Who Served In The Military?

[Peach.Optimo.Bluntz]

thats like the gabillionth post from rainbow on this thread lol. no offense of course.

[Hempstone]

On October 23rd, 1983, the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon was bombed and over 300 Marines were killed. A few days later Marines went into Grenada to rescue American hostages. I turned 18 just a few days after that, on November 4th, 1984. I had wanted to join the Marines but my mom would not sign for me so I signed up as soon as I turned 18.

I did not understand the politics, I did not understand the history. I just knew that something was going on, it seemed darn serious and I wanted to be a part of it. I was very gung-ho. My plan was to go Infantry and then try out for Recon and go to Beirut or wherever the Corps was to send me.

A lot seemed to be going on back then. Ronald Reagen was the President and regardless of what one now thinks about his politics it is undeniable that back then he inspired a fervent patriotism. He really worked us up. We were in the last throes of the Cold War. I thought that us and the Soviet Union might go head to head and figured that I wanted to protect America from this threat.

I signed the papers in November of 1983 but was not scheduled to go to Boot Camp until July of 1984, shortly after high school graduation. In between the time I signed the papers and the time that I went in Reagen withdrew the Marines from Beirut so I called my recruiter and told him that I did not want to go in anymore. He said "But I thought you were all gung-ho, what happened?" I told him that it was just that I really had my heart set on going to Beirut and that now that we weren't there anymore it didn't seem like I was needed. The recruiter assured me that it was a very dangerous world and that within the next 4 years we would be in a major war and the Corps would definitely need me. Reassured, I decided to go in.

So I reported to Parris Island, South Carolina for Boot Camp on July 2nd of 1984 along with a bus load of other new recruits. What a shock! Boot Camp was an absolutely amazing experience! I became fully immersed in the culture of the Warrior. For the first time, down on Parris Island I finally "got it". They had a deathly serious way of expressing to us the reality of our situation and our mission. The mission of the Marine Corps is to meet, close in with and destroy the enemy. War is brutal and hard so we trained very hard. Preparing for war is serious business and the Corps takes it very serious.

I came to this realization that I did not want to kill, I did not want to die. I really just wanted to BE. But I also realized that I had signed a contract and that I was in the service of higher ideals than my own wants and dreams. I was in the service of FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, the CONSTITUTION and the BILL OF RIGHTS. I signed a contract for three years of active duty and I would honor that. I would do whatever I was called to do in those three years and I would do it with the best professionalism I could muster. I would kill if I had to kill and die if it was my turn to die. I sprinted forward at full speed for the next three years and had a wild and intense ride.

Although I had planned on the Infantry and Recon, the Corps had other plans for me. Late in Boot Camp I got my assignment and learned that I would be a Tank Crewman on the M60A1 Tank. I was a Loader, Driver and Gunner. Fort this I had to go to Tank School which was actually on an Army base, Ft. Knox, Kentucky. That was wild because there were like 80 Marines and like 30,000 Army dudes. Tank School was a bit miserable because it was in the winter, we hardly ever were allowed off base and there didn't seem to be much going on around Knox anyway.

After Tank School I reported to Camp Schwab, Okinawa in January of 1984. I was there for 3 weeks when they sent me on 5 months TAD to Camp Kinser on the southern part of the island to work at Naha Port. There I worked on the Near Term Prepositioned Force. Basically what it is is there are ships that float all around the world's hot spots with enough Tanks, Jeeps (now Humvees) Amtracs, Artillery, etc. to supply a Marine Expeditionary Unit. All that equiptment has to be serviced a couple times a year so I unloaded Tanks from the ships and did all sorts of preventitive maintenance on them and then reloaded them onto the ships. After 5 months it was back up to Camp Schwab again.

My whole unit rotated to 1st Tank Bn at the 41 Area (Los Flores) on Camp Pendleton. There we started doing a lot of field training. I joined another company that was going to the CAX (Combined Arms Exercise) at 29 Palms. (We also sometimes just called it desert training. After the Cax I stayed with that company and rotated with them to Camp Fuji, Japan for 4 months at the base of Mount Fuji. It snowed almost everyday there so I took vacation to the Phillipines right after the people Power Revolution in 1986. Went back to Fuji and our whole unit went to Camp Schwab on Okinawa again for 2 months and then it was back to Pendleton where I spent my remaining 11 months.

I made this deal with myself that if I saw combat in those 3 years then I would stay in and either become a Drill Instructor or a Tank Instructor because then I would owe it to the young Marines the benefit of my experience. But if I did not see combat there was no sense in me staying in. I had the plan in the beginning to do my one enlistment and that's it so that's what I did.

