It was 20 years ago (yeah, I'm old), but I was there. No idea on phone situation, but where are you doing to be stationed? Because a day trip to Taegu is out of the question if you're on one of the Dets, etc.
I like getting told the Bradley is mediocre,and the BMP-3 is jesus' second coming by armchair generals.
Oops, forgot I never got around to replying... Kunsan was never a bad duty station, much better than being up on one of the Dets (detachments on the DMZ). I was spoiled & stationed right in Seoul. Definitely visit there if you get the chance (there's housing available for weekenders at Yongsan). The shopping = all bargaining, and in Itaewon, the infamous Hooker Hill. A large, steep hill with nothing but bars, food stands, and hookers. I'm honestly not sure if Kunsan is like the Dets where you have to get a pass to go off base on weekends, so that might come into play. The DMZ is actually pretty neat to visit in the "touristy" area to see the line between the North & South. Put in for Cheju-do RIGHT when you get there if you're into rapelling, etc. A week to 10 day training course on a tropical island off the south tip of Korea. Back then, you couldn't just visit it, might have changed by now though. If they have, it's a gorgeous place to get away. Phone = not sure. Obviously cell phones weren't very big back then, so we used pre-paid calling cards to call from barracks phones.
This is more about me being scammed.... turns out, he's military. How can I find out his CO#? I called military police on base but they still haven't gotten back to me. I know when this Milly mess was going down someone was able to contact his chain of command and pressure him into not being a dumbass. Ideas anybody? Thanks in advance!
As posted in the Rant and Rave thread, my great uncle turned 88 today. He was awarded the Silver and Bronze Star for separate actions at Bastogne, just wanted to say thanks again to those who have served and who are currently serving.
For anyone who has deployed to BAF or anywhere for that matter, there's some pretty funny stuff on this website. Enjoy. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ilovebagram.com/index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ilovebagram.com/index.php</a>
I know most of you've probably read his book, but it's worth posting. Lt. Dave Grossman. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm</a>
I hate the whole "sheep-dog" mentality, it reeks of self-importance in my opinion. I hope y'all are having a good Memorial Day weekend. Question, does anyone else feel kind of weird getting free meals from places on Memorial or Veteran's day? I know I brought up a somewhat related topic a while ago about people thanking me for my service when I really feel like I haven't done anything to deserve thanks. Frankly, I don't like flaunting my military status and I feel embarrassed when I see other people doing it and I don't bother with asking for military discounts anywhere. I feel like on these days where places are doing stuff like giving out free meals or whatever I'm asking for a handout when there are people in the civilian world who do exactly the same job I do. I remember on Veterans day we got e-mailed a list of places in the area around the base that were giving away free or discounted meals for veterans day and people went down the list basically getting whatever free shit they could. I feel extremely lucky to live in a country where military service is so greatly appreciated, but I feel like doing that kind of stuff is just taking advantage of people's kindness. It's one thing to have one free meal somewhere, but when you go from restaurant to restaurant stuffing your face by pimping your military status... it just seems like it's taking advantage of people's kindness. I'm currently on leave in an area where the nearest AD station is well over an hour away and the nearest NG/Reserve station is 45 minutes away and it's tiny so there are almost no military people in the area. It feels pretty good to be so separated from military people, regardless one of my high school buddies who is also on leave found a local place is doing free wings so health permitting (I'm currently battling Colitis and have just started recovering today) I'll probably hit that up tomorrow.
I don't mind someone thanking me for my service, (I usually smile and say something like "Thank you for paying my paycheck") but I feel awkward when it comes to pimping it. I feel really self-conscious about asking for a military discount, and I don't advertise. When I'm with my brother's friends, it's my brother who tells the guys I haven't met, "Oh, this is my brother Omegaham. He's in the Marines." It just stinks of entitled elitism and an honest-to-God boot move when I see someone put on dress blues to get free drinks / pussy. "Yeah, I'm in the military, throwing my life on the line for y'all. You'd better respect me." Maybe it's just that I'm a pogue whose closest encounter with combat will probably be a barfight with Mexicans, but my infantry friends feel the same way. I am humbled when someone tells me, "Thank you for your service." Taking advantage of it strikes me as going the other way.
Agreed. I absolutely HATE it when people introduce me "This is my friend/son/brother Cult, he's in the Air Force". I don't go around introducing people I know by telling people what they do for a living unless it is somehow relevant. I mean, it's one thing if I'm being introduced to another member of the military, a vet or someone who has significant ties to the military somehow, but when people do it to just random people it's annoying. When I was visiting my friend at his university a few weeks ago he'd introduce me to girls and stuff trying to give me a leg up and took it upon himself to let them know that I was going overseas in a few weeks. I appreciate the thought, but I prefer to tell people that myself, I don't like it being announced because I'm not looking for attention over it. Not to mention it just leads to every single person I know asking me the same questions over and over.
