How Many Vets?

[dread]

How many veterans do we have here what did you do?
I was in the Navy for about 10 years and I was a Surface Warfare Officer - the professional line officers that drove, maintained, and operated the ships and were experts in employing them in warfare. I spent most of my time in Amphibious assault - here are some pics from the day (1988-1997).
Fancy-pants Quarterdeck photo:


The day me and my buddy Tak got our Warfare Qualification "Pinned" on us. Things got blo odier shortly after this pic.
My flight deck, bringing in a "helo" as we called them - that's me in the orange striped cranium.


Where our real skills came into play, driving the ships in close quarters. I'm in the Khaki on the right standing on the bridge wing bringing us alongside for refuel and resupply.

 

[mso489]

USN enlisted Oct 1968-Aug 1972, radioman A and C schools, Vietnam combat zone USS Gallant

MSO489 with Market Time patrol, near DMZ/Cue Viet River, South China Sea. Homeported

Long Beach; changed rate (job designation) to journalist, assigned Midway Island Naval Station,

now defunct and under the Dept Interior. Changing job rate then as now is almost unheard of,

a quirk of the times. I wrote and edited a newspaper. Worked for the Veterans Administration

helping vets get their GI Bill and benefits, for about four years.

 

[bentmike]

U.S. Air Force 1989-93. Weapons Loader conventional/nuclear munitions and M61A1 gun system on the B-52H. Stationed at Fairchild AFB during the last years of Strategic Air Command.

 

[leg59]

Navy, enlisted 1977-1983. Served on Ballistic Missile Submarines.

 

[tbradsim1]

USN, 1960/64!

 

[teufelhund]

USMC '04-'09 2844 Comm God. Iraq, Lebanon, 24 MEU all over the Med and Middle East.
I'm the one on the left. This was a fun way to end a 30 hr day.

 

[kcvet67]

U.S. Army Security Agency 1967-'71. Translator-Interpreter (Hanoi dialect Vietnamese). Voice Intercept Operator.

Served in Viet Nam from January 1969 through August 1970.

 

[bigvan]

USN '88 to '93

Naval Security Group

Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 2nd Class

Chinese Mandarin Translator and Cryptologist

 

[buck632]

Canadian Forces 1998-2012

Afghanistan 06-07

 

[zekest]

Thank you all for your service!
~Zeke

 

[beezer]

U.S. Marine Corps 1996-2004. I held a couple different MOS's....I started off doing Supply and later switched into Intelligence where I specialized in CI/HUMINT. I spent my active duty time split between California and Japan.

 

[crazypipe]

1967 to 1970 Nam 68 to 69

 

[mso489]

Thanks for your service guys. I'm glad we all made it back, and I remember with reverence those who didn't.

 

[ravkesef]

Retired naval officer, served 11 years as a line officer in Amphibs, submarines, river patrol (pbr) in the Mekong Delta (Bronze Star, Purple Heart) then following ordination served as a chaplain until retirement.

 

[trailspike48]

Army, 68-71 O2, Vietnam 69-70

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

Thanks guys.

 

[cynyr]

Tennessee Air Guard, 1983-89, then again 2001-04. I'm not really a "vet", as I never heard a gun fired in anger, but I did serve on active duty during wartime.

Norway, 1987

 

[dread]

Cynyr, that still makes you a vet.
Thanks to all my fellow vets. I should add I spent most of my time forward deployed, and was in Gulf 1 and Somalia.

 

[billbearcat]

Almost 12 years in the Marine Corps, 4 years as an Ammo Tech, the rest as an EOD Tech.

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

OS2 (SW) checking in, Navy vet 2004-2010. I was a minesweeper guy (USS Pioneer MCM-9 and USS Dextrous MCM-13). Did three deployments to Bahrain as well as participated in JTF Hurricanes Katrina and Rita while based out of Ingleside, TX (Humanitarian Service medal for Katrina). Good to hear from some fellow vets around here. One of my Chiefs up in CIC was a cob smoker while underway and helped keep pipe smoking present in my mind. Thanks for everyone's service.