Any ex servicemen (or servicewomen?) on here?

[Gadge 4,294]

After reading a few threads, wondering who else on here has ever answered the call to the colours.

 

I was in the Staffordshire regiment (British Infantry) for just over two years and the Royal Signals army reserve for about a year (but i hated that it was really boring as my unit did 'post nuclear strike communications', which basically meant tapping out morse in lead lined landrover trailers).

 

So who were you with?

[Crabbok 9,869]

I spent almost 7 years in the U.S. Army.   Took a few trips over to the Southwest Asia region during my time.  Once before Sept 11th 2001, and then again after.  It's amazing how [from our perspective at least] the entire world changed after that. 

 

 I had a good time though, but I wasn't really mature enough at the time to thrive in that environment.  I did computer stuff, learned alot, and look back on it with a mix of both good and bad memories.

[Gadge 4,294]

Although i went in late at 23 I dont think i really took it as seriously as i could.

 

For a start i was a prat to go into the infantry as a graduate.  It was great fun but i left with very few transferable professional skills.   It did wonders for my self reliance,personal qualities and confidence and i learnt a lot about leadership but there wasnt a lot of call for being able to operate a mortar or shoot a man size target at 600 metres at the job centre...

 

One thing i have noticed is that my army mates and I have a really different outlook on life to my non forces friends and the work ethic is massively different.

 

I went to work for GW after the army and if someone ****ed up then they woud obfuscate, deny responsibility and cover up like hell whereas the forces guys would go 'sorry my mistake, ill fix that now'.

 

I once missed a flight for a conference in Copenhagen and had to book a more expensive flight on a different airline to get there in time.

 

 

When i got back my boss was 'you prat, you've cost the department £200 extra there' and I said 'no i didn't, i paid for it myself, i made the mistake so i'll pay for it'

 

I got given my own department a month or two later for that.

 

But to me it was what you do. 

[Crabbok 9,869]

I notice two things about other veterans when I run into them.  (And I currently work with quite a few).   One is just like you said.   I heightened sense of responsibility.  It is admirable and it also comes with a greater sense of what I can best decribe as "Family".  When you meet another veteran, they are likely to bond with you very quickly, and usually they don't think twice about helping you out if you need it.  Many are quite selfless and that is awesome. 

 

  However, the other thing I notice, is that many can be quite crude.  This isn't always a bad thing, but I do feel somewhat detatched to that mindset now.   I've been out for over 10 years, and now I have a few kids.   My mindset has absolutely changed since I was in my 20s, and I no longer think it is cool to make jokes about killing brown-skinned people, or comment about homosexuality, or things like that.   SOME still do and when they do I can almost "feel" that old barracks sense of humor coming out in them.  I'm just so much more laid back and polite now.  I almost get bothered when a group of veterans start getting 'rowdy', because it makes me feel a little bit like an outsider. 

[Gadge 4,294]

Oh agreed.

 

Two guys i used to be good mates with i rarely see these days as I just couldnt get past the casual racsim and closet homophobia.

 

Whenever the three of us were out i'd always be jokingly called Q**er or G** or whatever.  I snapped one day (and i appreciate it was because i was the guy with the least service time and they'd each doen about 12 years) and said

 

"Guys, i'm married, i've been with Sian for 6 years and im comforable with my life, my sexuality and my dress sense, i think you two might be compensating for something as you've both got shaved head, only hang out with guys and cant hold down a relationship with a woman for more than a month as you usually talk to them like they are recruits"

 

That shut them up.

 

But yeah thats the one thing i dont like.

 

I do appreciate 'dark humour' and i know that when I was soldiering we'd laugh about quite grim stuff and nothing was sacred but I really feel uncomfortable when people who i respected proffesionally would use words like N****r and P**i and similar racist remarks, had questionable views on women and were positively hostile to gay people.

 

Another amusing story is that one of the to guys mentioned above made me go to hooters for his birthday once and I just hated it as all the girls there were being letched at and looked like they hated their job.     My wife and I afterwards took him to a bar we knew in town... after about 30 mins he was nudging me going 'Gaz...gaz... look those guys are holding hands'

 

I said 'ooh so they are wierd eh?   Oh look those girls are kissing too... probably because we're in a gay bar mate'

 

He hit the roof.     I couldnt get him to understand that no one was going to try and hit on him and that I felt as uncomfortable as he did when my wife and i had to have a meal surrounded by girls clearly paid to be sex objects

 

But yeah i know what you mean about the courseness.   It has its place in the field but a lot of guys cant leave it behind when they leave.

 

The guy i refer to earlier was incredibly instituionalised.   He went into the postal service after the army as he was still getting up at 5am to press his clothes for about a year after leaving.

 

Myself i went the opposite, i went from being very organised and smart to 'dropping out' for a few years and my house was a areal tip, grew my hair long, had a lot of piercings etc etc.

