I Always Hated "about Me" Posts

[FieldArtilleryGuy]

I joined the army right out of high school. I wanted to join before, but things have changed since the days of the draft. I joined field artillery but during my first deployment I was on the ground getting hit by IEDs and kicking in doors. I was in Iraq from 06-07 when we thought the deployment was almost over we got extended to 15 months, then I volunteered to stay another month. I wanted to transfer to an incoming unit but I was told that was not possible. I didn't realize I had PTSD until late in 2008 when I noticed how much I was drinking. I hid it until after my second deployment and then got out of the army shortly after. I was stationed in fort Lewis Wa. Now it is JBLM. I tried to travel around but I got stuck in Lewis and shortly after I got out my wife's job transferred her to Colorado so we have been here since. I am pretty lucky, I'm 90% threw the VA so I get to be a stay at home dad while my wife works for Comcast. I think I got all the main points of the introduction, but if not I'm sure you guys will ask.

 

[atilla]

Welcome home Brother! Grab a bucket and start bailing..lol Lots of great info and advice in this forum. Desert Storm vet here, been dealing with ptsd, or the beast as we call it here, since 91. There are Brothers and sisters here from all over the place, warriors from the Vietnam war to current and everything in between. Again, welcome to the forum.

 

[Friday]

Welcome, Brother. Was a stay at home parent for years. Miss the hell outta it. Lol. Even if a lot of days are 'Head? Meet drywall. Repeat.' Marine Corps, here. All over the damn place. Mostly Latin America & Balkans. Some with the Corps, some after.

Lmao... I love the 'Welcome to our leaky boat, grab a bucket!' Atilla! Great people here, Stertz, and killer knowledge to kick.

 

[vikingr24]

Welcome. Drop a knee.

 

[Woodman]

welcome Mr. BStertz you will find others like yourself here and then some.

 

[SGT Crim1]

ALOHA AND WELCOME

I AM PRETENDING THAT MY CAPS LOCK IS STUCK IN PREPARATION FOR A GOOD SHOUTING MATCH!

WELCOME AGAIN! I AM AS GOOD AT LISTENING AS I AM AT PRETEND SHOUTING!

 

[dutchiedelta]

Welcome.

 

[Spock]

Welcome brother, you are among family again. We can help you recapture some of the camraderie you may be missing.
Peace!

 

[Jimmy1]

Hey mate, welcome to the forum.

All of us hate 'About Me' posts. Writing about yourself is one of the hardest things to do. Before becoming a Warrant Officer, I had to write my own assessment, boy was I hard on myself.

The reason behind it all is not really for proof you are a veteran, it's more so people won't give you 20 questions, and it's also being polite. I know in real life if we were in uniform, no matter where we came from, we would just walk up to each other and say gidday (hello). We could tell where we were from by our patches and shiz.

So, I am Jimmy from downunder. If you ever need a chat, just message me.

 

[Sludge]

Ahoy!

Welcome aboard!

Not one much for introductions myself. In the real world i prefer a series of grunts and grimaces as an introduction. That or looking quickly from side to side and shouting "We can't stop here! It's BAT country!"

There is a good crew around here. Read, learn and vent a bit. Also, ostriches and sporks.

 

[FieldArtilleryGuy]

I like the grunt introductions. I usually sit I my chair at my table away from everything and let my wife talk to new people and I just listen in. (Sometimes I don't bother to listen in, I usually know in less than a minute if I care to actually get to know someone.) It's a little trickier in public but I'm pretty sure you all hate being out as much as I do.

Atilla, I have been trying to get the water out of this boat for years, next time I'll grab something bigger than a thimble and I'll make sure it doesn't have a hole in it.

Crim1, for some reason I can imagine you sitting at your computer wearing full battle gear. Don't think I'm judging, I have played call of duty in full gear once. It was a lot of fun till I scared my kids by getting really in to the game and shouting when I got killed. (I got killed a lot.)

Jimmy, I would almost prefer 20 questions, it gives the illusion of people caring. (I'm not saying that you guys don't) being polite isn't something I have been very good at lately. I try but my wife says I come off as sarcastic or like I'm trying to be a jerk. She also say I yell when I'm pretty sure I don't but whatever, hopefully the shrink helps with that. Time will tell I guess.

 

[Jimmy1]

Hey mate,

Jimmy, I would almost prefer 20 questions, it gives the illusion of people caring. (I'm not saying that you guys don't) being polite isn't something I have been very good at lately. I try but my wife says I come off as sarcastic or like I'm trying to be a jerk. She also say I yell when I'm pretty sure I don't but whatever, hopefully the shrink helps with that. Time will tell I guess.

We used to be a part of the general PTSD forum, but Anthony, the sites creator had too many complaints and realised that we just don't play nice.
The problem we get on here is that you have all types from all countries and at all different levels of treatment. So this site was created where we can be ourselves. It used to be a lot more open slather but has been tied down a bit. This has it's good points and bad.

The other problem we had was a lot of people would join, sit in the dark for months, then rather than introducing themselves, they would just make comment on a topic. Now being a veteran, if you were with a group of mates sitting around having a chat about something and a new bloke that you had never seen before stuck his head and started jawing off, what would you think?

Maybe Australia is different.

Anyway, glad you joined mate. It's a great place to learn.