It's better than "pogue" or "REMF" and way better than "leg". What the hell does leg even mean?
I usually call airborne guys who give me trouble "meat rockets".
Edit:
My grandfather was in the Navy as a CB. He always tells me that he was too young (to even lie about his age) for WWII and too old for Korea. He remarks that he regrets not knowing much about combat service but is thankful that he was that lucky.
My grandmother was dodging the Japanese in the Philippines. She rarely talks about it, but the few times she's remarked quickly or talked about that period has been horrendous. My father told me that when the show survivor first came out, he had asked my grandparents if they where watching it, to which my grandmother replied: "No, reminds me of hiding in the mountains." How does one respond to that?
My father was in the Marine Corps and was Administratively (Medical) discharged after 16 years of service. He said, "The Marine Corps told me to go get this surgery, so I went to the hospital. They told me that there was more than a 50% chance that something would go wrong or that the surgery wouldn't correct it. I didn't like those odds, so I didn't get the operation and then the Marine Corps discharged me." He regrets now that he wasn't able to finish 4 more years but remarks that if he wasn't discharged, forced to become a civilian working in the same office, at the same desk doing the same job, he wouldn't have been RIF'd and he wouldn't have found his job now where the family is definitely better off.
As for me, I've been in the Army for 8 years and 5 months. I've been to Iraq twice. Now, I wish I could give my re-enlist bonus back so I could get out. I've grown.....tired of the Army. Why did I even bother re-enlisting? That's neither here or there; just a personal gripe.
My grandfather on my father's side was captured a few days after D-Day. By Canadian troops. He was an ethnically-Slovenian citizen of Austria and was drafted into the Germany army early on in the war. He was lucky in that he served most of the war on the Western front in an HQ unit. They got overrun and he was happy to surrender at that point. In part, my parents decided to emigrate to Canada because my grandfather had good things to say about how the Canadians treated him when they took him prisoner.
My great-uncle, who I'm named after, was a hardcore communist and a member of Tito's Partisans after the conquest of Yugoslavia. We was send to the Jasenovac death camp after his capture by the Germans and their Croatian allies. He never made it home.
My mother's father was an officer in the Yugoslavian army. He spent some time in a POW camp, but was sent home and spent most of the war in the countryside. Stangely, he didn't seem to have much negative to say about the German soldiers garissoning his home town, though he told me they were mostly older reservists who were happy to sit out the war in a relatively quiet area.
It's strange- it seems like my relatives all fought on behalf of countries or causes that don't exist anymore. Heck, one of my grandmothers was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, then became a citizen of Yugoslavia, then a citizen of German puppet-Slovenia, Yugoslavia again and she died a citizen of Serbia.
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Why is it that we have two separate holidays for soldiers (veterans day and memorial day) and nothing for any other occupation?
Well I guess there's a secretaries' day and a teachers' day. But no one cares about those holidays.
The implication seems to be that being a soldier makes you somehow morally better than any other job, which I think is BS. It's a necessary job yes, and dangerous, but so are a lot of other jobs. How about a coal miners day, to honor the sacrifice of all the miners without whom we'd have no energy?
Why is it that we have two separate holidays for soldiers (veterans day and memorial day) and nothing for any other occupation?
Well I guess there's a secretaries' day and a teachers' day. But no one cares about those holidays.
The implication seems to be that being a soldier makes you somehow morally better than any other job, which I think is BS. It's a necessary job yes, and dangerous, but so are a lot of other jobs. How about a coal miners day, to honor the sacrifice of all the miners without whom we'd have no energy?
Yes, quite.
Some kind of . . . day for . . . laborers.
But what would you call it?
Whatever we call it, it should certainly be a day on which no labor is to be performed.
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
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Handsome CostanzaAsk me about 8bitdoRIP Iwata-sanRegistered Userregular
edited November 2009
Anyone who complains about how crappy their suburban lives are today gets punched in the face. That's how I celebrate veterans day, with violence.
