Veterans Memories

[nw_hunter]

  On this Memorial Day weekend,I thought I would start a thread for those of us who served in the military or had family members that did, to remember the units  served in and the people  met along the way.
I'll start with one of the units I served in . I had been with the 26 Inf. in Baumholder Germany, but we were brought to Ft Benning Ga and placed on Alert for an invasion of Cuba. (The Cuban Missile Crisis.) After the stand down we were reassigned for the Test unit (11th AAD. Made a lot of good friends there , and lost several in accidents. I think of them often and the families left behind.I think we held the title for a while as the most casualties in peace time training lol! Sliding down ropes dangling from a chopper can be hard on your health.Especially for those who later did it in Vietnam.I served in several units , but the 11th AAD was the one that stands out for me. Below is a little history of the Test unit.
I look forward to hearing from others about their military experience................Past and present.
 
11^Th Air Assault Div (Test)

 
Worn from:  1 February 1963 - 1 July 1965.
 In May 1962, a meeting was convened by the commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps to evaluate existing army tactical doctrine as it pertained to mobility on the battlefield.  The recommendations that the board, known as the Howz Board, came up with were to give the army a new approach to conducting its land battles through use of helicopter air transport.  An air-assault division was to be formed for a test using the first airborne battle group, the 187th Infantry, along with additional engineers and artillery troops coming from the Eighty-second Airborne Division.  Some 150 aircraft from the Sixth Aviation Group (provisional) were also assigned to the task force.  The Eleventh Air Assault Division (test) was activated at Fort Benning, Georgia.  In September 1964, the division was moved into North and South Carolina for exercise "Hawk Blade."   On 1 July 1965, the Eleventh Air Assault Division (test) was merged into the First Cavalry Division (Air Mobile).  The cavalry colors were flown to Fort Benning, Georgia and a swap of flags was made.  On 14 August, an advance element was airlifted from Robbins Air Force Base, Georgia to Camp Ranh Bay, Vietnam, and on 27 August, they were flown to the Special Forces Camp at An Khe.  There, "the first team," the first full division to arrive in Vietnam, fought the enemy to a standstill in the bloody battle of the Ia Drang Valley in Pleiku province and confirned the potential of the air mobile concept of warfare.  The design of the shoulder-sleeve insignia with its winged (airborne) numerical designation is taken from that of the Eleventh Airborne Division. 
 

 
 

[Tiapan64]

While I am sad to say...I am not a veteran, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to those Ladies and Gentlemen that have served in our Armed Forces.  Who have given time to protect our rights and those oppressed by others.  It is to you Ladies and Gents that I owe my eternal gratitude and respect to those that have survived and those that gave the ultimate price....their lives.  My father was a Veteran of the Second World War. Thank you so very much.  God Bless You Ladies and Gentlemen of the Armed Forces of Today and Yesterday.

[BBF]

There is irony for myself and the ancestors.
Grandpa served under the Kaiser and my Father was initially part of the 100,000 men in the Weimar Repub as a Cavalry trooper and of course later drafted into the Wehrmacht. He was lucky to see the end of WWII alive with only a number of small mementos from a Russian mortar grenade in his body for the rest of his life.
 
So now comes his one and only male offspring who served with the 2nd BG, 1 Cav Div, 12th Cav. in Korea  when the Berlin Wall was erected. A few short months in Fort Bliss with an Ordnance Co and then off to the Vaterland in 1962 stationed in Goeppingen with  the HQ&HQ Co.and later with the 504th Admin Co. of the 4th Armored Div. Was Honorably discharged in late 1965.
 
I left the USA in 1971 to live in Canada with a wife and children.

[RevJim]

 '71-'73 Army. Basic/Ft. Leonard Wood,MO; Cannon cocking AIT in Ft. Sill,OK, ordered to Nam, then after waiting 2 weeks, orders changed (Nixon was pulling combat arms units out) re=schooled as a Weapons Mechanic, sent to Augsburg, Germany, 1/36 FA.(8 inch unit, tactical nuke capable)  Since this was the Army, instead of being a weapons mech., was put in Fire Direction Center, ha. Was there when Baader/Meinhoff gang was blowing stuff up, Arabs killed the Olympic Jewish team in '72; later in late '72, early '73 (Haiphong Harbor mined, later the Easter Offensive in VN) sent to our staging area off the Czech Republic to stare down Warsaw Pact. Thought I was done when ETS, but noooo, was stuck in Texas Natl Guard for Reserve, ha. Summer Camps in beautiful 107 deg heat of Ft. Hood!  Five years total of wearing the green, though aggravating, overall it was a great experience. I met so many wonderful people ( and a few sh--birds)) ha.
By being a "Volunteer for the Draft", I gamboled with being sent to Nam, (we all knew we weren't trying to win it, and its was just a meatgrinder) I believed I won out by going to Germany, only to come home and find out about all the old friends/acquaintances that had been KIA or WIA in Nam. I somehow always felt guilty/surviving by not going to Nam. Crazy, I know, but I still have to deal with those feelings all these years later. I lost two cousins in Nam. I too feel bad about it all but I never feel they died for nothing. Oh well, long time ago now;  thanks to all you Vets out there, and for those of you who support them.

