oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

I was in the Army about 15 years before this man was a Marine but I have to agree with him on every point and just can't suggest that a young man give himself to the military with the CIC we have.

http://patriotupdate.com/articles/join-military-today/

Floyd Brown Loc: Milwaukee WI

I didn't join the first time. I was drafted. I am way to old now to be of any use in the military but if I was drafted it is possible that I would go.

Being drafted brings a better mix of people to the military.
With a fair draft you get a more mixed bunch of people. A
more balanced group of people.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

Draftees who got to attend the same school I did in the Army had only one year after school to do their MOS and I had two. Of course, the ASA preferred me and other RAs to the USs. I was very unhappy with them myself because I sat in a replacement company for two months waiting to get in a class, since there were so many of them.

I didn't see many people who weren't college grads or near grads since i was in a part of the ASA where they wanted people with more intelligence than those who worked in our motor pools. Race made no difference but education sure did.

I am not too old to do the job I did in Europe but it isn't needed a lot these days.

rhomin57 Loc: Far Northern CA.

Who was it in Govt that stood up and said "if you don't educate yourself, you could end up in the Military?" I can't seem to remember who that was.

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

Well I can and I spell his name like the GIs he called dummies did on their sign when they said ''Hep us Jon Carry, we ar trapped here in Irak''. I have never spelled his name properly since the first time I saw that other than on titles of threads on wh**ever forum I was on.

Hungry Freaks

I was drafted into the Marine Corps in 1968-called in the day the buzzard's luck-and spent 11 months in I Corp with the 9th Marines before being wounded for the third time. My right leg stil hurts when a storm front approaches-little pieces of shrapnel worked their way out of that leg for 15 years. Stuff happens.

I never viewed that time in 'nam as anything but a day-in-and-day out horror story, something I've tried to forget but just cannot. I've simply accepted it as fact. And learned to not so much be proud of what I did, but to have a certain sense of p***e that I made it through it and lived. I also have a deep sense of sorrow for those good young men-kids, really- who didn't make it back.

I also view those I served with with nothing less than a deep and abiding love that is more intense than relations I've had with all but a few women. It was not a physical love, but a love borne out of shared experience, shared responsibility and shared hardship. it's hard to describe to someone who hasn't been there.

It's not something I'd do again but it's something I'm sure gave me a much more mature attitude and even world view. I didn't see 'rampant drug use' though about half the marines I served with tried grass at least once. By far the most common drug was alcohol-everybody used in out of the field and many while in it. To use any drug in the field was not looked upon kindly as it put everyone in danger by altering the perceptions of a troop who could be the only thing between life and death for his fellow marines. Benzedrine was a drug widely used with the knowledge of officers and NCOs-use of it was often necessary when the need to be awake and alert for 24-48 hours was a matter of life and death.

I did see a few homosexual unions-very clearly remember hearing two marines having sex in another slit trench-again something that was alarming only because it meant that there were four less eyes looking out for NVA infiltrators.

I really don't know what this former marine is talking about except it's true. Of our last five presidents, only one-Geroge HW Bush, served in the military. Bush II served in the nAir national Guard, but was AWOL, and not punished for being so, while working on a political campaign. Not something that would fly for someone with a father of such political and financial status.

The troops of today are probably as good as this nation has ever seen. They serve with capable leaders who are also volunteers. While this volunteer army does require than 1% of the population serve to fight the wars caused by the political class and allegedly in the name of the other 99%, it's far better than giving a troubled teen the choice between the service and jail.

While I don't look back fondly on my 21 months in the USMC, I do hold my head high when I say I served. Semper Fi.

RONALD

Hungry freak, Thank you for your service, God bless.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

I did 22-years in the Navy, moving from the enlisted ranks into the officer ranks. I was a smart-mouthed young 17-year old teenager when I joined, and the Navy took it out of me. The Navy sent me to a lot of schools and taught me a sk**l. The Navy was good to me.

Would I serve again? Not in today's Navy would I serve, especially under a Democrat President. Democrats always cut the military, and it always takes a Republican to build it back up. Carter was miserable to serve under, and I v**ed for him. LBJ was even worse, he is the one who escalated the Vietnam War. The Navy was in such bad shape under Carter that we couldn't get underway at times due to fuel shortages. It took Reagan to build it back up. Democrats are just miserable to serve under - they have little, or no respect for the military.

