Ha, well I'll start off the embarassing stories! I was 1st inc, Jr's this summer. About 0520, me and another candidate are instructed to grab the scribe's table and take it down the 3 flights in the ladderwell and set it up outside for hot chow outside the PT field, after PT. It's a fixed leg table, about 6-7 feet long. So we are carrying it through the squadbay, get to the hatch and it's obvious the legs are too wide to fit through the hatch horizontal. So the other candidate tells me to lift it up so we can swing it back on to it's legs or angle it. As I'm lifting, unbeknownst to me, the leg is underneath the fire extinguisher pushing it off it's holster. It was a quick jerk lift, so all of a sudden the fire extinguisher bops up, then falls to the deck like a bag of nails.
Makes this REAL loud TING!, and then all hell broke loose. The second it hit the ground, it starts spraying EVERYWHERE. It's like a propane tank you see in the movies, it's spraying out, pushing itself all over the deck, swirling about, going off like a damn firecracker! I'm behind the table, trapped in the corner, thinking H-O-L-Y S-----..... The other candidate is just standing there in shock, so I finally jump over the table, grab it, try to unfreeze the trigger, thinking the trigger was compressed, and realize that it's not. So I just grab the outlet tube, and pinch it off. I soon realize that the WHOLE squadbay is LITERALLY filled with this chemical dust, you can't see 2 feet in front of you, and the fire alarm goes off. Again, H-O-L-Y S----- happens to go through my mind. I start yelling, "There is no fire!, There is no fire!" But that doesn't change anything. The SI's come out of the office screaming at us to get out, saving our lives just like they're trained to do. I run out with the rest of the crowd of candidates, with the damn fire extinguisher still pinched off in my hands.
We get outside, I see EVERY platoon in the building runnnig outside and getting in formation. Once everyone finally gets in formation, one of our SI's screams, "What the F*** happened??!?" Me, being the "smart" candidate I am, have to immediately step out of formation and say, "This candidate bumped the fire extinguisher and it went off!" Of course, he says, "No S***! Is that why you're holding the god damn thing?!?!?!" I am told to go stand on the edge of the parade deck for now. As more and more staff step out of the duty huts and walk outside, I get some damn horrible looks and assaults about what the **** I just did. Then the other candidate steps out of formation and joins me, stepping up to the responsibility that he told me to lift it, although it was my actions that tripped the extinguisher. Then I get screamed at by various other Marines in my chain of command, and am told to go report to the back of the squadbay where the firemen are and tell them what happened. Once I get back there, I explain the situation to them and to our company XO, and tell them how I hit it, but the pin was still in and the trigger not depressed. They say it was just an old POS, and the valves shouldn't pop like that on a simple drop. Makes me feel slightly better, but I am quickly screamed at to go into the woods, relieve the rest of the chemicals, and bring the empty fire extinguisher back and get back into my formation. We then get to PT, finish PT, have chow, and commence cleaning the squadbay for about 3 hours.
There was STILL dust throughout the rest of the time there, and I think we finally had it all gone by the last field day. Whew. It was a hell of a f***-up, and I think I did it about as bad as you could've. But, I didn't get too many repercussions other than the occasional, "Candidate Wood, get over here and show me how bad you ****ed up!" (Commence pushups in front of SI's) "Get the hell back in formation". So, that's about it. As far as mistakes go, I think I'm up there pretty high for that one.
