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Veterans, Sound Off


Eric
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What branch of the service were you in? What MOS ( or whatever the lesser services call their job classifications. :biggrin: )? Where were you stationed?

I was 11-B light infantry, in the US Army. I went to Basic in Harmony Church, FT Benning, GA. I can tell you that digging foxholes in Georgia's red clay is a bitch. I'm just glad I went through Basic there in the winter.

I was stationed in the 3rd US Inf Regiment, TOG, FT Meyer, VA.

 

How about the rest of you?

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USMC.

MOS: 311 and 331. Like the avatar says: "Suicide Charley" Company, 1st BN, 7th Marine Regiment, 1stMarDiv.  Yep, Chesty Puller's Battalion in 1942 on Guadalcanal. 

Posted up ashore at Camp Pendleton, CA. and I still remember Mount Maternal Fornicator. Did my high seas time on the WestPac.

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US Navy, 1110.

NROTC in college, active from 1972 until 1978.

Spent a few tours in the Tonkin Yacht Club on a destroyer escort looking for submarines and occasionally lobbing 5-inch shells at the dirt part of the country.

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U.S. Army. I served 24 years from 1966 to 1990, retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Only spent one year in a combat theater, Vietnam. Retired just days before the first Iraq war. Its very odd to think about how I have been retired from the Army for more years than the career that I was on active duty. I still am bound by my oath to defend this nation from enemies foreign and domestic. I'm old, but I'm not blind and can still pull a trigger. 

Edited by Vito
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I was a 316x0 (Missile Systems Systems Analyst Specialist) for a couple of years, busted my knee, and then crosstrained to 511x0 (Computer Systems Operator Specialist). That's SAC's fancy way of saying I swapped black boxes and sump pumps in Minuteman silos and then ran punched cards and tapes.

Damn, you think about it, most young folks have no inkling of a sump pump, much less those other things. :fred:

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United States By God Army

13b34j4m5

Special Weapons for 6 years

Recruiter for 3 (never, ever do that)

ducking and hiding for 1 (worked for the Sergeant Major as S-4 liaison at the post Skills Development Center)

 

thanks to all that are still there, and the ones that aren’t 

 

.

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Army, 2005-2009

15P, Aviations Operations Specialist (Fancy way of saying I'm supposed to do paperwork in an aviation unit.  I never did do much paperwork though)

3-2 GSAB at USAG Humphreys, South Korea for all of it.

 

Edited by Cougar_ml
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I would also echo my pride in my Grandson serving in the ME.  He is a graduate of the,  "...Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution consisting of two separate entities which provide linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies...",     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Language_Institute

He spoke a number of local Middle Eastern dialects and regional languages, and was specifically tested to determine that his speaking was indistinguishable from the locals.

He served in an Intelligence capacity with Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance aircraft over Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

What was interesting to me was that my company outfitted the aircraft he served in.

 

Edited by janice6
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5 minutes ago, janice6 said:

I would also echo my pride in my Grandson serving in the ME.  He is a graduate of the,  "...Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution consisting of two separate entities which provide linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies...",     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Language_Institute

He spoke a number of local Middle Eastern dialects and regional languages, and was specifically tested to determine that his speaking was indistinguishable from the locals.

He served in an Intelligence capacity with Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance aircraft over Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

What was interesting to me was that my company outfitted the aircraft he served in.

 

Impressive. 

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1 minute ago, Zonny said:

Impressive. 

He says he has an inordinate ability for languages and they all come very easy for him.  He chose not to re-enlist but to enter government service in another capacity.  We are proud of him, as you rightfully are proud of your Daughter.

He is quick to say that he didn't serve in a battlefield capacity, so he doesn't think what he did was special, as what your daughter did/is doing.

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USAF 1969-73 AFSC Power Productions Specialist. I ran back-up generators on base and supplied power in remote locations. I started out at a SAC Base an got sent TDY to work with SAC's Radar Bombing Squadron first at Bergstrom AFB TX and then on the Radar train which was located first in Alberta, Canada, and then in Beaver, Utah. Then the replacement for the man I was filling in for at Bergstrom showed up and I was sent back to my permanent duty station at Fairchild AFB Washington state.

When I got back to Fairchild AFB I had orders to go to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Viet Nam and I was all ready to process out and had my overseas shots and everything when word came down from assignments said my orders were canceled because I was still supposed to be TDY and so they cut me new orders and sent me Alaska remote to Tin City Radar station on the Bering strait for a year. After that I was stationed at Travis AFB in Northern California which was a MAC base. It was there on Feb 12 1973 that I ran the generators for the news crews when the first POW's returned from Viet Nam. I was very close, right up with the cameramen and got to see the looks on their faces when they got off the plane.

 

Edited by Borg warner
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