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Did you serve in the military? If so, when and what service?

Mr. Invisible said:
Am currently in the Army. Joined up in August 2016 and am about to finish AIT as a human resources specialist, then switch over to active duty.
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In my day AIT meant advanced infantry training. I'm not sure what that has to do with human resources. I guess the term has changed.
 
Drafted into the Army in 1968. Had an exciting tour of Asia. Don't miss it.
 
fmw said:
In my day AIT meant advanced infantry training. I'm not sure what that has to do with human resources. I guess the term has changed.
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When I was in it was "Advanced Individual Training", but I was about 15 years after you.
 
fmw said:
In my day AIT meant advanced infantry training. I'm not sure what that has to do with human resources. I guess the term has changed.
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AIT now means Advanced Individual Training nowadays aka learning your MOS :p
 
Mr. Invisible said:
AIT now means Advanced Individual Training nowadays aka learning your MOS :p
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Ah. Thanks for the clarification. I was a member of the typewriter corps myself. I would assume it is now the computer corps. My MOS was 92 something or other if I remember right. Basically I processed people to return to the U.S. after their tour of duty.
 
I joined the Navy in 1998. Went to Navy Nuclear Power training, Machinist Mate A-school. Served aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln from 2000-2004, then Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard from 2005-2008. Got off active duty then and went into the reserves. Made Chief in 2014. Should retire in about 2 years.
 
radcen said:
Did you serve in the military? If so, when and what service?

I served in the Army from 1982 to 1985, three year enlistment. Worked on weapon systems on Cobras. Only "war" that happened during my service was Grenada. I was in Germany at the time, we went on alert, and it was pretty much over by the time we even heard what happened.

In many ways I loved it and still miss it, but on the flip side I hated the uber bureaucratic mentality that pervades the service and for that reason I chose to not re-enlist. Did my enlistment quietly and left.

I do not have any special or heroic stories to tell. I did gain a few awards, but hell, a couple of those were for just doing my job, though I'm still proud of them nonetheless.
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Uncle Sam's Misguided Children.

Retired as a Gunnery Sergeant after 20 3/4 years. Held billets of 6531, 6541 and 6521, Aviation Ordnance. No DI (not fit or Ooorah enough) no Recruiter (Not pretty enough).

14 years on fixed wing (Primarily A-4/TA-4/OA-4 series) followed by 6 years on Cobras. Some time on ships, primarily USS Belleau Woods. (Nicknamed 'Balsa Wood' due to its tendency to breakdown as just float.)

High-point of liberty? Hong Kong/Kowloon.

High-point of service? Serving in Somalia.

Low-point? Finding out my firstborn daughter nearly died and that my Father did die while I was over there.

Final year was a breeze as I went through surgery to repair serious damage to my back and the recuperation from that.
 
radcen said:
Did you serve in the military? If so, when and what service?

I served in the Army from 1982 to 1985, three year enlistment. Worked on weapon systems on Cobras. Only "war" that happened during my service was Grenada. I was in Germany at the time, we went on alert, and it was pretty much over by the time we even heard what happened.

In many ways I loved it and still miss it, but on the flip side I hated the uber bureaucratic mentality that pervades the service and for that reason I chose to not re-enlist. Did my enlistment quietly and left.

I do not have any special or heroic stories to tell. I did gain a few awards, but hell, a couple of those were for just doing my job, though I'm still proud of them nonetheless.
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I served for 7 years, 3 in the army under the 4 infantry division in fort hood under the aviation brigade, and 4 years under the texas national guard. I deployed one full year to afghanistan under 4id, in which I was under rc north for isaf, which we cosidered an acronym for I suck at fighting, but it actually meant international security assistance force.

Basic and ait at fort jackson, stationed my whole active duty career at fort hood, then rest at temple tx as national guard.Finished my career as a pfc with both being honerable discharges, if you really wanted to know how I could achieve e-3 multiple times but never higher in 3 years, it is a long story of being a dedicated and hard working screwup.
 
Mr. Invisible said:
Since you are SF, I want to ask a question as I am considering going SF in the future (3 or 4 yrs from now): Is going to Selection worth it? I mean, I was talking to guys who were at selection and they enjoyed it and all, but then they didn't get chosen.
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I have never went sf, but nearly every post has a few sf just for recruiting. If you are wondering I would find out if your post has them and request information from them. It is very rigorous both physically and mentally, and getting a scope of it beforehand should help you make a decision.