[Doublebass73]

I love all of our Vets. I tried but wasn't able to serve due to a damaged right hand from an industrial accident when I was 17 but I am grateful for all those who did, especially for those who gave all.

I'm from a Navy family, one grandfather served prior to WWII and worked at the Charlestown Navy Yard during the war. My other grandfather was a radioman on a warship during WWII. My father worked in the engine room of a destroyer during Vietnam. Luckily they all came home but they lost many friends. A huge price was paid that we must always remember.

[Sourdough]

The wife and I both enlisted during Viet Nam, and was awarded the National Defense Medal/Ribbon.  This weekend I was at the mall and bought National Defense ribbon bumper stickers to place on her car and mine.  We got into a discussion (almost turned heated) on wheather we could display that ribbon on our vehicles.  She came home and went looking for her DD form 214.  She found both hers and mine, and yes we both were awarded the National Defense Medal.

I enlisted and volunteered for Viet Nam, Got sent to Alaska.  Leaving Alaska I was assigned to the 820th Red Horse Squadron in Thailand.  I got as far as Seattle, where the Military Liasion came aboard the plane and gave me orders diverting me to Lake Meade Base, Nevada.  Where the 820th relocated two months later.  One year in Red Horse was enough, I volunteered for Presidential Support at Homestead AFB, Florida.  Yes, I worked for Nixon.  After two years I requested a reassignment and was sent to Luke AFB, Arizona.  There I met the hottest little WAF I had ever seen.  We got married, and we both requested overseas duty.  Then I was froze for an overseas short assignment.  Thought I was going to Viet Nam, but at that time Viet Nam ended.  She got an assignment to Alaska and they released me from the short assignment list to go with her.

I went to Turkey in 1983, two months before the embassy bombing in Beirut.  Due to my Red Horse experience I was placed on a fly away team.  October 23, 1983.  I was standing in front of a room full of people, giving a briefing on Communication sites.  Security Police came busting in and asked if MSgt Hunter was present.  The Base Commander pointed at me, the Security Police told the room I had to leave they were holding a plane for me.  They had already collected my bags out of my room in the Dorm.  Hour and a half later I was on the ground at the Marine Barracks.  Before it was over I took a round in the left side, and woke up in Germany.  Then back to Alaska, where I retired.  I then followed the wife around for seven years, till she retired.

The wife did her entire 20 years going from the States to Alaska and back to the States.  She did three tours in Alaska.  Her last assignment was in Washington DC.  She had a staff level position for TJAG (The Judge Advocate General for the Air Force).

Spent two years thinking I was done with the Air Force.  Then got recalled during the First Gulf War.  Ended up back in Turkey, translating for a bunch of Marines.  I speak Turkish and so do most Kurds.  We were dealing with the Kurds that cross the border, back and forth between Turkey and Iraq.  Seems I had just got there and we were told the war was already over.  Took two weeks to get me back to Alaska.

[Gun Runner]

Did my 20 in the Navy. Went in Aug of 57 got out Dec of 77. Spent time on a destorer, communications relay ship, 2 diffrent ammo ships, patrol gun boat, mine sweeper, and a carrier. Plus several shore stations.
They mine sweeper duty was part of the deal to get the POW's back from viet-nam. This was after the "WAR" was over.  Like a lot of other folks I was a high school drop out. (Under sherrif and judge PUT me in the service) This was back in the days they could do that. Like the rest of you good people that served we all got a education that cant be topped.
Prould to be here with those that also served.

Gun Runner

[ironglow]

Last Sunday..breakfast at church..  Somebody brought the fixings for SOS..with hot biscuits.  Now that brings back memories..
 
   Tank training at Ft Knox 1955, post was heated with soft coal back then..every time I light my coal forge, visions of old Ft Knox appear.
The unique scream of the supercharged V-12 engine..remains....  and the time the company eight-ball decided to use power traverse in the tank park and the main gun tube swept 4 guys off, who were servicing the engine..cuts & bruises, but no fractured bones.
  Ft Hood..the long summer of 1956..as a Lifeguard at the officers pool.
 
