DU Veterans, check in!

[elperromagico]

What branch of the military did you serve in? Did you serve during a war?

[im10ashus]

1. Army.

And no, I never saw combat.

[Mnemosyne]

29. Thanks for your service im10ashus! n/t

[im10ashus]

46. It was an honor.

Thank you, vickiss! :hi:

[Mnemosyne]

57. Just wanted all to know they are appreciated.

:toast: :hi: :hug:

[MindPilot]

2. USN, Yes, Vietnam

[Mnemosyne]

30. Thank you much MindPilot! n/t

[evilqueen]

3. Navy

And though most people don't consider it a "war", the government now officially recognizes my service as a "Cold War" veteran.

[Mnemosyne]

32. Thank you evilqueen! n/t

[Wickerman]

4. USAF - Nov 1984 to Jan 1990

no war. Missed it by months.

[Mnemosyne]

33. Thanks Wickerman! n/t

[jackster]

5. USAF 75-77

3 years 10 months 17 days - early out for college

Tail end of Vietnam but had no bearing as I was a GIRL! (hey I think I still am!)

[Mnemosyne]

34. Thanks jackster! n/t

[wakeme2008]

6. Army Viet Nam Vet here

:)

[Mnemosyne]

35. Thank you for your service wakeme! n/t

[unhappycamper]

7. "May contain"?

Isitso? Canitbe?

[oneighty]

8. We go through this now and then

But I never tire of being a veteran.

1951-1960. Korea 52. MN2-EOD-SWD-DV2-Underwater Swimmer-ABC Decontamination.

It was fun most of the time actually.

NAVY of course. Combat? Yes.

180

[Mnemosyne]

36. Thank you oneighty! n/t

[tabasco]

9. Army

Couple firefights in Somalia.

[Mnemosyne]

38. Thanks to you tabasco! n/t

[Tikki]

10. U S Army.....

1968~1970....



Mr. Tikki

[Mnemosyne]

39. Thanks so much Mr. Tikki! n/t

[Medical Speaking]

11. USMC

I was in Viet-Nam in 1966-67, also like to tell I was a personal body guard for Medal Of Honor Father Vincent Capodanno
who was killed in Viet-Nam in 1967. God Bless His Sole.
I think about him everyday and he has been in my heart all my life since.

Semper Fi

[Mnemosyne]

40. Thank you for your service Medical Speaking! n/t

[lonestarnot]

12. Why are we now doing this on a daily basis?

[elperromagico]

15. Pardon me but I'm not on DU every day.

And pardon me further if I don't go around checking every forum to see if someone has posted something I'd like to post.

Please pardon me. I will try harder (i. e. I will try to be as good as you) in the future.

[im10ashus]

16. What's interesting is they didn't even state if they are a Vet.

I guess they are just keeping us in line. :-)

[lonestarnot]

21. am a vet... so...

[im10ashus]

49. Excellent.

Was just curious. :-)

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[elperromagico]

27. Praise from Caesar.

I'll be happy to apologize for being "an insulting ass" as soon as you point out what I said that was insulting.

Edited to remove some of the more "insulting ass"-like qualities.

[Name removed]

31. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DS1]

13. In

out now, but once in

[Mnemosyne]

41. Thank you DS1! n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Marine Crotch 1961-1965. Refused to extend my enlistment for 'Nam.

One of the things I'm most proud of. Got me 30 days mess duty as a reward because I was young, pissed off, and told the Captain who asked me to, what I thought about the war.

[Mnemosyne]

42. Thanks Tierra! And I'm impressed by your daring! n/t

[RobertSeattle]

17. Army - Engineer - 1985-1991

Desert Storm/Shield.

I peronally think I personally ended the Cold War.

On Edit - There IS a Veterans Group this probably could have been posted in. (Didn't realize it myself - DU is so much "bigger" than it it used to be!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=259

DU Admins - How about "Veteran" info in our Profiles?

[Mnemosyne]

43. Thank you Robert! n/t

[RobertSeattle]

54. Thank you for the thank you

I've found this whole new paradigm of "thanking a veteran" interesting. It's not like my whole military experience was a huge sacrifice.

1. I did it willingly.
2. I got paid (and complaints aside, Military pay isn't THAT bad)
3. I got 3 years of School at College at a very expesnive college paid for.
4. I got to go to interesting places (but not kill anyone) and have lots of interesting experiences and play with some cool toys.
5. I got to jump out of a perfectly good plane 5 times.

[Mnemosyne]

56. I've been thanking vets since the 70's.

I just deeply appreciate all that they've done.

Sorry if I insulted anyone in anyway.

[RobertSeattle]

64. OK - I appreciate you civilians too!

:)

I'm referring to when you listen to right wing radio and even if the rightie disagrees with the caller who is a veteran, they "thank him for his service" (then bash him once he has hung up)

[Mnemosyne]

66. I don't listen to radio, hearing problem, now I get it!

My thankfulness is from the heart! I didn't know of such a thing happening. They ARE such a'hole hypocrites!:hi:

Stop listening to that crap, it ain't healthy!! Save your sanity! :hug:

[malmapus]

18. Army 91-95

Got shot at and did some shooting in Somalia & Haiti

[Mnemosyne]

44. Thanks malmapus! Glad they missed! n/t

[understandinglife]

20. Navy & DIA, 1970-72

They can't ignore us or shut us down. Thank god for the Internet.

