Mess Night

To be honest, my experience with formal dinners has pretty much exclusively involved the Marine Corps...outside of a homecoming (which generally isn't really formal...since there was the duct-tape suit and the guy with his converse canvas shoes on), I guess. Now, Marine Corps balls are a yearly event and so I know the drill pretty well. Mess night is new. After talking to several other prior-service Marines, I figured out that it is not a common event and varies widely per unit. In your career you may only have one mess night...or several. Their generally saved for big events like pre or post deployment or change of command.

The whole event is actually quite entertaining and follows a script. There are lots of inside jokes that are played upon within the unit. The end result is a memorable night and lots of blackmail for the next day.