Military Service

A Thousand times NO!... But the powers that be made us Jarheads/Jungle Bunnies take a boat!... So I became a Sailor and sailed to Vietnam... We are part of the ( this is hard for me to say)Redface Navy you know!... I took Braniff Airlines home!... I bet you were the pilot?... Brother GlenWhistling

 

Brother; as my grandson often says: "the Marines are a part of the Dept. of the Navy, the Mens Dept."

 

Didn't much care for the landings, mostly took my own way back down to earth.
Laugh

 

97-01, Active Duty Army, commo guy in 3rd Psyops Battalion.
01-present, NC ARNG, 30th ABCT, currently an electronics systems maintenance tech
Spent 2004 and 2009 in Iraq

 

So if we clean-up all the Army lingo you were a ground pounder or grunt... Or Uh Infantry!... Right!... Brother Glen

 

GERAAAAAAAAAAAAAANIMOOOOOOOOOO!... NOT!!!!!... Brother GlenBiggrinLaughRoflmao

 

Oh I get it!... You flew by the seat of your pants?... Brother GlenLaugh
Just kidding anything as big as a C-130?... So TC what did you fly?Unsure

 

Made this for an acquaintance in the Army Reserves after his son joined the Marines and got sent to electronics school. My dad got drafted in 1953, and ended up in a gas generation unit in White Sands, so it fits me, too. Biggrin

 

This was not meant as any insult... Marines who were in electronics during Vietnam not assigned to MAC (Marine Air Corp) that I know of were ground pounders or grunts (Infantry)... They were the radio men of their units... We are talking about a 30 to 40 year difference!... Brother Glen

 

OK!... Now that that's out of the way!... What did you fly?... Brother GlenSmile

 

US Navy. 1979-1983 E-5 signalman USS Claude V. Ricketts (DDG-5). One Med, two NATO, Shellback and twice Bluenose. We were in Karachi Pakistan when Khomeini took power and the Iranian embassy was overrun. We deployed into the Gulf November 1979 and did not pull into port until February 1980.

We were buzzed by F-4s we sold the Shah. The USS LaSalle, rotating Frigates, and the Claude V.

The aircraft carriers and cruisers that got all the press at the time were safely in the Indian Ocean.

No fighting. No combat. But we were the peacetime targets should anything break out (like the Petty Officer of the Watch on the quarterdeck is the first to get shot should a shoot out take place because he's the only one with the weapon).

I long since abandoned the guilt feeling that somehow I did not do what others did (fight in combat even die in service of the Nation) since I was ready, willing and able to do so. I have heard of men and women who survived combat who felt guilty for not dying along with their brothers and sisters in the battle.

I hope they realize what I finally did. And that their life is in a real sense a victory for their fallen brethren.

So is everybody's life.

To serve and protect... is what we all signed up for.

Though I will say I am tired of the patronizing platitude "thank you for your service" when I am denied access to the VA and illegals choke the medical system on the outside.

Being told I make too much money by the GW Bush administration one year, the next year my wages went well below that mark but because the year before I made more than 40k I still could not use the VA and had no insurance. Tough luck, Vet.

I figured out home remedies to get through sever bouts with asthma... and discovered vitamins and herbs actually do keep the doctor away (unlike an apple a day).

I didn't get the GI bill because Congress did away with it almost strictly during the time of my enlistment. When I applied after it was reinstated, Tough luck, Vet, you enlisted from 1979-1983.

I could go on. But I know there are veterans who have it much worse than I ever had it. And the way this country benefits from military veterans it is abysmal the way they are treated!

If memory serves, Roman soldiers were tax exempt during time in service. Lifers were exempt from taxes for life. And high ranking lifers extended that tax exemption to their immediate families.

For what we owe the vet and the survivors of fallen heroes it's as if we begrudge them the fair treatment ancient Rome gave their soldiers.

 

JohnDBaptiste said I could go on. But I know there are veterans who have it much worse than I ever had it. And the way this country benefits from military veterans it is abysmal the way they are treated!

I agree and we could start a thread on Veterans vs the VA and I'm sure some is positive but a lot of it is negative... Venting would just raise our blood pressure and who would listen anyway?... Brother Glen

 

First post in years, but yes I served in the AF from 1987-2009 and still currently work for the AF but now as a civilian...

 

Not so Van. Being a Vet means you were putting your life in jeopardy, no matter the role you filled. You could have received orders to go at any point and when I left Germany to go to Vietnam, the Nazis still hated our guts.

 

No offense taken. I guess the board code is still translating some words into emoticons, turned my m-a-d-e into m-a-d. I always enjoy some good natured ribbing between services and career fields.