[Jo Jo 4,808]

Currently in the Inactive Ready Reserves, but i served 9 years in the Army National Guard. Half of that enlisted and half as an artillery officer. Got one combat tour to Afghanistan in that time frame. Really my civilian career has taken precedence and I'm nearly out of the IRR completely. I miss the comradery but don't miss the other BS that you get being in the military.

[Crabbok 9,869]

There was indeed alot of BS.  makes me appreciate what I have now.   I remember after coming home from Iraq - I was just blissfully happy for EVERY.  SINGLE.  THING - for almost a solid YEAR.  Green grass, McDonalds, radio in my car, air conditioning......  all of it made my smile.  Now I take all that stuff for granted.

[Gadge 4,294]

I always think its a joke about it being 'character forming' but it really was for me.

 

Nothing phases me these days and im generally not scared of much.

 

Definitely made me a much more resilient and self reliant man.

[Space Cadet 170]

I spent time in East Timor as a civilian security advisor, based at the Australian National Command Element, employed by the Australian government under the UN in a protective services role with seven other Aussies and a mad and always hungry Kiwi.

 

By the time I left Timor we had approximately 1400 active LEC staff working in the OPWZ, Loved working there with a great many nations and the local people are fantastic and the fishing was just insane. 

 

Also worked with the RAAF for a few yeras and started my role in a blue uniform and emergency services, now driving civil mining in the remote areas of the Pilbara.

 

PTSD is real and lately have lost a few mates and the more this happens the more crap everyone else gets, especially me. 

Xwing, strangling my guitar loudly and occasionally drawing tattoos and other toons relieves stress.

[VanorDM 11,599]

Lots of Vets here. I was in the US Army from 88 to 94, and did serve during Desert Storm and Desert Shield.

I really valued my time in and am glad I did it. I find myself conflicted though on if I want my any of my kids to join or not. Two are old enough but neither did, although I don't think either of them would of done well.

My younger two, we'll see. But I find myself both wishing they would, and hoping they don't. My family has served since WWII anyway, and I'd like to carry on the tradition, but at the same time... I don't want to see any of them put in harms way. Guess it's the difference between being a young man and a father.

[Space Cadet 170]

There was indeed alot of BS.  makes me appreciate what I have now.   I remember after coming home from Iraq - I was just blissfully happy for EVERY.  SINGLE.  THING - for almost a solid YEAR.  Green grass, McDonalds, radio in my car, air conditioning......  all of it made my smile.  Now I take all that stuff for granted.

 My first tip home my awesome wife picked me up with the kids and droves us all home, After months of never exceeding 40KPH she freaked me out going over 110 on the open road and you know what happens to speeding vehicles.

 

On the first day home we all went to a basket ball stadium to sit in the dark to watch Winne the Pooh on ice, That really ****** with my head, I thought I was hallucinating and the wife still reminds me of that day. WOW 

[VanorDM 11,599]

My first tip home my awesome wife picked me up with the kids and droves us all home...

My parents and then fiance now wife picked me up from bootcamp, I went from Fort McClellan Alabama to Redstone Arsenal Alabama for AIT... You know join the Army and see the world or just Alabama.

They asked me where I wanted to go for dinner, my first meal not at mess hall, and I said I don't care where as long as the food is brought to me. I just want to sit down and be served.

So we went to Old Country Buffet...

I sit down to eat, put my head down and start to shovel it in, cuse you know 8 weeks of 5 minutes to eat and all. They just stared at me in shock. Tell me to slow down and talk. Which I do for about 30 seconds then put my head down again.

[Crabbok 9,869]

I always ate very fast - so even in Basic Training I would be the last one fed and teh first one done.   I never understood why peopel complained about not having time to eat!  ha ha!  WIthin the last year or two I've started to slow down a little, mostly for health reasons and my metabolism is much slower now so I try to eat slower so I can make less feel like more. 

 

Bravest thing I ever did - the 1st week of being in Iraq in 2003, I got to go downtown with our Civil Affairs people.  We stopped near a market and I went and bought a chicken from a street vendor.  I have no idea how long it had been out on the rotiseree, but there were flies buzzing all around it.  They wrapped in in flat bread and sold it to me.   I took it back to our camp and ate the whole thing - didn't get sick at all! 

[Jo Jo 4,808]

 

There was indeed alot of BS.  makes me appreciate what I have now.   I remember after coming home from Iraq - I was just blissfully happy for EVERY.  SINGLE.  THING - for almost a solid YEAR.  Green grass, McDonalds, radio in my car, air conditioning......  all of it made my smile.  Now I take all that stuff for granted.

 My first tip home my awesome wife picked me up with the kids and droves us all home, After months of never exceeding 40KPH she freaked me out going over 110 on the open road and you know what happens to speeding vehicles.