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
Yeah you really gotta be a hard core infantry man to pass a school that entire divisions of pogs go through :P
But really, why are we arguing when we all know mechanized are the softest of the bunch?
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
Yeah you really gotta be a hard core infantry man to pass a school that entire divisions of pogs go through :P
But really, why are we arguing when we all know mechanized are the softest of the bunch?
As long as we're not including Strykers with mechanized (because they're medium infantry, and not heavy), then I agree.
EIB is a joke. It's easy as fuck as long as you don't have a bunch of badge protectors running it. When I did EIB, over half of the brigade didn't make it through grenades because the grenade course was on a slope. I was true blue until I made it to grenades. :x
I have more respect for someone with a CIB than for someone with an EIB.
I still have a lot of time for Armistice Day but back home we have shifted to something called "ANZAC Day", which is a weird combination of Armistice Day and national mythologising. What can I say, it works for us down in the best hemisphere.
We used to have a pretty mad ceremony at my high school - we would assemble in the Hall of Memories (so named as it was built in memory of the fallen old boys in WW1), we would then spend the next hour or two singing a collection of depressing as hell Hymns (Chopin's Funeral March on a huge Organ sounds amazing), while various people would read out from the List of the Fallen, then the Minute's Silence would be held. Then at the end of that bit the Last Post would be played outside, in the foyer and the sound would float back through the Hall while everyone sat deathly silent. Then, we'd march out in ranks to the Quad outside, where a Squad would raise their rifles and fire off several volleys while we all watched, then we would all walk onto the Quad lawn and plant our poppies.
My maternal grandfather was fairly young when WWII broke out, and worked at Lockheed for a while before enlisting as an officer in what was then the US Army Air Corps. He went on to become a B-17 flight instructor, and was racking up his qualifying hours for the B-29 when the war ended. Had an invasion of Japan taken place, he would have been part of the aerial bombardment.
He had a few funny anecdotes - one time, he was doing some night flying in a B-17 and was heading back to base. Since this was before most really good homing transponders existed, you figured out your position in your head with some basic trigonometry and your instruments, as well as looking out the window and using a map. The navigator gave him a heading, and as they were coming in for landing the tower kept on saying "we still don't see you." They realized their problem when what they thought were runway lights were passing by at window-level - streetlights! So he pushed all four engines to full throttle and got out of there, probably waking up an entire town in the dead of night by nearly landing on main street.
My paternal grandfather didn't ever really talk about the war - I do know he was a machinist on a destroyer that was hit during Pearl Harbor, but managed to escape without additional damage. His ship was probably involved in several engagements in the Pacific, but he just didn't really discuss it.
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
Yeah you really gotta be a hard core infantry man to pass a school that entire divisions of pogs go through :P
But really, why are we arguing when we all know mechanized are the softest of the bunch?
As long as we're not including Strykers with mechanized (because they're medium infantry, and not heavy), then I agree.
EIB is a joke. It's easy as fuck as long as you don't have a bunch of badge protectors running it. When I did EIB, over half of the brigade didn't make it through grenades because the grenade course was on a slope. I was true blue until I made it to grenades. :x
I have more respect for someone with a CIB than for someone with an EIB.
Any tom dick willy can get the CIB though.
I didn't realize the EIB had become the pat-yourself on the back for being infantry medal.
See I aways heard it used as an insult, but I was a pogue and didn't get a chance to talk to many infantry so that might just be my own ignorance.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
Yeah you really gotta be a hard core infantry man to pass a school that entire divisions of pogs go through :P
But really, why are we arguing when we all know mechanized are the softest of the bunch?
As long as we're not including Strykers with mechanized (because they're medium infantry, and not heavy), then I agree.
EIB is a joke. It's easy as fuck as long as you don't have a bunch of badge protectors running it. When I did EIB, over half of the brigade didn't make it through grenades because the grenade course was on a slope. I was true blue until I made it to grenades. :x
I have more respect for someone with a CIB than for someone with an EIB.
Any tom dick willy can get the CIB though.
