Real Life Military Experience

[Narukami]

I did 14 years in the U.S. Army from 84-98. My first hitch was with the Massachusetts National Guard "Yankee Division" as a Cavalry Scout and Gunner on 48A5 tanks. Those were the oldest dinosaurs in the inventory.

Dinosaur you say...

When I was serving with the 2nd ID in Korea (1980) our two tank battalions (1/72 & 2/72 Armor) had just received brand new M48A5 tanks. It was great to have brand new equipment on which everything worked.

We had trained on M60's at Ft. Knox (the Cav class trained on 60's and M113's while the Armor class trained on the M60A3) at a time when the M1 was still going through final trials. On day, during a break in tank gunnery class, as we sat on our old M60's, we heard a high pitched whine and looking to our rear we saw an M1 come flying over a hill and down into the firing range parking lot followed by several jeeps trying to keep up. The crew got out of the M1, checked fluid levels, spoke to the engineers from General Dynamics and then remounted the M1. A jeep, with flashing caution lights and a sign "Convoy Follows," started out first. It was half way up the hill when the whine of the M1 engine filled the air and the tank leapt into motion. It passed the jeep going up the hill and disappeared down the other side.

We looked at each other, then at our ancient M60's, speechless. We had seen the future of armor, and to our chagrin it did not include us training on our dinosaurs.
:? cry:

:wink:

Narukami

[Tiberius Clodius Corvinus]

Served with 401st armoured infantry battalion (14th armoured division) as an company-assigned medic in 1997-98. Ended up as OR-3 and luckily never saw combat. Can't say I took a particular delight in service but it was important because it helped me to appreciate the conveniences of a comfortable civil live.

Although admittedly a generalization, I believe of all the groups of people on the planet, soldiers want war the least, politicians the most.

yeah, true that

[Smithy]

I suppose my experience does not really count, I am a Cadet Corporal in the ATC (United Kingdom) but soon I will be heading off to the RAF Regiment as a Gunner (hopefully 2 squadron Airborne or Sniper unit), jsut got to pass my medical (byu loosing weight) and my fitness test. Fingers crossed.

[texascavtrooper]

Well I know how you all feel. I have 20 year in and will retire soon, I hope. I'm currantly Deployed to Iraq for the second time. In my time in service there have been bad times, good times, and great times. The one thing that seems to hold true is you always remember the good times and try to forget the bad ones. I know I'll miss being with the guys in the field and the good friends you meet. But I think the one thing I will miss the most is the look on that young kids face when he finaly gets what you have been teaching him and he gets to pass it one to the new kid. There is a satisfaction in that moment that just can't be beat. The knowledge that what you have worked so hard for is being past on to the next group of soldiers. I salute all of you that have served you country!
Bryan

[Smithy]

Well I know how you all feel. I have 20 year in and will retire soon, I hope. I'm currantly Deployed to Iraq for the second time. In my time in service there have been bad times, good times, and great times. The one thing that seems to hold true is you always remember the good times and try to forget the bad ones. I know I'll miss being with the guys in the field and the good friends you meet. But I think the one thing I will miss the most is the look on that young kids face when he finaly gets what you have been teaching him and he gets to pass it one to the new kid. There is a satisfaction in that moment that just can't be beat. The knowledge that what you have worked so hard for is being past on to the next group of soldiers. I salute all of you that have served you country!
Bryan

Here, Here.

[AuxArcher]

As for my own service, I served as an Infantryman (11Bravo) starting in 1982 in the 3/161st Infantry (Mech) of the 81st Brigade, Washington Army National Guard. I was an RTO and grenadier, but sometimes humped the M60. I then transferred to a mechanized infantry company with the California Army National Guard (40th Infantry Division) in the same capacity for 2 years, and went active duty in 1985. I requested and was sent to West Germany, and was stationed with the 74th USAFAD (United States Army Field Artillery Detachment), 59th Ordnance Brigade as a nuclear warhead custodian attached to a German Pershing missile battery. With the adoption of the intermediate ballistic missile treaty, all that is long gone now.

I finished my time after active with the reserves, serving in a couple of reserve bands as an oboist. I had blown out my knee, and was reclassed out of the combat arms, which is the single biggest reason I didn’t re-up. Having to take the blue cord (a unique uniform item only for grunts) off my service greens was a bitter day.

I did 9 years total, and would not trade any of it for anything. Sometimes I do miss it, but am beyond the age I can re-up, even if my life was structured to allow it. I think spending time in the field is what I miss the most, the squads I served in, even some of the unpleasant things like being bitterly cold and soaked after a river crossing or pulling security in a pouring rain, and the ways we managed to have fun and get through it in spite of our circumstances.

I recall vividly some scenes, little vignettes through those years; covered head to toe in road dust and joking around by a long line of APCs during a road march through the silent vastness of the Nevada desert; a site recon patrol with live ammo in Germany around the missile site and having one of us almost perish in a nasty bog, but laughing our butts off as we tried to pull him out of the quagmire; heating up c-rats in an open fire and having one guy not bother to vent the can, and blamo, the frank and beans exploded in a spectacular fashion, going straight up in the air; keeping each other’s spirits up during really grueling foot road marches; being on lone guard duty one night in the desert and hearing coyotes answering each other’s calls in the far distance; hearing a far-off church bell through the pre-dawn darkness during a field problem in Germany; low crawling through stinking Georgia mud in boot camp and thinking how great this would have been if I were 8 years old. ; examining a case of c-rats with my buddies, noting how really old the dates were on the box, and philosophizing on the possibly true rumor that they were full of salt peter.

Maybe you feel the same way, but Roman reenacting gives me a very tiny sense of what real life service was like. The hard to describe shared feeling of duty to unit and the mission was something I have never really felt since I got out, and I miss that as well. I wonder sometimes where my old NCOs and buddies have ended up, and wish them all the very best, wherever they are.