You had it right, right here.

Everyone who serves, takes the risk. From the grunt to the recon, the weather scouts to water purification- every last soldier is a SOLDIER.

Whether on a ship, a truck, a plane, a chopper or on foot, every one who serves gets the job done.

The contractors and civil service too. Interpreters, equipment mechs and repair teams that aren't even IN the military but are still on the battlefield serving in jeans and polo.

Anyone can be shot at. NO one is truly immune. You could go an entire military career without ever setting foot in a combat situation as an infantryman and go 6 months as a Rear Chaplain and find yourself in combat on your first deployment. There's no tellin'

If you want to pat backs- better chalk up your hands because you will be clapping a whole lotta backs. And each and every one of them earned it.

Jægerkorpset?

And which part of the army are allowed to call themselves "Marines"?
Danish designation please, not a translation, it's too easy to confuse things without their proper name.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

(I´m going to write a bit of danish here) Henrik: The scout group I mentioned is "Opklarings Eskadronen", not "Jægerkorpset". They drove around in jeeps mounted with, as I remember, TOW anti tank rocket systems.

We were officially called "Marine Regimentet". We were part of "Bornholms værn". I don´t know, if we were actually allowed, by the army, to call ourselves "marines", but we did, and it was not discouraged. We had clothes made, with the printing "Royal Danish Marine Corps" on them.

Google "Marineregimentet Bornholms Værn" to learn a bit more.

Man, all these danes thinking the world revolves around them.

Not really, it's just that when you're referring to military units, the names of different units can be so similar that it's difficult to figure out which of them is referred to if a translated name is used.

Also, I didn't know they existed and was therefore a bit confused about a marine regiment in the army.

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An emperor without enemies, a king without a kingdom, supported in life by the willing tribute of a free people.

The world doesn´t revolve around us? All this time I´ve been living a lie!!

Henrik, I don´t think the marine regiment exists any more. I think it was shut down during the 90´s. I believe Opklarings Eskadronen is still situated on Bornholm, though.

Sorry for highjacking this thread for my own personal blabbering, I just got carried away by BigDons memories of military life.

It wasn't a hijack, I don't think, PEN67

You know, when I first read what you wrote, and the responses to you, I thought they responded well. So I wasn't going to say anything.

But you seem to have irked me just right. Bravo!

It's been a bit, and my mind still wanders to your criticism of my father's character.

We're talking about the man who feels guilty when I kill an ant.

And while I would really love to tell you what's EVERYTHING that's on my mind, I also have a large fear of getting banned, so I shall leave it at this:

1) Do you *honestly* think that a nick name from a bunch of guys you're most likely never going to see again once your term is over really going to mess someone up for life? I for one think they would get over it. But I can't say that for sure- obviously military men are bigger wimps than I gave them credit for.

2) Wagging your finger at someone who does something truly despicable and saying "Bad boy! No Biscuit!" isn't going to change ANYTHING. Some people only learn their lesson by getting the snot beaten out of them.

Are you SURE?

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True. I think it's important to be able to laugh at one's self. But I also think it's important to not be fueled by an overwhelming amount of material.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

-Dr. Seuss

Taking Copious Notes...
Bold Mine:
One thing that has struck me a lot, when reading responses by folks who seem to be 'offended' at something said (BigDon and I both suffer from this...) is how rarely people look at what lurks in the character of the poster.
I can't help but think that many people look only Inside and see what they see there,moreso than they are actually looking at the person who 'offended' them in some way. It's amazing how much darkness they find there- yet they attribute it to other people.

Of course, this always leads me to ask how often I have done that myself...
I know that I have a lot of darkness inside.

As to the rest of your post- It rocks. And, if you feel pride at BigDon being your father- it's justified I am sure
(That's a Big Compliment- even if he DID call me a holed dumb[donkey] )

There's a lot of truth in the first 3/4 of the post (I can never tell if I am truly humble or just don't know how to take a compliment. =P)

In regard to the bold part (and some other postings) I'm also curious...

Us or them? =D

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True. I think it's important to be able to laugh at one's self. But I also think it's important to not be fueled by an overwhelming amount of material.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

-Dr. Seuss

Oh, you wanna throw down too.

