What was your War?

Billie turned out to be a well assimilating Canadian, and for many years engaged to hopefully be married, whereas from work at the airport things got tough and they started cutting shifts. You could see Eileen didn't like to commit opinions for the distasteful Slobodon Melosevich. It was aweful when you think of it; and there was "be happy, don't worry for so many years" from Tom Cruise and the like.

 

Vietnam 6 years in Country

 

I haven't lived through a good war yet. I don't class the Iraq one as really a war or anything substantional for me personally.

My war is still 70+ years old, same war my family were involved in but it's not the politics anymore, now I fight to erase any wrong doings labeled against those of my family members. That's my fight, that's my war.

 

This war.

 

Mods and Rockers
http://youtu.be/miiopvQDP3M

 

The inner workings of the Army somehow kept me from having a war other than the Cold War.

I enlisted in the Army Reserves in '86 and went active duty in '88 (this transition from Reserves to active played a part in all of it).

First stop on active duty was Airborne School, then I was supposed to go to the 82nd Airborne Division. The day I graduated they handed me orders to Germany. WTF? I have no idea why they changed my orders but there was nothing I could do about it. While in Germany the 82nd invaded Panama. I missed it.

My tour in Germany was supposed to be two years but they screwed up and counted my Reserve time as "prior service" which extended my tour to three years. It took six months to get the Army to correct the error (nobody really cared, it was an uphill battle), but it was eventually shortened to two years. If I'd stayed three years would have deployed to Desert Storm with 3rd Armor Division. Two members of my platoon were killed and six more were injured in Iraq. I missed it.

My PCS orders back to the states were to the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. A week before I was supposed to leave Germany those orders were revoked. If those orders weren't revoked I would have deployed to Desert Storm with 10th Mountain. I missed it.

The Army had a policy allowing us to sign into another base if that base had a shortage of our MOS (military occupational specialty - your job). You just had to show up a couple of days early so you had time to get to your assigned base if they said no. I enlisted to serve in the 82nd Airborne so my plan was to show up at Ft. Bragg and sign in. If they said no I'd head to Ft. Drum. If I'd signed into the 82nd would have deployed to Desert Storm. I missed it.

Both Ft. Drum and Ft. Bragg were ruled out because my replacement orders were to a TRADOC unit in Arkansas (Training and Doctrine Command). You could only sign into another base on FORSCOM orders (Forces Command). If you got TRADOC orders you went where you were told.

My TRADOC unit was an Airborne Infantry battalion but we were a permanent OPFOR battalion. Opposing Forces. Units from throughout the Army deployed to Ft. Chaffee to fight against us for training. We were non-deployable. As a matter of fact, the 82nd Airborne was fighting against us at Ft. Chaffee when they were called back to deploy to Saudi Arabia.

We were not happy about our non-deployable status. Reserve and National Guard units were deploying but we were stuck in Arkansas. My roommate in Germany had gotten out of the Army but was recalled to deploy. They pulled him out of college mid-semester. He called me from Ft. Knox to bitch about it. It sucked. This is what we trained for but they were sending weekend warriors and recalling college kids. The Army was even taking volunteers from non-deployed units but we were told not to even bother trying. Nobody was going anywhere.

Shortly before the ground war started they finally said, "You're going!". A National Guard unit was going to replace us as OPFOR. Before we left the states the ground war started but only lasted 100 hours. Uncle Sam said, "Nevermind. Unpack". We missed it.

Fast forward to 9/11. Watching the WTC come down infuriated me. I'd been going back and forth about going back in the Army for a while. I had my degree so could go to OCS and become an officer. I'd already served 8 years so if I went back could have retired in 12. My wife wasn't too enthused about it and we'd just had a baby so didn't look like that was ever going to happen, but 9/11 changed my mind. As luck would have it, life threw me another curve ball. I learned the hard way I have epilepsy. I spent a weekend in intensive care and any hopes of rejoining the military went down in flames. I missed it.

I guess the universe was trying to tell me something.

 

After 9/11 nothing was the same for me. It felt like there was a massive crackdown on everything I had come to know and love. This has turned out to be the best thing for me really. I went to jail (actually a rehab program as part of jail called work furlough/stages) within several weeks or something of the 9/11 attacks. It's all a foggy mess trying to remember anything from that time in my life. I was struggling with meth addiction; though I only was on it for around 1 or 2 years.

Once I finally got out of work furlough, my cat had died/girlfriend had a new boyfriend, and I didn't want to return to my old life of doing meth. Not knowing what else to do, I turned to internet chat and raving/rave message boards. You pretty much know the rest. I found this place around 2007? I don't remember when exactly, but I didn't post here very much then. I finally finished college and got a degree in 2011. But for the most part it felt like that war began around the time my partying life ended. Maybe it's just a coincidence. As a result, it really feels like that war, the one in Iraq and Afghanistan, never ended!

I tried to enlist but it's really hard to get in with my criminal history. It may be that is for the best. Though I wanted to serve my country, I make for a pretty lousy soldier really.

 

there are no good wars. america did the right thing helping europe get rid of hitler, but i think that's probably the last time it did.

viet nam came along when i was in high school, and they were drafting everything male that turned 18.
i got out of being drafted into the army, by joining the air force.
that worked out ok, but i still wish i could have migrated to canada instead.

my dad served in world war two, as a radio sargent in the pacific.
he only saw two weeks in an active theatre of combat,
i (greatfully) never saw any.