An email apocalypse that swept across the Marine Corps earlier this year now has a legendary ending, cementing its place in Corps lore.
It all began in April, innocently enough, when Marine Cpl. Andrew Hundley, a cyberspace warfare operator, completed his corporal’s course, an important but routine series of classes that Marines must take as they move up in rank.
But then someone tasked with the incredibly ordinary and minor office chore of emailing a copy of Hundley’s training certificate made a big boo boo.
You see where this is going.
In addressing the email, the sender picked a Marine Corps-wide distribution list, sending Hundley’s paperwork to hundreds and perhaps thousands of inboxes across the globe. The countless subsequent responses of recipients asking to be taken off the list created a legendary email storm that clogged inboxes across the Corps for days, including, apparently, the one belonging to Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos A. Ruiz.
So epic was the SNAFU that a petition was posted online in an attempt to have Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith to attend Hundley’s graduation.
Alas, the petition was quickly shut down – after garnering close to 1,700 signatures – but the spirit of Chesty Puller was likely smiling on Thursday when Ruiz showed up for Hundley’s graduation ceremony from 8th Communication Battalion’s Corporals Course at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
“The Marine Corps gods have called upon me,” Ruiz told those in attendance, recounting the Reply-All-pocolypse that had engulfed them all. “All of them assembled at Marine Corps Barracks, Washington, D.C., they were pulling toes in the middle of the night. They were doing crazy stuff. They were setting up a schedule, and the schedule somehow ended up with – where you at, Hundley, raise your hand.”
With that, the famous Cpl. Hundley put his hand into the air, earning knowing laughs and applause from the other Marines.
Ruiz described the spark that lit the explosion as “an unintentional, so innocent email that went to everyone.”
When Ruiz asked the audience, “All of you got it,” they replied with affirmative Marine noises.
“And then the beautiful people who Replied-All,” Ruiz continued. “And then the people who said ‘stop Replying-All’ to Reply-All.”
As the email storm raged, Ruiz said, he was traveling to various Marine bases, where he found that Marines did not want to talk about their barracks or other quality of life issues. There was just one topic on their minds.
“It’s ‘Cpl. Hundley!’” Ruiz exclaimed. “That’s all I could hear about for two days, and that’s why the gods have called me to see you graduate.”
Bravo Zulu Cpl. Hundley! May your inbox always be free of spam.
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