Enlisted?

REGAF - 21Sep64 -15Apr69
IRR - 16Apr69 - 21Sep72
TN ANG 8Aug88 - 13Jan03

 

USMC-Military Police 1985-1989

Paris Island
Lackland Airforce Base
MCAS Eltoro

 

USAF 1 Feb 88 to 28 Apr 94.

McClellan AFB, CA
Osan AB, ROK
Spangdahlem AB, Germany

 

27 Dec. 1990 U.S.M.C.
19 Sept.1992

 

I thought I posted a reply but don't see it. I was in the Air Force from November 1965 to September 1972. I re-enlisted when I had just 2 years, 10 months and 2 days, and they started my second 4 years on that day. So I ended up with 6 years, 10 months and 2 days when I decided to get out, and I regret that decision to this day. The only time in my life I liked my job was in the Air Force. I've often wished I could go back and give my younger self (just prior to turning 21) a list of things to do and not do that I regret, but we have to live with our regrets and hopefully learn something from them.

 

U.S.Navy…79-83

 

US Army 2008-Present

 

Coast Guard
'82 to '87

 

Hey, Coastie, ever been to Sault Ste. Marie, MI. This whole town is full of you guys. God bless ya.

 

Air Force Dec 1987-Feb 1997

 

What was your afsc? I was a structural shop guy in CE.

 

Security Specialist - Mather, McConnell, Lakenheath, Lackland (SS instructor).

 

I have the honor of the title Sergeant, United States Marines Corps.
Late 1960s to middle 1970s.

I served as Rifleman (probably gives me the most pride), Unit Diary Clerk, Small Arms Repairman, Artillery Weapons Repairman, Supply and Embarkation NCO and Den Mother.

 

Enlisted May 1970, U.S. Army.
My draft lottery number was 44, Nixon had ended 2S (student) deferments the previous November, allowing us to finish the spring semester but, if our number came up after that, we were toast.
Opted for rotary wing training, as I had a pilot's license, thinking I could then choose my assignment.
Wrong. Wound up in CCN south of Quang Tri, and had the dubious honor of flying for 117 hours straight -- 15 minute catnaps here and there during reload and resupply -- in the liberation of that provincial capitol in June 1972.
Field commissioned in 1972. We'd lost our 2LT over Cambodia, where we "weren't." Filed my after-action report with the CO, who told me he had something for me to sign. I could read it upside down, and I said "NO! Sir. I'm not signing those papers." He came around the desk, got in my face, and said, "Son, I need an LT, and you are by G[osh] him! Now sign the d[ang]ed papers!"
That's how I got a 20-year career as a combat officer and helicopter pilot. Took OTS and reclasslified in Cobras (I was a Huey pilot up 'til then), did the first deployment of the redesigned Apache in Desert Storm and decided after that I'd been in Uncle Sam's service long enough.

 

Disconnected:

Do you know how to distinguish an Army aviator from a Marine aviator - aside from the uniform?

The Marine aviator has one less connector making full contact.

The son of my oldest and most honored friend is an Apache pilot. Currently a Captain. Good visibility, functioning gunsights and clean LZs to you all.

 

Army: 1972-1975

Coast Guard: 1978-1996

I was a telephone lineman during my time in the Army Signal Corps.

After Coast Guard boot camp, I was a non-rated seaman aboard a buoy tender in Galveston, Texas for a few months then went to A-school in North Carolina to train as a avionics technician, which is what I was until retirement in 1996.