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

Yeah, the Gardia Civil can be intimidating. Always in groups with big dogs, big guns, and that locked in facial expression from people who look like they have no sense of humor. They always look like they are more than happy to arrest you, then figure out what you did wrong later.

I also have soft spot for Gibraltar and Morocco. Catching the boat from Gibraltar is how I always got to Morocco; very cheap ride. Did you ever make it to Morocco? Getting in was easy, but we always had to bribe the police blocking the pier to get back on the boat to Gibraltar.

My half-baked plan did not materialize. I had no money to speak of. A Belgian kid my age picked me up hitchhiking. His sister and brother-in-law owned a small farm. I spent several days working there, then headed north through Sevilla, Madrid, then Barcelona. I have Spanish lineage on my mother's side. A boyhood friend of my maternal grandfather gave me refuge for about a week in Barcelona. I trekked north from there, through France, back to Luxembourg, then home to Florida via a direct flight. My total time in Western Europe that trip... Sept. 16 - Dec 4th, about 10 weeks, not including airfare, on just several hundred dollars.

My Great Grandfather, born in Spain... mid 1850s
GreatGrandfather.jpg
 
Memorial Day is upon us.

In the Military District of Washington the Honor Guard units of each armed service are in their full military honors duties.

Below is an ABC News report on The Old Guard of the Army burial duties in Arlington National Cemetery. Old Guard does as each each service honor guard does, i.e,. performs military honors funerals in ANC year round. Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard.

Memorial Day however is of course special. The flags we see at each tombstone or grave marker throughout the ANC is put there by the soldiers of The Old Guard. Each year.


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Old Guard soldiers of Company A are shown placing flags in Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Memorial Day observances. Each year the Regiment places a memorial flag one foot from each stone marker.



ARLINGTON, Va. (WXYZ) - Each year on Memorial Day weekend, soldiers from the 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," place flags at each of the headstones in Arlington National Cemetery.

The tradition began in 1948 as a solemn reminder of what Memorial Day is truly about, according to the Regiment.

There are more than 400,000-interred service members at Arlington, and the soldiers placed over 230,000 flags on Thursday.

"This simple gesture is our way of honoring and remembering the sacrifices of service members who have come before us," the Regiment wrote on Facebook.


PHOTOS: Soldiers of The Old Guard place flags at Arlington National Cemetery headstones - WXYZ.com



Arlington_FlagsIn_by_USArmy.jpg

"Flags In" mission performed by the Old Guard before Memorial Day, each year. Military District of Washington command insignia can be seen on left arm. Photo credit: U.S. Army


ARCHIVAL VIDEO: Seen But Not Noticed: Arlington National Cemetery's 'Old Guard' Video - ABC News

(It seems copyright issues prevented loading the video itself.)
 
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With Memorial Day observances or preparations already underway we might want to look at each branch of service and its duties in Arlington National Cemetery.

Each service honor guard perform honors military funerals in ANC. Six days a week. Here's a USMC one. It leaves little or nothing remaining to be said. The Marines are from the Marine Honor Guard Infantry and Band of Marine Barracks Washington.




Marine Barracks Washington has the official residence of the Commandant, since 1804.

MCI honor guard is the second smallest size unit of service honor guards in the Military District of Washington. CG is the smallest. So each of 'em pulls some heavy duty in ANC. Because military honors funerals in ANC are done by company in rotation by each service. One week per company.

So while the Old Guard Regiment of the Army has six companies that rotate, MC and CG have two companies to perform the duty. Maybe three of 'em. It's heavy duty anyway for all the service honor guard personnel but being in ANC every other week is a heavier lift. Definitely.
 
USN is the third most senior service of the U.S. armed forces so it comes now.


USN honor guard full military honors funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Sailors are from the USN Ceremonial Command at the Washington Navy Yard.





After The Old Guard USN honor guard marches best. Consistently. Predictably. Reliably.

