Hello all,

I am curious as to how many of us here are/were in the military.

I am in the USAF as a SATCOM, WIDEBAND and TELEMETRY systems technician, and have served for 13 years. I am currently enjoying Germany as my home, but have been stationed in OK, KS, South Korea, and Guam. I am looking forward to hearing of ya'lls experiences in the military, and hearing some good campfire stories relative to military lifestyle / possible survival scenarios.

I suppose I'll start with one of my own, although it isn't necessarily relative to the military. While stationed in Wichita KS, I decided to take a vacation in neighboring Colorado with my girlfriend at the time. We wanted to explore the beautiful Rockies and 4 corners area, so I packed up my Nissan Pathfinder to the max with supplies and camping goodies and we headed into the great wilderness of Estes National Park. We had a great time exploring, hiking, camping and we even did some fly fishing. Over 2 weeks, we drove through the State and stayed in a few hotels and bed and breakfasts as well as campsites. I remember my girlfriend complimenting me on my preparedness, since we seemed to have everything we wound up needing when left to our own devices. While driving through Wolfcreek Pass, we were surprised by whiteout snowfall conditions, making driving less than desirable. Well, since I was 2 days out from the time I was to return from my leave, I needed to make Colorado Springs to stay on track to be back to work on schedule. I decided to push through the record breaking snowfall by following a snowplow truck down the mountain. As I hunched over the steering wheel following the flashing yellow beacon from the truck, I recall stating that if the pathfinder got us out of this okay, then I'd keep her longer (since I was contemplating a new vehicle). As it turned out, we made it safely to Denver, and stayed in a nice Holiday Inn, but awoke in the morning to a fresh foot of snow. This of course closed all interstate traffic back to Kansas, so I desperately searched for back road access towards the East. After having successfully maneuvered through the worst of conditions the night before, I was confident that we'd pull through the last leg and and return home on schedule. As the roads became clearer and clearer, the more confident I became, and hence sped up to the posted speed limits. Suddenly my rear broke free and I was doing 60 mph doughnuts on a back country road in Brush, CO. As the vehicle left the road surface, the tires quickly gripped the dirt off the shoulder and we did 1.5 flips before sliding on the roof into a ditch and finally resting on the passenger side door. We quickly assessed the situation and escaped the vehicle relatively unharmed (insert seatbelt plug here), and were greeted by an ambulance and taken in for scans, etc.
What a crazy end to such a relaxing vacation!
I definitely learned a few things from this experience.
First, no matter how prepared you are to take on the great wide open, ML can and will happen.
Second, tire tread is your friend. I realize now that I live in Europe how serious people are about having winter tires AND summer tires. Ensuring that tire tread is at an acceptable level is can also prove detrimental.
Lastly, and possibly more importantly be flexible. I should have waited it out in the hotel prior to trying to evac with closed routes. They close them for a reason! My Commander later told me that it would have been no problem to extend my leave for a day. So regardless of you being stranded in the wild or in a hotel; if you have the means to wait out bad weather, then it's usually much safer of an option, and one that I will give much closer attention to in future endeavors. Thanks for bearing with my extended writing style, and hopefully someone can add to this with their own fortunate/misfortunate experiences.
~7~

Welcome to the fire, newguy! Sounds like you handle the situations pretty well and learned your lesson. It can be really hard to sit and wait for something to pass when you keep thinking you NEED to be somewhere else soon. I know I'm guilty of that.

-Blast, whose military experience is limited to occasional run-ins with the Mexican Army.

Greetings Se7en,

I was a sailor once, a long time ago. The called me a spook. Probably close to what you are doing now.

