I was thinking that we need a place here for veterans to get together and discuss topics that others might not relate to.
Being a veteran myself I find it helps to talk to others who can relate to what I experienced, the good, the bad, and the hilarious!
Family and friends of Vets are always welcome too.
Share your stories, experiences, and how cannabis has become a part of your life.
I noticed that we have so many Veterans members so I thought maybe we could get together and share.
I joined the US Navy in 84 and Honorably.discharged in 88. At the rate of MS3. I graduated from culinary arts school prior to joining and was promised if, I did well in A -school, I’d be assigned to a wardroom and Wow they actually made it happen lmao. so hey guys don’t blame me for the bad food if you were enlisted haha.
I was stationed on the USS Racine (LST-1191) and USS America.(CVA/CV-66)
Prior to that, I started growing Gorilla style in a remote location down by the banks of the Saginaw River. This was the spring of 77 at the ripe old age between 11 going on 12
I had to stop because I had a brother and sister serving, both of which popped positive and were demoted for it. But at the time I was serving, 1st offense was an automatic OTH. So aa like most squids, I drank a lot lol. A lot of my buddies/Shipmates smoked and it felt strange having to get out of the car when they lit up. Honestly don’t know how I resisted. Eventually I seen many in my good friends in our Company booted out.
It never made sense that your almost encouraged to drink alcohol, but a little weed and your too immoral to serve. Oh well.
Still, it was an amazing experience!
More stories to share later. I know somr Vets don’t like to share a lot but let’s hear some funny and interesting stories if you do.
Sounds like a great idea. I just joined OG and I’m an Army vet that was an Apache Longbow crew chief until 2002. Thanks to all that served and their families. Sometimes we forget how much the families contribute to our Armed Forces I think.
Welcome to OG @FirstCavApache64! And Thank you for your service!!
You are so right about the families and the sacrifices they have to make when we are deployed and what they do to contribute!
The Apache Longbow is an awesome piece of machinery!!
Here’s one of the picture from our boot camp graduation book. Me sitting down getting buzzed. lol
This was almost 40 yrs ago.
Sounds good. I’m an Army and Iraq vet. My MOS was 11C.
Hey there @Herrsquidward and Thank you for your service!!
What kind of motars did you normally use? If you don’t mind me asking? That is a hell of a dangerous job!
One of my nepews served in the Army in Afghanistan his MOS was 89D. another two were Marine Infantry in Iraq. I can’t recall their designations ATM.
89D is EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), basically an Army bomb squad. Because of the IEDs, we worked very closely with EOD, usually as their security (11C is technically mortarman, but it’s still an infantry MOS, so we doubled as riflemen more often than not).
Right! do believe I recall him mentioning you guys before! You guys had his back!
Which one is 11C? I was a 67R which is an Apache helicopter crew chief. My dad and Uncle were 11B- Infantry. My grandfather was a Judge Advocate General attorney and did his career with time in WW2 and the Korean War and eventually retired at full bird Colonel. My uncle graduated West Point and did several tours in Vietnam. He retired Lt Col after serving his career at Ft. Bragg mostly as a Ranger and Green Beret.
Our family has veterans in every major conflict from the first male arriving from Ireland back in the 1860’s. He was offered citizenship for serving in the Union Army and so he joined the PA Field Artillery and served until the war ended. Hell even my wife grew up in it with her Dad being career Air Force. Here’s a pic of my Dad and a Korean soldier during the Korean War at Pork Chop Hill. He was stationed at a .30 cal machine gun for his time there on a hill at the foot of Pork Chop.
11C is a mortarman. 11B is a rifleman. When I did basic, all 11Cs had to first graduate as 11Bs, and go through an additional 2 weeks of training. I don’t know much about what my ancestors did in the military, except that my paternal grandfather served in the Navy in WW2. My maternal grandfather served in Europe in WW2. My father served in Vietnam and I served in Iraq.
For what it’s worth, we grunts absolutely loved our aviation guys. I worked a bit with Apaches and Kiowas and they were a big help. We also had their backs. If we even heard about a bird taking fire, we were REDCON 1. None of our birds got shot down, but we would have been en route within 1 minute of the bird hitting the ground.
We were on convoy security when an insurgent fired an RPG at an Apache. He missed by a mile, and the bird spun around and lit up the insurgent with the 30mm.