US_Navy_090120-F-2408G-828_The_Ceremonial_Honor_Guard_marches_past_the_pr  esidential_reviewing_stand_during_the_2009_Preside  ntial_Inaugural_Parade.jpg



Set your watch by it we can.
 
USAF full honors military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. By AF honor guard unit Andrews AFB.





The caisson for each service military honors funeral is from the Old Guard Caisson Company. It's the only unit that does this in the Military District of Washington. So Caisson Company of TOG is in ANC virtually each day, year round. In the burials by all the services in which a caisson would participate.
 
USCG full honors military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. Honor Guard detail from CG station Alexandria, Virginia, next to Arlington, Ft. Myer and at the Potomac River.

The funeral begins at the Ft. Myer Chapel at the Ft. Myer-ANC North Gate. The honors procession passes through North Gate into ANC. Most of 'em do, all services military honors funerals. From the Ft. Myer Chapel.

Full Military Honors Funeral for Coast Guard Officer at Arlington Cemetery, 2009 - Video Dailymotion


Anyone interested is invited to visit the link. This is another video I could not copy to post. So btw anyone who might regret not joining CG is outta luck cause it's too late for you now. ;)
 
Conclude the presentations with The Old Guard ceremonial cannon battery firing a 21-gun salute.

What better way to wrap it up eh.

The location is Ft. Myer at Arlington Heights (Virginia) which overlook and command the Potomac and Washington DC.

Arlington National Cemetery is to their right and the Pentagon the other side of ANC. Below is the USMC War Memorial.




Request to remember what some already know...marching around on thick grass is half the fun of it all.
 
This is a USN honors funeral in Arlington National Cemetery that, as with the USMC honors funeral presented above, is well remembered throughout each and every of the honor guard units of the Military District of Washington.

It is presented to complement the video records above because it is both a technical model of an honors military funeral in ANC -- despite a downpour -- and it tells us who were the service man and his family, friends, shipmates from World War II.

The style of video presented here by USN has become its choice of how to present a video record of an honors military funeral at ANC. It should be emulated.

Even the gods granted their endorsement of this one.

.

The vet passed on three months ago, February 12, 2017.
 
USAF Security Police 67-70. Law Enforcement stateside; security in Vietnam. Offutt, AFB which was Strategic Air Command HQ when I was there. SAC HQ was way too much BS and chicken****. Too much rank on base and far too many alerts. Vietnam 69-70. Rotated back from Vietnam to Egland, AFB and became severely hard of hearing. Waiting for medical review I decided that if I passed the review that I'd volunteer again for Vietnam. I failed the medical review at the VA hospital in Durham, NC and was medically discharged.

All in all it wasn't a bad experience. It turned my young and stupid butt around. I learned life skills that only the military can teach. I served with some of the best people I have ever known. Once out, with my head on straight I enrolled in college. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served. I would do it all over again.
 
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.

he's out there, operating without any decent restraint.
 
I was in the National Guard from 1964-70. As far as active duty is concerned, my unit
104th Engineer battalion was called to active duty in 67. The Newark
riots of 1967 4 days in the summer.
 
Many of us had to meet highest qualifications. Or qualifications that in numerous instances were and remain simply demanding and rigorous.

Then there were others....


military-memes-12_13_16-600-43.jpg




All in a day's work of a good natured humor of course among members of the several armed services departments. My post indicates an underlying respect. Rodney Dangerfield would have loved it I'm sure.
 
I found this old thread because I looked up your icon, Tangmo. I had had no idea what the 3rd US Infantry Regiment was or that it was known as "The Old Guard". Having just seen Justice Ginsburg's funeral, however, I am newly impressed (had my memory grown rusty) at how beautifully the military honors its dead. (realize that the Justice was not in the military although her husband was.