 1962 Tank Hill..Ft Jackson..
 
 Deutschland '62-'65..   Stationed at Pirmasens... 2AM alerts..FTXs at Baumholder.. Frankfurt/Darmstatt autobahn ..where an auto accident spread along for a quarter mile..
  Seventh  Army NCO Academy..Kiwi College..Flint Kaserne, Germany's West Point..Bad Tolz & Bavaria..beautiful..view of snow-capped Zugspitz from the back gate in July. 
 Compass orienteering class in the mountains nearby, same July..caught out in hailstorm.  Soon radish-sized hail on the ground up to our ankles..Glad we had our ponchos and steel helmets..very noisy in that steel pot; but at least no headaches or fractures..
  To the contrary, where I was stationed..must have been about 260 days of drizzling rain each year..
 
I prefer to speak of only the lighter experiences..
 
 

[Conan The Librarian]

Veterans memories are one thing, but the thing I worry about is the memories of the people who benefitted from those veterans. A lot of people today don't even understand the significance of wars, especially major ones like WW2 and strategic wars like Korea and Viet Nam.
 
Today war is seen as just something for the government to spend money on. It's not a matter of whether the country will continue to exist.
 
Guys like Patton and Eisenhower were bright people and they had a lot of options in life. Despite likely criticism from people who must have thought they were nuts to go into soldiering instead of military, they did it anyway and we can be grateful for that. Today we have generals like McCrystal, and you wonder how if Walmart had a sale on four stars one day.

[nw_hunter]

Veterans memories are one thing, but the thing I worry about is the memories of the people who benefitted from those veterans. A lot of people today don't even understand the significance of wars, especially major ones like WW2 and strategic wars like Korea and Viet Nam.
 
Today war is seen as just something for the government to spend money on. It's not a matter of whether the country will continue to exist.
 
Guys like Patton and Eisenhower were bright people and they had a lot of options in life. Despite likely criticism from people who must have thought they were nuts to go into soldiering instead of military, they did it anyway and we can be grateful for that. Today we have generals like McCrystal, and you wonder how if Walmart had a sale on four stars one day.

I didn't start this thread to talk about the reasons or justifications of war. It's about the memories of those of us who served or those who had members of their families that have. If you want to start a thread about Wars then do so, but I'm not going to have this one flamed or the subject changed.

[yellowtail3]

Whenever I'm getting particularly nostalgic and missing any of the three warships I sailed on, I do the following:
go for a week without a shower
put on foul weather jacket, tie a brick around my neck, and stand on a grate in the shower for four hours, pretending it's rain & spray

[nw_hunter]

Whenever I'm getting particularly nostalgic and missing any of the three warships I sailed on, I do the following:
go for a week without a shower
put on foul weather jacket, tie a brick around my neck, and stand on a grate in the shower for four hours, pretending it's rain & spray

Does it do it for ya?

[BBF]

Whenever I'm getting particularly nostalgic and missing any of the three warships I sailed on, I do the following:
go for a week without a shower
put on foul weather jacket, tie a brick around my neck, and stand on a grate in the shower for four hours, pretending it's rain & spray

I'm glad the Navy didn't want me before I was 18 years old when I tried to enlist into the Reserve.!! I could do without that sort of memory.
 
I should have gone AF instead of Army. That might have saved me from a Divorce later..............maybe.  

[FourBee]

USAF Intelligence.  My 1968 Vietnam tour was the outskirts of DaNang in a Vietnamese Army Camp with IDASC (I-Corps Direct Air Support Center).  Purpose: To Instruct and assist the Vietnam military to coordinate air fighter support to ground troops in combat.  By that time it was evident to the Pentagon our small group was just spinning our wheels.  We were also becoming a 'Special Target' for the enemy.  Not only was it time to get out, the Pentagon realized that our own boys on the ground needed better communications with our boys in the air if we were going to continue being the greatest military power in the world.
The big wheels decided 3 Star Marine General Chushman [who's headquarters were on the banks of the DaNang River at 3rd Marine Division] would take us in, supply us with the highest priority in setting up the most sophisticated Air/Ground Combat Communication System in the world.  We became a developing prototype of the wars to come.  What with DaNang Air Base being the most active airport in the world at that time, we were flying 100's of sorties a day.  I was assigned the duty of gathering all the data generated by those combat flights, {from # bombs dropped, 20mm rounds fired, #of air to surface missiles, and napalms expended, to # of enemy troops killed, water buffaloes ((we paid $500 for every dead water buffalo)), and bunkers destroyed}, and reporting it daily via Secret Code Phone to the War Data Center in Saigon.  Once a week two of us presented a summary to General Chushman at his 2 hour long General's War Briefing, where all the branches of Service gathered and shared their summaries.  That was an experience of a lifetime.  I met and shook hands with Generals and Admirals, even rode with them in their vehicles, and the General's PT boat. 
     

[nw_hunter]

Interesting stories! I realize some of you Veterans and those currently serving have seen combat at it's ugliest level and have memories that are too painful to talk about and well understood.