I didn't realize the EIB had become the pat-yourself on the back for being infantry medal.
Any Infantryman who has seen combat (ie done his job) can get a CIB, yes. It's not easy to get one though. The rules have changed. You now need two sworn statements that have to be approved by the division commander (or is staff, I'm assuming), in order to get one. It's not like it was in the initial push where everyone in the battalion got one as soon as any organic element took contact.
How has the EIB ever been difficult to get? Anyone who puts forth the slightest bit of effort should receive one. They only cover level one tasks and drills anyway.
SOPs and TTPs used in theater usually differ from the ones used in garrison, not to mention most of the tests for the EIB cover tasks that haven't been used since Vietnam. It's for these reasons that an EIB is good for nothing more than promotion points.
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HakkekageSpace Whore Academysumma cum laudeRegistered Userregular
edited November 2009
My professor handed out red roses to ROTC people today, lamenting the lack of poppies in this country.
Thank you to all soldiers and veterans who fought to keep this country safe so my parents would decide to move here and have me on American soil.
No army people in my family, obviously, so no anecdotes...
Although wwtmask, there's this play called Fly based on the Tuskegee Airmen that one of my professor's produced, evidently it's been around the country. One of the Airmen was in attendance at the performance I watched.
Why is it that we have two separate holidays for soldiers (veterans day and memorial day) and nothing for any other occupation?
Well I guess there's a secretaries' day and a teachers' day. But no one cares about those holidays.
The implication seems to be that being a soldier makes you somehow morally better than any other job, which I think is BS. It's a necessary job yes, and dangerous, but so are a lot of other jobs. How about a coal miners day, to honor the sacrifice of all the miners without whom we'd have no energy?
Yes, quite.
Some kind of . . . day for . . . laborers.
But what would you call it?
That's more for labor unions than for actual laborers. And no one takes it nearly as seriously as veterans day- you don't hear people talking about we need to "support the laborers" like it's some sort of holy cause.
I am not a veteran, and the closest thing my family has to a veteran was my grandfather, who served in WW2, but never went overseas.
I will always respect people who served, regardless of their motives or actual service record, just for being willing to make that sacrifice. That to me is the purpose of the day, is to remember that serving IS a sacrifice, even if they didn't pay with their lives, they gave a part of themselves for their country. So thanks vets, for protecting me, so I can make silly movies and do lots of other frivolous things.
I currently work at a non profit in DC, a VERY large one that does a lot of good work. Whenever you mention that you went to a state school people look down at you. Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
We get all sorts of stupid days off for everything known to every culture... but veterans day.
So now, with all the hohah about veterans out of the white house, they finally did some data pulling to try and land some of those projects and rake in the cash. 6 veterans out of over 1300 people, 5 of which are in my department, IT.
So now they want to parade us around to help get money. I told them to go fuck themselves and if they gave a damn I can get the day off next year!
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited November 2009
I have a strange thing I want to bring up, but before I get to it I want to say thanks to everyone on the PA forum who is currently serving or has served previously. I don't know how many of you have actually been in harm's way but you've taken the risk of being there, which is more willingness than I or a lot of other people in the country show.
What I wanted to talk about just briefly is a previous forumer who served his tour in the military in South Korea. He came home from his duty alive, but unfortunately we lost him regardless. I'm talking about TDL (formerly TheDarkLord), who was one of the first friends I made on this forum ever. It was a year, year and a half from when i met him that he enlisted into the Army. He was carrying on a tradition within his family to serve. He spent his years in S. Korea at his stations keeping in touch with us, still participating in forum nonsense of many sorts. I got the news of his death probably the last out of those who've known him for a while here, and it's a touchy subject for some of the people I talked to about it. I won't focus on talking about that. Instead I want to give him my thanks for his time in the army, and my gratitude to the friendship he bestowed upon me. I miss you TDL, and I won't forget you.
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RentI'm always rightFuckin' deal with itRegistered Userregular
I currently work at a non profit in DC, a VERY large one that does a lot of good work. Whenever you mention that you went to a state school people look down at you. Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
We get all sorts of stupid days off for everything known to every culture... but veterans day.