I never served in the military but I am the generation of children whose fathers, uncles, and older cousins served in World War II. I had relatives in several branches of the service during World War II. I was not, yet, born but I was born during the war, but was born soon enough after so that people still spoke about where they had served. My father was in The Army Signal Corps and was in Liverpool and London before the invasion of France, when he went into France and saw Paris right after its liberation. My uncle, who was in the navy, was a medic attached to the marines. He spent D-Day on a ship off the coast tending the wounded. After a short stay back in the States, he was sent for a harrowing tour of the Pacific Theatre. My mother lost a first cousin when his ship (he was in the navy) was blown up at sea. My great-uncle was in the Normandy invasion and The Battle of Bulge (infantry). A bullet went through his helmet. He also brought home a mortar shell which the local police here didn't know was disarmed. After his death, when we found it in the attic, they came to check it.

During the Vietnam War my parents became Quakers, members of The Society of Friends. My father said that he did not want any military honors at his funeral. They had found that they believed that God was inside all people.
 
Active Duty U.S. Army 1966-86 and then as a Department of the Army Civilian 1986-2012. Fully retired now. Almost all of that in communications with an exception of three years as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Other assignments on active duty included Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and 3 years in Fulda, Germany guardinFt. g the East German Border. DA civilian wise was working for FORSCOM out of Ft. McPherson except for the last two years when FORSCOM moved to Ft. Bragg.

Ahh, Fort Lost In The Woods Misery. 🥇

Every career NCO and Officer used that name once they'd been there which transferred to we who were not lifers and hadn't been there. We got the message of course.

Eventually after my time in the Army during the Vietnam Era I spent 13 years in Thailand and never met anyone in the US military stationed there. In my role as foreign scout adviser at a Thai bilingual school in Bangkok -- where the Thai owner appointed me and provided a white uniform -- I participated with the school in the International Scout Jamboree at U-Tapo Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, Hua Hin, in 2003.

So there I was in the tropical sun 30 years after Army Infantry hoofing it over hill and over dale and down the very dusty trail with the Scouts of the Bangkok K-12 school where I taught social subjects in English (grades 10, 11, 12). I'd already been to the Bridge on the River Kwai that's on the other side (east) of the Gulf and north of it a bit which is what I was thinking along those scout trails, sun, jungle ha.

🎖
 
US Army,
72-80,
11B (infantry) and 76Y (Unit Armorer), 2nd AD, 2nd ID, 4th ID
21L (Pershing Missile Electronics Technician), 579th General Support
One of the few in the family that did not become a Lifer. Got out as Staff Sergeant (E6).
 
Ahh, Fort Lost In The Woods Misery. 🥇

Every career NCO and Officer used that name once they'd been there which transferred to we who were not lifers and hadn't been there. We got the message of course.

Eventually after my time in the Army during the Vietnam Era I spent 13 years in Thailand and never met anyone in the US military stationed there. In my role as foreign scout adviser at a Thai bilingual school in Bangkok -- where the Thai owner appointed me and provided a white uniform -- I participated with the school in the International Scout Jamboree at U-Tapo Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, Hua Hin, in 2003.

So there I was in the tropical sun 30 years after Army Infantry hoofing it over hill and over dale and down the very dusty trail with the Scouts of the Bangkok K-12 school where I taught social subjects in English (grades 10, 11, 12). I'd already been to the Bridge on the River Kwai that's on the other side (east) of the Gulf and north of it a bit which is what I was thinking along those scout trails, sun, jungle ha.

🎖
You still have American military in Thailand, most at the JUSMAGTHAI compound on Satorn Road in Bangkok. They haven't moved since my time in Thailand, 1967-69 and 1973-76. Then there is the Cobra Gold exercises every year in Thailand. U-Tapao was where our B-52's flew from during the Vietnam War among others. We had over 50,000 troops stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. Mostly Air Force.

Military wise, the U.S. and Thai military have retained a very friendly relationship. Governments not so much, sometimes very friendly, sometimes adversary. I have a friend, an ex-pat that lives near Hua Hin. More around the different parts of Thailand. I had an excellent career, both active duty and then as a civilian working for the army.
 
