Military Service and Ultimate Sacrifice

[Gameface]

I am the son of two people who both volunteered for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

I'm waiting for more information, but reports are that my President thinks my parents were stupid.

I served in the U.S. Navy from June 2000 to March 2006. I was there for 9-11, I was there for the Global War on Terrorism and for Operation Iraqi Freedom, I deployed to the Persian Gulf twice, once in 2003 and again in 2005.

I have a long history of military service on both sides of my family. I picked the job I had in the Navy because that's the job my wife's grandfather had when he volunteered for the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. When he found out I was interested in joining the Navy he invited me for a lunch and told me things about the Navy that I never would have known going in otherwise. I am forever in his debt as he gave it to me straight and helped me make the best possible decision.

My best friend growing up, we lived next door to each other since I was 2 years old, joined the Navy a few years before I did, because his grandpa (who raised him) had also served in the Navy.

I value our service members who have fought and died. I value those who endured capture and worse, torture. I honor the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this nation.

In every U.S. Navy mess hall or galley there is a table set and reserved for those who are Missing in Action or Prisoners of War. We do not forget them. We certainly do not dishonor them. And there is no room for a President who insults them.

This is only one of the many ways Donald Trump has disqualified himself to be our President.

 

[The Thriller]

Good post. And your family members aren’t losers or suckers because they had a greater sense or duty than our broken and selfish “President.”

 

[BabyPeterzz]

Thank you for your service, J.

Always.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gameface]

Thank you for your service, J.

Always.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I appreciate it.

I do want to say, and I also want to head off a string of TYFYS posts, I did very little. I got way more out of my service than I gave.

I was never in any real danger.

I'd prefer to focus more on those who have suffered trauma as a result of their service. Those who have PTSD or have suffered injuries.

 

[candrew]

Good post.

I never served but I have cousin that was in the big one.....Grenada.

 

[Keefe]

Not sure how this has only seven likes.

Anyway, thank you for your service. It blows my mind how many vets (the far majority I’d guess) will still vote for him, not only after this, but based on everything else the guy stands for which sure as hell isn’t any notion of patriotism, duty or honor.

 

[Gameface]

Not sure how this has only seven likes.

Anyway, thank you for your service. It blows my mind how many vets (the far majority I’d guess) will still vote for him, not only after this, but based on everything else the guy stands for which sure as hell isn’t any notion of patriotism, duty or honor.

It surprises me as well. I will say, I also posted this on FB and one person challenged the accuracy of the report. I had an old Navy buddy DM me asking if I was okay with him responding to the person. He asked because we haven't actively communicated with each other in a few years. I also had, well let me go count, 4 positive reactions from people I worked with in the Navy. I was in a smallish division of about 20 total people and these are people I worked with aboard ship. I didn't get any reactions from a few others who I know are very anti-Trump. So a good portion of the people I worked with directly are not fans of Trump. I don't want to get into value judgements but the job I had in the Navy has one of the highest ASVAB score requirements. It's a technical field and there is about 2 years of Navy technical training before any of us were assigned to actual sea duty.

The person who challenged the statement is essentially an ex-friend. I've known him since I was 3, we had the same babysitter and we went to the same elementary. He lived a couple blocks away from me in the Glendale neighborhood. Anyway, he's the guy who came to the first Vote Ballou poker game, this one was a cash game, and refused to throw a chip into the donation jar when he won even decent sized pots. That was basically the point of the whole thing, but he didn't think he needed to contribute anything. The final straw with him was when he showed up to one of the poker league games, knowing that a portion of the buy-in ($5 out of a $40 buy-in) went to the championship payout. He hands me $35 and I explain the buy-in was $40. He looks at me stupidly and says he's not "in" the league. I tell him again it doesn't matter the buy-in was $40. He looks at me stupidly some more. I had a line of people to collect money from so I said to him "Okay, I'll pay the $5 for you." I pulled $5 out of my pocket, added it to his buy-in and decided it was $5 well spent to know that he was not a friend of mine.

So when he used Biden's support of BLM as a reason he was voting for Trump I figured it was good finding out he didn't need to be a FB friend of mine, either.

