I guess my handle sort of gives me away. I ran away from home and joined the Army at 17, retired in 1987 with 22 years service, had three tours in Vietnam, two of them on tanks which are much larger than our Solsices. Last tour worked as a LRRP for an all volinteer outfit. That's where I got my second Purple Heart. I knew just how to do it after my first one! I'm still active as VP of the Blackhorse Assn. (11th Armored Cavalry Regiment) 2,500 of our active duty boys are now returning to Fort Irwin, Ca. (Barstow area) from Iraq. We are planning a welcome home celerbration in March and will be feeding all of the soldiers and there families with some great Texas chow supplied my the Odessa Chuck Wagon Gang of Odessa Texas. I'm also a writer, so if you want to hear my war stories you'll have to buy my books! I just completed Cowboy Dreams which I wrote for my son Billy. my site is Jackstoddard.com if you want to visit.
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Sassy Sue II is a fully loaded COOL GXP. She's not only one fast girl, but she's pretty darn sexy with her vented fenders and toting her Lil' chromies, up shield, and belt extenders. She carries her Kappabrella behind her driver's seat for those times when she's a little shy!
First I'd like to thank all of you brothers/sisters in arms. Looks like I'm the youngest of the mil here. Here's my story. 8 years so far in the Air Force. F-16 crew chief(thus the screenname). Most of my career stationed in New Mexico, 1 year at Osan, ROK, and last year at Nellis, NV. Been TDY to all the fun places as well as Saudi, Kuwait, Doha, and Baghdad. Will probably do my 20 but it does have its trying times working for a "corporation" and not the military anymore.
Well I may as well throw my story in here, although its far less interesting than some of the other posts on here.
I spent 4 years in the Army back in the late 80s and early 90s as an armor crewman on M1A1 tanks. Towards the end of my tour in Germany, East and West Germany just became one once again, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse, and we suddenly found ourselves without an enemy to fight (although for some reason the brass seemed like they had an itch to go play in a sandbox). Anyway, we still had a "mission" to do, and as such, they sent us out to go play our semi-annual war games. You know, just in case. So after spending about a week in the mud, the typical, practical joke sessions began.
So one night, a buddy of mine and I were scheduled to pull security around where the tanks were holed up for the night. So just before 2am, we wandered over to the OP (observation post), relieved the two that were on duty, and settled down for a long night of watching for the "enemy". About 30 minutes into our 2 hour shift, we started hearing some rustling in the bushes around our post. We shined our red-lense flashlights around a bit and didn't see anything and chalked it up to a gopher or raccoon or some other form of small, furry, four legged creature. About 10 more minutes passed and we started hearing it again, but closer. We didn't pay much attention to it, but we kept hearing it a few minutes later. So again, we shined our flashlight around again, but instead of seeing nothing, we saw several pairs of red eyes staring back at us. My buddy and I decided that since we were apparently outnumbered, and since we had no "real" ammo, it was time to relocate the OP.
We got up and slowly moved away since we had NO idea what the heck was watching us, and moved our post about 100 yards closer to the tanks. Yep, this was a good spot, right next to the road, close to the protection of the tanks. Yes, a good tactical move! Or so we thought. About 10 minutes later, we started hearing the sounds again. Shined our flashlights around again, and yep, just what we though, red eyes staring back. We'd been overrun again! So again, we displaced and ended up moving the observation post to the front slope of one of the tanks! Shortly after performing that move, my tank commander sticks his head out of the tanks and asks what the hell we're doing on the tank and not at the OP. We calmly looked at him and informed him that we were attacked by an "unknown enemy" and were subsequently overrun. Just about that time, we found out what had overrun our position when this mama boarhog came walking up the road with her 5 kids in tow.
Now, I dont know if anyone else has any personal knowledge of German boarhogs, but let me tell you this. During night gunnery practice using thermal sights, we always used to mis-identify these boars for our tank targets at 1000 yards. This caused much dismay to the German civilians who had to go pick up the pieces after we sent a 120 millimeter main gun round through them.
Come to find out the next morning, the two guys we relieved from duty at 2am got a case of the munchies just before we got there. Being a good soldier, one of them was ready for this eventuality and prepared himself by bringing along 2 oranges. But what do you do with the orange peels? I mean, you dont want to mess up the OP by just dropping them there. Oh no, they wanted to be tidy and throw them about 10' away from the OP, into the bushes! But what about the boars who will be attracted by the smell of orange peels? Oh, well, we only have 10 minutes left, we'll let the relief deal with them!
Mr Wizzard you didn't happen to serve with the 11th ACR in Fulda did you? And Falcon fixer 333 I live on Nellis and Washington Ave . You do know we got us a Solstice club started...look under regions, Pacfic. on this great site!
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Sassy Sue II is a fully loaded COOL GXP. She's not only one fast girl, but she's pretty darn sexy with her vented fenders and toting her Lil' chromies, up shield, and belt extenders. She carries her Kappabrella behind her driver's seat for those times when she's a little shy!
Mr Wizzard you didn't happen to serve with the 11th ACR in Fulda did you? And Falcon fixer 333 I live on Nellis and Washington Ave . You do know we got us a Solstice club started...look under regions, Pacfic. on this great site!
Old Soldier,
No, but I was stationed about 30 km away from Fulda in Wildflecken, 1/68 Armor. Spent several days playing around with the 11th ACR boys though! Definitely were chewing the same dirt.
