Veterans day 2015. SOUND OFF!

[fhvn4d]

Thank you to all the members who served in far off lands, and left your families for our country. Sound off with your name and deployment location/year!

Sgt Brian Messier
1990-91 Operation Desert Shield/Storm MCAS New River NC

2009-10 Operation Iraqi Freedom. Camp Liberty, Bagdhad Iraq

2014 Operation Enduring Freedom. FOB Shank, Logar Afghanistan.

[wing_nut]

My thanks, gratitude and respect to any person, in any service that is willing to risk it all to protect my family, me, and our way of life.

[dupes]

SPC Dupuy

1993-1993 Basic Combat Training, Fort Jackson South Carolina
1993-1994 Defense Language Institute, Monterey CA
1994-1995 Intel Analyst / Cryptography School, Goodfellow AFB, Texas
1995-1996 502nd MI Bn / 201st MI Bde, Fort Lewis, Washington

Never left the CONUS...but that's what technology is for.

[wbill76]

Always grateful to those willing to serve to protect the nation and our freedoms. Salute to you all on this Veteran's Day!

[deafpanzer]

Unfortunately I am a IV-F (Men physically, mentally or morally unfit). You know why! Thank you for your service... everyday is a Veteran's Day for me.

[dylan]

Cpl Smith 402 city of Winnipeg squadron 1989-1994 Moc 512 Airframe Tech

[tonylee]

TSgt T.Watts
USAF
Cuban Missile Crisis
Viet Nam
1961-1969

[TRM]

Thank you! Two small words that do not even come close to summing up the immense gratitude we have for all the men and women who stand that line! Your service and sacrifice has not gone unnoticed!

[wing_nut]

Nov 11, 2015 13:41:20 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Unfortunately I am a IV-F (Men physically, mentally or morally unfit). You know why! Thank you for your service... everyday is a Veteran's Day for me.

You bet we know why. AND, your deaf too.

[Leon]

A big SALUTE to all or service men and women! Home and afar.

[sturmbird]

Nov 11, 2015 13:41:20 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Unfortunately I am a IV-F (Men physically, mentally or morally unfit). You know why! Thank you for your service... everyday is a Veteran's Day for me.

always wondered why the vice squad parked in front of your house!
gary

[sturmbird]

professional sand bag stacker for First Sargent Honneycutt in the year of 1968. (have no idea what the correct MOS is)

I was in the Army 19 months, two days, 23 hours, and 35 minutes. Went thru basic at Ft. Campbell, KY, but my bunk was actually in Tennessee (by about four feet). Did AIT at FT. Sill in field artillery. After that I did intensive training on SPG's with the majority of it being on M110's and M107's.

The next chapter puts me on the run way of Cam Rhon Bay RVN on 12/7/1967. I met Bob Hope there I might add! Three days later I'm on the run way at Chu Lai RVN. That's when I discovered that all that high dollar training on 175 guns was a waste of time. They thru everybody's orders in the trash can! They had us all lined up and counted off 15 (maybe 20) guys in a row and sent us to a 155 howitzer unit (3rd of the 16th). There were five of us with the MOS (even though I knew virtually nothing about a towed 155). The rest were infantry, clerks, cooks, and who knows what else.

At the Chu Lai reception center (bunch of shacks on the beach), I got put of the chair detail for the Bob Hope show again. I got to met Bob a second time in a week, and he remembered me. From there I went about four miles south (they claimed five, but I've walked it more than once). Stayed there thru Tet in 68, Did a few small strikes out of Gator and Fat City (half the battery was up there). When things slowed done a bunch we did strikes to the south. Starting in the west side of Quang Nghai with the 101st. Then Dottie, Bronco, and Liz, plus a few two and three day excursions into no named places. Around the end of April we went back north to Gator for a refit. From there we went into the Que Son Valley (some folks call it Death Valley) on Op's with the 196th Infantry. These ops took me all the way to Laos, and as far north as the southern edge of the Ashau (with the 101st). Then we did strikes south along the border till be all got tired and really beat up. A lot of these ops were supporting SF MIKE Force teams and Hatchett teams, plus some cross border stuff for SOG teams. By this time I'd probably done 12 to 14 CA's with Honneycutt's recon team (five or six guys). You can't go anywhere without a recon in advance. I started out as number two (M60), and ended up as number one man. By now we are really beat up and guns really need a rebuild (I needed one too). We couldn't go back to Chu Lai as Gator had been over ran after we left, and it really wasn't home anymore. SF C Team out of Da Nang started to assemble a new base camp about three months prior, and they tagged us to move there. First two weeks we operated as a five gun unit while we had the pigs rebuilt and some rebarreled. Plus we needed at least twenty-five replacements.
Once settled in and starting to learn the valleys and hill tops; we started to introduce ourselves to the neighbors. There was no real infantry around there, but once in awhile a company would drift thru on an OP. There was the 17th CAV operating east of us, but half the time they were outta range. We could shoot due north cover maybe a mile and a half of the 196th, but the were so thin they rarely got down our way. We did some OP's with them (three pigs). Still we shot about 350 rounds a day, not counting H&I's. We did have some 800 round days when things looked bleak. Our KIA count was rumored to be one of the highest in country; if not the highest. We had several 200 count days and one 1100 week. Never ending supply of targets! There were always three SF teams out, and they always found targets. A102 was where I learned that I'd never seriously been rocketed or mortared. A 250 round day wasn't uncommon. Still learned to take it in stride. Warm bodies became an issue, as we seemed to always have several guys in the hospital. The 196th was trying to free up two companies to base out of 102, but never came thru. This later became a major issue. It got so bad one week that the First Sargent, Sargent Major, and the Col. went to the Chu Lai reception center and counted off forty men to be divided between Bravo and Charlie Batteries! The monsoons came and went again, and things do slow down somewhat. But we blew up the parapet twice! That means your at it 24/7 till it's again. Right after Christmas I went on another OP with the 101st, but was later handed over to the 196th. Goal was to clean out the northern half of the Hiep Duc Ridge. Results are still fuzzy. After that we back home, and promptly got involved with Tet on 1969. We stayed under siege from about the 20th of Feb. till 15th of July completely surrounded by three full strength NVA division. At one time we were the only operating fire base except for West and maybe Ross. Rest had been over run, and were in the process of being retaken. They kept being in infantry battalions and even a couple regiments. Needless to say it was ugly. I remember shooting WP with one second on the fuse inside the wire over and over. Keep in mind the place was about three hundred yards wide and four hundred yards long.

According to Honneycutt, I did 25 CA's, and was #1 man on 20 of them. I only remember 17, as the go by in a blur.
a few times there were some infantry there to great us, but most times were soon learned there was nobody around cept for the neighbors. Got put on the wrong hill a couple times, and both times were literally off the map! That will put the fear in you.

Just a note: there have now been 7CMH's awarded in that A.O., and at least two more are pending. Probably 200 silver stars as well.

know it's a long drawn out war story, but it really isn't. Just 15 months of my life without the gore. At times I'm sensitive about it (maybe too much), but am most proud of the guys I served with.
gary