Would you still be enlisted?

[willis williams]

Nate, That is great that you think of your family. You have done your part and raising your family is not no easy battle field especially with PTSD. I seem to screw up plenty of times and my sons seem to always love me even though they may not like me. You seem to be on top of the game since you all ready have a diagnoses. It is nice to know that with most soldiers around the world even though we are battered & broken we would still stand and fight. Nate, I thankyou for your service I don't know how you deal with any of the bullshit of a duty station with PTSD. I could see combat but could not handle regular duty (to many article 15s to get). You are a better man than me. TEX

 

[BV101]

For me no. Absolutely not. When I joined ABiH we had no training, foriegn deployments were to the other end of town! We werejust there trying to stop the genocide in BiH. To get out and be demobilised was the best feeling ever. It meant that BiH would live and I would live. If I turned the clock back would I do it again? Of course. Would I have stayed in? No. Absolutely not. The world changes. Things need to move on. Our new armed forces is made up of all the ethnic groups and these kids can barely remember the war.

 

[lordoss]

If I could go back in, I would in a heart beat. Would I be married much longer after that? Probably not. I miss the esprit de corp. I have been thinking about this, I know there is no way that I would be able to get back in as I was medically discharged but I've been thinking of other ways. I've thought of getting a civvie job over in the sandbox. Another option was to look at joining the US military (my wife is a US citizen). but then again would the wife appreciate it or let me? I very much doubt it so now it's just my little fantasy that I bounce around my head from time to time and never let her know about it.

 

[Wagon]

Afraid I can't even entertain the thought of being back in the Navy. The little piece of paper they give you when you get out said 3 years 2 months and 20 days of sea time on mine. That means over 3 years living exclusively on a ship: stacked five high in sleeping quarters, not going ashore for weeks on end, running out of water at sea and not taking showers for days, eating food made from circus animals (exaggeration). All this while some asshole Officer want's to be some sort of Admiral Burke and conquer the Russians. Crusaders, we called them. Crusaders always got people killed. Taking stupid risks and causing stress where none was needed. The Navy was the worst kind of good ole boy club. Good Officers were few and far between and the ones that made it to the top ranks were the ones who spent allot of time in DC kissing Admiral and Senator ass. Never by talent. I envy the Marines and Army for their better officers. Seems like they know the deal more.

I remember when I got out and went to University, the GI bill and pell grant, just did not cut it on out of state tuition.
So I joined the Navy Reserves to get in State Tuition. Of course just then the first Operation Sandbox was getting ready to go, so the first thing they did was issue me a whole new Sea Bag, everything, promoted me to E 5 and said be ready to go at a moments notice. To do what I asked, I'm a navigator. They said, Oh we'll find a spot. I said NO WAY. I also said, I think my foot will break. I told one of my room mates at the time, who was in the Coast Guard that if I got notice to go, would he please help me break my foot. There was a good size rock in the back yard......waiting.
I felt that way then, and I feel that way now. I think it would like returning to hell, no matter how much life sucks right now.

We had a saying in the Navy, other than the little FTN's (you can guess what it means) carved in the paint all over the ship. It goes.
"The Navy is like a fan
Stand in front of it, it blows.
Stand behind it, it sucks
Stand beside it, it doesn't do a damn thing for you"

Sorry for the rant guys. The thought of going back is very distasteful to myself

wagon

 

[No Folded Hands]

Nope. But then, I never was enlisted....:D *ducks*

Would I still be in...let's see, I went in with the intention to stay in for the standard 20 years, so yeah, I would be if certain things had not happened that ended in my getting out. On the other hand, I may have gotten out the hard way after the war started. Considering that my installation was one of those closed during downsizing (or "right sizing, if you remember that bit of sophistry) it's difficult to figure where I would have been stationed a few years later with the response to 9/11 and so if I'd have been deployed then.

As for hindsight choice, I can't say. Too much has happened in life since my discharge that could not be easily tossed out, and besides that frankly a lot of that choice for me would depend on the people I'd be serving with and under. I miss some of my old unit fiercely to this day.

 

[willis williams]

Yah I would go back in if I could go to combat and stay or be brought back with a flag over top. Combat is ten times easier than life as a mental civilian.At least in combat you know what the enimy is going to do to you and you know what you have to do to them the only stress is who is faster and smarter. Civilian life has been just misserable to me yes I have my children that I love but damn life is to f*cked up. I hate that I spend so much time adgitated and not injoying life. In combat when we fought we fought hard but when we played we played harder because with a life expectancy as short as a sapper every second counts and I miss that horribly.

