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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/Tall-Charge-2094 on 2025-10-07 22:12:22+00:00.
I've been a longtime lurker in this sub and I've been debating for a while on whether or not to post this. I think enough time has passed that there should be no issues with it, but I will still refrain from talking about timeframes, people, and things like that. Sorry in advance if the writing isn't too great. This is actually my first story post I've ever done.
BACKGROUND:
I was deployed overseas for a year in a hot dry country in the middle east. This was a routine deployment with people generally saying that the worst part of the experience would be boredom and having nothing to do. That's how it was supposed to be for my section, but I would soon find out that things wouldn't work out that way.
If you're not familiar with how the structure is laid out, my platoon is part of a section, which is part of a company, which is part of a division. We had an OIC (Officer in Command) who was assigned to be in charge of our section. One thing to know about this guy is that he had a record of being an overachiever, and not in the best ways. OIC would pitch ideas about doing exercises and operations specifically because he wanted to have bullet points on his evaluation report at the end of the year. This led us to be constantly doing redundant stuff, but it's the military so that kind of stuff is expected.
The issue with OIC being so gung-ho about getting his bullet points, is that he would take everything to the extreme, and he genuinely did not know anything about how our equipment worked or what our jobs were. As an example of how frustrating this can be, he told us we needed to accomplish "Task A" and we have 2 weeks to do it. We told him "Sir, in order to do Task A we need at least 4 weeks with our current manpower and workload to accomplish that". OIC would blow us off and tell us that we need to find a way to do it in 2 weeks because he said so. Keep in mind, this man has no idea what it is we do and is blowing off all of the input that we are giving him. In the end, we did manage to accomplish Task A by pulling 24 hour rotations around the clock with an 18 hour workday for 3 weeks straight. Keep in mind that this is a BULLETPOINT for this man. There's no mission here, there's no lives on the line. This guy just wanted to pad his own resume.
When we told him that we physically could not meet the 2 week deadline for Task A he dressed us down and chewed us out saying "we were dragging ass" and "this is absolutely unacceptable". It was like this nonstop for the first 6 months of my deployment. We would be outside all day setting up our work site, accomplish whatever redundant task OIC would be making us do, we'd tear down the work site, then we'd move the worksite to the next spot and set up there. It was constant cycle of build up, tear down, move equipment, repeat. All while OIC would tell us how we're lazy and never did anything because we would go over whatever timeline he came up with. The worst part of all this is when it started getting into the hot season. It would be 120-130 degrees, and we would be in non airconditioned Humvees in full Kevlar kit moving equipment and pounding grounding stakes into the rock ground all day every day. There was multiple people including me who had heat related injuries from this experience. All of this is happening while our OIC is chewing us out nonstop from his air conditioned office.
THE VAN:
All of this was pretty shitty, but not unheard of when it comes to the military experience. However, this is where it starts to get juicy.
One day, there was a new task given to our section. This task was sent down by OIC himself. The task was "Clean our section assigned van. We all need to do our part".
As you read earlier in this post, we as a section had to use oven hot Humvees for all of the tasks we were given for the months leading up to this incident. Everyone in the section had the exact same reaction to this task. "WE'VE HAD A VAN THIS ENTIRE TIME????". Come to find out, OIC didn't want to walk the 1/2 mile to chow every day, so he secretly commandeered our section van with crisp cold AC so he wouldn't get sweaty in the desert heat on his way to the DFAC (Dining Facility). As you can guess, people were irate over this news. We have been having people drop from heat exhaustion and this guy has been using a van meant to be shared as a section as his own personal vehicle. The only reason it came to light is because someone much higher rank than himself needed to use the van to get to the airport. So OIC wanted us "plebians" to clean out the van that he kept to himself and made messy on his own. Because obviously "we all need to do our part".
CUE MALICIOUS COMPLIANCE:
I had a SGT in charge of me at the time who I will call SGT Zyzz (he was a bodybuilder and an amazing SGT). When he found out about the news he called a huddle for the platoon. He knew exactly how we all felt about the situation and made a few things clear. As the order needs to make its way down the chain of command, it needs to go through him to get to us. SGT Zyzz made it clear that he felt the situation was unethical and he refused to give us the order to clean the van. He said, "I will not be sending my troops to do a task that was given to us from an ivory tower". Instead, he and one other SGT will be doing the task themselves.
SGT Zyzz and the other SGT took the van to the PX on base. He then loaded up on Q-tips, trashbags, and cleaning product. He then went back to the bay and grabbed his (very loud) JBL speaker. SGT Zyzz then parked the van at the entrance of the Division command tent. This man BLASTED the army recruitment song at full volume while he and the other SGT cleaned the van out with Q-tips. There were many upper cadre who stopped by either on their way out or into the command tent wondering what the commotion was about. SGT Zyzz was more than happy to explain the situation. "OIC told us he wanted us to clean his van because "everyone needs to do their part!"" Noone told him to stop and after 4 hours of the army soundtrack, the van was pristine. He turned it back in, and we assumed that was the end of it all. It was a little funny and we all felt a massive morale boost after being punted into a corner this entire deployment.
AFTERMATH:
What ended up happening shocked a lot of us. The Division OIC (our OIC's boss) heard about some contention around an incident with a van outside of the Division command tent. Apparently, some of the high brass there thought it was rude and annoying to the people coming and going. There also were complaints that during this time, SGT Zyzz was wanted for his expertise in our field of work, but he wasn't available to help because he was cleaning the van. This caused him to want to look into what caused the entire debacle.
The DOIC (Division Officer in Command) held a townhall meeting. A townhall meeting is held by the division First SGT where anybody can bring up any issues or concerns they have without fear of repercussions. Normally this type of event is more administrative than anything else. "You guys are good?" "No First SGT, there's mold in our barracks and no hot water". Little things like that are what's normally talked about, and it generally takes about an hour to sort through it all and finish the meeting. This townhall meeting however, took FIVE HOURS. The first SGT was shocked at the revelations that came out of it. We talked about how we haven't had a real day off since we've been boots on the ground, how OIC hasn't been at site once this entire deployment, how we're being reprimanded for timelines that aren't possible, etc, etc, and of course, we talked about the van.
After the 5 hour long townhall meeting the First SGT was visibly enraged. He was very upset with how our OIC was handling things and even more upset that this was happening under his nose this entire time and he wasn't aware of any of it. He took everything he heard and brought it up to the DOIC and we were told that there would be action taken on our behalf to fix this.
Fast forward one week and we have not heard a peep from OIC. This would continue for the rest of deployment. OIC didn't give us a single task, job, or detail for the next 4 months. It was fair to assume he got quite the chewing out and the only reason he kept his position was due to there being no one to take his place. Every time we would see him, he looked like a sad puppy and you could tell his deployment was not going the greatest anymore.
Normally the tail end of deployment is one of the busiest times for my section. We have a ton of equipment that needs to be packed, organized, and inventoried. It's a pretty big workload, but after the amount of work we had to do for the first 6 months, those final months felt like a holiday. The timing for the relaxed workload came just in time for Space Marine 2 to come out. Those last 4 months were amazing.