WOW. I was stationed at NAS Oceana at the time. I didn't realize you were that young. You look a lot older..

 

I was at SIMA Long Beach, Ca. .... making parts for ships in the machine shop. We were pretty far removed from the real stuff. I do recall making quite a few things for weapons systems though ...


Cheers,
PISTOL

 

USMC about 10 clicks from Kuwait, west of Khafji. At that time we were assigned ammo dump security. My platoon replaced a company that was sent south due to accidental discharges. At the time it was the largest ammo dump in a combat zone in Marine Corps history we were told. 1.1 miles wide and .9 mile deep. We provided security at an airstrip further south too and some of us got to live in shipping containers. We thought we were in heaven after living in holes in the ground. We had a roof over our head, hardwood flooring, and doors that shut. The two things most missed, besides family, were drive thru windows and toilets that flushed. We had it easy compared to what is going on now.

 

I was 17 and entered the DEP on 21 August 1990, went to the Depot in San Diego on 5 August 1991, and graduated 01 November.

My folks had a fit when the Coalition Forces pushed out of Saudi into Kuwait and it made the news .... swore up and down I was "going to war". I never made it to the Gulf War, even when things heated up in 1992 while I was in Okinawa with 3d FSSG and they swore we were going back.

Now I'm sitting in a container converted into an office managing an Army network ... LOL!

 

I was doing my IR time and had a few days and a wake up when the Armored Cav Unit I was attached to got activated. They took a Com unit instead and I never did go and then my time was up and got out March of 1992.

Thanks for your service everyone. We should all be proud of our men and women that made/make up our military.

 

I don't know if my favorite memory of that experience was 100* with fog, 140* with a strong hot wind, camel spiders, or being in Riyadh... with the war imminent and a real fear the Iraqi army would invade Saudi Arabia, and the Army had taken the ammo from everyone due to negligent discharges. The first happened at the sand barrel where at the end of guard duty, you are supposed to clear the weapon and dry fire into the barrel. Well, LT dorkhead with his nice new Beretta popped out the mag, pointed the pistol in the general direction of the barrel, pulled the trigger and the round fired missed the barrel entirely. A couple of days later, same barrel, private dorkhead pulled the mag from his M-16, put muzzle into barrel, fired the round that went through the barrel and into his buddy's leg... so no more ammo for anyone... with the Iraqi army threatening... wow...

 

this was all before my time. i turned 5 when it ended. made a trip to iraq and one to afghanistan, both as a fister (13F). i dont know how some of these guys and gals go for 20 years. i'm at 6 now.... ETS date is 1 May. heading home to MN in a couple weeks for my terminal leave.

 

Who you been serving with?

As said in my first post, I was in 2/1 FA whch was deactivated after the war, and 1st Armored division was all realigned. But, I was also in 5/1 FA at Riley, 2/11 ACR, another deactivated unit was the 260th FA Det. at Rucker. Had a lot of buddies spread around though. If you haven't done a tour in Germany yet, it's something to think about. At least when I was there, line units in Germany were a whole other world compared to stateside, if you like your job. Definitely something to consider with the job market the way it is. Check your PM's.

 

i'm in the 101st CAB 101st ABN DIV. not too much sittin on the hill here, mostly did alot of mission planning and integrating our helo's with FA and other ground assets. still went out on patrols and PTT (police transition team) training the iraqi police. its been fun at times but i think its time for me to explore other things in life. i dont care too much for being away from the wife.

 

Cool! See, it is a small world. Was an Air Assault instructor at Rucker in '92. That school was mostly run by the 509th Pathfinders. Was suppose to instruct at the School in Germany when I was with the 11th ACR, but opted out due to some local "politics" and I fealt I was out of my MOS too long already.

 

now Air Assault was fun!! landed on my head the first time out the door, went to stop before i touched the ground and i "possumed"... never did the airborne thing though, i like the free fall of sky diving and seeing the country side!!

 

Makes me think of a fun jump I had. Hope I don't bore ya. We were teaching a mobile school at Ft Stewart for the 24th ID. We were using their ropes. They bought the cheap regular army twist or "laid" ropes. We normally used the kernmantle. The laid stretches 1/3 it's length, while the kern has no real stretch factor. I was one of the 2 guys doing the Australian Demo for the helicoptor phase. You have to be real carfeul with the laid rope, especially that far of a drop and it's like being on ice, you really scream in and there is a lot of potential for it to twist up and open your gate. I was concentrating on the rope and my positioning and got close to the ground a little quicker than anticipated. When I set my brake, I stretched to the ground and did a little bounce on my chest and caught myself in a push up position. I got sprung right up into the air(didn't hear anything crunch thankfully), and came down on my feet. I ran off the rope, and right at the end looked up just as I was grabbed by one of my fellow instructors. Then I noticed everybody running my way along with the HMMWV ambulance. The weeds were a little long on the LZ and thay all thought I "pancaked".

 

Wow...Its been 19 years....I remember the day when it happened...I was working for Imperial oil..

 

thatsa good thing you didnt get hurt on that one! we had alot of people practicing the aussie style off the tower, havent ever seen anyone do it out of the bird though. bet thats a sight to see

 

We didn't let the students do it out of the bird, just the tower. Surprised your instructors didn't demo it. We always did kind of a combat demo out of the bird to inspire the students before their first time in the bird. First we would do a fly-by at treetop level and on the 2nd pass, the pilot would scream in and stand it on it's tail at about 90 ft, level off and we throw out the D-bags. 2 would do the aussie (no combat gear) and 2 would would do full combat, standard rappell. The acting rappell masters in the bird would actually cut the ropes for full effect (they could usually still be used later on the 40ft tower) and the bird would fly off. The we started what we called "popcorn day". 3 birds going up and down all day, loading and unloading students. Dangit, now I'm getting all misty...