It's only a joke....

From the Soldier side: Ever since I was a young private in the US Army, I enjoyed pulling practical jokes on people…anything for a laugh. 

As I got older and matured, I My rules were simple: 1.) It can’t be too offensive 2.) It can’t get anybody killed or injured really bad 3.) It has to get as many people to laugh as possible. 

When we were in Bosnia, it seems we had lots of fellow soldiers serving with us who not only lacked a sense of humor, but were also not very bright.  When I had any free time, I would send an e-mail joke to some of my friends at other camps in Bosnia.  One day I read in my favorite on-line news source (www.theonion.com) about a gay pride parade.  Funnyass e-mail sent out

It was easy for me to re-write the article and send it out in an e-mail.  In my version of the already phony story, the gay pride parade had taken place on Eagle Base, our main camp in Bosnia.   Well, I didn’t know that some of my friends would forward the e-mail to others…who forwarded it to others and so on.  Eventually the joke e-mail worked its way down the intelligence chain (from the brightest soldiers to the least bright until it eventually reached some with a very low I.Q. 

Within a week I was getting e-mails back where the sender had hit “reply all” and demanded to know how the US Army could allow such a parade to take place on one of its camps.  I started to get several e-mails back asking why the sender had not seen or heard of the parade.  Since the upset soldier was not very clear about why they were upset, I simply responded that I’d pass on that they wanted to march in the next such parade.

Just to be clear, there was no such gay pride parade at Eagle Base while I was in Bosnia.  But when you get attached to a unit who was filled with red necks, it was worth the laughs we got letting people think there had been a parade like that. 

I just felt my duty was done when I got a laugh....