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Oh, I had my times. September 11th wound me up on guard duty minutes after it happened. Problem was we were under a pretty heavy typhoon at the time. So I got to get a taste of the weather.

Army gave me the opportunity to blow out both knees and a shoulder. That's why I was only at Campbell for a short stint. Bum knees keep you out of Air Assault school, and I was a red mark in the commanders book. They found the first way to get me out of the unit as quickly as possible, worked out well for me though.

Being Comm, I got to hear a lot of the action, and if you think the comm guys aren't a target even if they aren't on the front lines, I don't know what to tell ya haha.

I'm proud of the time I served, and the experience and values I picked up along the way. I just didn't get sent into combat, although the SGM told me if I failed the school I was being sent to that I would be pulled right back to the unit and shipped to Kosovo as was already planned for my team. Needless to say I didn't fail the course, no matter how bad the instructors wanted me too.

My service was a minimum is the way I see it, and compared to my grandfather, and some of the others here, I'm not much to talk about haha.

Jorge just interested what boats you were on in your 30 !!

The ones wid da flat tops on dem Flem

US Navy May 1987- June 2008.
C-2A Greyhound (aka COD) from 1989-1993. Landed on most of the US Navy's carriers at the time...even the USS Lexington.
E-2C Hawkeye from 1993-1997. I did 2 cruises off USS AMERICA (Bosnia, Somalia after Blackhawk Down, and the std Persian Gulf stuff) then onto a "special mission" squadron chasing drug runners all over the Caribbean.
C-9B 1997-2008 flying all over the world. Most interesting things here were going to places that "do not exist." Being handed a lat/long and told the weather was good...get going NOW.

I spent most of last summer in Africa as a gubermint contractor doing ISR (Intel, Surv, Recon). It was VERY interesting.

Over 6000 total hours, 251 traps and I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

RH

Always wondered about that big old saucer antenna on top of the Hawkeye and whether it created lots of lift or was the drag component a trade off??....guess the same can be said of the AWACS.

The dome is designed to produce enough lift to support itself when flying in the "on-station" profile. In normal flight, it created a lot of drag. When trying to go as fast as possible into the break at the boat, the E-2 could only go about 260-280kts. The C-2 (same engines, wings and slightly heavier) could easily do 320-340kts.

RH

Tnx..always wondered about that......

Only 27 years for me Jorge . . . "unrestricted" only applies to pilots

USMC '04-09
6154 HMLA-367 (Uh-1N and AH-1W)
OIF 6.2 and 8.1

Neat thread from last year.

I do not know if it counts but

US Army- Signed up for 31 Bravo (Military police) I ship to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in October 2012. Right now I have five years but there might be more added on in the future.

I've served in the general militia since I was sixteen years old.

What are your intentions of doing with the information, that you "don't want to leave anyone out"?

Message me if you don't want to disclose this publically.

Service branch � U S Navy

units �
boot camp, San Diego, August�November 1949
Aviation Fundamentals school, Memphis, November 1949�February 1950
Photography school, Pensacola, February�August 1950
Naval Photographic Center, Anacostia, DC, 1950�1953

date of service � 1949�1953

noncombat service � microfilm processing and editing for ONI
production crew, 1952 TV documentary Victory at Sea
PIO photography (TAD) U S Naval Academy
several functions on variety of Navy documentaries, training films, etc

Compared to my unstruck paper match, that's a heap!

US Army 1970 - 73 Paratrooper 101st Airborne

I applied for Officer Training School at 15 (too young but they allowed me to apply as I'd be 16 at the time of the intake) passed all the tests, medicals, fitness etc and was accepted. Got my papers saying to report in two weeks at Waiouru and a week later got another letter saying not to report as I had been rejected.
I went in and asked the recruiting officer who had put me through the tests etc and got told he couldn't say why I was rejected but that he would look into it. A family friend worked for the department of defense and we got her to check into it as well. It turned out it was all to do with ethnicity, the military wanted more Maori officers so a few of us white boys got rejected and they replaced us with Maori guys despite the fact that they scored lower on all the tests than us.

The following year I applied for regular force infantry, again got accepted but managed to injure myself just before the start of basic training (split two vertebrae in my lower back about a month before basic) I tried to bluff my way in but they turned me away at my final medical.

So, no military service for me but I will always have huge respect for anyone who serves.

USN 1970 to 78 boot camp glakes in feb dam was it cold. served on USS.William C LAWE DD763 keel was laid in march of 44 saw her first combat on december 10 1972.she was old but still could make 34 knots.next was the USS lasalle agf3 out of bahrain.last ship USSPIEDMONT AD17(DOC).Lawe was last Atlantic fleet destroyer to leave the waters off the coast of Vietnam.I was a BT E-6 when I was done 1978.

USAF.

C-5A Mechanic back in 1970 when they only had received a couple of them at Travis AFB.

Later became a Flight Engineer on C-141, E3A, KC-10 and last assignment was on the E-4B.

Army, March 68 - Sept. 70 Nam

US Army 1982-1986. Played in many different theaters, but spent most of my time in Europe during the Cold War. Finished up with MI at Ft Carson, CO.