So, here’s your open thread for the weekend – on the 40th anniversary of my enlistment. Yes, it was December 27, 1974 when I flew out of Syracuse Airport on route to Fort Polk, Louisiana where I spent the next 16 weeks being the most infantryman I could be.
No the mustache isn’t regulation, but my drill sergeant, SFC Jason Hurst, (yes, I still remember his name) corrected me when I arrived at his platoon.
….Pimp!….
Any word on Sparks?
Any word on Elaine Ricci?
#BringElaineRicciHome
Oh, she is so freakin hawt.
Wait, no–I was thinking of Christina Ricci.
Nevermind. Carry on.
Checking pimps, cathouses, piano playa’s and sevral dance hall’s. Nothing yet.
Try some of the tranny bars in Dupont Circle.
I hear Psulie-boi does his best “recruiting” there.
Word has it that he met Commander Phil Monkress of All-Points Logisti9cs there.
And the rest, so they say, is history!
They were “muscling for taint” as it were…
Did someone say say “tranny bars?”
Bernath particularly likes that line.
Any word on me?
I’ve emailed him, but no answer yet.
I have word that he is back home but feeling under the weather, no details.
Were we EVER that young? The 20th of July, 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of my Army enlistment.
Holy crap! And I thought I was old!
Congrats on making this far!
51 for me.
3 Feb 2015 will(only)be my 44th since induction day in Chicago. Then a bus ride to Fort Campbell,KY. Still fairly young??
Passed my 30-year mark this past June.
30 March 2015 will be my 55 year enlistment anniversary, got my clothing issue at Ft. Knox KY, (home of the jelly), and had one pair of black boots and one pair of brown boots, (that would have to be black before the 2nd week of BCT). And I remember very little about that time in A/1/6th Armored Cavalry.
Frankie, you got ol’ Poe by a couple of months if you go by first day of active duty which for me was May 28, 1959. I had signed an enlistment contract in the middle of March.
July 7, 1974.
…. to finally retire, after a long, strange trip, December 31, 2014.
Only going to admit to initial enlistment being over 40 years ago.
Maybe over 41. Maybe… 😉
Feb. 7, 1967, I went downtown and signed up for the Navy. I had to wait a month for a company to form, but I at least had a job lined up.
Didn’t discuss with parental units or need their permission. It was my 21st birthday, you see. I got home and said something at dinner about having a job. My mother asked me what I would be doing. I said I’d enlisted in the Navy. My mother said ‘Oh, you don’t want to do that,’ and I said ‘Yes, I do.’ My father said ‘I think it’s a good idea.’
My mother, who had stuff in her head, had completely forgotten it was my birthday, but when she finally figured out that I wasn’t 12 years old any more, she was just furious.
My dad gave me a ride to get the train to Chicago in March, and I met with the three other girls in my group.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Did SFC Hurst discuss the facial hair in a kind and constructive manner without hurting your feelings and esteem?
Yep, he sent me to the chaplain who punched my “tough shit” card.
Jonn, bet you kept that portrait close by throughout your service as a motivational piece. You know, hold it in front of some Sad Sack’s face and say, “Look if the Army can make a badass Ranger like me out of something like that…”
Heh…
My Drill, SSG Marcus Fisher, handed out quite a few TS Slips. Yes, he was one of those kinda quiet types until the fire and brimstone lit up his eyes and you just knew the outcome would not be good.
My brother couldn’t grow a mustache, either.
Oh that was tacky, Ex-PH2.
But I’m still chuckling…
Oh, you know I mean nothing by it, Poetrooper. Pure affection.
Enlisted in Missouri and figured I’d take basic at Ft Leonard Wood but they put me on a train in St Louis and sent me on to Ft Polk. Lovely place where we got to interact with Brahma cows and feral pigs, in addition to assorted striped animals of the human species. Was that a long time ago? Well, we did qualify with M1s on the KD before transitioning with the new M14 on popup targets. God, what fun. Seriously.
I was a little over 30 days old at that time. I feel so young. Thank you Jonn.
This January 15 will be 41 years since I shipped to MCRD Parris Island. Whew.
And not only do I remember the names of my drill instructors (6 of them…the first 3 were relieved after I’d only been there two weeks), but I’m in regular contact with one of them. An amazing Marine. He retired as a MSgt after 21 years, a grunt who went into Intelligence, awarded the Silver Star for heroism in Vietnam (as a PFC, no less), a fine drill instructor and a sterling example on how to live a life full of achievement and value.
I should clarify, he was NOT one of the drill instructors who were relieved.
Enjoying your weekend, everyone?
I’m looking forward to a brand new year in a couple of days! Only a few more until Obummer is out of office…
I dearly hope you are aware of something that you’re mentioning that I don’t know about and that it’s days not years. 🙂
You know how we’ve joked about the NSA watching this site?
