Veterans Day

[jamiebk]

"Forced"? I bet your troop leader expressed it as an opportunity to earn a merit badge, and it was more voluntary than you remember.

Perhaps memory fails, but it was pretty much presented as "thou shalt gather at the Goldwater". No one really objected. Sorry, but no merit badge was forthcoming. I got enough other ones to achieve Eagle +, however. Scouting was a very positive influence on my life. I never regrated doing it, although, by mid HS, I had tired of the program and eased out. Also HS kids can be very cruel in teasing about wearing one's uniform. Perhaps my enrollment and achievement in scouting will earn me a place on the "at risk" list.

[Haggis@wk]

If you are an Eagle scout, my hat's off to you, brother. Eagle Scouts were always special.

[jamiebk]

If you are an Eagle scout, my hat's off to you, brother. Eagle Scouts were always special.

Why, Thank you Haggis...Very nice of you to offer that.

[barfle]

barfle, no doubt at all that you are an extremist.
Dont want you to feel left out.

Thank you, ma'am. Lunatic fringe and proud of it!

"Forced"? I bet your troop leader expressed it as an opportunity to earn a merit badge, and it was more voluntary than you remember.

I did have a choice about going into the Army on August 23, 1967. I could have become a fugitive. After all, I did receive a letter from the President of the United States, informing me that I had been selected (by a selective service system) to become a member of our armed forces. I couldn't help but note that one of my colleagues had been given the choice of going in the Army or serving time in jail for stealing a car. I was serving the same sentence he was, but my crime was not doing my homework.

As it turned out, I just wasted a couple of years of my life and an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars. I did volunteer to become a sergeant, however. That got me out of being volunteered for KP, and a few other crappy jobs those poor E-4s had to put up with.

[piqaboo]

'sitting on the bench there...'
It does explain the inflation of degrees required for the simplest jobs in this country now. All those folks motivated to get degree after degree.

Volunteered to become Sergeant. I didnt know you could do that. interesting.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

'sitting on the bench there...

I wonder if it was the "Group W" bench.

[piqaboo]

'sitting on the bench there...

I wonder if it was the "Group W" bench.

I'm thinking it had to have been.

[Haggis@wk]

I did volunteer to become a sergeant

In my experience there are two enlisted pay grades that are magic, E-9, of course, there isn't an "E-10" and it takes the Secretary of the Service to make you an E-8. And E-5.

E-5 is like the E-9 of lower enlisted grades. The grades that, as Barfle pointed out, get all the crappy job and (in all truth) does 90% of the military's heavy lifting. E-5 meant instead of doing the work you were "supervising" the work. Major difference, plus you could smoke while supervising and get a beer at the NCO club at lunch time, and at “happy hour”, and after work, and….well you get the idea!!


..And get a private room. After 3+ years of living 2-3 to a room, getting a private room was..heaven.

[barfle]

Volunteered to become Sergeant. I didnt know you could do that. interesting.

I could have declined participating in the competition for the promotion.

[barfle]

..And get a private room. After 3+ years of living 2-3 to a room, getting a private room was..heaven.

Private room? When I made E5, I has a semi-private room (one room mate). Before that, I was in a barracks, with about 20-30 other guys.

You flyboys never really understood what "military" meant.

[Shapley]

..And get a private room. After 3+ years of living 2-3 to a room, getting a private room was..heaven.

Private room? When I made E5, I has a semi-private room (one room mate). Before that, I was in a barracks, with about 20-30 other guys.

You flyboys never really understood what "military" meant.

Private room? As E-5, my 'room' was a locker 2'-4" wide by 6'-4" long by 8" deep, with a thin mattress on top of it and about 30' of headroom between and and the room above, in which space I was to sleep. I had a lovely blue curtain to seperate me from the rooms around me, and about 200 of us had such rooms in the common space known as 'Reactor Dept. Berthing'.

Private room. Sheeeesh!