So now, with all the hohah about veterans out of the white house, they finally did some data pulling to try and land some of those projects and rake in the cash. 6 veterans out of over 1300 people, 5 of which are in my department, IT.
So now they want to parade us around to help get money. I told them to go fuck themselves and if they gave a damn I can get the day off next year!
Wait a fucking minute
They had you, a veteran, working on veteran's day
I hope you raised that point to them whilst you told them to get fucked
I currently work at a non profit in DC, a VERY large one that does a lot of good work. Whenever you mention that you went to a state school people look down at you. Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
We get all sorts of stupid days off for everything known to every culture... but veterans day.
So now, with all the hohah about veterans out of the white house, they finally did some data pulling to try and land some of those projects and rake in the cash. 6 veterans out of over 1300 people, 5 of which are in my department, IT.
So now they want to parade us around to help get money. I told them to go fuck themselves and if they gave a damn I can get the day off next year!
Wait a fucking minute
They had you, a veteran, working on veteran's day
I hope you raised that point to them whilst you told them to get fucked
We had class today but we get friday off. That's fine by me because my friday class is long and boring as hell, it also starts at 7:30 am. It also gives me a 3 day weekend, it's awesome.
Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
Not to derail the thread or anything, but that particular part fills me with rage. I told the long version of this story in S&E, but Spawnbroker and I went to a halloween party a couple of weeks ago (where everybody there, besides Spawnbroker and I, were feminist wiccans). Well, every time we started up a conversation, it would begin wonderfully, but whenever SB would mention that he's in the military or attends West Point, the conversation would end immediately. It was like he stomped on a bag of puppies and called their mothers whores.
Needless to say we were pretty much ostracized from the entire party because SB is a cadet, and i'm dating a cadet.
Well, if they act like that, then it's not worth it. In my mind, you can be a feminist wiccan who's into dressing up in a fur suit, but if you're nice and try not to push those beliefs on me, then I'll be your pal. I care that they were rude assholes, mainly :P
Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
Not to derail the thread or anything, but that particular part fills me with rage. I told the long version of this story in S&E, but Spawnbroker and I went to a halloween party a couple of weeks ago (where everybody there, besides Spawnbroker and I, were feminist wiccans). Well, every time we started up a conversation, it would begin wonderfully, but whenever SB would mention that he's in the military or attends West Point, the conversation would end immediately. It was like he stomped on a bag of puppies and called their mothers whores.
Needless to say we were pretty much ostracized from the entire party because SB is a cadet, and i'm dating a cadet.
I was stationed in Washington state for 3 years. I know what it's like to shunned at a party because you're in the military.
Adoptive Grandfather and Grandmother (as in, adopted my dad and his brothers/sisters after their parents death) were both in the military in WW2, which is how they met.
I've heard that Grandpa was a sniper, and was high up there for kills, but I have no idea how to pull those kinds of records up.
My stepdad's dad also served, and my stepdad served.
Have various uncles, aunts, and cousings who served. One finally got his disability from the VA after being in a wheelchair for the past 7 years.
And to all soldiers past and present, thank you. Most especially the ones on both sides of the Civil War, because we didn't really need to go through that at all and it was fucked up having to shoot at your own family.
Adoptive Grandfather and Grandmother (as in, adopted my dad and his brothers/sisters after their parents death) were both in the military in WW2, which is how they met.
I've heard that Grandpa was a sniper, and was high up there for kills, but I have no idea how to pull those kinds of records up.
My stepdad's dad also served, and my stepdad served.
Have various uncles, aunts, and cousings who served. One finally got his disability from the VA after being in a wheelchair for the past 7 years.
And to all soldiers past and present, thank you. Most especially the ones on both sides of the Civil War, because we didn't really need to go through that at all and it was fucked up having to shoot at your own family.
So your grandmother puts out for high kill counts?
