Veterans Day

[haunted]

This is a little late, but I'd like to thank anyone in this community who is a veteran or has even served in an armed service. Thank you for your service.

Here's an old picture of my Grandfather in his teens, and an old news paper clipping of an engagement he was involved in, he worked on PT boats in the pacific during WWII.

[Whirlingdervish]

Thank you vets for your service. You protect our freedoms and you are the rarely mentioned cornerstone on which we built our lasting democracy.

 

[ex]

TBH I feel "sorry" for our soldiers, but not in the way most people would take reading that.  I feel sympathy for the way our servicemen are routinely shit on after they're out of the service.  They're promised a lot of things that end up being Indian-given to them, or just straight up not given at all.

This country lies to a lot of young men to get them to join up, promising benefits, government assistance, free money for college after the tour of duty, and many other things...only to find out once they're OUT of the service, they have to deal with a bitch-ass pencil-dick auditor who's job is to try and make sure that the vet gets as little money and benefits as possible.

Case in point:  One of my friends came back from a year in Afghanistan, with a hole in his leg.  A suicide bomber came up on his checkpoint, and he was one of two lucky ones that got hit with shrapnel.  So he comes home, and goes to the VA office to get the wheels in motion.  First thing right off the bat, they put him through a "screening" to make sure he's actually hurt (while in crutches and the leg wrapped clearly visible)...this is after he already went to the hospitals here, but still they wanted to make sure on their end what the extent of his injuries were, to figure out how much money they should really spend on him.  Once he goes through all of that, they OK him for half of his medical bills.  You got it, half.  He was...amazed might be the best word.  So he went through the process of making the government pay for his injuries he sustained in service.  Here's where it turns into a shit-fest.  He spent TWO YEARS writing everyone in the government I'm betting, save Obama, getting run around the block multiple times because they refused to pay for his shit.  It was only when he dropped $2000 on a lawyer to get that process started of suing the government, that they backed down and said "ok, you're good.  We can pay for all of it."

And the saddest part about this is, this is not uncommon nowadays.  Maybe the service was better in the past, as it seems vets of previous generations actually did get benefits given to them a lot more than now, but now everything is rotating around our collapsing dollar, and vets are getting screwed over based on that fact.  It's bad enough that they get shot at, blown up, run over, suicide-bombed, and everything else in a desert shithole burning at 130 F throughout nearly all of the sunlit day, but the ONE THING they were counting on when they get back is the government to catch them when they fall...and the government refuses.

America the beautiful.

P.S.:  I feel strongly about this because I nearly joined up multiple times, but each time I saw a vet that was telling me to run for the hills, it ain't worth it.  The U.S. ain't doin' right no more.

[The Happy Friar]

Case in point:  One of my friends came back from a year in Afghanistan, with a hole in his leg.  A suicide bomber came up on his checkpoint, and he was one of two lucky ones that got hit with shrapnel.  So he comes home, and goes to the VA

Govt healthcare is awesome, no? 

Here's an old picture of my Grandfather in his teens, and an old news paper clipping of an engagement he was involved in, he worked on PT boats in the pacific during WWII.

Grandfather on my dad's side jumped out of an exploding one on DDay.  That's all he would ever say: jumped out of one being blown up and spent hours in burning water trying to stay afloat while his shipmates were either doing the same or burning to death.

Grandfather on my mom's side never said anything about Korea.  Part of what he did is still classified but he doesn't talk about anything.

A classmate I graduated with was in Iraq in '02-03.  He was a navy radioman that followed some seals around.  Part of his job was sitting in an underground cargo container radioing in firing positions/enemy movements.  Besides that, the only other thing he ever told us was that he had to run an Iraqi soldier in to a building with his humvee to save his life.

Another guy I graduated with went to West Point, became a tank commander.  Was the support for the troops who captured Saddam.  Had nothing but great things to say about what was going on over there.  Volunteered to go back and help train the Iraqi army.  When he came back he said things changed, it was more dangerous vs when he was in "combat".

Woman I worked with at work volunteered for the navy in the 80's.  Loved it, got out when they started putting women on ships (in her opinion, what a waste of taxpayer $$).

I've heard good and bad from vets, good and bad about everything.  They take a lot of crap.

[Sgt. Dick]

My father served in Europe in WWII and took part in the battle of the bulge.  He was lucky enough to come out of it un-injured, but he saw a lot of nasty stuff. 

[ex]

The worst thing is how some people here in the U.S. think it's okay to wish death/harm upon our own soldiers for supporting the government.  Those people irritate me even more than the VA morons.