Again, we ground-pounder have nothing but respect for aviation.
They’re every bit as draconian about weed still, but now they have much better technology to detect damn near anything. A buddy of mine came up hot for mescaline, but escaped punishment because he was a member of the Native American Church (he was a member of the Osage Tribe, IIRC).
While not the sole cause, the Army helped give me a major drinking problem. I’m an alcoholic in remission (I’ve been dry for years, and have no intentions of ever going back to it). Cannabis has been a big help. It alters my senses, making alcohol taste revolting. Besides, I only drank when I couldn’t have weed. I’ve back-slid a handful of times in the last decade, but it’s been years (plural) since I’ve had a drink. I live in an illegal state, but D8, HHC, THCO, etc. are readily available. They’ll have to do until it’s at least decriminalized here.
I’ve actually used all 3 mortar systems (60mm, 81mm, 120mm), with 4 of the 8 years I did working in FDC (Fire Direction Control, basically the nerve center of a mortar element; we’re the ones who turn map data into gun data and decide what rounds on what settings for different targets). FDC is also a backup command center, since we’re tracking everything going on within 7KM of it. Per SOP, if the TOC gets hit, the battalion commander uses his mortar FDC as the new TOC. We tracked all the friendlies in our sector, as well as enemy contact and had to fire on insurgents a number of times (once with WP). The battalion TOC never got hit, command would send someone to make sure we were tracking everyone, which we always were.
What’s funny is I joined the Infantry to escape my comfort zone by doing something physical, but ended up referencing books and crunching numbers. Everything about mortars is direction, distance and time, all numbers. I guess, wherever you go, there you are.
Wow! That’s an incredibly rich military history of honor and service you have to be very proud!!
I had 3 great uncles all.serve in US Army Infantry durring in WW II 2 and were in the 1st infantry and landed on Omaha Beach. The younger brother helped liberate the POW camps.
I had two 3rd Great Grandfather.serve in the Revolutionary War and a -2nd Great Grandfather’s served in the union Army. 17th Michigan Infantry Co. He served along side his brother who was KIA at the battles of wilderness. My G Great Grandfather continued on with the Battles of Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of Cold Harbor and Siege of Petersburg.
My parents and grand fathers were too old for war and had many children. But 3 out of 6 of us kids served. My brother a retired Navy “Seabee” never sailed a day in his life lol and a sister in the Army spec 71F
That’ sounds like a huge responsibility I know we joked about Gun bunnies back in the day. but I know that it takes a lot of smarts to hit the targets and minimize friendly fire in a hot zone! I was offered most of the rates. I thought about the SEALs and Subs for the hazard pay lol but it came down to Cryptologic Technician
Or cooking lol …I always wanted to be a Chef. Graduated from a decent CA program so WTH. lol
Cool. One of my cousins and I are the only ones in our generation to serve. I don’t think having NOT served is anything to be ashamed of, like some are. The fact that they don’t have to serve is proof that our all-volunteer system is working, at least in that regard.
Hey there Veterans. There will be a Veterans giveaway starting in a week or so, keep and eye on the thread below and I will post when it goes live. We are just collecting the donations now so a sign up will be going up in the next week or two. This will be closed to those not already a member of OG to avoid the joining of sock accounts trying to scam the giveaway. That said if you are a member now you will be welcome regardless of your trust level.
Thanks Doug!! I was just going to.ask if it was OK to post your link here!
Absolutely bud, what better place. The donation list is pretty substantial so this should be a great event like last years. Good medicine fixing to go out to good people.
Our FOs (Forward Observers) are an artillery MOS, but are often OPCON to infantry and cavalry/armor. We joked with each other all the time. The fact that FOs are referred to as FISTERS (FIreSupportTeam, FIST) lent itself well to some vulgar proctology jokes, as you can imagine. Being the FDC chief, I worked extensively with them. The FSO (Fire Support Officer, the commander of the FISTERS) and I were on a first-name basis (at least when no one else was around). I was stationed at Ft. Benning, where the Sniper School is located, and I tried to get a slot. Unfortunately, I’d already had such extensive training in mortars. I’m a graduate of IMLC (Infantry Mortar Leaders Course), which is everything involved in every mortar system, including logistics all condensed into about 6 weeks. That meant the Army felt they had already trained me enough in that weapons system, and that specialized training in any other weapon system would be a waste of Army resources, or some other such reason.