This is one of those times where I explain to the nice agents that I’m referring to the President leaving office in 2016 and the “few” referring to years.
Unless, you know, somebody gets off their ass and impeaches the guy.
Oh, by the way; only a few more days until Senate inaugurations!
And my 19th birthday…
I have spent some considerable time surfing the net for flash cards for one of my cameras and found them, at one-sixth what they originally cost 8 years ago. Likewise, a new computer with a much larger DDRAM space and hard drive, and for 1/3 of the cost of my (nearly) antique desktop (I detest laptops), I can get 10 times the space on the hard drive and 16 times the current size of my DDRAM. My, how times have changed.
Oh, yeah, I can still get a DVD player/writer. I wonder if one of those will be able to read my floppy disc reader.
However, I need to replace my stove first and get the front steps fixed. One thing at a time.
my very first computer hard drive was a whopping 25 Mb. My Dad paid extra on HIS first computer to get a second – wait for it – full-height 5.25″ floppy drive.
Jonn, where’s your BCG’s? Or had the requirement for them already stopped?
I got BCG’s from boot most of the way through NPS, when I convinced a very nice HM1 that I’d need EAB glasses because I was going to prototype soon.
Not much better in the looks department (think John Boy Walton glasses) but they were functional.
I went in in 75 and we didn’t get our BCGs until AIT. Maybe they wanted to see if we made it through BCT?
IIRC, we all got our BCG’s during Week One at our regular BCT Company (B-9-2) and our mustaches stayed with our civilian clothes until after graduation.
damn! thanx to you guy’s i just figured out that sept marked my 39yr point. i think i’ll have another beer
June 3, 1975 – March 31, 2012
October 1991 – Fort Lost-in-the-woods, MO.
SHIT, I’m still a “young ‘un” in some places, some of the kids I serve with make jokes about my age but I laugh right back at them on PT runs and road marches saying things like “COME ON, CREAM PUFF, THIS OLD FART’S BEATING YOU!!”, “LET’S GO SWEE ‘PEA, you ought to be passing me!!” I LOVE looking at the expression on Lieutenants’ faces when I answer them “Yes Son, I mean Sir” and the PROVE I’m old enough to be their Dad, it ‘s a fun filled head game!!
Sept 19, 1993, Ft Benning Ga. SFC Strawbridge.
E 1/19.
I was in that same Company around the same time.
DAMN! I was part of 36th ENGR Group on South Main Post back then, small world, ain’t it?
Damn. Ya’ll some old balls.
Much respect.
I’ll be at my 30th on December 26th next year. Did boot camp in San Dawg, then on to Monterey, CA, for Russian. The rest is not so much history 🙂
Heh, I hadn’t even been born yet. *insert joke about Jonn’s age here*
Wow, My 30 year anniversary was July 29, 1974. I started at Ft. Puke,(* I call it that because I got food poisoning there at the reception station. Then a bus trip to Ft. Leonard Wood MO and back to Ft. Puke for AIT.
11B all the way.
Off to Alaska, Dec. 16 1974…
46 below zero when I got there…
I will never forget that jetway at Fairbanks Intl…
One cold SOB !!!
Thunderstixx, I think your math is 10 years off. 29 July 74 was 40 years ago. Smile!!
Just heard a certain someone’s website just got tossed from the Algorenet.
Rustle, rustle, bitch!!!
What? Sparky, spill! Just don’t be too specific.
I’ll let TSO discuss specifics at a time of his choosing. Suffice to say Bernath needs to familiarize himself with “404”.
I’ve been getting a “404” from his web-blither page address for at least a week and a half. Did he forget to pay his bill on time, or did he get booted from his server? It couldn’t happen to a more deserving critter than Daniel A. Bernath the phony CPO/phony Oregon Attorney/bogus Florida resident. He accused at least three other Men of being me.
Inducted 18 Aug 1954, Omaha, NE. Then immediately to Ft. Bliss, where I spent the next year training. Sometimes it seems like yesterday. MOS was 214.40, something I can’t even find on the internet any more.
Stonemason?
It was a tad high tech for the time. More like, “maker of fire”.
Well, I had found an on-line site that had the MOS designations (DA Pamphlet) from 1944 that said 214 was a stonemason, so I took a SWAG.
March 20, 2015 will be 45 years since I enjoyed several fun-filled weeks at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. We went for many pleasant walks, enjoyed fascinating hours of instruction, learned some different ways of doing ordinary things and some new words.
Jonn, that picture of you is all kinds of awesome. I’m guessing you got “extra attention” for that stache.
July 1990 – Ft. Sill Oklahoma for Basic and AIT as a 13N Lance Missle Crewmember. Fun time. Loved the summer heat. Not.
