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I hate the fucking Army, but I wear a gray "ARMY" sweat shirt.

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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:50 PM
Original message
I hate the fucking Army, but I wear a gray "ARMY" sweat shirt.
I hated the war in Viet Nam, but I have a VSR (Viet Nam Service Ribbon) on my DU posts and on my car.

I hate the fucking Army, but I feel pride when I see "ARMY" on the side of the basic helicopter.

I hated the war in Viet Nam, but I have allowed it to obsess my life.

I hate the fucking Army, but it is often all that my 87-year old dad and I have to talk about (he was an Army artillery officer in WW-2 and one of the first through the gates of Dachau).

I hated the war in Viet Nam, but I throw it up regularly in arguments against Iraq.

I hate the fucking Army, but I have a recurring dream that I am back in.

On and on and on ......
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:51 PM
Response to Original message
1. So, in the end sum of things, would you say it was beneficial or detrimental?
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:57 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. Depends. The experience provided me with a high-paying job.
Even now in my 8th year on long-term disability, I still make a king's ransom. But I still have the dreams of the night missions on the Trail.
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. I can't say I know what it was like
I avoided the military like the plague, but I did the Peace Corps. 100% different - not a valid comparison except in that we understand the basics of Federal Bureaucracy.

It's interesting - I work with a lot of people who spent a good part of their lives in the military. It seems like one area where you just "kinda had to be there, " as even those who did not see war were profoundly changed by their experiences. The worst experience I can attest to is a mild case of cholera, but with medical care.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 12:23 AM
Response to Reply #12
28. There is another point of similarity.
Judging by those I have known who worked with the Peace Corp, there is a similarity in that both the military and the Peace Corp are experiences that are engrained in you; I've been working where I am for 15 years, and could walk away from it tomorrow and never give it a 2nd thought, but the brief couple years I was in the Marines (post-Vietnam) I carry around with me like Marley's leg chains, and I can only imagine what more it would be if I'd seen combat. That same way, people I know who went to Africa with the Peace Corp live with that couple years every day, though they left it behind 30 years ago.
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SammyWinstonJack Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:45 PM
Response to Reply #6
25. A king's ransom and yet there are thousands of homeless vets in this country.
Do you feel guilt for your "king's ransom?" My nephew who was in the Navy for only 7 years never fails too get an appointment with the VA and they take care of him as if he were a General. And yet we hear about countless vets who can not get care? How does that work? And why is that?
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madeline_con Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:53 PM
Response to Original message
2. I hope you can find some peace.
I can't even begin to imagine what you must be going through. Thanks to both you and your father for your service.

:patriot: :hug:
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scarletwoman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:53 PM
Response to Original message
3. All our experiences go into making us who we are. We don't get to edit our lives.
Edited on Thu Jan-10-08 10:56 PM by scarletwoman
Not really.

:hug:
sw
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:02 PM
Response to Reply #3
10. "We don't get to edit our lives." No we don't.
Only psychopathic liars edit their lives, and Bu$h is the best example ever!
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Hobarticus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:54 PM
Response to Original message
4. Hey DemoTex...thanks for your service.
Seriously.
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cynatnite Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:55 PM
Response to Original message
5. I hate war...period. But I loved my time in the Army and I'd do it again...
I wasn't in during Vietnam or anything like that. Hell, I was a kid at the time. I was active from 86 to 90 and spent several years in reserves afterward. I have no doubt my limited experience can compare to yours in any way.

We had the benefit of peace time, learning integrity, taking pride in ourselves and our country and so on.

Now, we've got bush, cheney and rumsfeld to thank for ruining it. It'll take years to recover...if ever.

My daughter graduates high school this year. We've had three calls from Army recruiters. They won't get my kid.
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:58 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Yep .. you understand.
That's important!
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LakeSamish706 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 10:59 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Yep, and then you ran into the Bush screw ups big time... What a road...
block that was indeed!
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LakeSamish706 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:00 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. Good for you, and don't let them either... This war is Bullshit as we all know. n/t
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:02 PM
Response to Original message
11. We must be smoking the same shit, bro.
Edited on Thu Jan-10-08 11:05 PM by TahitiNut
FTA.

I absolutely DETESTED the fucking asshole who, upon learning that I was drafted, told me it would be a "learning experience."

DETESTED him!!

What I detest more is that he was right.

FTA! :grr:
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:06 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. God Damn THAT is right!
We learned, all right. Mother of my dog, we learned! And only those that did it will ever know. It is the ultimate coterie, my friend!
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:14 PM
Response to Reply #14
20. I was trying to explain to my step-sister's kid what the 'bond' was between Viet Nam Vets.
He guessed it was because we understood what each other went through.

I thought about that.

Then I said, "No."

I told him that NOBODY could understand what we each experienced - not really even ourselves - and that other Viet Nam vets understood how lonely that felt.

It still doesn't really explain it.
But I think maybe I got closer.
Maybe some day I'll understand it better.
Until then, I'm just glad we've got each other ... and we can all cry when we see the Wall.

