[jonascord]

"Okay, fine. I won’t thank you for your service but I will continue to anonymously pay for your lunch."

I didn't earn it.

I joined the Marines to go to Da'Nam. I spent four years dusting radios as an MOS 2800. The closest I ever got was a 96 liberty R&R in Taiwan. Half of my boot camp platoon are on the Wall.

When I got out and returned to college, if anyone asked, I said I had spent 4 years in California. It was easier than explaining the Corps.

(For those who don't know, The Corps didn't give you a choice of MOS, except whether you wanted the Wing...)

[IronJack]

I didn't earn it.

I beg to differ. Any military is a team effort. You did your part, whatever it was. For that, we owe you our thanks.

So ... thanks.

[ErnBatavia]

Almost exactly my same story....0141 who never left CamPen. Two years of clerking, guard duty and mess duty....mostly the latter two.

For the record, we ALL hated our servitude and wanted our asses out ASAP, and were really pissed that 1968 was a friggin leap year, adding an extra day to our sentence.

Re-enlistment was maybe two percent, until you got to the lifers....who had so much time invested in their anticipated Nineteen/and/six.

A couple of years after my active service, my little apartment got burgled, including every bit of my uniform stuff -- I didn't even give it a second thought to run down to the Reserve Center (Dodger Stadium basement in the late 1960's) to axe about replacing the stuff.