You could also ranger, which is a privelage for the army and an extreme privelage for the marines and other branches, like for example a marine needs to be airborne qualified and be an e6 to go through army ranger school. Ranger is less sf and more elite infantry, and ranger school is the best military leadership school around.

Either choice is severely difficult, with their own rewards. It is up to you to seek out recruiters to find out what you want, as things like requirements change constantly depending on the load requirements of each. I got begged to become a ranger after ait, when I went from running a 35 minute two mile being a fat drunk to running a 12 minute two mile still being a drunk. I desided against it, they thought I had what it took and they were in a shortage that year, they tried to push my brother to do the same. I decided more school was a no go and entered regular army service at fort hood, which now I regret not going the ranger route.
 
beerftw said:
I have never went sf, but nearly every post has a few sf just for recruiting. If you are wondering I would find out if your post has them and request information from them. It is very rigorous both physically and mentally, and getting a scope of it beforehand should help you make a decision.

You could also ranger, which is a privelage for the army and an extreme privelage for the marines and other branches, like for example a marine needs to be airborne qualified and be an e6 to go through army ranger school. Ranger is less sf and more elite infantry, and ranger school is the best military leadership school around.

Either choice is severely difficult, with their own rewards. It is up to you to seek out recruiters to find out what you want, as things like requirements change constantly depending on the load requirements of each. I got begged to become a ranger after ait, when I went from running a 35 minute two mile being a fat drunk to running a 12 minute two mile still being a drunk. I desided against it, they thought I had what it took and they were in a shortage that year, they tried to push my brother to do the same. I decided more school was a no go and entered regular army service at fort hood, which now I regret not going the ranger route.
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The majority of folks who work for SORB, the guys who do the in service recruiting for SF, are not actual 18 series guys. So unless they have a long tab on their shoulder I would take everything they say with a grain of salt.

Going to Ranger School is one thing. Serving in the 75th is a whole different animal.
Never was in Ranger BN but have had many teammates in SF that started their careers there. From what I hear from them and from my personal experience in SF both are great places to serve but completely different experiences.
While I wouldn't change where I am at now I do wish I had started my career in Ranger BN
 
braindrain said:
The majority of folks who work for SORB, the guys who do the in service recruiting for SF, are not actual 18 series guys. So unless they have a long tab on their shoulder I would take everything they say with a grain of salt.

Going to Ranger School is one thing. Serving in the 75th is a whole different animal.
Never was in Ranger BN but have had many teammates in SF that started their careers there. From what I hear from them and from my personal experience in SF both are great places to serve but completely different experiences.
While I wouldn't change where I am at now I do wish I had started my career in Ranger BN
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You are right those recruiters are not all sf, when some people in my unit was going through, all of them could not even pass their pre entrance test btw, they had two actual sf, the rest were non sf. Their is probably a correct term for the pre entrance test I just can not remember it.

Ranger school I looked into when offered, But I just at the time did not want to go through extended infantry training, then airborne school, then ranger school. I looked into it later on, and my mistake was not taking it when they were begging people to join, shortly after I left ait obama started downsizing the military, and getting those slots became a challenge.
 
I did and it is none of your business about the rest.

And 'no', I do not discuss it because it ended badly (it actually ended wonderfully). It is just no one else's business but mine.

I will say this, because I was raised in America, my mother was Canadian and my father was British - I could serve in any one of those three military's.

I chose the one which I admired the most.

And 'no', I won't say which, either.
 
DA60 said:
I did and it is none of your business about the rest.

And 'no', I do not discuss it because it ended badly (it actually ended wonderfully). It is just no one else's business but mine.

I will say this, because I was raised in America, my mother was Canadian and my father was British - I could serve in any one of those three military's.

I chose the one which I admired the most.

And 'no', I won't say which, either.
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Do you need a safe space? :roll:
 
US Army 1977 to 1980 Military Police. I spent more time in training than I did doing any job. No war so there was a lot time for training. I kept getting trained for more and more things. It seemed as long as I kept accepting the opportunity to train they kept putting my name on the board. I finally realized that the more training you have the more likely your name will come up when something truly dangerous needs doing. It was close to 2 years before I stopped accepting more training and realized I was not going to pursue that type of career. The other problem was with no war and too many people above me making rank would be close to impossible. As a white male I was the last person they needed to promote in the new politically correct military. The army needed to promote more minorities so my only chance of promotions was during reenlistment. Again they had too many white male people above me already. I was not what they needed unless a war forced them into retirement or were killed in action. Sad to say but that is the military.
 
roguenuke said:
I joined the Navy in 1998. Went to Navy Nuclear Power training, Machinist Mate A-school. Served aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln from 2000-2004, then Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard from 2005-2008. Got off active duty then and went into the reserves. Made Chief in 2014. Should retire in about 2 years.
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Good for you! Just getting through Nuke school is a accomplishment that many people on here wouldn't know about, or appreciate. MY SIL law made Senior last year (aviation)
 
Texas State Guard 79-81. US Navy 82-88.