I don't regret it at all. I saw a lot of things, I went to a lot of places and learned a lot. It was a wild ride, a fantastic adventure. I packed 10 years of adventure into my 3 year stint. I enjoyed it greatly but I did not think I could maintain that gung-ho attitude for 20 years. I really just wanted to get on with my life and not worry about war.

To this day I have that dual nature. I have the Warrior Spirit and I have the side that craves and works for Peace. I suppose you can say that these days I am a Peace Warrior. Although I am not as completely pacifist as my Amish and Mennonite neighbors, I am a Christian and believe as Jesus said that "Blessed are the Peacemakers." I long for the days when men have beaten their swords into plowshares. War is terrible and cruel and to be avoided as much as humanly possible. It is also important that we have a Marine Corps and a military and that we have a segment of our population that is ready at any given time to put it all on the line for the greater good.

I could go on and on about this but for now this is good. By all means, tell your military stories, I love good stories...

[minnesota man]

Hempstone, I think I've read your military stories in the p[ast. Very interesting. Yeah, that was you.

Hey, thanks to all of you for fighting for our freedom. I really appreciate it and I love this country.

[whitekat]

marine corps 74-78.....louisiana national guard(reservist) 85-2002 total service time 21 years 3 months 12 days. cant wait for my first military pension check on my 60th birth day. i retire from my civil service job in october(25 years)....hempstone.... i too was "born" on parris island ...and did the okie rotation and west pac and east pac floats.

[daima]

I spent 3 years in the Marine Corps from 1984-1987. I was curious, who else here served?

Army. 1972-76

dai*ma:stoned:

[beachguy in thongs]

Spaced Invader '94-'99

[jamstigator]

U.S. Army, 82-86. Started out in communications, ended up in special forces (psychological operations). Served in Alabama, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Grenada for the invasion and most of the following year, then a bit more than a year in and around Izmir, Turkey.

Because of my extremely low weight, I never failed a drug test, and smoked pot the entire four years except for the year in Turkey (although I did have some kickass hash in Turkey one night).

For the most part, I had a great time in the Army, and have no regrets.

[willystylle]

Spaced Invader '94-'99

HA HA LOL

3rd infantry, '82-'86. Served under Colonel Mustard.

[geonagual]

On October 23rd, 1983, the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon was bombed and over 300 Marines were killed. A few days later Marines went into Grenada to rescue American hostages. I turned 18 just a few days after that, on November 4th, 1984. I had wanted to join the Marines but my mom would not sign for me so I signed up as soon as I turned 18.

I did not understand the politics, I did not understand the history. I just knew that something was going on, it seemed darn serious and I wanted to be a part of it. I was very gung-ho. My plan was to go Infantry and then try out for Recon and go to Beirut or wherever the Corps was to send me.

A lot seemed to be going on back then. Ronald Reagen was the President and regardless of what one now thinks about his politics it is undeniable that back then he inspired a fervent patriotism. He really worked us up. We were in the last throes of the Cold War. I thought that us and the Soviet Union might go head to head and figured that I wanted to protect America from this threat.

I signed the papers in November of 1983 but was not scheduled to go to Boot Camp until July of 1984, shortly after high school graduation. In between the time I signed the papers and the time that I went in Reagen withdrew the Marines from Beirut so I called my recruiter and told him that I did not want to go in anymore. He said "But I thought you were all gung-ho, what happened?" I told him that it was just that I really had my heart set on going to Beirut and that now that we weren't there anymore it didn't seem like I was needed. The recruiter assured me that it was a very dangerous world and that within the next 4 years we would be in a major war and the Corps would definitely need me. Reassured, I decided to go in.

So I reported to Parris Island, South Carolina for Boot Camp on July 2nd of 1984 along with a bus load of other new recruits. What a shock! Boot Camp was an absolutely amazing experience! I became fully immersed in the culture of the Warrior. For the first time, down on Parris Island I finally "got it". They had a deathly serious way of expressing to us the reality of our situation and our mission. The mission of the Marine Corps is to meet, close in with and destroy the enemy. War is brutal and hard so we trained very hard. Preparing for war is serious business and the Corps takes it very serious.