Apperantly, my great uncle was the last person to go around on a horse during WW2. He then switched to the air force, in which he got shot down over German-controlled Africa twice, and had to walk back each time. The army tried to give him Jewish dogtags, but he decided it was best to go with "protestant," just in case.
It's technically no longer Veterans Day where I am (Pennsylvania and it's about 12:27 AM) but I give thanks to all veterans on this forum and everywhere. God bless every one of you and I wish all of you the best!
Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
Not to derail the thread or anything, but that particular part fills me with rage. I told the long version of this story in S&E, but Spawnbroker and I went to a halloween party a couple of weeks ago (where everybody there, besides Spawnbroker and I, were feminist wiccans). Well, every time we started up a conversation, it would begin wonderfully, but whenever SB would mention that he's in the military or attends West Point, the conversation would end immediately. It was like he stomped on a bag of puppies and called their mothers whores.
Needless to say we were pretty much ostracized from the entire party because SB is a cadet, and i'm dating a cadet.
I was stationed in Washington state for 3 years. I know what it's like to shunned at a party because you're in the military.
Welcome to my life. Any left leaning place in DC, yeah right military service is worse then rape here.
Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
Not to derail the thread or anything, but that particular part fills me with rage. I told the long version of this story in S&E, but Spawnbroker and I went to a halloween party a couple of weeks ago (where everybody there, besides Spawnbroker and I, were feminist wiccans). Well, every time we started up a conversation, it would begin wonderfully, but whenever SB would mention that he's in the military or attends West Point, the conversation would end immediately. It was like he stomped on a bag of puppies and called their mothers whores.
Needless to say we were pretty much ostracized from the entire party because SB is a cadet, and i'm dating a cadet.
I was stationed in Washington state for 3 years. I know what it's like to shunned at a party because you're in the military.
Welcome to my life. Any left leaning place in DC, yeah right military service is worse then rape here.
I thought this was a great image, from the national ceremony at Ottawa. At the end of the services, people place their poppies on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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I usually call airborne guys who give me trouble "meat rockets".
Edit:
My grandfather was in the Navy as a CB. He always tells me that he was too young (to even lie about his age) for WWII and too old for Korea. He remarks that he regrets not knowing much about combat service but is thankful that he was that lucky.
My grandmother was dodging the Japanese in the Philippines. She rarely talks about it, but the few times she's remarked quickly or talked about that period has been horrendous. My father told me that when the show survivor first came out, he had asked my grandparents if they where watching it, to which my grandmother replied: "No, reminds me of hiding in the mountains." How does one respond to that?
My father was in the Marine Corps and was Administratively (Medical) discharged after 16 years of service. He said, "The Marine Corps told me to go get this surgery, so I went to the hospital. They told me that there was more than a 50% chance that something would go wrong or that the surgery wouldn't correct it. I didn't like those odds, so I didn't get the operation and then the Marine Corps discharged me." He regrets now that he wasn't able to finish 4 more years but remarks that if he wasn't discharged, forced to become a civilian working in the same office, at the same desk doing the same job, he wouldn't have been RIF'd and he wouldn't have found his job now where the family is definitely better off.
As for me, I've been in the Army for 8 years and 5 months. I've been to Iraq twice. Now, I wish I could give my re-enlist bonus back so I could get out. I've grown.....tired of the Army. Why did I even bother re-enlisting? That's neither here or there; just a personal gripe.
My great-uncle, who I'm named after, was a hardcore communist and a member of Tito's Partisans after the conquest of Yugoslavia. We was send to the Jasenovac death camp after his capture by the Germans and their Croatian allies. He never made it home.
My mother's father was an officer in the Yugoslavian army. He spent some time in a POW camp, but was sent home and spent most of the war in the countryside. Stangely, he didn't seem to have much negative to say about the German soldiers garissoning his home town, though he told me they were mostly older reservists who were happy to sit out the war in a relatively quiet area.
It's strange- it seems like my relatives all fought on behalf of countries or causes that don't exist anymore. Heck, one of my grandmothers was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire, then became a citizen of Yugoslavia, then a citizen of German puppet-Slovenia, Yugoslavia again and she died a citizen of Serbia.