Fire Control.
 
Captain America said:
Texas State Guard 79-81. US Navy 82-88.

Fire Control.
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Two days before I retired off the USS Inchon, I sent one of my fireman apprentices up to the 0-2 level to put a black flange on the A/C chill water cooling, and remove the coils from a Fire Control Tech buddies work space/shop. The kid comes back and say's it working fine. I told him I didn't give a ****, take the coils out and bring them back down to the shop for repair. He knew the guy was one of my best friends, and I told him the guy owed me 200 bucks and will probably never see it because I would be back in Virginia Beach three days. The kid's eyes lit up and said OK, I'll do it for 25 bucks.

I got a letter and a check two weeks later. He stated that my apprentice got one hell of a pink belly from the guys in his shop.

I miss it some times. ;)
 
RetiredUSN said:
Two days before I retired off the USS Inchon, I sent one of my fireman apprentices up to the 0-2 level to put a black flange on the A/C chill water cooling, and remove the coils from a Fire Control Tech buddies work space/shop. The kid comes back and say's it working fine. I told him I didn't give a ****, take the coils out and bring them back down to the shop for repair. He knew the guy was one of my best friends, and I told him the guy owed me 200 bucks and will probably never see it because I would be back in Virginia Beach three days. The kid's eyes lit up and said OK, I'll do it for 25 bucks.

I got a letter and a check two weeks later. He stated that my apprentice got one hell of a pink belly from the guys in his shop.

I miss it some times. ;)
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Me too. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat

They called us "Push Buttons." I can't count how any times I have been grease balled by those damned Snipes.

And then, there were the Marines. Don't even wanna go there.

We didn't get a lot of love. LOL!

It was all in good fun. Not a one of them wouldn't give you one of their kidneys if you needed it.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
US Army 1977 to 1980 Military Police. I spent more time in training than I did doing any job. No war so there was a lot time for training. I kept getting trained for more and more things. It seemed as long as I kept accepting the opportunity to train they kept putting my name on the board. I finally realized that the more training you have the more likely your name will come up when something truly dangerous needs doing. It was close to 2 years before I stopped accepting more training and realized I was not going to pursue that type of career. The other problem was with no war and too many people above me making rank would be close to impossible. As a white male I was the last person they needed to promote in the new politically correct military. The army needed to promote more minorities so my only chance of promotions was during reenlistment. Again they had too many white male people above me already. I was not what they needed unless a war forced them into retirement or were killed in action. Sad to say but that is the military.
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That may have been the way the military was back then, though I have my doubts, it is not that way now. Especially for someone as junior as someone with only 3 years in.
Now yes for higher rank officers and SGMs politics can and does play a big part in promotions. But frankly no one cares what race a cherry E4 is. You simply don't matter enough.
 
braindrain said:
That may have been the way the military was back then, though I have my doubts, it is not that way now. Especially for someone as junior as someone with only 3 years in.
Now yes for higher rank officers and SGMs politics can and does play a big part in promotions. But frankly no one cares what race a cherry E4 is. You simply don't matter enough.
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I was already an E4. I made E4 in less than 2 years. The problem I had is after Vietnam most of the E4 and lower got out. Those that had already made sergeant E-5 and above stayed in to get their 20 and retirement. Most of the Of the E5 and up were white mails disproportionate to the population. Most of the other races had got out for the same reasons. They believed without a war minorities would never make any more rank than what they were already at. While the 60's were over the racism was still prevalent. The government in its wisdom decided to fix the problem with 2 wrongs making a right. Plus we were also starting to let women into the military. Now to be politically correct we needed 50% of the military to be women.