[fdrjk]

I remember my uncle was a veteran in the Vietnam war.

....But he was never IN combat. He was just on his way to Vietnam, and when he got there, the war was over. So he's technically a veteran.

Also, he's kind of an asshole. 

[The Happy Friar]

The worst thing is how some people here in the U.S. think it's okay to wish death/harm upon our own soldiers for supporting the government.  Those people irritate me even more than the VA morons.

It's not even supporting the govt.  Supporting your public school, social programs, etc. are more supporting the govt then telling a soldier thanks.  That's how people are though: power's out, it's the electric companies fault for not getting it on fast enough.  Road isn't plowed when you want, it's the highway dept's fault not doing it good enough.  Family member got killed in combat, it's the military's fault for not protecting them good enough.

[|iR|Focalor]

Family member got killed in combat, it's the military's fault for not protecting them good enough.

I'm sure plenty of people have heard about supply shortages, things like body armor mostly. From what I've heard from recent vets, it's not quite as bad with the Army as it is with the Marine Corps. Part of the problem tends to be logistics. Like they always say, the Marines are the first in. They travel as light as as they can, but still end up carrying a ton of shit per person. The regular old Army tends to move in 2nd or further down the line and have the luxury of bringing in larger supply convoys into relatively safe territory. That's part of the reason why the Marines don't carry a ton of shit with them. If things go sour, they don't lose a bunch of equipment and all the money that equipment represents. Marines are trained quite a bit harder than your average Army boot camp cadet and can thrive making due with less. Problem is... these days the equipment costs even more than it did back in WW2 and Vietnam. In Vietnam, Marines were sent in wearing a fucking T-shirt and carrying nothing but a prayer and some luck to stop bullets. These days, they take more precautions and issue everyone kevlar vests and other types of plated body armor. The shit is expensive as fuck, and still not everyone gets what they need.

So you can get pissed off about it, but it really isn't entirely on the military itself. Everyone has a job to do, including the people in charge of getting supplies and balancing the checkbook. They can only do what they can do. Ultimately, the blame lands on the shoulders of a Congress and a President who fails to finance the military correctly. When they fail to allocate the proper funds to keep the checkbook in the green and out of the red, everyone down the chain has to cut corners and make due. And unfortunately... that means that vets who aren't currently deployed for active duty take a lower priority.

What also sucks about it is that it means that someone in the chain of command is ALWAYS going to be incapable of following their given orders, and someone is always going be disciplined for something that ultimately isn't even their fault. You wanna know what "trickle down economics" means? The military is a fine example. Insufficient funds is a problem that fucks EVERYONE from the top commanding officer down to the lowly private stuck cleaning the smeared shit and cum off the latrine walls.

My MC chapter often supports charity rides/events with proceeds minus the cost of organization donated to the USO or Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund. If you really want to show your support for our troops and thank them, most of them will tell you the same thing, donate money to one of the reputable charities who will actually help the vets who need it.

[haunted]

Forgot to mention.... I'm almost certain the news article I posted above was when he was on PT109 under squadron leader John Kennedy.

[BIG DICK RICK]

I would also like to extend my thanks to those you have the balls to serve.  Even though I don't much agree for reasons we go to different places or what have you, for those people who serve to take orders without question and risk their lives, you're pretty damn brave.  My grandpa served in WWII and was turret controller on some ship(I'd have to talk to my mom and get the right info so I'm not tossing out bad info).  But he was a pretty badass man, prolly where I get most of my badassness from .  But when he died, he got a folded up, american flag.  Fucking yay?  Kinda sad how some of our soldiers were shown "respect" or "recognition" for what they did.  But I won't get into all the politics or the bullshit that goes on, and keep it positive.  Thanks again guys and gals who serve and fight for our many freedoms we have today. 

[|iR|Focalor]

My Grandfather on my dad's side was in WW2 and Korea. He was in the Navy. I'm pretty sure he got a folded American flag when he died back in 87 or 88. I don't really remember much because I was only 7 or 8 at the time, but I do remember seeing a folded American flag amongst a box of stuff that my dad got from my grandmother after the funeral. My grandfather on my mothers side was in the Army during WW2. He never looked it because he was always pretty skinny, but he had to be one of the toughest men alive. He was in the war in the Pacific from Guadalcanal all the way through Okinawa. I'm not completely sure if he ever saw any combat, but I assume that he most definitely did. He spent many years in the Army, but never talked about any of it. My mom and her sister didn't really like where he was living in his old age, as it was pretty close to Atlanta and not an especially safe neighborhood. He ended up getting beat in the head and robbed one day as he was visiting an ATM. But he refused to have a gun for home protection. He told them that he carried one in the service and vowed that if he ever made it out, he'd never touch another one as long as he lived. Judging from that, I'd say theres a whole lot of horrible shit that he saw, and a very good chance that he was involved in combat.

