An Army general, an Air Force general and a Navy admiral were having lunch and talking at the officers club when the topic of bravery came up in their conversation.

The Air Force man said that the men in the Air Force were the bravest of all the U.S. troops. The Army man said: "That's bullshit, everyone knows the Army has the bravest men serving the country. The admiral blurted out that they were both full of shit and that everyone in the country knew that the U.S. sailors were the bravest of our fighting men.

The three bickered back and forth for some time and finally agreed that they should put their men to the test, which they would personally monitor.

First they went to the airbase where they boarded a bomber that was scheduled to make some practice bombing runs. They were about to come over the target when the Air Force general walked up to one of the crew and said: "airman, I want you to ride that bomb down right to the dead center of that target." Without hesitation, the airman saluted the general, climbed aboard the bomb, released the holding mechanism and rode the bomb right to the dead center of the target and was blown all to hell. The Air Force general looked at his friends and said: "that's bravery."

Their next stop was the Army camp where they were holding maneuvers to practice heavy armor tactics. The Army general walks up to one of his men and said, while pointing to a tank speeding toward them, "Private stop that tank." The Soldier ran toward the tank waving his arms and yelling "STOP, STOP" and was flattened flatter than a pancake. The Army man looked at his friends and said: "that's bravery".

The three adjourned for a quick drink and proceeded to the Admiral's flagship and went all the way up to the Admiral's bridge. When they had arrived on the bridge the three looked up and saw a man painting the mast way above them.

The Admiral yelled out: "Hey, you there aloft." The seaman painting the mast looked down, saluted and replied: "Yes sir". The Admiral yelled up: "Jump off that mast sailor"! The sailor, without any hesitation, flipped the Admiral the bird and said, "Fuck you sir".