When a Navy ship crosses the equator, sailors perform the вЂњcrossing the lineвЂќ ceremony, which frankly, involves a lot of really weird stuff. Once they reach the final two and pass, one of the detail will lower their sword, tap the bride, and say вЂњwelcome to the Army !вЂќДЈ. They go through, kiss, go through, kiss, then they get to the last one. It goes like this: On the way out right after the ceremony, the couple passes over an arch of swords on both sides. When a service member wants to go through the pageantry of having a вЂњmilitary weddingвЂќ - wearing their uniform at the altar and bringing along a sword detail - they can expect that at the end of it all, some random dude will be sexually harassing his wife for the sake of tradition. Nothing like a little tradition that allows some dude to tap your brand new wife on the butt. At a military wedding with a sword detail, the wife gets a sword-tap to her booty to вЂњwelcome herвЂќ to the family. Personally, I wouldвЂ™ve thrown in some ketchup and mustard, but hell, I wasnвЂ™t there.Дў. Vecchione (shown below), his peers also threw string cheese, flour, and mayonnaise on him. In some cases, theyвЂ™ll be doused with champagne. Much like a football coach gets a giant cooler of Gatorade dumped over their head at the end of a game, pilots sometimes will get hosed down with water by their comrades. Soon after aviators get to a new unit they will go through an unofficial ceremony of receiving their callsigns, and they usually are not very flattering.

The вЂњfighter pilot mafiaвЂќ is definitely a thing in the Air Force and Navy, which is the nickname for the pilot sub-culture within each service. Fighter pilots (or members of flight crew) get hosed down after their final flight. These activities - especially the ones involving hazing - are often frowned upon, but still continue to happen, usually without any official recognition.ДЎ. They are the unwritten rules: traditions that go back way before the books were printed. How troops march and salute, what uniform to wear to what event, or what you are supposed to say when greeting a superior are all examples of вЂњon-the-booksвЂќ behaviors expected of service members.ДЄnd then there are the вЂњoff-the-booksвЂќ traditions.

military is awash in regulations, laws, and official traditions.

Veteran of the weird west