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The original was posted on /r/AmItheAsshole by /u/AITA-Y23 on 2023-10-02 16:44:34.

I am a professor at an American university, and I specialize in bioinformatics. One of my PhD students, “John” (not his real name) is a lieutenant colonel in the USAF. John and I get along real well. He is a genius at his field, and he’s got a very relaxed, friendly personality. I call him by his first name, and he has no issues with this whatsoever. I also like to crack jokes with him from time to time, you know, just so he and I can decompress from his rigorous studies.

I was chatting with my older brother last night. My brother is a Marine Corps veteran, and I told him about John, and how I feel John is going to change the world. My brother wasn’t really nasty or anything about it, but he did let me know that the proper way to address John, at ALL times, is “lieutenant colonel [last name]”. My brother told me that, as John has been in the USAF for 19 years, I owe a kind of reverence towards him, and that essentially means treating him differently, and much more formally, than civilian students.

AITA? I kind of feel like my brother is just messing with me.