Got out of AD in 1993 and went into the Reserves in 2005 to 2013.
enlisted in Boston Ma with the airborne option on march 12, 1970 left for fort fix nj on march 16 1970. arrived in the middle of the night to some guys yelling and screaming to get off this !@#$#% bus. c 2=3 for bct
42 years ago, May 1973 USAF, 81150 (SS), FSC at Kilo for ICBM,s at Ellsworth and 1975 Udorn base defense, by what I’ve been reading on the site I thought everyone here was a bit older than myself. I guess not everyone. Any other 81150’s here?
Were you still there in ’73 when they ran the LE class through with all the Navy guys in it?
I did not attend LE school, was a security specialist, then to AZR (Asian zone readiness school – combat school for base defense). We had a couple of women go through the schooling at that time, Don’t remember any Navy guys in SS school, they could have been in a different class or were in LE side. Graduated aug 31 73. Different gov agency people attended the courses though and with 400 plus in the class to start, and lots of drop outs, hard to say who was all there.
My not-so-illustrious career started 35 years ago–summer of 1980, Ft. Lost-in-the-woods, MO. I ended up serving 24 years, 3 months, 11 days, all told. Surprised the hell outta me how fast it went by.
However, I remember the company (A co 1st Bn 3rd Brigade)and the two Drill Sergeants by name (Ligon and Schultz) from back then. Talk about an impression made…
January 3, 1985 started my time in the Navy. Did seven years but during my second hitch they decided my eyes weren’t good enough for the flight deck even though they hadn’t changed at all – I wore glasses (apparently the flight deck fire made all the higher ups go into CYA mode) so I got the hell out.
Spent the last part of my second tour in a training squadron doing the shit work because I refused to sign new orders to become a sonar tech. By the time I left I was ready to burn everything related to my service.
Now though I look back and realize that the first hitch was an amazing time, it was just my pencil pushing, fatass chief and the dickless Skipper I had during my second that made me want to heave.
Dec. 26, 1966 Fort Polk, LA.
Damn, making me feel older than dirt. July,1965/San Diego MCR. My Stache has been with me since Nam of June 1966. Joe
Great day I awoke to a inch of snow. Almost all gone now. Last year,I tried to track Deer in the snow. I soon figured out the Deer was leading me in circles and laughing at me. Joe
For the last week, I’ve had to turn my A/C back on about 5 times because it was getting too hot in my house in upstate NY. There’s still a pile of snow across the street and its been almost 60 every other day, but its supposedly December here…
Two weeks ago there was over a foot of snow on the ground. Ugh, this weather sucks.
Jonn. Thanks for posting your official photo. I was never very pleased with mine–until I saw yours. So, thanks. But how the hell did you get away with that stache wannabe and long sideburns?
Wow, great picture. Its been almost 38 years for me. I found myself on the yellow footprints 3 days after my 17th birthday in Oct 1977 at MCRD San Diego (Plt 3129).
I spent Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years in Boot Camp then went on to Infantry Training School at Camp Pendleton to become a 106mm Recoiless Rifleman, then on to Sea School in San Diego, then on to my ship in Norfolk, VA. Quite the adventure for a teen.
It took me until the end of May 2010 to amass 24 years and a few months of active duty and retirement from the Army National Guard and it just seems to have gone by in a blur. I dont know about any of the rest of you but I get enormous satisfaction now having persevered through it all and I am glad I served when I did.
Another great AMC Breaking Bad fest on today !!!
The entire series start to finish, the exploits of the world’s greatest chemistry teacher !!!
Heisenberg lives !!!
Sparks says: “First, I am okay. I has a very rough patch. I went into Atrial fibrillation on Tuesday after surgery Monday. So they started a bunch of unplanned but well know meds. It had not cleared by Thursday so the Doctor did a Cardioversion, to restore normal sinus rhythm. It did not work initially but as planned along wit the meds, Friday morning it switched back on its own. He had me stay until Saturday afternoon and I got home last night about 1030 and turned in. I feel a 100% better and that’s just from being home. I’ll have some stories to tell about things I have learned and conclusions I have drawn about hospitals. healthcare and health care workers. But that is for next weekend when I am caught up and felling better. Thank you all for your well wishes, thoughts and prayers. God bless and I hope each of you had a Merry Christmas.”
Glad to hear that all is well, or at least getting better for him. Let him know that we are all wishing him a speedy recovery.
Hang in there, buddy.
Okay,Sparks is above ground and kicking it around. It’s a bluebirds everywhere,extra gravy kind of day.
Hang in there, Sparks.
Makes my routine knee replacement last month sound better every time I read it. Hang in there, buddy.
Hang tough, Sparks. We’re all with you.
It’s a lot of fun reading about all of you guys and gals and your time in service. This fleshes out the characters of a lot of you and makes you more interesting when I read your comments. Thank you all for your service.
Glad to hear Sparks is doing well.
From the Green Thumb:
Happy New Year.
Word.