Army Humor Comics: The PowerPoint Ranger Archive

Military humor has always been how soldiers cope with the gap between how the Army says things work and how they actually work. The PowerPoint Ranger comics took that gap as their subject. They are short, blunt strips about promotion points that never seem to move, annual training that runs on slide decks, a reflective belt that is supposedly bulletproof, and a senior Specialist who has outlasted three first sergeants.

This page is the front door to the archive. Each comic below has its own post that explains the joke, the Army terms behind it and, where a strip touches a real policy or tradition, what that policy or tradition actually is. You do not need a uniform in your closet to follow along, though veterans will probably recognise a few of the characters.

The strips here date mainly from 2012 and 2013, so they reflect the Army of that period: the Iraq and Afghanistan years, yellow PT belts, early-era social media worries and the arguments over combat roles. Where a strip leans on something that has since changed, the post says so rather than pretending the joke is current.

If you are new to the archive, pick a theme. The rank and career group is the most relatable, the training and barracks group is the most universal, and the deployment and home group is the darkest. Every post links onward to related strips, so you can keep reading once you have found a favourite.

Rank, promotion and career

• Command Specialist Major: a parody of the Command Sergeant Major rank, starring the mythical all-powerful senior E-4.
• Cutoff Scores: the long wait for promotion points to Staff Sergeant in a crowded MOS.
• NCO Academy: a senior NCO, a coffee mug and Fort Leonard Wood.
• Major America Redux: Captain America finally promotes and lands in a Brigade S-4 job.
• Jack of All Trades: a 19K Armor Crewman who has not served on a tank in 12 years.
• Caw Caw: a Blue Falcon moment at morning accountability formation.

Training, barracks and Army culture

• Mandatory Classes: eight hours of annual briefings, delivered by a working dog.
• New Release: a Halo night in the barracks and two men out of ranks.
• Open Season: the reflective PT belt as an invincibility force field.
• If D-Day Were Today: modern Army bureaucracy dropped onto a Normandy landing craft.
• Priorities: an American firefight, a British teapot and the Boiling Vessel.

Deployment, home and politics

• The Bottle: deployment habits that are hard to drop at home.
• VA Zombie: dark humor about post-deployment insomnia and sleep medication.
• Da Bears: a satirical take on a debunked argument against women in combat arms.