[Haggis@wk]

The reason the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines bicker amongst
themselves is that they don't speak the same language. For instance,

Take the simple phrase "secure the building".

The Army will post guards around the place.

The Navy will turn out the lights and lock the doors.

The Marines will kill everybody inside and set up a headquarters.

The Air Force will take out a 5 year lease with an option to buy.

The Air Force always treated its people better than most of the others. The only other military units that believed the same were the "SeaBees" and "Red Horse" (USAF version of "SeaBees")

[jamiebk]

Take the simple phrase "secure the building".

The Army will post guards around the place.

The Navy will turn out the lights and lock the doors.

The Marines will kill everybody inside and set up a headquarters. (LOVE this one!)

The Air Force will take out a 5 year lease with an option to buy.

[Shapley]

The only other military units that believed the same were the "SeaBees" and "Red Horse"

I'm not familiar with "Red Horse". Weren't they building a monument to him in South Dakota?

We used to refer to SeaBees as 'light duty Marines'. They were technically Navy, but liked to play like they were Army. They were only berthed better because they got to build their own berthing...

If we berthed Sailors the way the Air Force berths its' airmen, we'd have to have Submarines the size of Miami, and Aircraft Carriers the size of Rhode Island.

I knew an Air Force pilot that flew in Vietnam. He says he spent most of the war getting up around 8:00, having breakfast before the daily briefing, and then flying sorties for about an hour to an hour and half. He says they were in the officer's club by 1:00 p.m. I knew a Navy pilot that also flew in Vietnam. He spent most of the war as a POW.

[Haggis@wk]

Red Horse

[Shapley]

Thanks.

Yep. Armed handymen. Just like the SeaBees.

[barfle]

Private room? As E-5, my 'room' was a locker 2'-4" wide by 6'-4" long by 8" deep, with a thin mattress on top of it and about 30' of headroom between and and the room above, in which space I was to sleep. I had a lovely blue curtain to seperate me from the rooms around me, and about 200 of us had such rooms in the common space known as 'Reactor Dept. Berthing'.

Private room. Sheeeesh!

Before I made E5, I certainly didn't get a curtain. The typical barracks was two rows of bunk beds with an aisle between them. You had a stand-up locker where you could hang uniforms against the wall, and a footlocker at the foot of the bed. Your bunkmate's footlocker was on the other end of the bed. No privacy for privates, or even specialists.

[piqaboo]

..And get a private room. After 3+ years of living 2-3 to a room, getting a private room was..heaven.

Private room? When I made E5, I has a semi-private room (one room mate). Before that, I was in a barracks, with about 20-30 other guys.

You flyboys never really understood what "military" meant.

Private room? As E-5, my 'room' was a locker 2'-4" wide by 6'-4" long by 8" deep, with a thin mattress on top of it and about 30' of headroom between and and the room above, in which space I was to sleep. I had a lovely blue curtain to seperate me from the rooms around me, and about 200 of us had such rooms in the common space known as 'Reactor Dept. Berthing'.

Private room. Sheeeesh!

OT had that, or a bit less, and it was hotbunking.
You carrier boys was spiled!

[Shapley]

Rememberer, this is Pearl Harbor Day.


The Newly-Commissioned U.S.S. Arizona, In New York's East River, 1916

[Haggis@wk]

Wounded Iraq Vet Jeered At Columbia. So much for that “new civility” crap.

This is also more evidence that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was just a lame excuse to cover for generic hostility to the military, something made clear by numerous speakers at the event including some Columbia faculty.

In these days of constrained budgets and an angry, aware electorate, heavily subsidized sectors like higher education — and Columbia, despite its private nature, is itself heavily dependent on government subsidies — should think twice about appearing anti-American. It’s not the 1960s anymore.

I'm calling my congressman tomorrow and ask that he support defunding all of these Ivy league - or any college - that bar ROTC. It's already law. [url=http://vlex.com/vid/that-prevent-rotc-recruiting-campus-19217195