Airman Smith had just arrived for his first new assignment and looked forward to his duties and getting to know the area. Well after a week or so, he had to drop off some uniforms at the dry cleaners but had heard there was a new one just outside the base and their prices were a lot lower too. Boy that sure sounds good he thought. He walked in and placed his uniforms on the counter, a young clerk counted each item and wrote out a receipt for him. "Be ready next Thursday..come back then" he said and grabbed the Airman's uniforms and disappeared in the back. Well next Thursday he stopped by, showed his receipt and grabbed his nicely pressed uniforms covered in plastic bags. The next morning he pulled one of those fresh pressed uniforms out of the closet and quickly noticed there were Sergeant stripes sewn on. He figured the cleaners gave him the wrong uniform..no it had his name tag on it. "This is strange" he thought but figured this is all he had to wear and maybe nobody would notice. He quickly dressed and left for his duty station. He was right nobody really noticed his sudden promotion and he felt cool being a NCO at the same time. The following week he took more uniforms to that same cleaners with that same clerk behind the counter. "Be ready next Thursday..come back then" and he disappeared in the back. The "new" Sergeant arrived the following Thursday, grabbed his uniforms and left. Well sure enough the next morning he noticed there were new stripes sewn on, this time for a Technical Sergeant. "Well I'll be damn" he said. Once again this was all he had to wear and thought maybe again nobody would notice. Well this went on week after week and after awhile he was up to the rank of Chief Master Sergeant. He got to be first in line at the chow hall, got his own parking spot and left work early, boy this is great he thought. One day he was coming out of the medical building and headed towards his car, when a four star general approached him. The Chief Master Sergeant stopped in his tracks and gave him a smart salute. The General stopped, returned his salute and then looked him over including his new stripes. "Chief can I ask you a personal question?" "Yes sir..go ahead". "Exactly how old are you?..you seem to be a very young to be a Chief Master Sergeant". The Chief figured his goose was cooked and he took a deep and swallowed.."Sir I will be twenty-one next month". "Twenty-one??..by chance do you take your uniforms to that new cleaners just outside the base?' The Chief swallowed deep again.."Yes sir I did". "Chief you did it all wrong..the door on the left is for officer promotions..I should know..I just turned twenty-four myself...carry on Chief".