Rigorous Scholarship
Yes, quite.
Some kind of . . . day for . . . laborers.
But what would you call it?
Whatever we call it, it should certainly be a day on which no labor is to be performed.
You mean POG? Personal Other than Grunt.
I dunno why anyone would use leg as an insult since it's like the coolest thing after air assault. Maybe they could make some insult for airborne since they're terrible :P
Airborne = meat rocket.
Also leg is used as an insult because in airborne units, they aren't 'special' like they are. I think the only people in the infantry who can really talk shit about anyone are the EIB holders.
Resident 8bitdo expert.
Resident hybrid/flap cover expert.
Life in suburbia is crappy.
I refer you to both the Constitution and the Bible.
It's in there. Near the back.
Yeah you really gotta be a hard core infantry man to pass a school that entire divisions of pogs go through :P
But really, why are we arguing when we all know mechanized are the softest of the bunch?
As long as we're not including Strykers with mechanized (because they're medium infantry, and not heavy), then I agree.
EIB is a joke. It's easy as fuck as long as you don't have a bunch of badge protectors running it. When I did EIB, over half of the brigade didn't make it through grenades because the grenade course was on a slope. I was true blue until I made it to grenades. :x
I have more respect for someone with a CIB than for someone with an EIB.
We used to have a pretty mad ceremony at my high school - we would assemble in the Hall of Memories (so named as it was built in memory of the fallen old boys in WW1), we would then spend the next hour or two singing a collection of depressing as hell Hymns (Chopin's Funeral March on a huge Organ sounds amazing), while various people would read out from the List of the Fallen, then the Minute's Silence would be held. Then at the end of that bit the Last Post would be played outside, in the foyer and the sound would float back through the Hall while everyone sat deathly silent. Then, we'd march out in ranks to the Quad outside, where a Squad would raise their rifles and fire off several volleys while we all watched, then we would all walk onto the Quad lawn and plant our poppies.
It was spooky as fuck
He had a few funny anecdotes - one time, he was doing some night flying in a B-17 and was heading back to base. Since this was before most really good homing transponders existed, you figured out your position in your head with some basic trigonometry and your instruments, as well as looking out the window and using a map. The navigator gave him a heading, and as they were coming in for landing the tower kept on saying "we still don't see you." They realized their problem when what they thought were runway lights were passing by at window-level - streetlights! So he pushed all four engines to full throttle and got out of there, probably waking up an entire town in the dead of night by nearly landing on main street.
My paternal grandfather didn't ever really talk about the war - I do know he was a machinist on a destroyer that was hit during Pearl Harbor, but managed to escape without additional damage. His ship was probably involved in several engagements in the Pacific, but he just didn't really discuss it.
Any tom dick willy can get the CIB though.
I didn't realize the EIB had become the pat-yourself on the back for being infantry medal.
Any Infantryman who has seen combat (ie done his job) can get a CIB, yes. It's not easy to get one though. The rules have changed. You now need two sworn statements that have to be approved by the division commander (or is staff, I'm assuming), in order to get one. It's not like it was in the initial push where everyone in the battalion got one as soon as any organic element took contact.
How has the EIB ever been difficult to get? Anyone who puts forth the slightest bit of effort should receive one. They only cover level one tasks and drills anyway.
SOPs and TTPs used in theater usually differ from the ones used in garrison, not to mention most of the tests for the EIB cover tasks that haven't been used since Vietnam. It's for these reasons that an EIB is good for nothing more than promotion points.
Thank you to all soldiers and veterans who fought to keep this country safe so my parents would decide to move here and have me on American soil.
No army people in my family, obviously, so no anecdotes...
Although wwtmask, there's this play called Fly based on the Tuskegee Airmen that one of my professor's produced, evidently it's been around the country. One of the Airmen was in attendance at the performance I watched.
