Veteran Appreciation Thread

[mjonesnh]

Very appreciative of the sacrifices of our active duty and vets. My son is active duty, 9 years in USAF with 1 year spent in South Korea. A big thank you for your efforts!!

 

[CADplans]

Joined the US Navy in 1970,,
They decided I needed to be a nuclear certified welder,, so the ENTIRE summer, and most of the fall of 1971, I spent welding EVERY DAY in San Diego CA,,,

Then, no sooner than I get on my first ship as a Shipfitter,, they combined rates with Damage Controlman,
I THEN spent the ENTIRE summer, and most of the fall of 1972 learning fire fighting, and ship hull damage repair.

(THAT was the year that the US Navy realized that steel ships could burn,, and EVERYONE needed some fire training)

After my year of intense fire training, I had to spend one or two days a week doing fire training on my ship.

After all that, I got to enjoy life with a couple visits to the MED,,, on an almost 30 year old destroyer,, that needed constant repair!!

EVERY day was more enjoyable than the previous!! Even walking into a 50X50 foot elevated grate room full of burning heavy crude oil,, and having to put out the fire, with only one fire hose,,,
Safety equipment?? Our denim shirt, and denim pants,, and boondocker shoes. We did not wear our hat, did not want to get it dirty!! AND, NO, not even a pair of gloves,,,

At that age,, there was no fear,, I do not remember anyone ever acting scared,,
even when crossing the Atlantic several times, on a three decade old ship that was only 40 feet wide,,, AND,, we NEVER steered "around" a storm,, what fun would that be??

 

[George2615]

Thanks to all who served past and present

 

[QRTRHRS]

I joined up (volunteered USAF) in '83. Soon enough after Vietnam that there were still a bunch of 'nam vets in the service. Also soon enough after 'nam that service members and vets were still commonly treated like garbage by civilians back home. I would still get spit on at airports and bus depots, as well as called all sorts of interesting things. You learned to never sit/sleep alone when traveling stateside in uniform, and as soon as possible the uniform would come off and civilian clothes would go on

I heard that. While stationed in Germany, I had to come home on leave. After landing in NYC, I was at Grand Central with my class A's on and someone called me a baby klller. I replied that while I may have killed a few coo coo's, that I had not meant to. They must have thought that I was wierd because they left me alone.

(When we were at Grafenwohr doing night live fire training, after the gun(s) were fired it would become errily silent. Then the coo coo birds would start with the coo coo, coo coo. It was the strangest thing. My sargent would say, "there's that dammed coo coo again".)

Anyway, for me, one of the worst ways Vietnam Vets and era vets were treated was having to omit military service from a job application. Too often that was the end of the interview. That changed with Ronald Reagan.

 

[masscity]

Joined the USAF Oct 1964, 18 months Kadena AB Okinawa, Then 24 months at Sevilla Communications Annex near Sevilla, Spain. I had to extend for two months to go to Spain, I said where do I sign.

I had decided to join the USAF in the 9th grade, because my cousin who was in the Air Force.

 

[deserteagle71]

Mid-60s...got a notice from the local Draft Board to report for my physical. This being during the big Vietnam buildup I knew that meant I'd be going into the Army. But I'd always thought that if I had to serve I'd rather it be on a Navy ship, traveling around and seeing the world. So I ran down and signed up at the Navy recruiting office.

Never once set foot on a Navy ship. First duty station was the Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nevada...now home of the Top Gun school. From there I got orders for Vietnam, spent the next year in the jungle.

 

[jjeff]

82nd anniversary of pearl harbor, not many vets left from that day. I still remember the 50th anniversary, Flew out of Hickam field once still had pot marks made from zero fighters in some of the concrete buildings that over 20 yrs ago, visited the az memorial, they had a Nco e-5 bosun operating the launch to the memorial.

 

[Hay Dude]

Mid-60s...got a notice from the local Draft Board to report for my physical. This being during the big Vietnam buildup I knew that meant I'd be going into the Army. But I'd always thought that if I had to serve I'd rather it be on a Navy ship, traveling around and seeing the world. So I ran down and signed up at the Navy recruiting office.

Never once set foot on a Navy ship. First duty station was the Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nevada...now home of the Top Gun school. From there I got orders for Vietnam, spent the next year in the jungle.
View attachment 831907

Not at all trying to be funny, but what did Navy personnel do in Vietnam jungle? Did you direct fire from Navy ships onto land???
Or did you get put with a Marine Division?

 

[Torvy]

I don't know about Navy, dad was AF (NCO). He ran the Postal/Courier service for the theater (regardless of branch). About 2/3 of military personnel are in "non-combat" support roles. Dad had to write a lot of letters home to family for his guys that were killed because the VC didn't agree they were non-combat. They had to deliver mail all across the 'war' zone. Anyone in theater was at risk. The base was frequently attacked with rockets.

 

[dodge man]

I just saw this thread and there are great stories, I read them all.

My stories are about my dad and I don’t know much. He served the last two years of WW2. He tried to join when he was 16 but his mom stopped that. He joined when he was 17 and his dad signed for him, his mother was seriously ticked off over that.

He was trained as a signalman, morse code with a searchlight and what all the little flags meant. He served on the USS Dade, a fast attack transport. His ship put troops ashore on Okinawa. A huge fleet was there and Kamikazes were attacking the fleet. For what was basically a cargo ship his ship was well armed and took credit for shooting some down. He said how do you know who shot a plane down, there were so many ships firing?

After the surrender his ship did some occupation duty he was in Hiroshima after the war. His ship also took some Chinese units home to China. He said they were in very bad shape and they were throwing bodies over every day.

A picture of his ship, the Dade, there is a short Wikipedia page on it. It served in the navy for less than 2 years, was sold and used as a cargo ship, then sold as scrap in 1970.