Getting Out of the Military, Nostalgia

[lraisch]

I was in the Coast Guard (shallow water navy) for four years in the early Seventies. My last assignment was TAD at a radio station that was being decommissioned on the Washington coast. I spent my last couple weeks just hanging around a lifeboat station with nothing to do. When I was mustered out, there was only a chief to give me the interview. I knew they were supposed to ask you if you wanted to ship over but when the question came up, I just burst out laughing. I hadn't intended to; it was just an automatic reaction. The chief didn't appreciate it.

 

[Briar Tuck]

Was never in a military. Plan was to get out of HS, go to Citadel, and go into Army. But living in N.C., I had chance to get to know a lot of vets. They all suggested not joining up. Mostly WWII vets. Army Aviation guys. Pilots, bombardiers, few medics.. And Vietnam vets who didn't say much but "fuck Marine." Also knew ROK Vietnam vets who lost good number of their appendages. But what made the decision for me was hanging around Ft. Bragg getting drunk every weekend. Realized what I saw wasn't what I wanted. I have a healthy respect to all the vets, but the life I saw wasn't what I imagined. Of course, I met younger vets too. My age. They were much happier and loved military more. I guess those who have been to a war or two or three, didn't think it was something they could recommend. Sometimes, I wonder how different my life would if I joined.

This reminds me of my experience with law enforcement. I had intended on a law enforcement career and put myself through the sheriff's academy. At the academy I realized that perhaps it really wasn't the career for me. As you said, the younger guys were really positive and loved the job, but all the older deputies that had been on the job for more than a few years were burned out and cynical, with no enthusiasm at all. They all shared their experiences freely, and I decided that it wasn't an experience that I wanted.

There were a few times in the following years that I had some tinges of regret, but as time went on I realized that I had made the right decision. Now, I couldn't even imagine being in law enforcement.

 

[Briar Tuck]

I'm an Air Force brat and almost enlisted myself right out of high school. I had the paperwork all filled out and ready to sign on the dotted line, but the recruiters were determined to put me in aviation electronics MOS based on my ASVAB scores and they were not giving me any other good options. While older me realizes that MOS would have opened up a lot of great career opportunities for me, younger me was not enthusiastic about the long hours required to keep those planes flying, which my stepdad impressed upon me was the reality of the guys in his squadron with that job. So, I planned on going to college first instead, which got postponed for a few years, and eventually I ended up with a career in software development.

 

[mso489]

I've wondered if I would have done a military hitch if the draft wasn't on my heels. My dad and uncles were all in the military during WWII, but not all were gung ho until history played out. However, it was imprinted on me that that was what men were required to do. Judging from the behavior of others during that time, I guess if I hadn't been pressed I would have just gone on with my career as I saw it. So much is luck. Making it home from 'Nam was certainly luck. I remembered hanging over the rail of the ship in my limited spare time on the way back across the Pacific thinking maybe I'd survive, and what next? The future didn't necessarily look bright, but it looked like a future.

 

[keith929]

The cattle car photo reminds me of flying from Hawaii to Clark Air Force Base PI in a cargo plane fitted with a passenger deck. It was like an airliner inside a warehouse. They could slide out the seats all bolted to a metal deck and slide in cargo containers or tanks. It wasn't the friendly skies, but it was more spruced up than the cattle car which looks like the subway to hell.

Navy Chief, I was in when they still had a "C" school for Morse Code, and I got sent there because I looked studious and had a work ethic. But Morse Code is a gift, like being able to play the trombone. Some guys just heard it like someone whispering letters and number to them. I struggled for weeks, and I suspect I finally passed with a social promotion. Luckily, I never used it aboard ship, but my lead enlisted radioman was speed key qualified, and was a gifted radio guy anyway, a refugee from the lumber camps of the northwest. He'd trying going back to that, but it was just too hard compared to his Navy tech work, so he re-enlisted.

I really have admiration for so many of the guys I served with. We were every ethnicity, region, social class, educational level, personality type, and so on. There weren't any angels aboard, but a lot of community.

What I miss about the Army is all those people I served with. I may not have been friends with some of them but we all recognized that we had to be able to count on one another in order to survive and complete our mission.

 

[jpberg]

The cattle car photo reminds me of flying from Hawaii to Clark Air Force Base PI in a cargo plane fitted with a passenger deck. It was like an airliner inside a warehouse. They could slide out the seats all bolted to a metal deck and slide in cargo containers or tanks. It wasn't the friendly skies, but it was more spruced up than the cattle car which looks like the subway to hell.

Navy Chief, I was in when they still had a "C" school for Morse Code, and I got sent there because I looked studious and had a work ethic. But Morse Code is a gift, like being able to play the trombone. Some guys just heard it like someone whispering letters and number to them. I struggled for weeks, and I suspect I finally passed with a social promotion. Luckily, I never used it aboard ship, but my lead enlisted radioman was speed key qualified, and was a gifted radio guy anyway, a refugee from the lumber camps of the northwest. He'd trying going back to that, but it was just too hard compared to his Navy tech work, so he re-enlisted.

