2021 is going to go into the books as one of the greatest disasters in National Guard history

Although, it appears that about 2100 EST yesterday, the whole thing just turned into
A recruiter from Texas just tried to recruit people's family members by replying all
Aaaaand at 2217 on 28 JAN, the first memes begin

Connecticut fires first with some Bernie Mittens
Oklahoma fires back with a variation on a similar theme

This is from an O-5, btw, in case you want to know how deep in the chaos we have sunk
Oh, and now the other side of the O-5 coin - we've got one threatening anyone who replies all with a formal counseling
IT'S 2313 ON JAN 28 AND WE'VE FINALLY GOTTEN A "TELL ME YOUR UNIT" FROM THE GRUMPY O-5 TO A REPLY-ALL
oh ffs

Cranky O-5 from the Virgin Islands is replying all to everyone with "tell me your supervisor/battalion commander"

He's ordering people to stop replying

Everyone else:
ALL RISE in respect for the E-5 from Oregon who ADDED another NCO to the reply all hell, this demonstrating that the National Guard can always be counted on to add just a little bit of havoc to already existing chaos
Respect for the colonel from Colorado who simply replied
⭐⭐ alert! Another major general has sucumbed to the madness and thrown his oar in, asking for this madness to be tamed

Sir, can you tame the wind?
What we have now are majors who are fully intent on INCREASING the chaos, replying with full snark, with such things as "Please keep me on this distro" and "Good morning!" and "I'm learning so much"

Thus demonstrating that some people just want to see the world burn
Well. I stepped away for two hours. Came back.

The emails have ceased.

I am cautiously hopeful.

But I think we all learned a lesson from this. Probably the wrong lesson, tho

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More from @pptsapper

9 Jan
In 1871, William Holden, the Republican governor of North Carolina, became the first state governor to be impeached

The articles of impeachment claimed he used the militia to oppress the people, to quell what they said was a non-existent insurrection

The insurrection? The KKK
Holden, with backing from President Grant and the U.S. Army, had gone to war with the KKK in NC, which had used violence and intimidation to seized control of 2 counties, lynching a black US Army veteran and assassinating a white Republican state senator.
Holden declared the counties in insurrection & called up the militia. The militia and Federal troops went to work, rounding up Klansmen and driving the KKK underground. But the Klan still used night riders to intimidate the black community. 1870 was an election year.
Read 11 tweets
7 Jan
My brain is utterly overturned at today's events. But something keeps running thru my head. In 1880, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain faced down an angry mob intent on storming the Maine State House bc they believed the gubernatorial election was rigged

Unarmed. By himself.
The state was at risk of breaking out into civil war. The incumbent wouldn't leave. Armed mobs were assembling. The 52yo major general, still suffering from his Petersburg wound, arrived around this date in 1880 - his goal was to keep the peace until the state supreme ct cld rule
The state's political leaders asked him to call up the militia, which he could as it's commanding general. His response: "Whoever first says ‘take arms!’ has a fearful responsibility on him, & I don’t mean it shall be me who does that"
Read 9 tweets
6 Jan
Aw hell, how about a thread of WWI animals. Might as well, since I'm deep in the @USNatArchives WWI photo collection

Here's Alaskan-born Jimmy, mascot for the 2nd Field Battalion, Signal Corps at Chaumont, France, being a good boy
Jimmy again being SO GOODEST
Wild boar mascot for the dispatch riders of the 26th "Yankee" Division, because you're never as badass until you're driving a motorcycle thru the western front with a wild boar
Read 15 tweets
6 Jan
A lot of people are familiar with this fantastic gif of the Nuremberg swastika being blown up by US Army engineers in '45

What I DIDN'T know until today was that just before this, Rabbi Eichhorn & 5 other GI Jews held a prayer of Thanksgiving, on the spot Hitler once railed from
Eichhorn was a chaplain in the 45th Infantry Division & has really amazing stories. Like just before Yom Kippur in '44, when the CG asked Eichhman where the nearest town was with a synagogue, for the service. Luneville, said Eichhman, but it was still held by the Germans
The CG, Haislip, told him he'd have Yom Kippur services there and put out the announcement that any Jewish GIs in the division who wanted to attend, could. In Luneville. Which the 45th promptly then took. Mostly. The town was still disputed when Eichhorn entered it

*Typos in PT
Read 9 tweets
2 Jan
Went through my list of books read in 2020. Went on a bit of a Stephen Sears binge at the beginning of the year

Zero regrets. Lincoln's Lieutenants, especially, was excellent
Next was Alan Taylor's take on the War of 1812, which I also really enjoyed. Completed my catching up on his works that I began in 2019.
Dean Snow's work on the Saratoga campaign was a lot of fun, especially give the day-by-day account that he gave, along with archeological evidence being used to support contemporary accounts
Read 11 tweets
27 Dec 20
I'm positively delighted that out of the top ten most popular posts published in 2020 on the ASO blog, four are by guest authors!

Number 10 was where I got to talk about Scrubs, the best TV show of all time
angrystaffofficer.com/2020/07/24/how…
Number 9 was by @AderMatthew on what leaders can take from reading the great Terry Pratchett: angrystaffofficer.com/2020/07/20/put…
Number 8 was my guide for incoming company commanders (I forgot to add "leave a full-ish bottle of whiskey in your desk drawer for your replacement"):
angrystaffofficer.com/2020/03/27/ass…
Read 12 tweets

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