Aboard ship, we were cruising around San Clemente doing calibration testing, and we got a SAR call at night. A guy on a party yacht nearby had a heart attack, and we were going to go pick him up and use our helo deck to transport. When we got to station, we tried to launch our motor whale boat, but the idiot deck officer ordered the forward tending line released before the winch hook was unhithced. The whale boat turned broadside to the wake and swamped, washing most of the personnel out the back side. The Chief Corpsman managed to stay in the boat, but then the hook let loose and knocked him out. As our floundering crewmen were disappearing into the night, we asked the yacht to assist by picking up our guys while we spent the next 3 hours trying to winch up our boat. The problem was with a boat full of water, the winch motor wasn't rated for that load, and it fried. The chief corpsman being a good friend of mine, I got on a lift line and started barking orders. Soon we had about 30 guys on each of two lift lines and we hoisted that boat, full of water and an unconscious chief corpsman, up onto the mid deck. The yacht picked up our castaways, and the chief recovered from a concussion, and the guy with the heart attack got picked up by someone else and taken ashore, and our captain spent the next couple weeks wiping the egg off his face. I couldn't think of a man more deserving of ridicule.

After I left the ship (and the Navy) I saw that she made the international headlines again, this time in Sydney harbor. Apparently some moron in an open bow greenpeace boat got in front of the ship and the captain decided not to turn. They cut the boat, and the picture on the front page of the paper I read showed a man clutching the bow of the ship as it headed for the dock. I believe that one got the old man a letter of reprimand in his folder. Good for him.

The name of the boat, the USS Oldendorf, DD-972.

I was an infantryman for 12 years. Lots of stories, but best told over beers. Mainly, I learned to suffer where others would choose easier paths. Walk 12 miles, or take a bus 2? Stand out in the rain & cold, or get under shelter? Was a bizarro world, thats for sure. But, in the end, the experiences make for great stories. Sadly, learning to kill & blow things up didnt translate well into the civilian world...

yup--Army,drafted,was in from 67-69.had a year of infantry training--Ft Benning-Ft Lewis,back to Benning where i ended up with a MOS of 11F20..sitting around a holding company not to far from the drop towers that the Airborne School used waiting for orders when North Korea took the spy ship Pueblo and we were all packed up and sent to the DMZ to beef things up..cold-tense-but no one took a shot at me..learned that sometimes survival is just good luck for you--bad luck for someone else---like the guys on the Pueblo--

I've just pushed my 22, still in, as one of Her Majesties Finest Engineers.

Done some bits and pieces but nothing worthy of telling until sufficiently inebriated.

Now based in Scotland, trying to train the Territorial Army.

Retired Coast Guard, QMC type, 01 each!

I served (PCS) on 1 buoy tender, 2 corvettes, 3 icebreaking tugs, and 1 patrol boat. I have done TAD (TDY for all you DoD types; "Traveling Around Drunk" for us "Coasties") on several patrol boats, light icebreaking tugs, corvettes, and ocean-going buoy tenders. I have played with the 2nd & 3rd Ranger BTN's; 2nd, 7th, & 10th SF Groups; USAF bases/personnel; Navy bases/Personnel/ships.

My final Hoo-rah came 5 months after my detailer informed me that I was no longer considered deployable (aka: useless). I was "selected & directed" (retirement cancelled and enlistment extended) for a Med Training Cruise on the USCGC BEAR (WMEC-901), with 24 hours notice to depart from a District HQ assignment. I made it to Rota, met the ship, joined the Teddy Roosevelt Battle Group, assigned to DesRon 22 in the Adriatic. Once again, we were quickly reacquainted with: "Never trust the Navy"!!

Then one of us is doing something wrong...

-Blast

23 years in the army so far. I work in the G3 of the mighty mighty 82nd Airborne Division. I'm calling it quits next year though.

One more trip to Asscrackistan and I'm done. I leave in a week and a half.

Se7eN....Did my 9442 days in the USAF; retired MSgt 2006. I left the hangar as an ECM technician (AFSC 32853, now a 2A051 I think). on B-52s in the former SAC (God bless Curtis LeMay). Later I had to retrain due to medical issues. I spent the next 18 years as a Training Manager AFSC 3S271.

Most of my stories are best left untold due to the rather pedestrian nature of them. However, given enough time and certain liquids I'm sure they would probably be more interesting.