 

[Jimmy1]

I don't think its combat at all, I think its the military way of life, combat just goes hand in hand with it.
The way of life is what I loved. Living by a strict set of rules and the discipline of every day life within the military.
You stayed fit, and if you fell, they picked you up, fixed you, and got you fit again.
You partied hard and had mates backing you up wherever you were, either in combat, in the barracks, out in the boonies, or on operations, someone was always watching your back.
You were respected for time served.

Now out there on Civvy street, people don't give a shit unless its ANZAC day for us and Veterans Day for you. And even then there are the wankers you disrespect what our forefathers have done. I had better shut up before I get started.

Jimmy

 

[Koala]

For me it is a huge yes.. If my legs and shoulder could stand up to boot camp I would get back in. But I am not sure if it is just the romance of it all. I remember hitting the boozer on thursday afternoons after sporties. I remember hitting the boozer on Friday afternoons with my mates. I remember the feeling of going bush and setting up the cam nets and digging in, we had an old digger who we would give the easy quick job. He would have a coffee waiting for us either after our turn at digging or after getting ourselves caught in those f*cking cam nets. lol... He was also the story teller and would have us in fits of laughter. I remember the first time we got shot at, when I gave my mate the thumbs up "f*ck yeah, this is that we have trained for".

But...

I also remember the training, being out bush in the freezing cold, water in your pit up to your chest looking out for an invisible enemy all with only having a couple of hours of sleep a night of the past week.
I also remember not being able to do any civvie sports, have any routine appointments because of going bush or operations at short notice.
I also remember the times when a cock head in your unit would f*ck up and you would all get shafted but were unable to touch the cock head.

But in saying all of that, yeah I would still be in. I think of a Rat Pack and my mouth waters. I thinking of the hard times, the times on operations when you are sleeping on the dirt eating cold rat packs without a shower for eight weeks, and how f*cking good a beer and ciggie tastes when you get home.

There is nothing like the military to make you savour the luxuries in life.

Koala

 

[BV101]

oooh I am glad I didn't have any training, it all sounds rubbish to me!

 

[Wagon]

It is rubbish Alan. You are lucky in at least one way.

At one time I would have given anyhthing to out of boot camp and then later on, I would have given anything to be back in.

wish I had never experienced any of it...... f*ck the Navy.

Wagon

 

[Jimmy1]

Lets have a think about it though.
Alan, you were fighting for the country you were living in right, basically in your back yard.
You also look at some other countries in the world where children are raised around weapons.

For us, we need the boot camps and training, we need to learn instinctive discipline, otherwise it would be a right royal cluster f*ck if it came to defending our own countries.
How else can you get a soldier to charge a machine gun nest, he is not going to do it for a beer or a cup of joe.

I loved the Army, and would gladly serve again. Its not their fault that I have PTSD. Yes, they did put me in a war zone, and may not have debriefed me properly, but when it comes down to it, its my head, and as you know, PTSD is totally random on who gets it.

The problem with the defence forces now is that its getting too touchy feely. If you are going to defend a nation you need blind instinctive obedience.

I used to hate the Army for how I ended up, but I have come to realise that it is not their fault.

Wagon, you should be proud to have served your country. I am.

 

[Wagon]

Have a think on this Jimmy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1htQA5kCYo

Then have a think on this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion

Pride isn't any part of it brother. They forward deployed our ass just a month or so after we had almost lost the whole show. Couldn't get the burning body stink out of the forward part of the ship. Had to smell that every day and look at that turret every day for a year.

Nobody gave us answers. People were breaking their legs in order to not go on the ship again. They caught a few the night before. One guy trying to break another's leg with a 2 by 4. Fights were breaking out on the ship the first day out. This shit never happens, We fight in bars, not on the ship, especially first day out. The Chaplain is roving the ship trying to assess the mood. "Worst crew morale seen since Vietnam" I heard someone say.

Pride. No Sir! My only pride in the whole situation is that I wrote my shipmates and friends names down in the official log very carefully and accurately. Like I was the only person taking care of their memory. I wrote and wrote. 47 names and numbers. I'd make a mistake and throw the whole shit away. Start over. They deserved perfection.

I don't need pride for what I did in the Navy, and I am not proud to have served. It was a means to an end, but a real shitty means in my book. They did not care about us, they treated us like absolute shit and took care of their own. Typical Navy. Our Captain should have had his balls handed to him on a platter, but because he knew some Senator, he was allowed to stick around. Piece of shit testified before Congress that the crew was sub-standard and everything was our fault..... f*cking nice. Then we deployed together.

Sorry. I can't be proud of what I served in, or the country that supported it. One of the main reasons I don't live there any more. f*ck the Navy and and f*ck Captain Fred Moosaly and the god damn Navigator. He's probably pushing 65 by now, but I'd still punch that bastard square in the nose if I ever saw him.

Sorry about being forward on this one, but this just pisses me off.

Wagon