Your're in the Army Now...

Doc factoid time. Aside from spending 12 years in the Marines I also spent awhile in the Virginia National Guard.

I signed on probably a good 7 years after I got out of the Marines but they took me right back with the same rank that I left the Marines with.

I was issued a seabag full of new Army uniforms and a CD full of information on Army indoctrination, how to wear the uniform, rank structure etc. I thought that was pretty funny that they just kind of leave it up to you to figure out. Fortunately most of my drill weekends I wore my civilian clothes and on the occasional administration drill weekend I would have to wear my camouflage uniform but that was the extent of it. I ended up missing a dress uniform inspection, good thing as I never did figure out how to put on all of odds and ends, guess I should have paid more attention to the CD.

All in all the National Guard was a big let down for me coming from the Marines. I was used to discipline and order and the Guard just lacked all of that. I had pay problems that never got resolved. There was other administrative problems that never got worked out month after month.

One funny thing was lunch during the admin drill weekends. Sometimes there was a woman who was contracted out to provide us meals, obviously the lowest bidder. Nothing horrible but just not very tasty or imaginative but it was times better than when we would get the frozen school lunch packets. They kept a freezer full of these things and just pulled them out and passed them around. They were A) Horrible B) Tasteless and C) Frozen!

Most guys drove from all parts of Virginia and from Maryland, I even think there was someone coming from Pennsylvania. Well you don't join the Guard to get rich, but gas was costing a fortune back then, you've driven for hours, now your choice is staying at a local hotel for $80+ a night or sleeping on a cot provided by the unit. Most guys opted for the cots.

I left the unit after returning from Iraq as I was going overseas again and it was just to difficult to maintain my status with the unit, that and I was tired of the same old routine.

Book Corner - Finished Reading

In The Hot Zone - One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars by Kevin Sites
Paperback
547 pages
Nonfiction

You may or may not be familiar with the author's Yahoo blog of the same name 'In The Hot Zone'.

I enjoyed reading his blog as he really gives a deeper insight to the conflicts going on around the world.

He has great stories to share and gives you both sides of the story.

I especially enjoyed his story about surfing here in Sri Lanka.

All in all I'd say worth reading.

Korean War Story From My Father

This Korean war story by my father was published in the local newspaper today (6/27) in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the start of the Korean War.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/testimonials-vignettes-korea-veterans-ms?cid=rltd&cid=srch

On the 24th of December, I was in the fourth platoon on a hill where the ridge line went straight to the enemy positions. We were so close we could see them walking in their trenches.

When the sun started to set, it began to snow. Just before midnight, I heard Christmas music from the other side. I thought, as an 18-year-old, that the music was brought up somehow by the American Army. I felt sad and nearly cried.

Then the music stopped and a voice said, “This is the Chinese communist army and we invite you to surrender.”

The speaker told us how we would get a hot meal and read letters from prisoners of war. Meanwhile, a voice from the foxhole next to me said, “Pass the word, get the artillery.”

So I told the soldier in the next foxhole the same thing. It did not take long.

Soon the shells were flying over our heads toward where the sound was coming from.

When morning came and the fog lifted down in the valley, near the bottom of the hill was a ring of bodies around a speaker stand. Christmas Day, 1951.

– Phillip W. Meyer, Virginia Beach

Book Corner - Finished Reading

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Paperback
361 pages
War novel/autobiography
Nonfiction (?)

This is going to be a hard revue. I have never seen the movie and being
one to be influenced by the critics I just took it for granted that it
was a bad movie and book and I wouldn't like either. So I found the
book at our small library and decided I would go ahead and read it.

It didn't take me long to feel like I was right there with the author in
many of the same situations he was in. Twentynine Palms, California in
the 80's, check, Camp Hansen, Okinawa in the 80's, check, The Kinville
bar district outside of Camp Hansen in the 80's (Just being honest, also
last place I ever drank alcohol), check, knuckleheaded Marines, check
and double check.

Some of the situations he describes I have personally known Marines that
experienced the same. Coming home from Okinawa to an empty house or
some other Marine living in your house? Yes, I knew Marines that
through that. I remember a Marine telling me that his wife worked at a
certain bar in Twentynine Palms and that she was the bartender. Another
Marine kind of pulled me to the side and asked me if his wife's name was
such and such and worked at this certain bar which I said yes. He told
me that his wife had been sleeping around and that someone else lives in
his house. I was naive and thought it must be someone else. Well he
shipped back not long after that and it couldn't have been 48 hours
after we saw him that he called a friend in Okinawa crying and said that
his house was empty and his wife had moved in with another man.

Drunken nights and fights in Kinville? I may not have experienced the
fights but certainly seen one or two spill out of a bar.

Some other things that the author has seen in Okinawa, sadly I must
admit I have stumbled upon them myself.

But back to the book. Did I find it vulgar, absolutely, but believe me,
nothing less than I experienced in the Marines. Did I find it over
exaggerated in some parts, of course. I'm sure the author took a
certain liberty to enhance his strengths and weaknesses. Did I find it
poorly edited? Yes, many Marines will take fault with some of the dialog.

So whats my call? Good read or not? I am going to take the unusual and
first time stance of no call. I won't say yes or no.