What a space cadet.
A US Space Force pilot was demoted when he was half an hour late for a fitness lesson – because he had been busy trying to buy a new PlayStation 5 console, Task and Purpose reported.
The soldier was supposed to attend PT on the morning of December 11, but when his superior sent a reminder 30 minutes earlier, he replied that he was returning home from the shopping trip to Target – and his house was at 35 minutes of training, according to a written reprimand posted on the popular amn / nco / snoc Facebook page of the Air Force.
But he did not shake the devoted player.
“Yolo, PS5> letters of discipline,” said a member of the service unnamed for Brass, according to the letter, using the slang for “live only once.”
The lightning response caused the unnamed soldier to be downgraded from senior aviator to first-class aviator, Task and Purpose said.
“You were late for work and told the driver that buying a PlayStation was more important to you than the disciplinary consequences of your actions,” the reprimand letter said.
“Your actions are an extreme deviation from the professionalism expected of you as a member of the armed forces.”
It is unclear whether the pilot actually managed to buy the coveted PlayStation console.
A spokesman for Space Delta 8 at the Schrieve Air Force Base in Colorado, where the reprimand was filed, could not confirm the letter’s authenticity because there is an appeal process still ongoing, Task and Purpose said.
However, a spokesman for the base told the media that the formatting looks genuine.
The timing of the rebuke is also curious – it came just days after members of the Space Force attacked US and British military teams at a “Call of Duty” online gaming tournament.