Over at Castle Argghhh!, Bill remembers the distasteful creatures known as REMFs:
In my war, we coined a term to describe the guy who lived in Saigon in an air-conditioned trailer with access to clean water that didn’t smell or taste like bleach, who worked in an area where the greatest danger was spilling a drink at Happy Hour, who took PX breaks four times a day to see if his new TEAC stereo system had arrived, who exchanged his boots for new ones whenever his spitshine was scuffed, who spent his days tweaking his Efficiency Reports to achieve maximum promotability, who had starch lines *sewn* into his jungle fatigues to nullify the effects of the humidity, who may have once heard a mortar explode a couple of miles away — and bitched about how tough it was being in Vietnam.
The term was REMF. Rear Echelon Mother-F*cker.
REMFs are present in all branches of all militaries — they aren’t common, but they make themselves obnoxious in ways that are impossible to ignore.
This kind of creature exist in every army, including (as Michael Yon can confirm) the British army.
