WHO SERVED

[MCorps0311]

USMC RVN 68/69

 

[A-37]

USAF

1956-1986

SAC: KC-97, KC-135, CH-3
TAC: A-37B, C-130

 

[crazyphil]

I will say this about my service. It did more for me than I did for my country. I was a young kid that was constantly in some kind of trouble. Drinking, fighting, poor student etc. On probation and the judge suggested that as I was soon to be 18 and if I wanted to stay out of jail I should enlist. Actually kind of common in those days. Joined the Marines 10 days before my 18th birthday. Recruiter knew about my legal problems and said I would fit right in. I found many in the Marines in those days were there for similar reasons. Lots of troubled young men ended up there for some odd reason. I learned about discipline, how to manage within the rules, and how I needed to at least to display the needed appearance of obedience. It taught me about honor and honoring myself. I think without going through the Marine Corps I would have made my life miserable. Plus, many times afterward during times of difficulty I thought at least its not Marine Corps boot camp. LOL.

Maybe instead of thanking me for my service, it should be the other way and I should thank the Marine Corps for what it helped me become. I needed the Marine Corps more than the Marine Corps needed me.

Semper Fi

I am disturbed by the fact that now to get in the service kids need a clean record and a HS diploma. Lots of guys during my time had neither and proved to be outstanding Marines and made a lot of improvements in their lives. I believe that sometimes the best thing that could happen to troubled kids is military service. Should still be an option.

I have long believed as you do. There are a lot of young men
who could benefit immensely from military service, and they
should not need a clean record or a high school diploma.
I had neither when I enlisted, but I have always been very
thankful that I was able to serve. Like you, the military
did more good for me than I did for it.

 

[Ozark Marine]

steelslaver's post could of been mine.
When I read it I thought... Dam I must of been really drunk last night, I don't remember writing this.
Except I enlisted on my 17th birthday.
Mom couldn't wait to sign the papers.
7 days later MCRD San Diego.
3 years 11 months and 28 days later back in Chicago.
My old gang buddies seemed like punks. With prison tattoo's and parole officers to report once a month.
Yes I too Owe the Country and Marine Corps more than I could ever pay back.

 

[crazyphil]

steelslaver's post could of been mine.
When I read it I thought... Dam I must of been really drunk last night, I don't remember writing this.
Except I enlisted on my 17th birthday.
Mom couldn't wait to sign the papers.
7 days later MCRD San Diego.
3 years 11 months and 28 days later back in Chicago.
My old gang buddies seemed like punks. With prison tattoo's and parole officers to report once a month.
Yes I too Owe the Country and Marine Corps more than I could ever pay back.

Same as you, I too enlisted on my 17th birthday.
I couldn't wait to get out of high school and high school
couldn't wait to get rid of me.

 

[ohioseabee]

Navy SEABEE, 1965-1969.
Vietnam: Chu Lai (67-68) and Phu Bai (68-69)
Guest at Tet '68

 

[SASABERANGER]

Military Family

Civil War: Both Sides
WWI: Both Grandfathers and two great Uncles US Army
WWII: Dad, Two Aunts (USN and USA), five uncles, All branches represented.
Korea: Dad and his older brother who was KIA (MSGT USA)
Post Korean War- Viet Nam: Dad, One Cousin in Korea (son of KIA). Me, 1964-1985 US Navy E1-E7 Urgent Fury (Grenada) and Lebanon. Brother, USCG E4 rescue swimmer 1968-1972 St. Petersburg, CGAS, FL.
Sand Box Wars: Nephew USMC early ground wars, then PLC in College and Aviation Training in Pensacola. Major USMC CH53 Pilot. Multiple deployments from Kosovo through Afghanistan.
Dad served from 1936 until 1959. He Started in the Coast Artillery in Panama Canal Zone and finished at Warner Robins, AFB in Georgia. He served in every rank from buck Private through Lt. Col. Flew in the Berlin Air Lift and evacuated the French out of Viet Nam in the 1950s. He retied on Aug 31, 1959 as a Command Pilot. On May 1st of this year he will turn 100.
Somehow I believe we are ahead of the percentage curve for having served.
Several of the younger ones waiting in the wings for them to get to age 18, and a couple looking at post college service.
Thom Braxton
SWCA #1474

 

[bgrafsr]

Father and an Uncle served in WWII, brother was a C-Bee, and I served from Jun63 to Jun67 in the AF, as an Air Policeman. Spent 2 1/2 to 3 months TDY at Bien Hoa Air Base, VN.

 

[fr3db3ar]

USAF TAC 77-86

Sent from my SM-T817V using Tapatalk

 

[w1984s]

I just watched "The Fence" in what was called the Fulda Gap in Germany in the early 70's. I KNOW that you can keep people "In" or "Out" with a fence.

 

[JohnnyRed2015]

Grandfather: ARNG WWI (Europe) and WWII (CBI). 30 yrs.

