Army Spc. Lucas Beaver was in charge of running cold fuel operations in Poland in the fall of 2020. His office was housed inside a container-like building with screen-less windows that opened inward. While fighting boredom one day, he decided to jump.
“Man, f*** this place,” he said, tossing his cap on the ground.
And out the window he went, with an unsuspecting coworker sitting by.
@lbeavs The video that started it all. Throwback to my first ever window yeet ##fyp ##windowking ##army ##YOUAREAWESOME ##Animation ##navy ##marines ##airforce
♬ original sound - LBeavs
“For a few days straight I mentioned to my coworker that I wanted to jump out of it for fun but didn’t wanna get in trouble,” Beaver told Military Times. “Lucky for me my shift was from 0900 [to] 2100, so every day around 1700 everyone would be gone and I’d be free to do whatever.”
So, he set up a camera and went for it.
“I was gonna prank the soldier on shift with me and just jumped out the window head first and did a combat roll,” he said. “The angle made it look really tall, but really it was only like a 4- or 5-foot drop, depending on how high I jumped.”
The thrill of a single Mission: Impossible-style jump out of the window wasn’t enough, however. Beaver then made it his goal to jump every day for 20 days, which he documented on TikTok.
@lbeavs Reply to @fusion2x day 12 ;)) ##fyp ##army ##viral ##windowking ##usa ##yeet ##usarmy ##navy ##marines ##airforce
♬ original sound - LBeavs
“People were recognizing me as the ‘window guy’ in our unit,” Beaver said. “My chain of command acknowledged that I was gaining traction and having fun so they kinda let me be.”
But, as Robert Frost once said, “nothing gold can stay.” Eventually, leadership came down on Beaver, and he was forced to hang up the uniform if he was going to use TikTok.
“I didn’t really get much backlash from my unit for a while until around December, when it came down all the way from the division command team that it was ‘dishonoring and disrespecting the Army and the 101st,’” he noted. “My commander told me I couldn’t post anymore TikToks in uniform.”
It’s a shame, he said, because in his opinion, TikTok has really helped humanize soldiers and create a sense of online community among younger members of the military.
“I’ve seen some pretty great stuff happen from military members on TikTok,” Beaver said. “It’s bringing people together really well and normalizing the uniform.”
Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Military Times. She previously served as the Digitial Editor of Military Times and the Army Times Editor. Other work can be found at National Defense Magazine, Task & Purpose, and Defense News.
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