With the military being used as one big social experiment now, by putting women on ships (and submarines), and allowing gays in, no way would I want to be part of that. I have friends that still know some career type Navy Chiefs that say they no longer tell "sea stories" instead it is career-ending horror stories. They're close to retiring and barely h*****g on.

Ain't nobody going to convince me that by putting women on ships (and in combat), allowing gays in (and then letting them get married) is NOT going to degrade military readiness is just plain ignorant. Our military is already degrading and it's only going to get worse with a Democrat as C-in-C, especially our current i***t-in-chief. And, god forbid Hillary gets elected by the ignorant v**ers, it will degrade even further.

Hungry Freaks

I don't want thanks. I did nothing for the citizens of the United States or the Vietnamese-especially the Vietnamese (with the exception of k*****g their sons, fathers, husbands and, in at least one case, their daughters, etc.)

It's nothing I wanted to do. I was drafted.

If there was one thing someone could do for me is to erase the entire 11 months out of my mind.I tried, for seven years, to do so with large amounts of alcohol. It didn't work. I've learned to accept it, even cherish it in some sick way.

General WT Sherman, of Civil War fame, once said that war's "glory is all moonshine. Only those who have never have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded cry out loud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell." Sherman wasn't known as being a dove, as I recall.

God bless me? I hope so. God forgive me is more like it.

But thanks, anyway.

Hungry Freaks

We need to cut the military. It serves no purpose but to make war, usually in some other country fighting someone else's battle or just plain ripping the fabric of that country apart. Did we topple SH in Iraq? Yes, but is that country any better off?

Our military does offer young people a chance to get some discipline, learn a job sk**l (for me, it was how to pull a trigger) and see the world. It also give some of these young people a chance to meet people and k**l them.

Navy, you say. I guess you never got up close to see just exactly what all of the artillery, cordite and copper-jacketed bullets do. It's not a pretty picture.

We built great weapons. These weapons have created a great amount of misery for people, most of whom did nothing to deserve it. And, with a military, thee's aways the desire to use it. I can't think of one conflict in the past 50 years that did anything but interfere with the sovereignty of another nation for no other reason that we wanted to. Maybe Afghanistan was necessary, but look at the bones of former foreign invaders there. The British, twice, the Russians, three times, and so on.

Ron Paul is right. Bring our troops home. We have several thousand servicemen and women in Germany, a country that is currently kicking US butt in the production of exportable goods. Why? To protect them? Germany has enough money and bodies to protect itself.

bigbluecatfish

it is part of being a super power, your nation will always be in in incessant warfare. I did 20 years in the navy seen some horror when I fought the fire aboard the USS Enterprise. I seen guys dying asking for water, The main thing I learned that cook human flash smelled just like any other cook meat. That old movie story that once you smell cook human flash you do not forget is bulls**t. Other then this the only fighting I ever did was in the Philippines some girl gang up on me and beat the hell out of me said I own them money. God bless all you guys who served on the ground in Vietnam; I salute you. I did get one chance in my 20 years to know what it is like when the Devil is biting your right in the ass. War shucks. But I guess it is all part of being super power.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

And, then kiss our freedom goodbye.

BTW, I spent time in Vietnam too, so don't preach to me what I have seen and not seen...okay?

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

Consider who was coming into absolute control of the Dem party in the days you speak of. Yes, it was a progressive movement that has taken the party over so Obama is doing what Johnson and Carter were trying to do.

The worst thing Carter managed to do was giving his consent to people like Jon Carry being considered human beings after his lies about Vietnam. I guess amnestying the cruds who ran to Canada and Sweden was about as bad. I have to agree with you about what Dems have tried to do with our military. Look at what Billy Clinton did to weaken the whole thing.

alex Loc: michigan now imperial beach californa

I clicked on browns comment don't know why it went to yours
It has always puzzled me how a person can go into the military, take an oath to defend the constitution of these United States then gets out and v**es for a political party that thinks the constitution is only good for toilet paper maybe you could be so kind as to enlighten me I don't mean those that were drafted, served one tour and got out I am talking the career ones

Floyd Brown Loc: Milwaukee WI

I am sure that I took an oath but I can not tell you what I promised.

What I say is a big shame & is causing a hard time for many is sending troops into an area that is next to impossible to tell the good guys from the bad. The only thing that dose is
every one becomes the bad guy to you as a solider. How they can get by day to day is truly hard to imagine.

I was in the Army 59 to 62. When I was drafted I was not sure that I could ever k**l any one. Put just playing War games proved to me that yes I would shoot not so much to k**l as to hope that the enemy would turn around & go home.