Medal of Honor

[The_AirHawk]

Hiawatha soldier may be first living Medal of Honor recipient since Vietnam | GazetteOnline.com

So, you guys that have been in the "Shootin' Military", what would you have done?

The same, I bet. I know that I wouldn't have let the enemy take a Buddy, if there was anything I could do about it.

[Kenneth_Moore]

Josh Brennan was pretty lucky to have this guy at his back. It's amazing we don't have any (known) POWs in Iraq or Afghanistan. There's a similar scene in "The Hurt Locker," which is about a US Iraq IED squad. Very good flick, BTW.

[mscuddy]

"Through the travail of the ages
Midst the pomp and toil of war
I have fought and died and perished
Countless times upon this star
As if through a glass and darkly
The age long strife I see
Where I fought in many guises, many names,
But always me."

I would have hit the rag head with my entrenching tool. Or my mace.

[seruzawa]

No one knows what they would do until faced with the situation. Consider yourselves lucky that you never had to fight it out with guys with AKs and RPGs.

[The_AirHawk]

Originally Posted by seruzawa

No one knows what they would do until faced with the situation. Consider yourselves lucky that you never had to fight it out with guys with AKs and RPGs.

Actually, I DO consider myself Lucky in that respect.

My "Age of Service" came about when the Military wanted someone that wasn't a Hi-skule Drupoff, so they wouldn't even talk to me. Except the Marines. They wanted me pretty badly after they caught wind of my ASVAB scores.

But, I didn't want to go into the Corps.

Or Corpse, if you're the POTUS. But I digress..........

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by The_AirHawk

Actually, I DO consider myself Lucky in that respect.

My "Age of Service" came about when the Military wanted someone that wasn't a Hi-skule Drupoff, so they wouldn't even talk to me. Except the Marines. They wanted me pretty badly after they caught wind of my ASVAB scores.

But, I didn't want to go into the Corps.

Or Corpse, if you're the POTUS. But I digress..........

The irony is that you are probably safer in a Marine combat unit. Enemies would usually rather face the Army.

[sarnali2]

That's why I joined the Navy when I did. I had no desire to go crawling around the jungle trying to root out little fellows in black pajamas while they tried to shoot me. I figured I'd be pretty safe on a ship though stupidly enough I asked for Engineman on a PBR as my first pick, Then BT or MM on a can, of course I wound up on a carrier of all things....

[V2Rider]

Originally Posted by seruzawa

No one knows what they would do until faced with the situation. Consider yourselves lucky that you never had to fight it out with guys with AKs and RPGs.

I train a lot of young men and women who have done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan or are soon headed there. I do feel lucky but also a bit guilty at the same time. I spent 28 years in uniform (Army) and other than a short stint in Macedonia/Kosovo (actually a vacation from the wife and not considered a combat zone) I missed all the deployments. Had orders to Taji, Iraq but they got scrubbed two weeks before I headed out. Retired a year later.

I agree, you never know how you'll deal with it. Heard a story from a friend that flies Apaches I thought was pretty funny and goes right to that point. They had a new female Apache pilot, a platoon leader, and she seemed pretty nervous going out on one of her first missions. After the mission they played back the gun camera film from the crews that went. He said that during most of the films you could hear the stress level go up in the voice of the pilots when the bullets started flying but when they played back her gun camera film he said it was the funniest thing. In the middle of the worst of it, things exploding and bullets thru the ****pit, she started singing, just cool as can be, like she was in the shower all the while firing her rockets and machine gun. He said the the song went something like this "Its getting hot in here, time to take my clothes off". He said she turned beet red when they played the tape. I guess she was quite attractive and needless to say she caught a lot of ribbing for that. Ya just never know.

[The_AirHawk]

Originally Posted by V2Rider

In the middle of the worst of it, things exploding and bullets thru the ****pit, she started singing, just cool as can be, like she was in the shower all the while firing her rockets and machine gun. He said the the song went something like this "Its getting hot in here, time to take my clothes off". He said she turned beet red when they played the tape. I guess she was quite attractive and needless to say she caught a lot of ribbing for that. Ya just never know.

It's always the Quiet Ones........

[seruzawa]

Originally Posted by V2Rider

I train a lot of young men and women who have done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan or are soon headed there. I do feel lucky but also a bit guilty at the same time. I spent 28 years in uniform (Army) and other than a short stint in Macedonia/Kosovo (actually a vacation from the wife and not considered a combat zone) I missed all the deployments. Had orders to Taji, Iraq but they got scrubbed two weeks before I headed out. Retired a year later.

I agree, you never know how you'll deal with it. Heard a story from a friend that flies Apaches I thought was pretty funny and goes right to that point. They had a new female Apache pilot, a platoon leader, and she seemed pretty nervous going out on one of her first missions. After the mission they played back the gun camera film from the crews that went. He said that during most of the films you could hear the stress level go up in the voice of the pilots when the bullets started flying but when they played back her gun camera film he said it was the funniest thing. In the middle of the worst of it, things exploding and bullets thru the ****pit, she started singing, just cool as can be, like she was in the shower all the while firing her rockets and machine gun. He said the the song went something like this "Its getting hot in here, time to take my clothes off". He said she turned beet red when they played the tape. I guess she was quite attractive and needless to say she caught a lot of ribbing for that. Ya just never know.

I had the good fortune to be on a boat where we could get some distance and use the .50s. Well, actually good fortune would have been to be assigned to a destroyer, not a river boat. Still I had it pretty easy compared to the jarheads in I Corps. At least we had showers and real chow after patrols.