Posted on 07/27/2006 7:13:43 AM PDT by ErnBatavia
Amazing isn't it? Right their in the airport...chewing your a$$. June 15, 1981 was my day.
LOL. Thank you so much for your service to our great nation.
Thank you very much for your service
-from a Navy "brat." ;-)
I started laughing at the eighth one!
Now, why would you be laughing by the eighth one, pray tell?
I was being sincere in my gratitude for their service.
(sniffle)
;-)
I was never in the armed forces, but I'll share the memories of an old friend, now deceased, who joined the Marines at 17 with a lie about his age and a forged note from his father. He was English but wanted to fight for us in Korea. He remembered being asked to draw a picture, as some sort of psychological test. He was an artist and had drawn many men, so he drew a man, and was then suspected of being homosexual. Finally he passed through and fought bravely against the N. Koreans and the Chinese.
Thank you both, and all others who served.
Needless to say,there was no AC...or was there?
In 1956 there was no residential AC, but I worked in Radar, so our work environment was air conditioned. There were no telephones to call home on, no fresh milk(Fresh milk came later as well as an ice cream shop.)
The base had several miles of shoreline on the Mediterranean, so if swimming was what you wanted to do, you had all of it you could desire.
I had some of those moments at Great Lakes Naval Station.
As any great Sea Story begins... Now this is no s#&t...
Way back in time when I enlisted I was scheduled to leave for USNTC San Diego on 27 Sept 63 but prior to that date, I discovered a couple of buddies from high school were scheduled on 30 Sept. I talked with my ever accommodating recruiter to see if I could be rescheduled.
"Well, Absolutely, Dave. Anything you want, we'll provide. Just be here at the recruiting station at 0800 (that would be 8 am, but you'll soon learn all about time) on Monday."
0740 I walk into the Post Office bldg in downtown Spokane. A few minutes later, my buddies show up and we're all ready to get going to serve our country and avoid the draft.
Now this first day should have been a clue to the uninformed. Just because they told us to be there at 0800, doesn't mean they were ready to wave goodbye just yet. "We need to go over some final paperwork. Just have a seat, or better yet, go ahead, wander around but be back here at 1000 hrs."
More hurry up and wait and we get the word it's chow time. Be back at 1300. Okay, we can handle that.
Back in the office after lunch - how did they ever come up with that "chow" name?, we sign a few more papers, raise our right hand and are sworn in by a US Navy Commander. That oath BTW, has no expiration date.
At 1500 hours, they tell us to be at the airport at 1700 hours. Great!, 2 more hours of waiting. I took advantage of the time and talked with my high school sweetheart who would later become a Navy Wife and my beautiful bride.
1730 hours, and we are standing in line to board a United DC-6 for my first airplane ride to Portland, OR via Pendleton, OR. Arriving in Portland, we have a lay-over for another United flight (707) to San Francisco. Another lay-over in SF they we board another 707 to San Diego.
Seventeen of us joined the Navy that day. Another promise by our recruiter, a bus would meet us in SD and take us to our new home.
We arrive at USNTC Recruit Training Command at around 2230. It appeared that about 500 guys arrived that night from all parts of this great nation. 80 man companies were formed that night and at around 0130, we were lead to a temp barracks so we could get a good night's sleep. That sleep was rudely interrupter at 0500 by some screaming Company Commander banging on the 30 gal trash can with a nightstick.
That's how it was that first day in the Navy. I think I'd like to do it all over again, but a recruiter I talked with in May told me I was too old and broken-down.
I wish it wasn't. I wouldn't mind being twenty years younger.
Thank you, all of you, for your service to us.
Happy Aniversary.
Thank you for your service.
No biggie, GSC, it takes all kinds to make the Green Machine run well.
98G/RU - Linguist. I spent 7 years doing the job I trained for, and 13 years training or pushing paper...and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
I always want God to Bless our Military who are serving and who have already served.
It is their sacrifice that has given us the opportunity to be a free nation.
God Bless them all and America.
PS: My mom had me on July 27th as well. LOL :)
Thanks for the ping. Happy Aniversary to ErnBatavia and thank you, thank you to all our FReepers here who have served our glorious country.
I had a brief note I wanted to add today but wasn't sure where to put it, so this looks like a good thread for it.
~~~~
Family loses second son to terror war
Source: AP
LUBBOCK, Texas -- A Texas family that had already paid a hefty price in the war on terror is in mourning again. Two years after a son was killed in Iraq, their only other son has died in Afghanistan.
Cpl. Jose Velez was killed in 2004 when his unit came under fire in Fallujah. At that point, his brother, Army Spc. Andrew Velez, was given the option of not having to return to combat.
But his father said he wanted to.
This week the family learned Andrew was killed. Their father said that while he feels like his heart has been "pulled out," he adds that he can't be angry.
Andrew Velez leaves a wife and three children, ages 2, 3 and 5.
~~~~
To get in the door at the center, we had to run a gauntlet of war protestors, hoots, hollars, thrown trash, grannie ladies screaming "killers", long haired hippies handing out anti war leaflets, strange looking men in suits offerring rides to Canada, Police on horseback bucking against the crowd, riot geared up cops busting heads, and my first wiff of CS gas...
The rousting we recieved at FT. Ords recieving facility seemed like arriving at the Waldorf after that...
During NBC training, the drill sergeant would line us up 3 at a time and tested us on putting on the protective mask in less than 9 seconds. So, I'm next in line with two other guys, and all three of us line up in front of the DS. He yells, "Gas!" The two other recruits started putting on their gas masks while I just stood there. The drill sergeant asked why I did nothing.
I said, "Drill Sergeant, the NBC instructor earlier in the day told us that the signal to put on the mask is "Gas! Gas! Gas!" You just said "Gas!" once."
The drill instructor rolled his eyes and then said, "So basically you're telling me I don't know what the f**k I'm doing?"
I replied, "I did not say that, Drill Sergeant."
He said, "OK private, go into the drill sergeant's office and tell the other drill seargent that I'm all f**cked up!"
So I went into the office and told the 2nd drill sergeant that the 1st one was all f**ked up.
The 2nd sergeant screamed, "What did you say!?!"
I said, "The 1st drill sergeant told me to come in so I could tell you that he is all f**ked up."
The 2nd drill sergeant just sort of stared at me for a second, and then yelled, "Private, go tell the other drill sergeant that YOU are the one that is all f**ked up!"
So I went back to the 1st drill sergeant and said, "Drill Sergeant, I'm the one who is all f**cked up!"
He replied, "No sh*t?"
Then he went on to say, "Do you know what your problem is, private?"
I said, "I'm all f**ked up?"
He said "No private! Your problem is that you think too much!"
(As you can tell, I was a bit of a Gomer Pyle in Basic.)
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