I really have admiration for so many of the guys I served with. We were every ethnicity, region, social class, educational level, personality type, and so on. There weren't any angels aboard, but a lot of community.

Your last paragraph is really what it all boils down to.
Same haircut, same clothes, same glasses.
All of a sudden it’s not about you anymore, it’s about this band of misfits that make up your existence.

 

[anotherbob]

What I miss about the Army is all those people I served with. I may not have been friends with some of them but we all recognized that we had to be able to count on one another in order to survive and complete our mission.

I've heard that's one thing most people miss in civilian life. Not friends not buddies but people that have to count on each other and not just living independent lives sometimes intertwined. You know one of those things for society to think about.

 

[pappymac]

I was in the Coast Guard (shallow water navy) for four years in the early Seventies. My last assignment was TAD at a radio station that was being decommissioned on the Washington coast. I spent my last couple weeks just hanging around a lifeboat station with nothing to do. When I was mustered out, there was only a chief to give me the interview. I knew they were supposed to ask you if you wanted to ship over but when the question came up, I just burst out laughing. I hadn't intended to; it was just an automatic reaction. The chief didn't appreciate it.

Do you remember which Coast Guard radio station?
My first six years in the Coast Guard was mostly in the Seattle area. First 28 months on the USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278), nine months at the Pt. Grenville LORAN-C station (about 7 miles north of the beautiful Moclips, Wa.) and then the District Public Affairs office until Dec. 1977.

 

[BarrelProof]

The cattle car photo reminds me of flying from Hawaii to Clark Air Force Base PI in a cargo plane fitted with a passenger deck.

I bet you wouldn’t recognize Clark Air Base anymore, either. I was never there when you were, but I can assure you it’s different.

 

[pappymac]

Your last paragraph is really what it all boils down to.
Same haircut, same clothes, same glasses.
All of a sudden it’s not about you anymore, it’s about this band of misfits that make up your existence.

I've heard that's one thing most people miss in civilian life. Not friends not buddies but people that have to count on each other and not just living independent lives sometimes intertwined. You know one of those things for society to think about.

Those two comments bring back memories.
There was still a lot of prejudice in the world back in the early 1970s and I remember several "altercations" aboard ship between some of the guys. Funny thing was, everyone went to the same bars when on liberty and skin color didn't matter when a shipmate got into a fight - we all had each others back.

Honestly though, after I retired the first thing I missed when I started working was personal accountability. I had to deal with a bunch of people who just didn't give a shit about doing their job.

The other thing I found is that instead of being valued for being a military retiree, I kept hearing comments like, "He doesn't know shit, he was in the military and don't understand how the world works."

 

[BarrelProof]

The thing that amazes me about threads like these, or any threads about the military, really, is the amount of people who feel compelled to point out that they were going to join and then didn’t. Not that it’s a good/bad thing, just that it always seems to happen.

 

[BarrelProof]

Those two comments bring back memories.
There was still a lot of prejudice in the world back in the early 1970s and I remember several "altercations" aboard ship between some of the guys. Funny thing was, everyone went to the same bars when on liberty and skin color didn't matter when a shipmate got into a fight - we all had each others back.

Honestly though, after I retired the first thing I missed when I started working was personal accountability. I had to deal with a bunch of people who just didn't give a shit about doing their job.

The other thing I found is that instead of being valued for being a military retiree, I kept hearing comments like, "He doesn't know shit, he was in the military and don't understand how the world works."

Yep. Went to the military instead of college - we don’t need him in the meetings. He can keep working while we plan.

I imagine there are quite a few chips on quite a few shoulders because of that. Oh well, we’ve all been called worse by better.

 

[anotherbob]

Those two comments bring back memories.
There was still a lot of prejudice in the world back in the early 1970s and I remember several "altercations" aboard ship between some of the guys. Funny thing was, everyone went to the same bars when on liberty and skin color didn't matter when a shipmate got into a fight - we all had each others back.

Honestly though, after I retired the first thing I missed when I started working was personal accountability. I had to deal with a bunch of people who just didn't give a shit about doing their job.

I put that one on the jobs. So many businesses have an outlook of we pay you that should make you care, then get upset that people come in just to get paid. Of course there are those people that just don't care, but I think most people want to have some pride. Yet many managers demand pride while squashing it. My last job before the current one literally excelled at pulling that crap. Acting like what we do is just business just makes money who cares how it effects people or how we might be helping them. The millitary is almost too good on stressing the importance of what you're doing (not you personally but the work).

The other thing I found is that instead of being valued for being a military retiree, I kept hearing comments like, "He doesn't know shit, he was in the military and don't understand how the world works."

