Roll Call

[warren]

130, 123 loadmaster

I should add it was a couple?, a few? wars back.

 

[JMcQ]

At a service academy. So semi-active duty.

Which branch do you plan on joining?

 

[ormazd]

Retired Air Force

 

[tg51]

Which branch do you plan on joining?

I'm at West Point so I'll commission into the Army

 

[Ctbill]

Go Army!

 

[kurtbob]

I'm at West Point so I'll commission into the Army

Congrats! You have my respect! You chose a route that was not the “easy” way as probably 99% of your peers did after high school.

 

[tg51]

Congrats! You have my respect! You chose a route that was not the “easy” way as probably 99% of your peers did after high school.

Thank you very much. It's certainly not easy but it is worth the four years of suck. The phrase everybody uses is that its a horrible place to be at but a great place to be from.

 

[kurtbob]

Thank you very much. It's certainly not easy but it is worth the four years of suck. The phrase everybody uses is that its a horrible place to be at but a great place to be from.

I feel ya. As for “the suck” .......just give it a big ole hug. It makes you more resilient and life proof ( at least I’ve been telling myself that for years). Seriously, wish you the best of luck!

 

[tg51]

I feel ya. As for “the suck” .......just give it a big ole hug. It makes you more resilient and life proof ( at least I’ve been telling myself that for years). Seriously, wish you the best of luck!

Will do, thank you sir.

 

[Ctbill]

“Pain is weakness leaving the body...”?

 

[Ctbill]

tg51 - just sent you a pm...

 

[mso489]

USN '68-'72, enlisted, SDiego boot and radioman tech, USS Gallant MSO (minesweeper oceangoing) 489, multiple long patrols near DMZ, Midway Island duty editing lithograph newspaper, Milwaukee recruiting. Best liberty port, British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, now gone, as are many of the Navy facilities where I served. Ship sold to Taiwan navy. Active small town at Midway Naval Station long closed, as is a later tourist facility. In one 'Nam port the ship tossed concussion grenades over the rail against swimmer sappers planting mines on the hull. Much excitement running a typhoon "evasion." You go to sea during big storms to keep from being destroyed against piers and buildings. We lost a major radio antenna about 20 feet tall, tore out the bolts. For about six hours, there was no "up or down." At Midway, I expected Alcatraz on the rocks. Instead, the Navy had its little town and airstrips and the rest was totally hallucinogenic, no chemicals needed, Australian ironwoods and hundreds of thousands of multiple species of sea birds, sea turtles, seal, and tiger sharks. Further from Honolulu to Midway than from New York City to Omaha. On the plane from 15K feet, you think, "We're going to land on that?" Out of the back of the truck to the barracks, I thought I saw tombstones from WWII ... no, nesting albatross arrayed across every stretch of lawn. I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

 

[elessar]

Semper P!

 

[pipestud]

Well, I admit I was a teeny bit younger, but back in 1972 President Richard Nixon wrote me a very nice letter with a deal that I could not refuse. He said he was going to feed me, clothe me, house me and even pay me to join the US Army. It was indeed a deal that I could not refuse. Just for fun I hauled out this photo that was taken during my basic training. I think I still look pretty much the same, don't all of you?

 

[JMcQ]

Well, I admit I was a teeny bit younger, but back in 1972 President Richard Nixon wrote me a very nice letter with a deal that I could not refuse. He said he was going to feed me, clothe me, house me and even pay me to join the US Army. It was a deal that I could not refuse. Just for fun I hauled out this photo that was taken during my basic training. I think I still look pretty much the same, don't all of you?
View attachment 6084

You have the same look of exhaustion that I remember having in boot camp.

Thanks for your service.

 

[Falc_z]

USN, 30 years ago. Where I smoked my first pipe!

 

[hauntedmyst]

I didn't get to serve. Turns out if you want to be a Navy Seal you can't be afraid of the water.

 

[JMcQ]

I didn't get to serve. Turns out if you want to be a Navy Seal you can't be afraid of the water.

Damn fine print. It's the details that will get you.

 

[retrogrouch]

Air Force and then Army. Good times.

 

[oldmooner]

Air Force retiree. 22 years. Retired in 1983.