Mr Wizzard you didn't happen to serve with the 11th ACR in Fulda did you? And Falcon fixer 333 I live on Nellis and Washington Ave . You do know we got us a Solstice club started...look under regions, Pacfic. on this great site!
Saw in another post you guys were trying to have a run to VoF. I don't have a Solstice yet but I might tag along on 2 wheels.
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Sassy Sue II is a fully loaded COOL GXP. She's not only one fast girl, but she's pretty darn sexy with her vented fenders and toting her Lil' chromies, up shield, and belt extenders. She carries her Kappabrella behind her driver's seat for those times when she's a little shy!
I had always wanted to join the Army. My father was not a US citizen but he did two terms in Vietnam for the US. I always wanted to be like him.
After high school people kept talking me out of it. But after the Towers fell I felt it was my time to go. I had to lie about my phisical health in order to make it into the military.
I was going to be an Air traffic controler in the 101st airborn.
two months into bootcamp my back problems could not be hidden anymore.
I still didnt want to tell anyone and I was getting any sort of pain killers I could get my hands on. The anger I had from my back problems caused me to loose my cool on some other soldiers who pushed me over my limit.
I was sent to counceling and I came clean about my back problems and my reasons for wanting to join. .
I was let go with a clean slate. THey told me I was never there and nothing would ever show up.
Its been almost 4 years now. Its kills me to see my friends leave and go fight. I want to be there with them. I tend to get down on myself really bad when I think about this subject. Its the only thing I ever wanted to do in my life and I cant do it.
I enlisted in the US Coast Guard (yes, its one of the FIVE military services) in 1969 and am still on active duty. I was 17 when I nlisted, too young for the draft. After boot camp, I was assigned to a remote station in the Pacific whih is as close as I came to being in the actual Viet Nam conflict. Iwas enlisted for 14 years working my way up to Chief Boatswain's Mate. I was a small boat coxswain (operated rescue boats) and a law enforcement boarding officer. May a few drug seizures and arrests but noting to write home about. I was appointed a Chief Warrant Officer in 1983 and went to OCS in 1986. As a commissioned officer I have served on several cutters (Coast Guard ships) and have commanded two of them. I was in comand of the fast patrol boat that led the invasion turned peaceful intervention in Haiti in 1994 as a lieutenant. Made commander 10 days before the world took a left hand turn up in New York and at the Pentagon. I have had many interesting assignments since then including a 6 month tour in Iraq last year (2004) training the new Iraqi Coastal Defense Force (navy and marine forces) in Baghdad, Taji and Basrah (Umm Qasr, Iraq). Strange work for a Coastie, i have got to say. Last year (2004-2005) I was assigned to the UN security and stabilization mission in Hait (MINUSTAH) as the deputy operations officer. Again, a strange job for a Coastie sailor. Over 36 years continous active duty with never (almost)a dull moment. it seams just when you think things might settle down, its hurricane season again!Stories up the wazoo, but who doesn't. Thanks for asking. Just got pack from training up at our training center in Yorktown, VA. 2200 mile round trip in the Solstice and she never missed a beat!!! Comfortable, fun, and cheap to feed! What a great car!
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PBSKIPPER
Good Morning Officer Red with all the bells and whistles except On-Star, Vin 2011 Jun 2007; Just traded 2006 NA for Aggressive 2007 GXP with all options except On-star.
Location: The avatar shows my motivation to work .... Work takes place in Houston, Republic of Texas .... Motivation takes place in CA, NV, UT, CO and similar locations.
ESB, that's a fine story. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Many things are beyond our reach. You showed your true colors by giving it your best effort. Most of us (speaking for myself) have been content to just get by, but you went above and beyond. Good for you, you can sleep well at night knowing you gave your best.
SGhS (Seven Grouphug Salute)
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Her name is MariSOL
VIN 6Y101319, delivered 10/15/05. 72,541 miles.
Location: The avatar shows my motivation to work .... Work takes place in Houston, Republic of Texas .... Motivation takes place in CA, NV, UT, CO and similar locations.
pbskipper, another great story. Thanks.
Service in the Coast Guard has been of extreme importance since their inception. So many different jobs, from rescues, to drug interdiction, to immigration duties, to service in Iraq and Haiti, as you pointed out.
God bless you for your MANY years (36 so far) of service. I am impressed.
SFS (Seven Flag Salute)
PS: Is that Coast Guard station still there on the causeway? During shrimp season, get down there on the docks, under those bright lights, with a net and a styrofoam cooler, and fill it up with shrimp in about 15 minutes. I did that once, you just scoop them out of the water, no mess, no fuss!
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Her name is MariSOL
VIN 6Y101319, delivered 10/15/05. 72,541 miles.
Service in the Coast Guard has been of extreme importance since their inception. So many different jobs, from rescues, to drug interdiction, to immigration duties, to service in Iraq and Haiti, as you pointed out.
God bless you for your MANY years (36 so far) of service. I am impressed.
SFS (Seven Flag Salute)
PS: Is that Coast Guard station still there on the causeway? During shrimp season, get down there on the docks, under those bright lights, with a net and a styrofoam cooler, and fill it up with shrimp in about 15 minutes. I did that once, you just scoop them out of the water, no mess, no fuss!
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If you are talking about Base Miami Beach on the McArthur Causeway, yes its still here. Since 9/11 you won't be allowed near it to shrimp, but its still there. Thank you for the kind words.
saw
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PBSKIPPER
Good Morning Officer Red with all the bells and whistles except On-Star, Vin 2011 Jun 2007; Just traded 2006 NA for Aggressive 2007 GXP with all options except On-star.