 

On the first day home we all went to a basket ball stadium to sit in the dark to watch Winne the Pooh on ice, That really ****** with my head, I thought I was hallucinating and the wife still reminds me of that day. WOW 

 

 

 

Haha! I know what you mean. Our MRAPs only went about 50mph. So after 9 months of slower speeds, when I got onto an American highway at +70mph, I felt like I was traveling at warped speed. Really strange sensation.

[Tidally Locked 15]

I joined up a few years ago as an infantyman with the US Army which turned out to be a mistake, because I got the scores to choose any career path and was one year of school away from being able to be an officer but infantry was shipping out soonest so I hopped aboard. After basic I was a part of the 101st for a year before I crippled myself in an accident at air assault school. Now I'm discharged with benefits and thinking about the reserves.

[Gadge 4,294]

That sucks fella.   Pretty much totally understand where you are though.   I damaged my spine so badly though that it needed surgery and the scarring the surgery left made it actually worse so I'm never going to be wearing green again

[Gadge 4,294]

I always ate very fast - so even in Basic Training I would be the last one fed and teh first one done.   I never understood why peopel complained about not having time to eat!  ha ha!  WIthin the last year or two I've started to slow down a little, mostly for health reasons and my metabolism is much slower now so I try to eat slower so I can make less feel like more. 

 

Bravest thing I ever did - the 1st week of being in Iraq in 2003, I got to go downtown with our Civil Affairs people.  We stopped near a market and I went and bought a chicken from a street vendor.  I have no idea how long it had been out on the rotiseree, but there were flies buzzing all around it.  They wrapped in in flat bread and sold it to me.   I took it back to our camp and ate the whole thing - didn't get sick at all! 

 

 

I normally eat little and often.

 

Learning to eat in army mess halls was a culture shock as we'd all go in for breakfast and have cereal followed by huge fried breakfasts... i just couldnt eat that much without feeling sick through morning duties so was usually really hungry by lunch time.

 

I loved being in the field and on ration packs (ours are really tasty) as i could choose how much i ate, when and where to a degree.

 

Im probably the only person who actually preffered rat packs to the mess hall though

 

But yeah my mates sometimes go 'where you ever in prison', because i tend to wolf stuff down fast leaning over my plate

[Gadge 4,294]

A young infantry me in the back of the wagon in about 1998.

 

quite the idealist then and keen as mustard

 

 

Oddly i've got about eight pics total of me in uniform as we didnt have digital cameras so easily then and it wasnt that 'tactical' to get the old pocket nikon out and snap shots as we were usually out at night

[InstantAequitas 678]

Been an Infantryman in the US Army 8 years as of January. I Still love it/hate it and wonder whether or not I will do 20.

[GreyHart 128]

22 years (1980-2002) US Navy (retired).

 

I can relate to several of the posts here. It took me ages to be able to:

 

a.) sit down and enjoy a meal without wolfing it down

b.) having a conversation were every other word wasn't the "f-bomb"

c.) sleep more than 4 hours at a stretch

 

Its still a bit rough on the second one as I work with a bunch of retired Navy guys so the conversation is pretty free around here. I still have to watch myself in casual conversation with people. And it's been more than 12 years since I retired.    

[Gadge 4,294]

In the British Army , every other word is F or Fing

 

Its a noun, an adjective and a verb and quite often becomes an additional part of other words like Un-F******-believable.

 

You can also call each other f as a term of endearment

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

I've jumped out of too many perfectly good airplanes in my day.

[GreyHart 128]

Yeah... no. No way in hell am I jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to rely on a bed sheet and clothesline to get me to the ground. I'll take a ship through a hurricane before I do that ( - and I HAVE. PM if you want the details  ).

 

I was also not crazy enough to volunteer for submarine service. Serving on a ship designed to sink built by the lowest bidder was not my idea of fun. I'm not claustrophobic, I just like the feel of wind, sun and salt spray on my face thank you.

 

@Gadge - yeah, I tried to tell my ex-wife that I wasn't dropping the f-word to be vulgar, it was more like for punctuation and emphasis. <shrugs> At least my girlfriend is a bit more understanding. Heck, she's let fly a couple times and I started taking notes! Different regional curses can be quite entertaining (I'm from the Midwest, she's from New England). 

[WonderWAAAGH 7,153]

Some of us didn't have a choice.

[VanorDM 11,599]

Some of us didn't have a choice.

That reminds me of a buddy of mine when I was in.

My MOS required a Secret security clearance, which isn't that hard to get. But he ran into issues because his dad was a member of the Soviet Army.

His dad defected to the US a good while before he was born, but when he turned 18 was forced to join the Army like everyone else was. When they were doing the background check they got a flag that his dad was part of the Soviet Army... They sorted it all out in the end, but it came very near to ending his career.