Customary Folklore: Rituals, Rites of Passage

Language: English

Country: USA

Informant Data:

Brandon Henthrone is 27 years old and from Southern Missouri. He currently lives in South Carolina. His military experience started when he was 18 years old when he joined the Navy Seals. He became a Coremen in the navy after that and has been doing combat medicine since then. He had one combat deployment in the middle east.

Contextual Data:

Anytime someone switches posts in the military, they require signatures on a sheet before they can transfer. This item talks about the ritual that happens when sailors go to the people they need to for signatures.

Item:

Shredding / Crumpling Signature Sheet

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript of Associated File:

One of the biggest ones is shredding the checkout sheet. Every signature you get is required in order for you to leave. Which is the same thing in separating from the military. But when you’re transferring you have to have all of these signatures. its all done in good fun. They’ll shred your checkout sheet or they’ll crumple it up. Turn it into paper airplanes. This that and the other. A lot of it is just to let you know there are people out there who still care for you and they hate to see you go. But nothing so severe it is detrimental to someones health or anything like that.

Informant’s Comments:

He always made sure that he had extra sheets and photo copies after every signature he got because he knew that they would rip it up. It almost became a game because they knew that it wasn’t going to make him have to stay, but at the same time it showed how deeply they cared.

Collector’s Comments:

It seems like a way of their boss telling them that they are sad to see them go and want them to stay. If they don’t have the sheet completed, they can’t leave their post.

Collector’s Name:  Cole Cable

Tags/Keywords: Military / Signature Sheet / Transfer / Navy / Commander