Chickenboy
Posts: 24520
Joined: 6/29/2002
From: San Antonio, TX
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve
quote:
ORIGINAL: JWE
quote:
ORIGINAL: BrucePowers
Me too. They don't let people with CP in the military. Of course if I had been drafted I would have been 4F
Ah, poo, Bruce. Steve is the Pro from Dover, I sure as hell ain't. It was a 1st Sgt at Fort Homer Hesterly in Tampa that told me how to work it. I had 2 years of college and scored up on the AGCTs and they said - "Oooh, you get to go to OCS and be an Infantry officer." and I said - "Oooh, bite the mighty magilla. I can add, subtract, and even do long division, so I qualify for Arty, Eng, or Signal Corps." and they said "Oooh, but that means you'll just be a private." and I said "Oooh, okay."
So, I get Arty and smoke the inputs and go to OCS anyway - har, har, hardy, har. Well, that adds a year and 4 months to my durance vile, and then they go and send me to where people shoot at me, for Chris' sake, without asking me or anything - yeah, har, har, hardy, har, on me.
I mean, I did all that Army stuff, and signed up to jump out of perfectly functional airplanes, but all that got me was an assignment to the Airborne Field Artillery and a trip to some God forsaken, humid, 'fragrant', place where everybody talks like Miss Vera (a Belgian novitiate at St Dominics, that taught me French) and while the wine was really good, they .. do .. not .. have .. ice .. for .. the .. gin. Their martinis sucked, and the beer was warm; but I gotta say the bar and pool on the top floor of the Saigon Continental, made up for certain other deficiencies.
Oh, no, no, no, Bruce. I was just a, you know, a puke. It's guys like Steve and them such as deserves all the kudos.
While I often don't understand you John, this time I really don't understand what you are getting at. I'm not sure if I'm being ragged on,insulted,over praised or what. Let me say this about my military service, (since that seems to be part of the issue here). I served in the way I did , because that's the way the cards fell. I certainly didn't plan my service to pan out the way it developed, in fact I've always been very dissatified. Since I was a child I'd always wanted to be a naval officer, particularly a naval aviator. My grades,poor vision (belive it or not , my eye sight got better, not worse as I got older) and thyroid disease put paid to the naval academey and pilot training.
I had six months to a year to kill, so I went into the Navy Reserve (in those days a few people were allowed to directly enlist). The Navy screwed up and let me in (people with tyroid disease were not allowed to enlist). I became a aircrewman cause it was the closest that I could be to be a pilot. I then spent the next few years fighting to stay flying as the Navy realized it's mistake, and when they couldn't kick me out, at least could try and keep me from flying. I intended to finish college and get an officers commission as a Naval flight officer (not a pilot, but flew in the back seat--think "Goose in Top Gun).
The 80's were a turblent period for Naval Patrol aviation , and the reserves were no different. I was constantly being called up, not for war , but to do drug interdiction, or fill in for some active duty guy due to deploy who popped positive the week before. So it took me seven years to graduate from college (Sort of like Bluto in Animal House, but with no partying). So when I finally did get that diploma, I was too old for a commission. Besides, there was still that damned tyroid thing (although by this point the Bureau of Medicine was letting me stay as an aircrewman through a "giunea pig waiver"--a test case).
So I spent the rest of my time on active duty/recalled reserve/active reserve till the Navy had yet another big draw down and sent a bunch of us with over 20+ years time home. End of story. No great plan (or at least not one that even remotely worked out) , no great experince, lots of time in places I didn't want to be, doing work that I didn't want to do, always playing the "wooda-shooda-coulda game". In other words, like almost anyone else who's served, I served. Where and when they wanted me, and doing what they wanted me to. No "pro from Dover", or anywhere else. I made a lot of bad decisions, took some poor choices , had good and bad luck, and in general, had a normal military (Naval) career. Not much different than anyone else, certainly no better, and no worse. Regrets? Of course! But it was my poor choices that I regret, not the service. No matter how much I might have hated any particular moment, I would not have traded it for anything.
Now I'd appreciate your explaining what you meant. Because I really don't get what your getting at. 
Steve-nice summary of your feelings about service. Thanks for serving in the way that you could. 
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