 

[Red]

After reading this thread Monday, last night I watched “Suicide For Glory”, the next to last episode of the 1952-53 TV series, Victory at Sea, about the US Navy in the Pacific Theater of WWII. It was about the battle of Okinawa, last battle before what would have been an invasion of Japan. My father and I always watched the series on Saturday afternoons, as reruns, in the late 50’s-early 60’s I would guess. I knew his hearing loss, he wore a hearing aid after the war, and another disability, resulted from that battle, but after watching it again as an adult, now I know why he wore a hearing aid. The naval battle was insane. Incredible footage in the episode. 3500 Japanese Kamikazi suicide pilots, 30 American ships sunk, over 200 damaged by the pilots. Days and nights of non stop anti-aircraft fire, which the narrator called “the battle between those who wanted to live, and those who wanted to die”. I still have the journal my father kept, and a piece of the propeller of a Japanese “Zero”, which struck the ship nearest his. He was a medic in the Seabees, on an LST.

The entire series, 26 episodes, is available on YouTube. The musical score, by Richard Rodgers, is widely regarded as one of the best ever written. Here’s the opening theme:

 

[Keefe]

It surprises me as well. I will say, I also posted this on FB and one person challenged the accuracy of the report. I had an old Navy buddy DM me asking if I was okay with him responding to the person. He asked because we haven't actively communicated with each other in a few years. I also had, well let me go count, 4 positive reactions from people I worked with in the Navy. I was in a smallish division of about 20 total people and these are people I worked with aboard ship. I didn't get any reactions from a few others who I know are very anti-Trump. So a good portion of the people I worked with directly are not fans of Trump. I don't want to get into value judgements but the job I had in the Navy has one of the highest ASVAB score requirements. It's a technical field and there is about 2 years of Navy technical training before any of us were assigned to actual sea duty.

The person who challenged the statement is essentially an ex-friend. I've known him since I was 3, we had the same babysitter and we went to the same elementary. He lived a couple blocks away from me in the Glendale neighborhood. Anyway, he's the guy who came to the first Vote Ballou poker game, this one was a cash game, and refused to throw a chip into the donation jar when he won even decent sized pots. That was basically the point of the whole thing, but he didn't think he needed to contribute anything. The final straw with him was when he showed up to one of the poker league games, knowing that a portion of the buy-in ($5 out of a $40 buy-in) went to the championship payout. He hands me $35 and I explain the buy-in was $40. He looks at me stupidly and says he's not "in" the league. I tell him again it doesn't matter the buy-in was $40. He looks at me stupidly some more. I had a line of people to collect money from so I said to him "Okay, I'll pay the $5 for you." I pulled $5 out of my pocket, added it to his buy-in and decided it was $5 well spent to know that he was not a friend of mine.

So when he used Biden's support of BLM as a reason he was voting for Trump I figured it was good finding out he didn't need to be a FB friend of mine, either.

Good ****ing riddance.

 

[Scat]

Both my dad and FIL were in the army. Not by choice, drafted. My FIL was in the Korean war and my dad in Vietnam.

My FIL passed away a couple of years ago but he definitely had PTSD. On Sundays when everybody would come to dinner it was a well know that if he fell asleep after dinner you did not approach him or try to wake him up. He would jolt up with his fists clenched ready to go. He never spoke much about his experiences but in his later years started to open up. My God, the **** this man saw and went through boggles the mind. It is amazing that he was able to come home after the war and function in society.

My dad was a cook in the Army in Vietnam. That was all we were ever really told growing up. Not very exciting. He has a few stories that he tells like getting bit by a monkey or the time that the entire camp got food poisioning and everybody wanted to kill him but that was the extent of it. In recent years he's had some health issues and has also started to open up more about his experiences. Let me just say, there is nothing about going to war that will leave you unscathed. Again, what he has told me in recent years is horrific. Cooks were asked to do a lot more than peel potatoes and I cannot imagine having to do the things he did.

@Gameface, much respect for you and all veterans regardless of whether they saw combat or not.