Posted on 12/30/2005 8:15:40 AM PST by FlatLandBeer
What age did you join the Military and why? What motovate you? Any regrets?
What would advise a young person to do these days?
I joined the Navy in '82 after being a bum for a couple of years. While I was in DEP, got my first real job and met my future wife, so it looked like a bad move for awhile.
Spent 6 years in (Advanced Electronics required a 6 year hitch), did some overdue growing up, had a hell of a time, saw some things...
Not a momments regret...
Comrade Bork
Your brother is a true military hero but...from a personal point of view...he's a true brother and hero to his sister. That's beautiful. God bless you both and hope he continues to live a long time.
I was 18 when I joined the Navy in 1975 - to get into Aviation. F14's on CV-64. yeah, baby! I don't regret a bit of it.
I first put on the Air Force uniform in September 1951 at the Univeristy of Arkansas two weeks after my 17th birthday. My motives were patriotism and desire to fly airplanes. AFROTC commission and active duty 1955. Regular Air Force 1961. The outline of my career is linked to my name. Retired from the Air Force in October 1985. Absolutely no regrets.
I believe most young people should volunteer for one tour of military service (enlisted or commissioned) -- to find out what they are made of, to grow up and earn some self-respect, and to repay a bit of the debt we all owe this country -- and then decide whether they will continue in the military or go into a civilian career.
I was nineteen when I went into the Navy. It was 1965. During my tour there was Vietnam, the explosion of the drug culture and the Black Power movement. I did not choose to re-up. I do not regret my service, in fact I am quite proud I served. I would recommend it to anyone who feels a sense of duty.
Got out of college, got married, and got my draft notice all in two weeks time. Had been in USMC reserve for extra $$. Went to Quantico, then to Pensacola for flight trng.
Went with UAL and flew for 30 yrs. Only regret was going with a company that had unbelievably bad CEO's after founder Patterson died. Otherwise wouldn't change a thing. {replying to you because noticed you went to Gonzaga. I went to Gonzaga H.S.
Went Navy ROTC when I was 17. Did it mainly because I was absolutely sure I would be an admiral. Didn't work out quite that way but I don't regret it at all. I can honestly say that I got more out of than it got out of me.
Joined the Army at 20 'cause I flunked out of GA. Tech. Planned to go military anyway, but as an ossifer. Also hoped to get to fight the Iranians (joined during the "hostage crisis"). Still went four years. Nobody threw a war, so I'm cold warrior.
No regrets, no hind sight 'wish I had done that instead'.
I would advise any young person considering joining the military to give it a great amount of deep thought before doing so. It's not for everyone.
If they did decide to join, talk to all the recruiters, see which branch will will give you the most for your time.
It's just like negotiating for a job with more than one company.
Once you're in, do what your superiors tell you, do it when they tell you to do it, and do it well.
My last tour on a 180 in Guam got my Golden Dragon right off. Second underway trip we went to Howland & Baker and we did the whole enchelada, Golden Dragon /Shellback initiation. My last U/W trip we crossed the equator just south of Kapingamaringi and I got to lead the party that took over the bridge and threw the CO in the brig. This was justa few months after my Chief's initiation and he was the lead procecuter at my trial so I got my payback!
ARRRRG ! ! !
The last RefTra in Hawaii was more than 4 years since the ship ahd been in "US" waters so we got to fly the coming home pennant and I got a piece of it when I retired. and we made a clean sweep in RefTra so we ran a broom up the rigging for the trip back home.
That was a good tour!
Which LPD were you on. I was on LPD #2 the Vancouver before desert storm. It was the oldest LPD in the fleet and had seen duty in Viet Nam.
It was a rust bucket and was the only part of my service that I did not enjoy on a daily basis (I still managed to have a good time).
I would adivise any one to join if they asked me. I was commisioned USNR in 1985. Four of my active duty years, I dressed like a Marine. Those were the best 4 years of my service.
They paid for my school and I got to shoot nearly every weapon in the USMC armory. It just doesn't get much better. I was medical, if a group of marines looked like they were having fun, I just asked to join and they always let me jump right in. I can SPI rig, fast rope, and have more good stories than I can remember thanks to the USMC.
Thanks devil dogs.
Volunteered for the Marines my senior year of college in 1965. Became a heart-breaker and a life-taker. Regrets? Only that I did not extend for a second tour in Vietnam. Got out when the party was over.
What be motovate? Does it have to do with dirt bikes or something?
Just axing, yo.
My draft papers were on the kitchen table in my mother's hands when I got home from school 4 days later, she was crying. My dad was disappointed but he didn't give me one of his famous lectures. He said, "You had your chance, now it's time to make a decision, a decision that will be the most important of your life. What are you going to do, son"?
After a long night of drinking, pacing, and thinking and 2 hours sleep I went down to breakfast. It was a quiet breakfast with my family until I spoke. I looked at my dad and said, "I'm going to enlist today Dad, I'm going to enlist in the Army, and I'm going to be a 101st Airborne Ranger, just like you were in WWII". Mom broke down, dad hugged her and gave me the strangest look I'd ever seen. It was pride mixed with WTF are you doing? My little brother, as always, said the wrong thing, "Timmy, are you going to get killed"?. The rest is long and not interesting, needless to say, my brother had said the wrong thing, as was his forte.
When I got back from the recruiters office I had lots of paper. I left home at eight in the morning, I got back at 4 in the afternoon. I had been to people and places that were very special to me. I walked into the house and went to the kitchen, there was my father at the kitchen table. A slightly less that a full bottle of scotch and two glasses, his half full. I didn't even ask where my mother and brother was, I knew dad wanted to talk to me.
He poured me a half a glass of scotch and put 2 cubes of ice in it (why I remember those 2 ice cubes, I'll never know. Maybe because it's the first drink my Dad ever fixed me, and he was a professional bartender. He was famous for a full glass of scotch and ONLY 2 ice cubes). We talked about war, the Airborne, killing the enemy, the spirit of the Corps, the pride, the sacrifice until it was dark and that bottle of scotch was gone.
The day I left to report for duty was a real circus. My mother cried, my brother just wandered around not knowing what to do, and my dad just stood there like a great stone statue, nothing to say, and no where to move. When I boarded the bus mom was a bucket of tears, Bennie (my brother) was crying, cause mom was, and my dad grabbed me in a hug I had never felt before and said, "you come back here alive, DO YOU HEAR ME"? Then he pushed me back, with his hands on my shoulders and I saw he was crying. That's the first, and only time, I ever saw my father cry. He wasn't sobbing but the tears were running down his cheeks.
Last part of your question: did I believe in it. Answer: without a fragment of a doubt, and that's the way we fought, without a fragment of a doubt. The war in Vietnam was won by the troops on the ground. It was lost by the chickenshit politicians in the democratic party. We will not lose this one, not as long as I am drawing breath. Those troops will never feel what I felt. They will feel pride and the glory of victory and the freeing of an oppressed people. No shame, and NO SPIT. Not as long as this old Ranger breaths on God's green earth.
Happy New Year, and God Bless our troops and the United States of America!
Timy
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