Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Your Military Service

Lottery #39 last year of the draft in 1972, no student deferrements either. Drafted out of college.

24 years in Army Special Forces E1 to retiring as a Major.

Primarily with 7th SF and JFKSWC.

work civil service for Army and now the USMC. Guess I went over to the "dark side".
Had to learn to grunt and squeal a lot.

BH

I know Plaster now, because of reunions of the FAC Association. But not then.

Covey FACs were the last active FACs in the war, flying air strike mission in Cambodia after all air ops had stopped in SVN. Earlier, they flew a mission in Laos that paralleled what we did south of that (and largely unknown to us at the time.) Their mission was called Delta Force, and ours was Mike Force. There were actually three bases from which cross-border ops operated, CCN, CCC and CCS. That stood for Command and Control North, Central and South. I was at CCS, at Ban Me Thuot East airfield.
I was Mike 58.

US Air Force
Security Police
Aug 1984-Mar 1992
381/384th Security Police Squadron McConnell AFB Kansas
416th Security Police Squadron Griffiss AFB NY
Served during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm

Forgot to add: We flew the Cessna O-2 because one story that the Goobermint would release if we were shot down was that the unmarked plane with a dead civilian pilot aboard was probably part of a drug smuggling operation. (We did NOT know that at the time - it would have really confused and whizzed off our wives if it had ever been used.) It's also why we were told we would NOT be rescued if we went down.

The OV-10 was a pure US military craft, and so that little deception would not have worked. The O-2 was a military version of the civilian Cessna 337, making the cover story plausible.

How about "Porters"...flew by many of them in umarked paint schemes....unmistakable turbo whine as they went by!!!

There is no way to know how many little "side bets" and such were going on in SEA at the time. Half of black ops is not talking about your part, and the other half is not BEING told about other parts.

All the hundreds of hours I spent tooling around over Cambodia, I never saw a single other aircraft other than ones from our own base. The sky was empty except for me, it seemed. Only years later did I learn that the damn place was almost as busy as say, Nebraska! Half a dozen covert air ops were going on all the time - including air strikes! And I never saw even a hint of it. Truly amazing - and frightening.

It is truly amazing and only a few know and probably will never tell !!! Mny Tnx...FLEM

Scott, Where was that physically located? Asking because I lived in Solomons in the late 80s early 90s and I don't recall that still being there.

Pretty benign time in service here.

Joined the Army in February 1972, had the option of serving 2 years and most likely going to RVN or joining for 3 and picking my duty station - this was the start of Nixon's All Volunteer army. Took the 3 year option and Germany.

So, 11B Light Weapons Infantry, spent 2 1/2 years in West Berlin in the Berlin Brigade, 4th Bn. 18th Inf later redesignated 4th Bn. 6th Inf.

Drank some great beer, chased a few frauleins and mostly watched the Russians and East Germans watching us.

Got out in January 1975 as an E5.

The old rec centre, right on the Pax River. I was a diver recovering test torpedoes.

USMC, infantry. 0352, TOW gunner.

During Klintoon regime; didn't know whether we were coming or going.

Cracked up my legs pretty good doing what grunts do (jumping out of and off of schit); medical'd out in 1998 as E-3.

No big deal, one way or the other. Didn't go nowhere (other than PI and Lejeune), didn't do much other than what I was told to, when I was told to, as fast as I was told to.

Well, that, and what Marines do in/around Lejeune while on liberty....

Spent 9 1/2 years in the USMC. Had a blast. Best was 6 months in gitmo (1994) and 3 years in AK (yeah we have active duty Marines up here).

Was in boot during the first gulf war and got out just before 9/11.

VA, were you at 2nd tanks? I was there from 93-96.

USMC Tow gunner no wonder you knees are shot..wonder how many million miles of tow wire is laying around in the dessert???

USCG 1983 to present

On the same side as the NAS then? I was assuming it was actually in Solomons Island on the other side of the river.

USAF 1997-Present
Weather Forecaster (Govt. Trained liar!)
Been all over and currently on my 3rd deployment to the sandbox, but have 6 total under my belt. More than all people in my home unit combined!
For some reason, I have supported the Army on 5 of the 6 deployments I have been on.

Weren't knees. Lower leg bones got rather.... cracked.... in multiple places.

They tried to transfer me into an LAV.... didn't fit (though they tried).

HUMM-V mounted.

Not a scratch here, although I had bullets pass close enough that I could hear 'em through my lip mike, had a few bang into my plane, and had one stopped by the only square foot of Kevlar "armor" in the plane - that we sat on.

Sucked 'em up so tight they're still darn near invisible, LOL!

US Army 2000 - 2007 Medically Retired
Blackhawk Helicopter Crew Chief/Gunner
Ft Campbell, KY 9thBN 159th AVN
Korea K-16 1-52nd AVN
Ft Campbell, KY 4thBN 159th AVN

Now, Civilian contractor doing the exact same stuff. In Afghanistan, again...