The mainstream media is a propaganda tool for the government. Without the Internet, we wouldn't really know what is going on. We the people have to cause the change. I never got involved before because I didn't know one person could make a difference. But now I know that one person can make a difference. Thanks to all of you.

Cindy Sheehan, blogger conference call, Crawford, TX, August 10, 2005

Matthew Donaldson, an independent visual artist from Auckland. “On this, the 60th anniversary of Hiroshima's bombing, my grief for all of those murdered and yet to be murdered by America's weapons - of mass destruction or otherwise - overwhelms me” said Matt.

It overwhelms me, as well, Mathew.

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[Mnemosyne]

45. Thank you understanding, for all you do! then and now! n/t

[ThomWV]

22. Army: '66 - '70 3 Tours RVN, 3 Purple Hearts, 1 Bronze Star

Yep, I understand what war means.

[Mnemosyne]

28. Thank you much for your service Thom! n/t

[jedr]

23. USN '66-'70, 38 mos aboard the USS Forestall , Vietnam

[Mnemosyne]

47. Thank you jedr! n/t

[jedr]

55. for you, it was worth it!

Interesting to see all the vets and post names that you see everyday...who knew!

[Mnemosyne]

58. I did not realize either! You are appreciated, one and all. n/t

:hug: :hi:

[B Calm]

24. US Navy 1969 - 1973

[Mnemosyne]

48. Thanks to you B Calm! n/t

[Demonaut]

25. 101st Fighting Keyboards checking in,

being a chickenhawk is hard, hard work!?

[DrDan]

26. USAF -

the latter part of Viet Nam

[Journeyman]

50. Same as DrDan. . .

and please, don't anyone "thank" me for it. what i did and how i did it and the memories i carried back are not mollified by even someone's "grateful" thanks.

work harder to stop miltary madness. there's all the thanks a veteran needs.

[Mnemosyne]

51. Thanks DrDan! n/t

[Hello_Kitty]

37. US Navy 1987-1997

Torpedoman's Mate. I lucked out and was stateside during the first Gulf War.

[Mnemosyne]

52. Thank you cc! n/t

[jbm]

53. army during peace time...n/t

.

[Hubert Flottz]

59. Drafted and shafted!

70-71 I was of no value to Rumbo and the country I wasted their time! Hell...all that time I was in the Army I thought the Army was wasting my time! FTA and RUMBO!

Rumsfield on Draftees:

The disadvantages to the individuals so brought in are notable. If you think back to when we had the draft, people were brought in; they were paid some fraction of what they could make in the civilian manpower market because they were without choices. Big categories were exempted -- people that were in college, people that were teaching, people that were married. It varied from time to time, but there were all kinds of exemptions. And what was left was sucked into the intake, trained for a period of months, and then went out, adding no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because the churning that took place, it took enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone.

"and then went out, adding no value, no advantage,"

Can you believe an Idiot that made a statement like that is still working for us?

BTW...WHERE WAS GEORGE W BUSH? WAS HE ANY VALUE after the taxpayers spent thousands training him to be a pilot and then he went AWOL in a time of war? Bush wasn't a draftee, but he TRULY was OF NO VALUE to the service!

[elperromagico]

61. That is one of the stupidest things Rumsfeld has ever said.

The ranks of WWI and WWII soldiers are filled with draftees, most of whom served honorably and many of whom died on the field of battle. The United States won in those wars. Why? A large part of the success had to do with clear goals and decisive strategies.

Goals and strategies aren't set by the fighting soldier; they are set by the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, and the generals. Blaming the fighting soldier for the lack of clear goals and decisive strategies makes no more sense than blaming the violin for playing bad music.

Apparently Rumsfeld feels that Vietnam would have gone better for us if we'd had an all-volunteer army. That's evidence of what I suspect is the Bush Administration's general hatred for Vietnam veterans. They regard Vietnam vets as losers.

[Hubert Flottz]

67. Rumsfield's role in the TORTURE and MURDER of POWs in...

Iraq has brought nothing but SHAME on any American service man, or woman, who's ever worn an American military uniform! Rumsfield is an international criminal just like Joachim Peiper, or "Sepp" Dietrich IMHO... The people behind the torture of POWs in Iraq have brought the American soldier's international image down to the same level as the SS-Totenkopfverbände!

Malmedy Massacre Trial

http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauTrials/MalmedyMassacre01.html

Torturing and killing unarmed POWs is a major war crime!

[DemReadingDU]

60. spouse served in Marines 1965-1969

including VietNam during the Tet Offensive 1968

[Dees]

62. Army 1964-66

Lai Khe, Vietnam 16th Infantry 1st Infantry Division Rifleman

FTA

[bearfan454]

63. US Navy 1974 - 1977 n/t

[5thGenDemocrat]

65. Army

Signal Corps.
Technically (that is, according to how the Army counts it) yes, I served 180 days of honorable service before August 30, 1975 (I enlisted in January 1974, taking a GED and leaving high school as a junior), which makes me a "Vietnam-era veteran."
I never got closer to Vietnam than Fort Monroe, VA (interestingly, where General Byrnes just got himself cashiered from) and I never suffered any trauma more dramatic than a paper cut.
I pounded a teletype when on-duty and saw a lot of concerts off-duty. It paid pretty well ($381/mo and benefits, IIRC) for a 17 year old and I got to see a lot of the mid-Atlantic and upper southern states.
John
There's a lot of DUers who did a lot more than I did. But my service time really wasn't all bad (just, you know, part bad).