You know, sailors who served in peacetime, and a good chunk of that in a shipyard, away from the risks of being at sea, should really refrain from lecturing those of us who spent a year in Vietnam about the risks of being in the service. I was fortunate enough to come home unscathed, but I also had several extremely close calls. A lot of folks I know got wounded. A few of my friends came home in metal boxes.
It's one thing to support a robust foreign policy, or to give careful consideration to the consequences of going to war, as I believe Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others have done.
It's another thing entirely to advocate a policy that would put us as odd-man out in a three-sided war with Iran and Russia--but only after it's "safe" to do so.
OK I also spent two six month deployments to the MED, a deployment to South America, and many more days as well around GITMO doing work ups. I did about a month of one yard period when I got to the ship, another 3 month yard time when I came back from the MED first time, and my final year after I came back from the MED the second time was for overhaul. So as in a previous yard period I volunteered for the Ships Fire Department so don't tell me about close calls. I've been in quite a few. If you know Navy terms which I doubt I was 1 on 1 in the Fire dept. That's as close as you can get. Other than yard time I was at sea 10 out of 12 months on the average. I went through the year long overhaul because when it happened I was just under a year left on my enlistment and the Navy would not have reassigned me because of that. Believe me there was risk there as well. In the yards you really have to be on your toes.
You know who ran the morge on my ship? My shop did. The bodies went to the aft walk in food cooler until flown off where one of us stood watch 24/7 on the cooler till they were flown off. They are just as dead as those who fought in war and they are just as deserving of respect for serving our country. I know of very few Navy snipes especially in the Boiler Tech and Machinist Mate ratings who didn't have close calls as that and the flight deck is the two most dangerous places to work on a ship. In four years we lost around roughly 20 people. Some were pilots some were not. In the 70's when a carrier deployed for 6 months it was assumed about 12 would die even in peace time operations. I about bought the farm myself twice just working with utility boats.
It's one thing to support a robust foreign policy, or to give careful consideration to the consequences of going to war, as I believe Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others have done.
I joined up while Rummy was Sec of Defense the first time under Ford and he left things in a sorry mess most people blame Carter for. Don't get me wrong Carter was not a good POTUS either by any means but Ford/Rummy was every bit as responsible for that mess as Carter. Things were already screwed up enough when Carter was sworn in. Actually Carter started some policy changes late in his term that were positive not many mind you but some. Had I wanted out during my first year or so all I would have had to have done was went AWOL for 31 days and turned myself in for a General Discharge. Carter stopped that. I didn't leave & I stuck it out and an Army NG enlistment as well.
I was on active duty when the first Iranian crisis happened. That's how I knew which east coast carrier was pulled out of rotation to respond. We were placed on Closed Ship Alert for deployment and stood down only when they ordered the KENNEDY to join the three carriers already near or on station the day it happened. As for Cheney? He destroyed the Navy's most successful fighter plane program. Wanna talk some more?