I found this old thread because I looked up your icon, Tangmo. I had had no idea what the 3rd US Infantry Regiment was or that it was known as "The Old Guard". Having just seen Justice Ginsburg's funeral, however, I am newly impressed (had my memory grown rusty) at how beautifully the military honors its dead. (realize that the Justice was not in the military although her husband was.

I never served in the military but I am the generation of children whose fathers, uncles, and older cousins served in World War II. I had relatives in several branches of the service during World War II. I was not, yet, born but I was born during the war, but was born soon enough after so that people still spoke about where they had served. My father was in The Army Signal Corps and was in Liverpool and London before the invasion of France, when he went into France and saw Paris right after its liberation. My uncle, who was in the navy, was a medic attached to the marines. He spent D-Day on a ship off the coast tending the wounded. After a short stay back in the States, he was sent for a harrowing tour of the Pacific Theatre. My mother lost a first cousin when his ship (he was in the navy) was blown up at sea. My great-uncle was in the Normandy invasion and The Battle of Bulge (infantry). A bullet went through his helmet. He also brought home a mortar shell which the local police here didn't know was disarmed. After his death, when we found it in the attic, they came to check it.

During the Vietnam War my parents became Quakers, members of The Society of Friends. My father said that he did not want any military honors at his funeral. They had found that they believed that God was inside all people.

Thanks much for your curiosity about The Old Guard of the Army, the 3rd Infantry Regiment that is the oldest active infantry unit of the Army, since 1784, posted to Ft. Myer Va., next to Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon since 1948 as "The Official Escort To The President" unit of the armed forces.

The principal mission of the ceremonial unit of each armed service in Washington DC is to conduct military funerals in ANC. Each service member selected for this mission is awarded the high honor and privilege to perform these solemn and sacred duties. I did this myself in TOG from 1966-70, during which time I participated in more than a thousand Army honors funerals or full honors funerals to include some Joint Force funerals and state funerals.

The overriding mission of these Washington DC units of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard is the defense of the nation's capital and area under the Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region that is in the Washington background of the video, at Ft. Leslie J. McNair. In the upper right of the video frame, on this side of the Potomac, we can see (and hear) some of Reagan National Airport that uses the Potomac as the landing approach path.

JFH-NCR is a part of Northern Command at Peterson AFB, Colorado that consists of the 5th Army and the 1st Air Force with some units of Marines and Navy to include CG. 3 IR TOG is a part of the 5th Army and continually rotates one company deployed abroad in a combatant command. Sen. Tom Cotton was in TOG too although I don't say that too loudly ha.

All the same it's good to lighten up somewhat as we sort of do in this video that I wanted to post in reply to your excellent post. The video records four 5th graders from the Betsy Ross Elementary School in Washington DC placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The video opens with TOG commander of the relief instructing them in the procedure. I challenge anyone here ha to follow these instructions issued by the TOG Sergeant E-5 commander of the relief that these four children did precisely. Everyone agrees these boys and girls are amazing.





So I see I'm still not smarter than a 5th grader. Certainly not these 5th graders at the Ross Elementary in upper Northwest Washington DC that includes Georgetown, National Cathedral, The American University, St. Albans School for Boys and so on. The neighborhood of this public school includes "Embassy Row" on Massachusetts Avenue. The non-profit GreatSchools says, "Most students at this school are performing at or above grade level."

Ross Elementary consists of learners who are 49% white, 19% Hispanic, 16% black, 9% Asian, 7% of two or more races. Being a boy at this school has its advantages too btw as 60% of the learners are girls. :cool:

And check out the four kids at the end after they're released by the Sergeant ha. You'll wanna pinch each cheek hah.
 
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I was never in the military. The father I never met was career Army. Mother died when I was 4. They had never married nor stayed together. He had been decent enough to list me as his kid in military records and the birth certification. Unmarried and with no other living relatives, his life insurance, all he had and a huge collection of military collectibles, firearms and ammo all came to me. Bought a house with the money and kept nearly all the firearms (lot of paperwork and some fees). Most is WW2 and Korean era stuff. The heaviest is a single 20mm with 6,000 rounds of belted ammo.