That's so weird. I keep running into the opposite. Like it's so hard to just be a little bit observant. I feel like it must be either the region you live in or the field you worked in. Or jealousy. Like sure he dates super models who beg him but he's doesn't actually know how kissing works.

 

[pappymac]

@anotherbob
I often heard it while I was working for a printing company. They hired me to be the editor of a hunting/fishing magazine but soon found out I knew more than most of the people in the art department when it came to layout & design work. The problem was the main salesman kept feeding BS into the owner's ear about my "limited" experience and not knowing how to work in the real world.

Funny thing is, they soon learned I could troubleshoot and fix computer problems, troubleshoot printing problems from clients and teach the clients what to do to prevent the problems, etc. In edition to producing a monthly magazine, I eventually became the troubleshooter for a third of the company. The problem with that one salesman continued because I was hired instead of someone he wanted hired.

Irony is eight years after I was hired, the boss told me to name my price and put me in charge of the art & production departments.

 

[tbradsim1]

Musteredout, seabag on shoulder, got home, S Asia very different, told my Dad I’m going to Grandpaw rice farm. For about a week slept outside so I could hear the sounds, walked the headlands of the rice fields, funny no one shooting st me, WWII Uncle visited, he never talked about his hitch, we swapped stories, he made me feel better. It took a while for me to get accustomed of being back home, what helped was the slow Cajun pace of my Grandfather. Finally went to a bar and restaurant at my Grandmothers insistence, the young lady running it would be my wife, I thank her for helping me. I love this country with all my heart, 2 children served in Desert Storm, Son in 82nd Airborne and Daughter was a Crew Chief on a Gunship. That’s my story. I Garronte!

 

[lraisch]

Do you remember which Coast Guard radio station?
My first six years in the Coast Guard was mostly in the Seattle area. First 28 months on the USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278), nine months at the Pt. Grenville LORAN-C station (about 7 miles north of the beautiful Moclips, Wa.) and then the District Public Affairs office until Dec. 1977.

That was at Westport radio and Lighthouse. I was also briefly at Cape Blanco Loran plus being on the Klamath and the Cook Inlet.

 

[pappymac]

That was at Westport radio and Lighthouse. I was also briefly at Cape Blanco Loran plus being on the Klamath and the Cook Inlet.

If I remember correctly, that was across the inlet going to Grays Harbor from Ocean Shores.
I rode on the Klamath for a couple of days for some public affairs crap.

 

[Zero]

I'm missing a few things from this uniform, but anybody that had to wear this little Birdy on their left breast pocket knows. I would say no words are needed, but I can give two... Planning Guide and Red Time. I wore a few different hats while serving in the Army and will keep it short as I type from my phone with my stylus. My military experience was a love/hate relationship, just like any other job I've ever worked, always weighing the pros and cons. The nostalgia of getting out is a feeling of freedom and a tinge of sadness. I'm grateful for the experience, and miss the comraderie, structure, and communication. I still loosely follow AR 670-1 and walk with 9 to the front and 6 to the rear, lol. That's all I have to say about that.

 

[anotherbob]

@anotherbob
I often heard it while I was working for a printing company. They hired me to be the editor of a hunting/fishing magazine but soon found out I knew more than most of the people in the art department when it came to layout & design work. The problem was the main salesman kept feeding BS into the owner's ear about my "limited" experience and not knowing how to work in the real world.

Funny thing is, they soon learned I could troubleshoot and fix computer problems, troubleshoot printing problems from clients and teach the clients what to do to prevent the problems, etc. In edition to producing a monthly magazine, I eventually became the troubleshooter for a third of the company. The problem with that one salesman continued because I was hired instead of someone he wanted hired.

Irony is eight years after I was hired, the boss told me to name my price and put me in charge of the art & production departments.

ah the ole undermine the guy who threatens your job, instead of putting the same effort into getting better at it.

 

[mso489]

I saw the movie "Woodstock" on the mess deck of the minesweeper with an assortment of guys in the crew. I think we were in port at Subic Bay PI at the time. A lot of the younger crew were totally devoted to rock music, playing it and singing it all the time. A few fellow crew members were tacitly understood to do drugs by their fellow enlisted crew. So I wondered how the older senior enlisted guys would respond.

I thought it was kind of enlightened of the Navy to circulate the film since it didn't exactly reinforce the mission at the time, but it was part of the home culture . People were collectively quite stoic about it. The young guys didn't hoot and cheer, and the older guys took it in with a sort of wary wonder.

I've always felt that Vietnam vets are not part of the general boomer culture, just by life experience. A lot of them ended up critical of the war, but they simply weren't a part of the huge economic boom caused by the war, nor so much the culture of protest that ended it.

I'd known one of my late wife's friends for ten or fifteen years when I off handedly mentioned that I was a Vietnam veteran, and she scrunched up her face and said, "Oh, yuck," though I think she actually meant it in a sympathetic way. I talked about it so little, people always seem surprised and maybe even disbelieving when I mention it. I don't exactly have a military baring.