:patriot:
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lazer47 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:22 PM
Response to Reply #20
22. Hey Nut,, someone tried to tell me it was all about death and losing
but I disagree,,, what binds us together is LIFE cause we know just how precious it really is and how easy it is to loose,,,,IMHO,,, welcome home
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:23 PM
Response to Reply #20
23. Well said, T/N
How, for example, could you possibly understand the highly technical (for 1970) aspects of my TOP-SECRET CODE-WORD CRYPTO missions? Not possible. Period. One can't even guess at what we did.
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BlackVelvet04 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:47 PM
Response to Reply #23
27. My brother's
license plate was NO HUE. Only Vietnam Vets got it.
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mitchtv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
13. Good Luck, Tex
I didn't serve. When I reported to Whitehall St for induction, they took me to the head of the line, and gave me a 4F, and they paid my lunch. "My Type" was unwelcome in '64. Mot sorry I missed it.
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:11 PM
Response to Reply #13
16. Good-god-damn-for-you! You did not miss a thing, Mitch.
4-F and lunch! Ain't the Army great? I'm assuming "your type" was what is now a "don't ask; don't tell" situation. Eh?
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mitchtv Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 02:27 PM
Response to Reply #16
33. More or less
I still had additional cards to play, left .
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lazer47 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:08 PM
Response to Original message
15. Welcome Home Brother
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:13 PM
Response to Reply #15
19. Thanks Brother!
Welcome home to you, too!
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nonconformist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:12 PM
Response to Original message
17. I hate war, and I hated so many things about being an Army wife...
Edited on Thu Jan-10-08 11:13 PM by nonconformist
Yet, I miss it.

I hated never knowing what might happen or where we might go, but I miss the job security.

I hated having my babies in Army hospitals, but I miss them now, and the health insurance.

I hated the control over our lives and my husband spending weeks on end in the field, but I miss the camaraderie.

Thankfully, my husband was active duty 1993/1999, so he never had to go to war. I thank God for that every day.

But I miss it, I do.
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #17
21. Oooh boy! A side I did not know about!
I was single when I was on active duty. Engaged, actually. She got pregnant in my 11th month in Viet Nam. Not me, McGee!
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Captain Hilts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:39 PM
Response to Reply #17
24. I was a navy kid and, to this day, I like the smell of diesil oil. nt
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mvccd1000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 08:52 AM
Response to Reply #24
29. Me, too!
Every once in a while I'll walk by a generator or something and get just a whiff, and it takes me right back to the engine room.

It's fun to be right next to a locomotive beginning to accelerate with a line of boxcars behind it, too. That deep rumbling of a diesel under full load goes right through you.
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Captain Hilts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 11:42 AM
Response to Reply #29
31. You in Upstate, NY? nt
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mvccd1000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Jan-12-08 07:19 AM
Response to Reply #31
36. Nope - Iraq.
But when I go home, that's Arizona.
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Suich Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:13 PM
Response to Original message
18. Speak of the devil.....
I just got done reading the stories on your blog not 15 minutes ago and enjoyed all of them.

I cannot imagine, at all, what it was like in Viet Nam. Anyone who was, or is, in the military, has a right to feel proud, imo. Thanks for your service.

:patriot:
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DemoTex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jan-10-08 11:46 PM
Response to Reply #18
26. Thanks!
Link to blog: http://finigreenmachine.blogspot.com/
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Toots Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 09:18 AM
Response to Original message
30. I would not wish the Army on my worst enemy but I would not give up my experience
for any amount of money..It was even worse for an enlisted man...especially a "grunt"
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CRF450 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 12:37 PM
Response to Original message
32. If I was to join any military service (which I'm young enough to do so)
It would be either the Air Force, or the Coast Guard.
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Aristus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 02:31 PM
Response to Original message
34. Right with ya, Mac.
I served proudly as an M1A1 Abrams tanker in the Army including service in Gulf War I. I wear my veteran status with pride, and sport my Gulf War medals in every peace rally I attend.

But the funny thing is, nobody could be more peace-minded and anti-war than me. I hate and despise war, and pray that this one will end soon. And all of that sits uneasily with my life-long fascination with military hardware. I've got more books than I can count on various militaries throughout the world, and a whole section of my library devoted to tanks. Weird, huh?

Color me complex...

:hi: Mac! :pals:
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madokie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-11-08 02:54 PM
Response to Original message
35. 15 months in country, 37+ years reliving it
Edited on Fri Jan-11-08 02:55 PM by madokie
theres no going back theres no changing it. Have you noticed that the ones screaming the loudest about this illegal war are the ones who have been there, as in an illegal war.
Peace bro I'm just glad we've all made it home, those of us who did that is, very sad for my brothers who didn't, its for them I must carry on this fight to end this war.
Who of us would have ever thought that our children would one day have to fight an illegal and unjust war also, I know I didn't.

Add: lets rec this up
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