Father: WWII, Army Air Corps. CONUS & Europe. Several uncles too.

Me: US Army. Commissioned 1974, Retired 2002. CONUS, Germany 2X, S. Korea. Mainly a Cold War warrior.

 

[ky wonder]

my family line has been fighting since the days of William the great,

they have been in ever war that this country has ever been in,

my small contribution was from 2/72 through 2/78, served with the 1st/503rd ABN , , and some time with the 1st/48th inf.(aghast a sky soldier loss in a mech inf unit,75-77 in Germany) and back to the 1/503rd Air Mobile where I ETA'd @ Fort Cambell.

my oldest served as a tanker during desert storm

my only grandson is undergoing training trying to get a job on a sub, Hes nuts, just like his daddy

my joke with them is That I can dig a foxhole big enough to hide in, you cant hide a tank nor can you swim or swallow and ocean

oh well God bless all of those who have stood in the cap!

 

[RSanch111]

Considering how the military was downsized after WWII with a lot of people (officers?) who wanted to stay in for a pension and career, and enlisted who wanted to transition to officer as a career being told "nope, you're out...".....And considering the fact as presented here that during WWII, only 11.2% of the nation served in the military...and considering that maybe 1 or 2% of THAT number actually served in front-line combat roles as opposed to support.....

Just how do you propose to pay for all of those extra recruits if you want to draft every male and female of draft age into the military? Build a hundred more carriers, a few hundred thousand more planes, equip a couple thousand more infantry divisions? Buy a whole bunch of new tanks? And THEN what do you do? Let them stay in for 20 years and a pension? Pay their medical for life? GI Bill for education for everyone..... That's a huge tax hike..... "Everybody" of draft age, male and female is a LOT of people........ No reason to disqualify someone because they have asthma or flat feet either. Plenty of desk jobs or other non-combat roles they can fill to free up a healthier guy or gal for the infantry. A lot of people....

Bad idea.

 

[Ozark Marine]

Our President, Congress and Joint Chiefs will do the planing on the number of forces and equipment we will need to win a two front war. Thanks to the last administration we are at the Pre WW2 level for Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marines.
I believe General Mattis knows alot more about being prepared for and waging war than you or I and all the folks here.

 

[amazingflapjack]

My Dad used to quote the statistic that at the time he was drafted in Arlington County, Va. (right across the river from D.C.) there was not an able bodied man under 40 years of age left. He was in his mid/late 20's and had a Wife and 1 child. As for the rest of the clan-we made them all-including some Indian fighting in what was Virginia, and would become West Virginia in the Civil War-and we were on the Southern side of that one. GG Grand Dad was a POW in a "Northern prison camp."

 

[Dennis]

20 yrs and 5 months. '71-'91. USMC.

 

[two-bit cowboy]

I believe that sometimes the best thing that could happen to troubled kids is military service. Should still be an option.

Your point is well made.

I don't mean to distract from the thread, but.... I had more than 20 years in, was one of 15 blue shirt air traffic controllers running an Army radar facility in southern NM. We got an inbound notification on a Senior Airman (E-4) coming to us from March AFB, CA. The kid's supervisor called me to tell me the kid was no good, nothing but trouble. (Only time in my career I got that call. I had nothing for the caller!) The kid had lost his driving privileges on base, but still had a valid driver's license.

Our Army commanding general's policy was pretty clear: if you lost it there, you don't drive here. We were 30 miles from Las Cruces, and the Army didn't have housing for single men. Luckily the CG liked me, and before the kid arrived I had the CG's approval (in writing) for the kid to enter the post, drive to our radar unit, and leave the post after his shift.

The kid arrived, and I told him my neck was on the block for the CG's first-ever deviation from his policy. I told the kid he was starting with a clean slate -- the past was the past. Good controller. Never raised an eyebrow with his appearance or conduct. Our unit's Airman of the Year his first year with us. The kid just needed a chance. Given one, he excelled.

 

[Boox]

Lets see, both great great grandfathers were actually in one conflict in the civil war at the same time, one grandfather in WWI, my father, who had only one eye from the age of 12, memorized the eye chart to get into the Army for WWII, lasted 28 days before he was found out and honorably discharged, I have his "ruptured duck", his older brother was in the air corp in Italy and N. Africa, two uncles in the Navy post Korea, I was Army 67-69 and my brother was Army 70-72, he saw Viet Nam, I was post cadre at Ft. Dix.

 

[Fat Frank]

20 years and 36 days. USAF - Dec1978-Jan1999.

 

[hoosierone]

US Army 1960-1963, Hawk Missile support Okinawa. Glad I went in as I was just a stupid punk at that time. Also, unknowingly at the time saved myself from Viet Nam. My brother waited to get drafted at the height of Nam and was sent to Germany as a truck driver.

Father was in an Army regimental combat team on Peleliu, got wounded and sent to Guadalcanal to recuperate. He didn't like Japanese.