Every generation of my wife's family has been in the military starting with the war of 1812. One of her brothers is buried in a military cemetery. When her mother passed, one of the sons wanted her buried in a family plot, while her and another son wanted her buried in the military cemetery with her deceased son. This fight became so intense it went to a court to decide. Of course the court decided in favor of being buried in the same military cemetery with her son.
 
Thanks much for your curiosity about The Old Guard of the Army, the 3rd Infantry Regiment that is the oldest active infantry unit of the Army, since 1784, posted to Ft. Myer Va., next to Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon since 1948 as "The Official Escort To The President" unit of the armed forces.

The principal mission of the ceremonial unit of each armed service in Washington DC is to conduct military funerals in ANC. Each service member selected for this mission is awarded the high honor and privilege to perform these solemn and sacred duties. I did this myself in TOG from 1966-70, during which time I participated in more than a thousand Army honors funerals or full honors funerals to include some Joint Force funerals and state funerals.

The overriding mission of these Washington DC units of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard is the defense of the nation's capital and area under the Joint Force Headquarters - National Capital Region that is in the Washington background of the video, at Ft. Leslie J. McNair. In the upper right of the video frame, on this side of the Potomac, we can see (and hear) some of Reagan National Airport that uses the Potomac as the landing approach path.

JFH-NCR is a part of Northern Command at Peterson AFB, Colorado that consists of the 5th Army and the 1st Air Force with some units of Marines and Navy to include CG. 3 IR TOG is a part of the 5th Army and continually rotates one company deployed abroad in a combatant command. Sen. Tom Cotton was in TOG too although I don't say that too loudly ha.

All the same it's good to lighten up somewhat as we sort of do in this video that I wanted to post in reply to your excellent post. The video records four 5th graders from the Betsy Ross Elementary School in Washington DC placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The video opens with TOG commander of the relief instructing them in the procedure. I challenge anyone here ha to follow these instructions issued by the TOG Sergeant E-5 commander of the relief that these four children did precisely. Everyone agrees these boys and girls are amazing.





So I see I'm still not smarter than a 5th grader. Certainly not these 5th graders at the Ross Elementary in upper Northwest Washington DC that includes Georgetown, National Cathedral, The American University, St. Albans School for Boys and so on. The neighborhood of this public school includes "Embassy Row" on Massachusetts Avenue. The non-profit GreatSchools says, "Most students at this school are performing at or above grade level."

Ross Elementary consists of learners who are 49% white, 19% Hispanic, 16% black, 9% Asian, 7% of two or more races. Being a boy at this school has its advantages too btw as 60% of the learners are girls. :cool:

And check out the four kids at the end after they're released by the Sergeant ha. You'll wanna pinch each cheek hah.


Never in the military - I was volunteer civilian SAR pilot auxiliary to the Air Force but that was it.

My dad, he was a Navy PO3 back in the 50s, was buried in the military side of the cemetery where he lived and a local Navy detachment led by a Commander conducted the graveside services. It was very beautiful and meant a lot to my mom, brothers and I.
 
Never in the military - I was volunteer civilian SAR pilot auxiliary to the Air Force but that was it.

My dad, he was a Navy PO3 back in the 50s, was buried in the military side of the cemetery where he lived and a local Navy detachment led by a Commander conducted the graveside services. It was very beautiful and meant a lot to my mom, brothers and I.

That's impressive in many respects because the burial is exceptional if I read you right.

Because the protocol by the book is for an NCO to be in charge at the gravesite of an enlisted member and an officer to be in charge for an officer being buried. Your dad was a Petty Officer 3rd Class yet a Commander rank officer officiated at the interment which is remarkable by any exigency.

