Your duty officer or NCO will become human againĪt about 0200, when no one else is around, the normally-salty leaders drop their tough-guy act for a little while and relax with the lower enlisted. They may have to pretend if someone signs out on leave, but don’t take it personally. It’s not like your entire 24-hour shift is spent cleaning. The best thing about cleaning is that it only has to be done once, and then it usually stays clean until it becomes the next guy’s problem. So, you just sweep and mop the floors and probably take the trash out. The good thing about cleaning is that it’s almost always expected to be done at night when there’s little chance that anyone will come in and disrupt the cleanliness. The ones who moan the loudest are the lower enlisted - but as we mentioned earlier, they just have to clean up a bit and… that’s it. They’ve either realized how sweet of a gig it actually is or they’re holding it together for professionalism’s sake. Officers and NCOs don’t complain about staff duty as much. You clean once and it stays clean until it’s the next guy’s problem That police call is done by everyone else. If it does? You, as the staff duty, are just going to log it and let the chain of command handle the ramifications.Īnd you’re not going to be doing any major cleaning. Yes, there’s the off-chance that a situation arises. That’s about the extent of a normal staff duty shift. The officer handles the occasional phone calls, the NCO walks about the area once or twice, and the lower enlisted mops the hallways. You might have to deal with one or two people coming in, but that’s about it. Here’s why it’s not as bad as everyone makes it sound: Your only real job is to not fall asleep - and yet, for some odd reason, everyone has sympathy for you. I guess it can feel like you have all eyes on you if you’re at Battalion or higher, but barracks CQ is the most skate job ever. Once that timer is done, the next shift comes in to replace you and you’re done for the day. But why? Seriously? You’re being put at a desk for 24-hours and told to maintain the area. Sound familiar? Troops tend to over-dramatize the “horrors” of getting stuck on staff duty every single time the duty roster goes up. But alas, a poor, unfortunate soul gets stuck with duty next Tuesday and, upon learning that, their day is cast to ruin. The troops shuffle toward the single piece of paper while crossing their fingers, hoping that their name hasn’t been called. A sense of dread washes over the company as the most recent version of the duty roster gets posted in the common area.