Ok.

I can take both of ya on.

I ain't afraid.

A c-note on boo - without dad's help.

as yoda put it "be very afraid"

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

I think a better Yoda quote here might be "you will be, you will be"

Too late Geo. Daddy and Mean Ol' Uncle Doug saw to it Boo and her sister could consistantly knock over cans at fifty paces (mine!) with a 1911 back when she was 14. That's all as accurate as you need to be with a .45 ACP.

I'm not going to be around forever and a woman proficient and comfortable around handguns only has to take a finite amount of crap from a man. As opposed to the alternatives.

And since Boo was so good at math, I taught her what the other "long division" was. Cowboy long division is when you aim for the belt buckle and then let the recoil carry the muzzle upwards (Where its going to go anyway) firing additional shots. Traditionally belly, chest, and head.

(Hey, the Samurai weren't the only ones with cute names for dismembering folks)

Not that Nev is going to stand there like a shooting range target and let Boo give him a math lesson. Seems he's already been that route and it didn't work out so well for him. That's why I, personally, try to avoid the two-way shooting ranges.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Forgive me for bringing this point up, but wasn't the original direction of this thread towards "great escapes" while serving in the military? I know enough to remember the main rules in shore patrol duty: Never get between the two fighting sides, wait until the fight's over, and arrest the losers.

In this case, however, I'd like to remind you gentlemen that should this thread get locked, it would descend into obscurity and those whom we have immortalized in this thread (such as my Rigger friend) would be relegated to the bitbucket eventually. Shall we transcend petty (ahem) differences and go on to better and brighter subjects for this topic?

VERY sincerely, a former "roof-rat" AT

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose

Caveat for the next story: I didn't see this happen, but it was written up in the ship's safety publication as a warning for future hapless Blueshirts.

Each specialty for men working on the carrier's flight deck is denoted by colored knit jerseys and inflatable life vests: cat officers and directors wore yellow (they signaled where airplanes were to be moved or in the cat O's case, when to launch), maintenance personnel and cat and arresting gear techs wore green, fuellers wore purple, QA and safety types wore white - with their specialty stenciled on the float-coat, plane captains wore brown (what USAF calls "crew chiefs" - guys who owned the airplanes and deferred to allow officers to fly them), ordinance and firefighting crews wore red or "foil" suits, and the "handlers" or "chock-n-chainers" wore blue.

During the launch, the plane captain worked with the pilot to start-engine and "run-check" the aircraft systems prior to releasing the plane to the director for launch. As a part of the systems test, the plane captain commanded a hydraulic check called "five-down": hook down, flaps extended, launch bar down, refuelling probe extended and ram-air-turbine deployed - then proceeded to insure that the systems worked properly.

Owing to their knowledge that the A-7 had a "mouth" with a mil-idle danger zone of eight feet at the nose, when handlers had to go from one side of an A-7 to the other, many times, they'd skim underneath the belly aft of the main gear....until one blueshirt skimmed just as the PC gave the pilot the "five down" hand sign.

The deploying tailhook didn't encounter much resistance to the blueshirt's cranial protection. Fortunately for the handler, he "only" got the shank instead of the hookpoint - which still had enough impact to crack the rear cranial plate and knock the blueshirt cold on the deck in the process. The PC saw the handler go down, gave the pilot a "hold" and got a whiteshirt's attention to see to the handler.

According to the post-incident safety write-up, the handler suffered a bloody nose, a mild concussion and some temporary hearing damage, but nothing more permanent. One lucky guy.

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"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." - Florence Ambrose

I have never had the privilege of serving, but my dad was a 40mm twin mount AA gunner on the Fanshaw Bay, CVE-70, during WW2. During the Battle Off Samar, part of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, he and another gunner were sitting back to back, waiting to get sunk. They and the other members of Taffy 3 were being shelled by, among others, the battleship Yamato, other IJN battleships and heavy cruisers. Anyway, they both lifted their heads back at the same time and "clink" went their helmets. They both about shat themselves........

tbm

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Paddle faster!! I hear banjo music!!