Exceptions do occur but typically because not enough officers are assigned to cover the burial of a given officer at a given moment, at which point the ops officer and personnel officer would need to prioritize and apply some, shall we say, immediate action.

So what's most impressive among numerous impressive aspects of your dad's burial is the Commander rank officer officiating because that gets to be a significant rank in the chain. I'd be curious whether the Commander was a chaplain or a regular force / reserve officer? I ask because a gravesite "service" would be by a chaplain (or other religious dignitary) who is of course an officer, whereas the whole of your dad's burial ceremony would normally have a Navy fellow NCO in charge.

If your dad's burial had a Commander rank officer in charge of it -- the whole if it and all the Navy personnel there, chaplain or not -- then I'd be sure some Navy personnel got together to organize the burial themselves and at their own initiative to give your dad his earned honors and highly dignified burial that left you and your family with a beautiful memory. And that no harm would be done to protocol if an admiral did it out of the desire to see your dad off right as having been a Petty Officer 3rd Class. Or if a seaman did it.

As difficult as it is to bury our beloved, the beauty of is in the fact people care, and that they want to be there to do it and to do the best and the right things to do under the trying circumstances. A sort of all hands present and then some burial given to your dad is the beauty of it indeed, if I read you right.
 
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That's impressive in many respects because the burial is exceptional if I read you right.

Because the protocol by the book is for an NCO to be in charge at the gravesite of an enlisted member and an officer to be in charge for an officer being buried. Your dad was a Petty Officer 3rd Class yet a Commander rank officer officiated at the interment which is remarkable by any exigency.

Exceptions do occur but typically because not enough officers are assigned to cover the burial of a given officer at a given moment, at which point the ops officer and personnel officer would need to prioritize and apply some, shall we say, immediate action.

So what's most impressive among numerous impressive aspects of your dad's burial is the Commander rank officer officiating because that gets to be a significant rank in the chain. I'd be curious whether the Commander was a chaplain or a regular force / reserve officer? I ask because a gravesite "service" would be by a chaplain (or other religious dignitary) who is of course an officer, whereas the whole of your dad's burial ceremony would normally have a Navy fellow NCO in charge.

If your dad's burial had a Commander rank officer in charge of it -- the whole if it and all the Navy personnel there, chaplain or not -- then I'd be sure some Navy personnel got together to organize the burial themselves and at their own initiative to give your dad his earned honors and highly dignified burial that left you and your family with a beautiful memory. And that no harm would be done to protocol if an admiral did it out of the desire to see your dad off right as having been a Petty Officer 3rd Class. Or if a seaman did it.

As difficult as it is to bury our beloved, the beauty of is in the fact people care, and that they want to be there to do it and to do the best and the right things to do under the trying circumstances. A sort of all hands present and then some burial given to your dad is the beauty of it indeed, if I read you right.

My dad died a few years back and I don’t remember if the Commander wore chaplain insignia or not to be honest. We did have a regular parish priest there if that’s any help.

I was kind of taken aback when I saw the silver oak leaf - not that I know the protocol, more that I figured he’d have other responsibilities to take care of.
The funeral director afterwards mentioned that this officer officiates on occasion. Whether it was because they were short handed or because it’s a small town in upstate NY I don’t know.

It would have been a touching service in any case but I have to be honest having a high ranking officer there remembering my dad’s service made is very special.
 
Military dependent for 16 years (Yeah that's a sacrifice too!) and then joined the ANG as a weapons specialist loading munitions on F-4s for 6 years from 86-92. 122nd CAMS, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. A really great group at this squadron but got tired of missing out on things one weekend a month. It always seemed like the nicest weather was that weekend! Allegedly we missed Desert Storm by 20 minutes as hostilities ended early. We are going to fly laser pod support for the F-16's or so I was told.
My unit got convoy duty in Iraq in later years.

The old man retired as a Great Beret as MSGT in 73.' It's possible the same F-4's I loaded munitions on were called into my dad's compound for air support earlier in Vietnam.
 
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