I'm smiling a friends son is leaving for benning I think Tuesday

[Duncanpup]

A ramble as I have coffee on back porch yet I’m proud of this future 11B. My friend and his son came around Saturday to visit we sat on back porch. The young future trooper was asking me questions and I said man that was thirty eight years ago for me. Had do math real fast cuz our oldest daughter will be thirty six Uncle Sam paid for her birth. I was in west Germany when Heather was born.

I imagine a lot has changed the old harmony church barracks built for WW 2 are gone. And my osut infantry cycle went by fast fourteen weeks actually eighteen for me I caught a hernia got recycled. Thirty days convalescing in medical platoon. Young man is nervous I explained to him you you’ll be fine I was never beaten as he asked me.

They do not the infantry Drills need to beat you it’s a science. They will smoke you I said this calmly to him you will learn. Speaking from my experience
Log drills with telephone poles
Push ups
Sit ups
Dying cockroach
Low crawl
High crawl
If I missed anything let me know vets
I told him he will be ok now the cycles are twenty two weeks. I did tell him as he did not get Airborne option try get jump school. My reasoning is try go 82nd my first unit. My reasoning is if you find yourself in the shit chances of survival are better. Because you’re with top notch brothers trained well.

This young man unfortunately is well in school he was classified as learning disabled. And failed asvab first time second time scored enough to only have I guess 11 series infantry mos opened for him. I’m not trashing this kid I told my wife after they left he has big heart and testicles. As she asked me if i calmed his fears and anxiety , I said probably not it’s the fear of the unknown he is suffering from at moment.

I said to my wife I didn’t try scare him I know some vets get into that. I made jokes with him in mentioning that like today with me thirty eight years later.

As I do you’ll remember awesome quotes that your Drills said. One I remember why do I smell shit coming from your lips did I tell you to speak. Or the day we meant our Drills and the senior Drill said to us standing in the plt bay. I’ve been to Vietnam twice and I went back the second time to get away from my first wife.

Wait maybe we were outside after the initial meet and greet the getting smoked forever after the cattle truck ride to training company. Been along time yet upon hearing the senior Drill explaining his first marital issues I’m thinking oh fuck me. This SFC chose the NVA on tour # 2 instead of his first wife. I smile now thinking of no time for sgts the movie I was about as bright as will stockdale. I told the kid that story laughing trying calm his fears. I told him look me up in October hope you’re wearing a blue cord and jump wings.

[Bluejeans]

1. Your friend's son is on his way to the adventure of a lifetime

I spent 20 years in the Air Force, retiring in 1996 as a chief master sergeant. Your friend's son is on his way to the adventure of a lifetime. Since only 3% of Americans serve in the all volunteer force, he'll have a life changing experience that most will never go through. He'll make friends, like I have, who will stay in touch all through life, or, if you lose contact, will all of a sudden one day pick up like there was never a break! Good benefits, training and so forth--all of which will prepare him for life's journey and a ticket to the middle class.

[marble falls]

5. 3%????????? Cite a source, please.

[Bluejeans]

9. My math sucked this morning

Correction on my "3%" figure

According to the Defense Manpower Data Center, there were 1,390,006 active duty DOD and Coast Guard military personnel on Jan 31, 2021.

https://dwp.dmdc.osd.mil/dwp/api/download?fileName=ms0_2101.pdf&groupName=milTop

According to the Census Bureua, the USA's population on Jan 31, 2021 was 330,062,181

https://www.census.gov/popclock/

The active duty military on Jan 31, 2021 equaled 0.004211345861524 of the USA population that day.

(I couldn't locate the reserve and national guard/air national guard statistics easily; sorry.)

Total veteran population as of Jan 22, 2021 was 19,541,961.

http://www.va.gov/vetdata/docs/pocketcards/fy2021q2.PDF

The total veteran population Jan 22, 2021 equaled 0.059206907440268 of the USA population on Jan 31, 2021.

[llashram]

2. yep

[marble falls]

3. Forgot about the cattle truck! We had them in the Navy, too - battleship grey. We had a guy ...

... in our company like your friend's son. We took care of him. He went to fleet and from what I heard he did all right for himself and his ship.

Our recruit company had that guy, an RPOC taken away in week five by the FBI, a Palestinian named Araby A. Araby taken by immigration in week four, two guys from Appalachia who'd never worn shoes before enlisting, a Filipino who had most of his teeth pulled in week three and got caught in an inspection with bags of candy in his ditty bag, ... no one (other than the RPOC) was bad, just put into situations they'd never been before.

[Woodwizard]

4. The Army was the best education I had.

Took me years to get used to the chaos of the civilian work sector.

[KS Toronado]

6. If I missed anything .........

They'll attempt to break you mentally and then they'll teach you how to get along & work with strangers as equals.
Former 11B, 71-73

[panader0]

7. My son gets his green beret on April 22nd.

In a recent letter he wrote about an exercise in which he was a Bravo Team Leader.
He said, "I was curious as to how much gear I'm carrying, so I weighed it all. In my rucksack
I have: two extra shirts, an extra blouse and trousers, extra pair of boots, sleeping bag with bivy,
sleeping mat, two tarps, silk long underwear, long john underwear, 4 pairs of socks, eye protection,
wet weather jacket and pants, fleece jacket, entrenching tool, foot powder, hygiene kit, baby wipes,
weapon cleaning kit, 3 cans of Copenhagen, a "Jungle Antenna " kit, a coaxial antenna extension,
7 MRE meals, 210 rounds of 5.56 ammo, 200 rounds of linked 7.62 NATO ammo, a spare barrel for the
machine gun, the tripod for the machine gun, and some other little things. That's my rucksack. On my
load bearing vest I'm carrying 7 magazines of 5,56 (30 rounds each), a radio, a GPS, a compass, extra AA
and AAA batteries, night vision goggles, some writing material, a map, camouflage face paint, iodine tablets,
a headlamp and I carry an M-4 carbine. On my ruck I have 4 quarts of water and 2 more on my vest.
Altogether I'm carrying 142 pounds of equipment. Sometimes we'll "take a casualty" and we have to carry
him on a stretcher."
Next a course in Arabic and duty in the Middle East.

[Duncanpup]

8. Awesome