Veterans Day tomorrow

[square butte]

God Bless all who served and are serving . .

[tdoor4570]

US Navy 1965-1971 Viet Nam

[DukeConnors]

Army Reserve
1983-1995
13E
Cannon Fire Direction Specialist

Hope it is ok I responded. Technically I am not considered a veteran by the VA because I never had 180 days consecutive active duty service. At least that used to be the rule.

[tmax64]

Army. Active duty Pharmacy Tech 91Q from 3/85 to 3/97. Got out and was hired back as a Army civilian GS employee 4/97 to 10/2017. Retired Halloween 2017 after 32 years total time.
Duke, you put up with crap for 12 years even if it was on the weekends. You may have seen more than some us did.

[madsenshooter]

78-82 One cold war hitch in the AF, aka the chair force. I was a clerk. My military claim to fame? I was in the same outfit as the comedian Sinbad!

[CastingFool]

1971-1974 US Army, Ft Benning, Ga. Ch 47 rpmn, Huey crewchief.
1974-1982, Michigan National Guard. Acft rpmn, Huey crewchief, weapons tech.
1982-1996 MI Air National Guard, weapons loader, A-37 load crew chief, A-10 load crew chief. Weapons specialist.

Highlight, got a ride on a A-37, as a reward for my crew being chosen as load crew of the quarter.

[Adam_Selene]

Army Reserve
1983-1995
13E
Cannon Fire Direction Specialist

Hope it is ok I responded. Technically I am not considered a veteran by the VA because I never had 180 days consecutive active duty service. At least that used to be the rule.

Never knew that. I can see it for folks who got dropped (ie, never made it more than 6 months), but 12 years - more than a decade - of reserve service... the idea that doesn't count is a headscratcher to me.

Just shy of 8 years, about half with 10th Mountain, half with 95th CA.

[MrWolf]

As others have said. God bless all of you to those that serve or have served. Thank you.

[Reverend Al]

Our Memorial Day was yesterday too and again many thanks to all who serve and have served in both Canada and the USA.

I was sent a very sobering photo that shows a regiment of Cameron Highlanders taken in front of Edinburgh Castle in 1914 and then a second photo of the same regiment in 1919 after WWI. Such a waste of so many young lives ...

[Larry Gibson]

Army Reserve
1983-1995
13E
Cannon Fire Direction Specialist

Hope it is ok I responded. Technically I am not considered a veteran by the VA because I never had 180 days consecutive active duty service. At least that used to be the rule.

Being a Veteran has nothing to do with the VA rules. You signed up, you serve, if called......you go.....that's all that counts.....

Attachment 251035

[DukeConnors]

Never knew that. I can see it for folks who got dropped (ie, never made it more than 6 months), but 12 years - more than a decade - of reserve service... the idea that doesn't count is a headscratcher to me.

Just shy of 8 years, about half with 10th Mountain, half with 95th CA.

i spent some time at Ft. Drum. We shot there during anual training before and after the post became the home of 10th Mountain. I have never seen an area with such a variety of terrsin. Mountains, swamps, sand and savanah.

[trapper9260]

Being a Veteran has nothing to do with the VA rules. You signed up, you serve, if called......you go.....that's all that counts.....

Attachment 251035

You sum it up good Larry .
For me I sign up delay entry for the navy to finish high school and then one week out of high school I went in from 79 to 83 active duty in the navy and then 83 to 84 in active reserves . then 88 to 90 active reserves . Station and home port Norfolk,VA
Was on the USS Siapan LHA -2 , USS Emery S. Land AS-39 , USS Fulton S -11 when in the active reserves out of New London,CT.

Was part of the Iran hostage , the Cuban air lift

Came out as EN-3 E-4

[fatnhappy]

I posted here. Then I deleted it. I did serve, I did my duty honorably and well. To my thought, I always considered it a duty but no less important than serving on juries or voting. Without many forms of service our Republic would have long ago failed. Citizenship carries a personal responsibility, I stand in awe of some of our current vets who know they're volunteering for years of hardship and combat in far away holes... yet there's no lack of volunteers.

between WWII, Korea and Vietnam my Uncle Jack served more years in combat than I spent in service. My Uncle Jim's return involved disinterment from Henri-Chapelle. My cousin Georgie was 2 weeks away from coming home alive in 1969. He came home early. Next week will be the 6th anniversary of SSG Alex Viola becoming a casualty in Kandahar. They have elevated service to the Republic, and I'm eternally grateful.

I'm humbled and honored by those that came before and since. So much more has been asked of many of them.

[472x1B/A]

U. S. Air Force June 1970 - July 1990 472x1B/A B = Refueling Maint. Specialist A = Fire Truck Maint. Specialist. I was fortunate to have had 13 PCS assignments while serving.

[WRideout]

I am feeling some survivor's remorse today. I did serve my twenty years, three as an active duty medic, 91B, and the remainder in the Army Reserve and National Guard. On active duty, I was at Ft. Lewis Washington in 1972 when the 9th Infantry Division was being reconstituted with soldiers reassigned from Viet Nam. We had battalion formations with eight people, including the battalion commander. At the end of that tour, I went to West Germany for a year. I was a medic in a Pershing Missile battalion in Schwabisch Gmund when Saigon fell.

Much later, after graduating from college, I needed some spending money, and so joined the California Army National Guard. I spent a couple of years as a medical section chief, when I had an opportunity to go to OCS. I graduated as a second lieutenant, and field artillery officer. I was promoted to battalion staff positions rather quickly, and served as S1, S2, and S4, with a brief hitch as Service Battery Commander (for which I never got credit.)

When my job at Vandenberg AFB dried up, the contractor I worked for transferred me to Oak Ridge TN, where I worked on the nuclear cleanup program. At that time, I joined the Tennessee Army National Guard, and served at the brigade level in several different positions. In 1998 employment took me to Southwest Pennsylvania, where I joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 28th Divarty. I was assigned as a Fire Support Officer to an attack helicopter battalion, and that is where I finished my time.

While I had a lot of interesting experiences, and arguably protected the nation during the Cold War, I don't really know that I did anything too special. My heroes are the ones who put everything on the line for their country. Some are relatives, and some are people I knew.

Francis Randall; the uncle I never knew. US Army WWII casualty, he is buried in Margraten Cemetery, Netherlands. I found out that he had served in the same National Guard battalion that I was in.
Homer Rideout; ambulance driver WWII and brother of my dad. He served in both European and Pacific theaters
Douglas (Sam) Sandifer; USN, Korea, he was my Scoutmaster in my teenage years and was the one who taught me about being a man.
Ed Sanders; USMC, WWII and Korea, member of Merril's Marauders. He was blinded by a Chinese grenade. He taught my Explorer Post Morse code, and helped us get our amateur radio licenses.
Francis McKee; my father-in-law (deceased at age 93) and USMC veteran of the Pacific Theater, WWII.

These men, and others, are my heroes. I am still trying to live up to the standard that they have set.

Wayne