I got my callsign today. I will hence forth be known throughout the community as "Octane". Story: Spoiler We had a squadron Mess Night on Thursday (a traditional dinner with the Officers and Senior Enlisted complete with skit's and accusations of personnel) down on a battleship a couple hours south. Since I was the junior Officer in the squadron, the photographer interviewed me about why I thought that Mess Night's were important. I answered with something along the lines of: they build camaraderie and trust within the squadron by building personal relationships between those who attended. He asked me a couple other questions along the same lines, and I answered accordingly. Today, as I was giving a flight brief to the CO of the squadron, the Air Station news paper came across the XO's desk. In it was a front page about our Mess night complete with a couple of quotes by yours truly. The first one was the one mentioned above. The second however, was one completely made up by the interviewer. It sounded something like this: "I believe that with the high octane deployment cycle that our squadron has, these nights are necessary, that they build trust with the guys we are going down range with on deployments." So the XO got a hold of that, and sent out a mass email to all the Officers and Senior Enlisted that said something like this: "We should be greatly honored to have 1stLt Diablo with us in our squadron. What with his vast deployment experience, his extensive personal relationships, and his overall experiences in life, we should all credit him and learn from his wealth of knowledge just how life should be for a deployed Marine. He shall hence forth be known as 1stLt "Octane". " It could be worse, I could have gotten a callsign from something stupid that I did, I'll take one from something I never actually did any day.
Korea is pretty rad, but this asian alcohol doesn't sit well with me. I'm a dark beer and whiskey/rum man. Soju will get the job done but I've never woken up so thirsty and I felt like I might puke for hours the next day. I had no headache or sensitivity to light, and I just a terribly upset stomach. I just hope I actually see the damn Sun while I'm here, there's been overcast for like 5 days straight, if I wanted this I would gone AWOL and stayed in Cleveland.
Soju dehydrates you worse than any alcohol I've ever drank. Get in the habit of drinking a LARGE glass of water before you go to bed/pass out. It helps. You might actually like the Korean Budweiser, it's actually stronger than the US version. Other than that, choices seemed somewhat limited, but that was years ago. The sun will come out, you're not in monsoon season (that's in the spring), and it will get hot, honest!
A buddy of mine--best soldier in the company, just picked up E-5 a week ago--just had his ETS date involuntarily pushed 4 months forward (February 2013 to October 2012). Same thing happened to a few other E-5 and below types in our brigade (I re-enlisted back in March to stay in through our deployment next year, so as far as I know I've been spared for now). It's all part of the drawdown--not sure if this is just going on in my unit, Army-wide, or service-wide, but just a heads up to everyone. Check your ERBs.
I've heard of shit like this happening to several people I know in the Army. Y'all are getting hit really hard in the draw down. Fortunately tons of people are voluntarily separating from the Air Force early so we seem to be safe from that kind of shit here, plus I've got over 4 years left on my contract so I'm safe. Interesting, I'll have to look at the beer selection more closely. And of course the sun came out today and it's hot as balls. Fortunately in-processing means I get to be in buildings with A/C half of the day, too bad the other half of it I'm walking.
Sucks for your buddy, but he's just one of thousands of great soliders and NCOs that will be forced out of the Army because of the drawdowns. They're cutting troops where it's easiest while the bloated bureaucracy of senior officers and (some) senior NCOs remains untouched. These are the same Generals and Colonels telling us at their little PR trips that the most important thing is to look our for your soldiers and selfless-service. And of course a Colonel who got convicted of fraud, bigamy, and conduct unbecoming of an officer gets to keep his rank, benefits and remain in the army for a couple years until he can retire honorably as an O-6. There's no fucking justice in this system. http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/06/ap-colonel-james-johnson-guilty-fraud-fined-300k-061412/
I like this article about it that compares his case to enlisted people who have committed similar offences, although he also points out that this guy's dad was an O-9 and the good colonel himself is a USMA grad which may have something to do with it. Or the Air Force major general who got a DUI but got to keep his assignment at the cost of paying a fine that is inconsequential to his massive paycheck and taking some classes. For pretty much any enlisted person at the very least you're guaranteed to lose at least one stripe and you're probably going to be forced to separate or retire, depending on the circumstances it will probably be worse. I think I understand where the military is going with this. They need to cut back in the coming draw down right? No better way to cut back personnel than to make the system so outrageous and unfair that they don't want to serve in the first place.
Stuff like that happens all the time. There's one guy here who was a few months out from EAS'ing. He was doing his job but he wasn't playing the higher up's games, so his command decided to fuck him. They tried to get him kicked out on the basis of suspicion of him smoking salvia. 1: He had never smoked this stuff in his life, and 2: salvia is legal. He lawyered up and managed to defend himself, but the point is, your higher ups can and will fuck you over if they don't like you, need to cut numbers, or are having a bad day. If they need to cut numbers, then just do it, but making everyone's lives miserable in the process is a pretty awful way to go about it.
It just makes me rage. I understand that these people are harder to replace than your average enlisted grunt or mechanic, but come the fuck on, pretty much any given single charge that the good colonel was guilty of would be an instant career ended, probably with jail time, for just about any enlisted person. Maybe I'm just mad that I found out my assignment to Germany got cancelled. I swear if I get sent back to the states after Korea... I'm going to rage, hard.