Some of the changes I did not mind. the PT test was getting easier to accommodate the women. We no long had to run or do PT when temperatures exceeded 100 degrees. The 2 mile run was dropped down to 1 mile and we were given more time to complete the mile. Over all everything was getting a lot easier.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
US Army 1977 to 1980 Military Police. I spent more time in training than I did doing any job. No war so there was a lot time for training. I kept getting trained for more and more things. It seemed as long as I kept accepting the opportunity to train they kept putting my name on the board. I finally realized that the more training you have the more likely your name will come up when something truly dangerous needs doing. It was close to 2 years before I stopped accepting more training and realized I was not going to pursue that type of career. The other problem was with no war and too many people above me making rank would be close to impossible. As a white male I was the last person they needed to promote in the new politically correct military. The army needed to promote more minorities so my only chance of promotions was during reenlistment. Again they had too many white male people above me already. I was not what they needed unless a war forced them into retirement or were killed in action. Sad to say but that is the military.
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HUH?

The Army was begging for anyone to stay in from 77-86 and had it best opportune times for a soldiers advancement during that era, so don't play the white male victim crap. Were the girls and blacks just better than you? The military advanced people on performance and merit regardless of race.

Please.....................prove where white males were thrown under the bus because of minorities and females.
 
RetiredUSN said:
HUH?

The Army was begging for anyone to stay in from 77-86 and had it best opportune times for a soldiers advancement during that era, so don't play the white male victim crap. Were the girls and blacks just better than you? The military advanced people on performance and merit regardless of race.

Please.....................prove where white males were thrown under the bus because of minorities and females.
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The military has long been committed to the principle that “an all-volunteer force must represent the country it defends.” Although the military was once as segregated as any part of America, the needs of war forced it to integrate more quickly than most institutions. In part through aggressive integration goals imposed on unit commanders and heavy minority recruitment at the service academies, officer candidate schools, and ROTC programs, the military transformed itself from a heavily segregated, race-riot-burdened institution in the early 1970s to a widely-praised example of successful racial integration by the late 1980s. Most of these policies, which enabled outstanding leaders such as General Colin Powell to rise rapidly through the ranks, continue in some form today.

Yes it benefited the minorities while throwing white males under the bus. I was there. It is a fact. There is no arguing the point.

Yes it was happening at the very time I served. My first sergeant a wonderful black man was the person who informed me that I could not be promoted because of affirmative action or as he said a fancy word for discrimination. He stated to me that discrimination was not right when he was passed over because of race in the past and it is still wrong today that you are being passed over because of race. He said he did not see this discrimination stopping any time soon and I would probably do better outside the government at this time. He said I will continue to put you in for promotion but I don't have the final say in the matter.
 
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I was promoted to SGT E-5 in '83 with two years time in service. Promotion to E5 and E6 was a semi-centralized system where promotion depended on accruing enough points relative to a "cut off" score in your respective MOS, army-wide. Being recommended for promotion in the first place depended on appearing in front of a board composed of mostly senior NCOs. That board itself also awarded a certain number of points. I was aware of no affirmative action programs of any sort within the promotion process.
 
PIPEWRENCH said:
The military has long been committed to the principle that “an all-volunteer force must represent the country it defends.” Although the military was once as segregated as any part of America, the needs of war forced it to integrate more quickly than most institutions. In part through aggressive integration goals imposed on unit commanders and heavy minority recruitment at the service academies, officer candidate schools, and ROTC programs, the military transformed itself from a heavily segregated, race-riot-burdened institution in the early 1970s to a widely-praised example of successful racial integration by the late 1980s. Most of these policies, which enabled outstanding leaders such as General Colin Powell to rise rapidly through the ranks, continue in some form today.

Yes it benefited the minorities while throwing white males under the bus. I was there. It is a fact. There is no arguing the point.

Yes it was happening at the very time I served. My first sergeant a wonderful black man was the person who informed me that I could not be promoted because of affirmative action or as he said a fancy word for discrimination. He stated to me that discrimination was not right when he was passed over because of race in the past and it is still wrong today that you are being passed over because of race. He said he did not see this discrimination stopping any time soon and I would probably do better outside the government at this time. He said I will continue to put you in for promotion but I don't have the final say in the matter.
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Sorry but integrating the military and trying to recruit more minoritys does not support any of your claim. And again no one cares about the race of some junior enlisted soldiers. At that point promotions are simple. Meet the time in service and rank requirements as well as have enough points and it is virtually automatic that you will be promoted.

Furthermore no one takes the opinion of someone with only three years in service seriously when it comes to how the military operates. I remember back when I only had 3 years in I thought I knew it all too. Now with almost a decade more time in service I look back and laugh at just how little I actually knew.
 
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