I came to this realization that I did not want to kill, I did not want to die. I really just wanted to BE. But I also realized that I had signed a contract and that I was in the service of higher ideals than my own wants and dreams. I was in the service of FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY, the CONSTITUTION and the BILL OF RIGHTS. I signed a contract for three years of active duty and I would honor that. I would do whatever I was called to do in those three years and I would do it with the best professionalism I could muster. I would kill if I had to kill and die if it was my turn to die. I sprinted forward at full speed for the next three years and had a wild and intense ride.

Although I had planned on the Infantry and Recon, the Corps had other plans for me. Late in Boot Camp I got my assignment and learned that I would be a Tank Crewman on the M60A1 Tank. I was a Loader, Driver and Gunner. Fort this I had to go to Tank School which was actually on an Army base, Ft. Knox, Kentucky. That was wild because there were like 80 Marines and like 30,000 Army dudes. Tank School was a bit miserable because it was in the winter, we hardly ever were allowed off base and there didn't seem to be much going on around Knox anyway.

After Tank School I reported to Camp Schwab, Okinawa in January of 1984. I was there for 3 weeks when they sent me on 5 months TAD to Camp Kinser on the southern part of the island to work at Naha Port. There I worked on the Near Term Prepositioned Force. Basically what it is is there are ships that float all around the world's hot spots with enough Tanks, Jeeps (now Humvees) Amtracs, Artillery, etc. to supply a Marine Expeditionary Unit. All that equiptment has to be serviced a couple times a year so I unloaded Tanks from the ships and did all sorts of preventitive maintenance on them and then reloaded them onto the ships. After 5 months it was back up to Camp Schwab again.

My whole unit rotated to 1st Tank Bn at the 41 Area (Los Flores) on Camp Pendleton. There we started doing a lot of field training. I joined another company that was going to the CAX (Combined Arms Exercise) at 29 Palms. (We also sometimes just called it desert training. After the Cax I stayed with that company and rotated with them to Camp Fuji, Japan for 4 months at the base of Mount Fuji. It snowed almost everyday there so I took vacation to the Phillipines right after the people Power Revolution in 1986. Went back to Fuji and our whole unit went to Camp Schwab on Okinawa again for 2 months and then it was back to Pendleton where I spent my remaining 11 months.

I made this deal with myself that if I saw combat in those 3 years then I would stay in and either become a Drill Instructor or a Tank Instructor because then I would owe it to the young Marines the benefit of my experience. But if I did not see combat there was no sense in me staying in. I had the plan in the beginning to do my one enlistment and that's it so that's what I did.

I don't regret it at all. I saw a lot of things, I went to a lot of places and learned a lot. It was a wild ride, a fantastic adventure. I packed 10 years of adventure into my 3 year stint. I enjoyed it greatly but I did not think I could maintain that gung-ho attitude for 20 years. I really just wanted to get on with my life and not worry about war.

To this day I have that dual nature. I have the Warrior Spirit and I have the side that craves and works for Peace. I suppose you can say that these days I am a Peace Warrior. Although I am not as completely pacifist as my Amish and Mennonite neighbors, I am a Christian and believe as Jesus said that "Blessed are the Peacemakers." I long for the days when men have beaten their swords into plowshares. War is terrible and cruel and to be avoided as much as humanly possible. It is also important that we have a Marine Corps and a military and that we have a segment of our population that is ready at any given time to put it all on the line for the greater good.

I could go on and on about this but for now this is good. By all means, tell your military stories, I love good stories...

Nice story.

I too went to Fort Benning for Army basic training, after Infantry school went to Germany, 8 infantry for the whole 3 years I was in. Did go to French Commando School and alot of field time. Once we went to the field for 45 days and I didn't take a shower once. I still applied camo paint on my face everyday. So, I was pretty smelly with lots of dingleberry's. Ha. Germany was a fun ass place. Got out as an E-4 and only had 2 article 15's and smoked hash and partied pretty much the whole time.
Got out in '89 moved to Boston and joined the National Guard. I was only in for 6 months and decided to join the Corps. I too went to Parris Island for Boot Camp. Graduated as an honor graduate. After SOI and MCT, shipped off for Okinawa. Stationed at Camp Hansen. Did lots of jungle training. Did the NTA at Camp Shwab. Deployed to Phillipines, Thailand and Korea during my stay. Then I was shipped to 29 Palms. Did the snow survival/skiing training at the mountain warfare school in Bridgeport, Did 3 months in Somalia when all that shit was going on. Lots and lots of training. But no real war and I am glad.

[peacepipe36]

I was a crewchief on a UH-1H helicopter (it's the Huey, you know, 'Flight of the Valkyries" in "Apocolypse Now") from 88-93.