NNID: Hakkekage
That's more for labor unions than for actual laborers. And no one takes it nearly as seriously as veterans day- you don't hear people talking about we need to "support the laborers" like it's some sort of holy cause.
I will always respect people who served, regardless of their motives or actual service record, just for being willing to make that sacrifice. That to me is the purpose of the day, is to remember that serving IS a sacrifice, even if they didn't pay with their lives, they gave a part of themselves for their country. So thanks vets, for protecting me, so I can make silly movies and do lots of other frivolous things.
I currently work at a non profit in DC, a VERY large one that does a lot of good work. Whenever you mention that you went to a state school people look down at you. Mention you were in the military or are not a die hard liberal, you might as well be holding a severed head.
We get all sorts of stupid days off for everything known to every culture... but veterans day.
So now, with all the hohah about veterans out of the white house, they finally did some data pulling to try and land some of those projects and rake in the cash. 6 veterans out of over 1300 people, 5 of which are in my department, IT.
So now they want to parade us around to help get money. I told them to go fuck themselves and if they gave a damn I can get the day off next year!
What I wanted to talk about just briefly is a previous forumer who served his tour in the military in South Korea. He came home from his duty alive, but unfortunately we lost him regardless. I'm talking about TDL (formerly TheDarkLord), who was one of the first friends I made on this forum ever. It was a year, year and a half from when i met him that he enlisted into the Army. He was carrying on a tradition within his family to serve. He spent his years in S. Korea at his stations keeping in touch with us, still participating in forum nonsense of many sorts. I got the news of his death probably the last out of those who've known him for a while here, and it's a touchy subject for some of the people I talked to about it. I won't focus on talking about that. Instead I want to give him my thanks for his time in the army, and my gratitude to the friendship he bestowed upon me. I miss you TDL, and I won't forget you.
Wait a fucking minute
They had you, a veteran, working on veteran's day
I hope you raised that point to them whilst you told them to get fucked
We had class today but we get friday off. That's fine by me because my friday class is long and boring as hell, it also starts at 7:30 am. It also gives me a 3 day weekend, it's awesome.
Not to derail the thread or anything, but that particular part fills me with rage. I told the long version of this story in S&E, but Spawnbroker and I went to a halloween party a couple of weeks ago (where everybody there, besides Spawnbroker and I, were feminist wiccans). Well, every time we started up a conversation, it would begin wonderfully, but whenever SB would mention that he's in the military or attends West Point, the conversation would end immediately. It was like he stomped on a bag of puppies and called their mothers whores.
Needless to say we were pretty much ostracized from the entire party because SB is a cadet, and i'm dating a cadet.
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They could've taught Alyce the secrets of the bellydance!
The bellydance!
I was stationed in Washington state for 3 years. I know what it's like to shunned at a party because you're in the military.
I've heard that Grandpa was a sniper, and was high up there for kills, but I have no idea how to pull those kinds of records up.
My stepdad's dad also served, and my stepdad served.
Have various uncles, aunts, and cousings who served. One finally got his disability from the VA after being in a wheelchair for the past 7 years.
And to all soldiers past and present, thank you. Most especially the ones on both sides of the Civil War, because we didn't really need to go through that at all and it was fucked up having to shoot at your own family.
So your grandmother puts out for high kill counts?
Apperantly, my great uncle was the last person to go around on a horse during WW2. He then switched to the air force, in which he got shot down over German-controlled Africa twice, and had to walk back each time. The army tried to give him Jewish dogtags, but he decided it was best to go with "protestant," just in case.
BA DUM PISH
Christ, I hope not. They were terrible at it.
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If I'd been there, I would have yelled at them for insulting middle eastern traditions.
It's a Federal Holiday. Not all employers give you time off, but you won't get the mail &c.
Fed holiday, corporations and non profits can ignore it. Non profits choose to ingore it more. :P
Welcome to my life. Any left leaning place in DC, yeah right military service is worse then rape here.
Man. That is lame.
God, that irks the hell out of me.
Honestly, just the way these people shunned us.
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They should have a marathon. It worked for, um, marathon Monday.