The only story I ever heard about his days in the service was when I asked about this hand carved paddle looking thing he used to have hanging on his wall in his little dining room. One night he got up to take a shit, was walking through some brush, and ran into a uniformed Japanese soldier. The guy just stood there looking at him for a second and then attacked him with this club. He started hollering and some other American soldiers came and shot the guy. So apparently the Jap was given the task of entering the US camp and silently killing as many people as he could. So the way my grandfather and several other guys saw it, he actually saved a few lives just by going to take a shit that night and running into the guy before he got into the camp. It had blood stains on the end of it when he got it, so he assumed it had been used before. But... the silly old fart in all his wisdom ended up VARNISHING the fucking thing years after he got out of the service. But to hold it, it's quite a handy little weapon. It's made from some kind of very lightweight but very sturdy wood, and has an angled edge all the way around the business end of it kinda like a fat little sword. I imagine if you were to hit someone really hard with the edge of it, it would definitely snap some bones and fuck someone up really bad, probably worse than if it were completely round like a baseball bat.

I've have to get some pictures of it sometime. Pretty sure I've mentioned it somewhere around here before, but still haven't gotten around to getting a picture of it. Maybe tomorrow if I can find my camera battery charger.

Dammit, man, kinda got sidetracked from what I was gonna say. Anyway, after my grandfather on my mothers side died back in 95 or 96, the Army sent him a folded flag. A month or two later, we also got a bronze plaque grave marker detailing his dates of service and his unit. No one's installed it after all these years though. It's designed to lay flat, dunno what kind of headstone you call it. But his burial plot is in an oooooold church cemetery where all the headstones are the stand-up type made of marble or granite. Half of the dates of death on the other stones in the cemetery are from the turn of the century to the 1930s, which was before people started doing the type of headstone/markers that lay flush with the ground. Anyway, I guess my mom thought it was a bad idea to mount it on his headstone and never had the money to get a second stone to lay in the plot to mount the plaque on.

I have a handful of items from his days in the service. I actually have his old formal uniform, dress greens, whatever you call it. Just the slacks and jacket, no hat. I also have his old Army knife that he carried throughout the war, as well as his footlocker. The footlocker is in horrible shape. The inside top tray has old water damage in it and is coming apart on one side. The lock is locked on it and the bottom part of the lock hinge is busted off the box to where you can open it. The leather handle is tattered and worn to shit. It's still got remnants of old shipping stickers still stuck to it, but you can't really read it. For now, I use it as a stand to set my rackmount guitar amp system on.

From my other grandfather, I have some kind of a large jacket patch about whatever Navy outfit he belonged to. Other than that and a German rifle, he kept NOTHING after his service, not even his uniform. According to my grandmother, he wasn't too pleased with the military when his time was up, and didn't give a shit about remembering any of it. I've thought about using the patch on my riding vest since it's something I'm proud of, but I don't wanna get it filthy and messed up. So for now, it sits in a box in the closet. I've been thinking about taking it to someone to see if I could get an exact duplicate of it made to wear, but I don't really trust some dude in an embroidery shop who I don't know with the only remaining piece of evidence of my grandfathers service.

[ex]

You wanna know what "trickle down economics" means? The military is a fine example. Insufficient funds is a problem that fucks EVERYONE from the top commanding officer down to the lowly private stuck cleaning the smeared shit and cum off the latrine walls.

I thought trickle-down economics was when rich people peed on your head.  :>

[The Happy Friar]

My grandpa got nothing when he died.  He served in the Royal Canadian Navy, after he was out he married my grandma, had a kid, gave up all his Canadian war benefits to move to the US & become a citizen and have more kids.  Worked until he died.  He made sure she was taken care of though: retirement accounts, retirement & pension from Ford, all setup for her.  He died in '98 and she's still alive.  She says she didn't even thing she's live this long. 

[Sgt. Dick]

My dad got a folded flag when he died, it may be a small token of appreciation but I am very proud of it. 
I proudly display it in my living room, it reminds me of what my father and millions of others have done for this country.
I will probably never truly understand the carnage he was part of, but because of him and others is why we live like we do today.