When I was in Vietnam our platoon had a guy who considered himself a merry master-prankster, and over time many of us became his innocent victims.
On April 1 he had about one month to go before going home, so we had the Commo Shop generate official-looking (but totally false) incoming instructions from HQ in Long Binh regarding a new secret-level operation in Cambodia, including a list of soldiers’ names who were required to participate, and whose time of separation of duty would be extended indefinitely until the conclusion of this operation (Anticipated duration: 4 – 6 months).
Some names we made up, and (for authenticity) a few others were real guys on our compound who this guy would likely recognize. His name was put about two-thirds of the way down.
We arranged for this bogus message to be put in the middle of a bunch of real incoming ones in the Commo Shop, then had someone casually mention to ‘master-prankster’ Dudley that he might want to go over there.
Hook, line and sinker. We let poor Dudley twist in the wind, hyperventilating and glassy-eyed for maybe two hours before telling him it was just the pay-back gag he’d been asking for, for most of the past year.
To this day I’ve never seen a more relieved, emotional (and still glassy-eyed) happy face as Dudley exhibited at that moment.
I can still see it.