Basic trainees in the Air Force are being issued “Stress Cards.” If basic training gets too hard or they need a time out, they can just pull these out, and the instructor has to stop yelling at them.
No joke. I heard it from my cousin. Or my friend John. My buddy swears he saw them being handed out to the new trainees. Kids today just don’t have the chutzpah my generation does. One time when I was a platoon leader in Somalia, this kid handed me one and asked for a time out, I kid you not.
None of that is true, of course.
The “stress cards” myth is usually attributed to the Air Force, due to the perceived ease of Air Force basic training, and the Chair Force reputation (which can be, admittedly, deserved). Sometimes, the legend says Bill Clinton introduced them to the Army (because the 1990s were that awesome, I guess).
According to the lore, an airman really could just hit the pause button on basic training, getting yelled at, military discipline, whatever was troubling them.
Allegedly, the stress cards were yellow because if you needed to use one, you were probably yellow, too.
Even some airmen are guilty of perpetuating it, because whenever someone hears about the “stress cards” myth, they are usually doomed to repeat it. But honestly, does this sound like something any military branch would do? No, it doesn’t, because no one would do this… at least not in the way the myth explains it.
The truth of the myth is that it wasn’t the Air Force handing them out. It was the Navy.
In the 1990s, actual cards were issued to new recruits joining the Navy. They didn’t offer a “time out,” however. They were intended to inform recruits of their options if they experienced depression while in basic training, which is not unheard of and can lead to a lot of disastrous outcomes. You know the ones I mean.
The so-called “Stress Cards” contained basic information, such as chaplain services and what to tell your Recruit Division Commander, the Navy’s version of a drill sergeant or drill instructor. Instead of deserting or washing out, the depressed and isolated recruit had options that the U.S. military offers all of its troops.
And they were blue, because if you needed these services, you were probably blue too.
The Blues Card was not a Get Out of Jail Free card, though some RDCs reported troops holding it up while being disciplined, trying desperately (and probably in vain) to use it in that way. If a recruit waved this in their RDC’s face, he probably made them eat it. Or sent them to the chaplain… after making them eat it.
The Army did issue “Stress Control Cards” which were the equivalent of a wallet-based mood ring. The recruit or soldier could put their finger on a special square, which would turn colors to indicate a range of stress levels, from “relaxed” to “most stressed.”
For those of you who used to be in the Army or Navy, imagine your Drill Instructor’s or RDC’s response to your waving this card around while they’re trying to discipline you. How would that have gone?
