How many military bubbas here?

[arrogcow]

This may have been true of the Navy but we grunts and dogfaces enjoy talking about our tours of combat. Had any of you been at the reunion of the First Infantry Division ( or any Army Division for that matter, I belong to the 1st ID [ B Co. 2/16 Inf.] and the 3rd ID [FROG]) this last July in Phoenix you would have heard lots of stories from men who were there chewing the dirt.

I have found just the opposite, those that don't like to talk about it are those that weren't there to talk about it. Of course there is always the exception to the rule.

I server from 21 Jan. 1970 to 1 Jan. 1991. Retired an SFC.

Chris.

I'm not talking about reunions and such. I meant among family and friends (and then my dad will talk about it, he just doesn't bring it up unless you ask a question). And then there is the guy in the bar that's always bringing up "The Nam", who when pressed always was in the rear.

And my personal experience is that is holds for Army too (Army officer - see earlier post). You can get guys to talk to someone who wasn't there, but it ain't easy and it always is brief.

Adam

[bubba]

And my personal experience is that is holds for Army too (Army officer - see earlier post). You can get guys to talk to someone who wasn't there, but it ain't easy and it always is brief.

Adam

Adam, you got it. If they weren't there they'll never get it and if they were they don't need to be told. Took me a long while to get over things and be able to sleep without nightmares and I just don't care to resurrect it all.

[Joe Gondek]

Adam, you got it. If they weren't there they'll never get it and if they were they don't need to be told. Took me a long while to get over things and be able to sleep without nightmares and I just don't care to resurrect it all.

Amen to that Brother
(as we use to say "don't mean nothing")
But I did find that talking to other Vets did help make the Demons go away

[Gil Prothero]

great info here! great stories too, i like the history ALOT !
my whole family is pretty much military.
my father, lt.comdr. USN loaded the big one on Enola Gay after helping build it (my mom helped) and taking it over on the Indianapolis.
we have fought in EVERY war this country has ever had, and some not readily known from the first indian wars..onward, to the gulf
( had people on both sides of the french indian, and the war of northern agression..)
we still have family in today.
last i heard, i have a nephew doing duty at the white house or the camp, or gulf.
the ONLY time i came close was Aug. the 8th 1968, while watching the news ticker in piccidilly square, i see the soviets "invaded" chechoslovalia ( and if i can't spell it, why i did this i'll never know..)
so i see a UK army enlistment office, and go walking in, and ask the seargent
mind you, a british seargent, is frighening...where to join..
he looks dumbfounded, and after a few minutes of explaining why i feel it's my family, allied, civic, and manly duty to go in now to fight the BIG one, he stands up, shakes my hand, and tell me to go away..big voice, small smile.
he tells me nothing will happen, and if it does, i can come back..
( maybe it was because i weighed all of 120 at 5'9...maybe..)
on the way out, he tells me: "never, ever, volunteer for someone elses fight, and think twice about getting in any for your own".
so, my brothers joined, my ex wife joined, i'm too old even to do the french foreign legion..( although i thought about that too...long story i spent all my teenage age years in africa...)
i will always appreciate all who have, are, and will.
i'll go if i can wear my wallace kilt, and take my sword...
a frightful sight.

[GatorUK]

Seems the military has always had it's hold on me. Dad was a Marine. I was born at the US Naval Hospital, Marine Corps Air Station, Beaufort, SC. I, of course, joined the Navy and retired in 1994. Duty stations:

Naval Security Station, Washington, DC
Naval Security Group Activity, RAF Edzell, Scotland (Birthplace of the Navy Tartan)
Naval Security Group Activity, Terceira Island, Azores
Recruit Training Command, Orlando (Company Commander)
Naval Air Reconnaissance Control Center, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
CINCUSNAVEUR, London, UK
SUSLO, London, UK

I have been an Army Civilian since 1999 and can look at the Army tartan as a serious kilt consideration now.

[Alan H]

Too much albumin in my urine kept me out of NROTC in 1975, and even though Dad appealed twice and I had a Vice-Presidential nomination that kept me out of the Naval Academy as well.

Not going to the Academy or NROTC was the first rude awakening of my young adult life. I sometimes think of it as my first real "failure" but then we don't control our kidney's, do we? I sometimes think on how my life would be different if I'd been a Navy surface line officer for twenty years, which is what I wanted to do as a kid.

[Rusty]

British Army, Royal Tank Regiment 1973 to 1978

[KiltedKnome]

Military is on both sides of my family --
-I served in the US Army from 1982-1989. I also served in the US Peace Corps from 1976 - 1979.
-I met Steve while we were both in the military. Both his father and mother had been in the military.
-My sister was in the Army and married an Army warrant officer.
-I have a nephew that served in the Army in Iraq.
-My father was a career Army officer, retiring after 34 years, having served in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
-My mother was in the Army Nurses Corps during WWII, serving in England, France and Belgium.
-My father's father was a career Army officer, retiring after 30 years, having served in WWI and WWII.
-My mother's father was in the German Army before he emmigrated to the US in 1907.
-And I believe it goes back even further on both sides.

[Richland]

79-82 Pathfinder 82nd airborne Div. Now design equipment for soldiers. Deployed as DOD civ Afganastan and Iraq A couple of times.
Father : Army highly decorated 1st cav WWII carreer officer early vietnam Service 53-54 before it was a war.
Brother: Army career officer ret last year.
long list of aancestors back to Civil war.

[mbhandy]

Joined in 66-70 --Air Force Photographer
RAF Lakenheath, UK
2 years inactive reserves Houston, Tx.

MrBill