Thanks to all who served their country (Veterans Day)

[jamie2112]

Its Veterans Day and I just wanted to thank all of you here who have served your country. Thank you all very much. I don't really know anyone here who is a Vet other than Matt ,but for all of you I don't know My Sincere thanks to all of you. Happy Veterans Day.

 

[Halon451]

Thanks Jamie - I know of a few people here on the forum besides Matt who are veterans, hopefully they'll chime in on this thread as well.

 

[Davemcc]

Thank you to all the veterans and active service members in Canada, the U.S.A. and our other allies. The challenges of the past century have required all of our nations to work together to secure peace and freedom for all of us.

 

[Tomorrow]

Thank you to all the veterans and active service members in Canada, the U.S.A. and our other allies. The challenges of the past century have required all of our nations to work together to secure peace and freedom for all of us.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of thanks and salutes to all veterans. Vets gave up so much...suffered great hardships and sacrifices for the safety of our countries.

Dave, I admire what Canada has done with the Highway of Heroes. It's a great tribute.

 

[annunaki]

My thanks go out to all the Vets. Without you our country would not be what it is.

 

[ivseenbetter]

Great thread! My thanks to all the vets out there as well. I'm sure there are more of them on this board than we are aware of.

 

[A/VUSMCSGT]

As an OIF/OEF veteran, thank you all very much. We do it so you don't have to.



Remember all of our fallen heroes and those in harm's way today....they are what this country represents.

 

[Swerd]

As a veteran of the reluctant warrior type, US Navy 1970-74, I’ll be glad to accept thanks from someone. This may be the first time anyone has thanked me. I may have been thanked back when I got out and I just don’t remember it, but I doubt it. In the early 70s as the Vietnam War was winding down, no one wanted to recognize or even hear about military service. And that probably suited me just fine, as I was glad it was over so I could get on with life. I joined the Navy to make sure I wouldn’t be the last GI killed in Vietnam.

Looking back, even though everyone hated the draft, especially how it was enforced so unevenly, I can see the value it had only because there is no draft today. It put lots of unwilling guys in uniform, both as enlisted or junior officer, and their presence forced the career military to deal with these civilians in uniform. It also strongly affected the decisions made by the politicians in Washington. I doubt the Iraq war could be run the way it has been if there was a draft today.

For anyone curious, I served on radio listening stations in Italy and Alaska. Southern Italy was sad and impoverished, Alaska was exciting and fun. 99.9% of the time my job was extremely boring, and the other 0.1% could be pandemonium. I got no medals and did nothing remotely heroic. The most interesting thing I did was fly several missions over the Arctic Ocean in a P-3, a large anti-submarine patrol plane, while listening on the radio for Russian subs hiding under the ice. Most of the time we flew we had Russian fighter escorts.

So, thanks for the recognition. I appreciate it. I'm sure other vets, no matter what their stories are, appreciate it too.

 

[Rickster71]

Respect and Thanks, to all that have served!

 

[pzaur]

To those that have served and are serving, Thank you for making this the greatest country on earth!

-pat

 

[haraldo]

As a veteran of the reluctant warrior type, US Navy 1970-74, I’ll be glad to accept thanks from someone. This may be the first time anyone has thanked me. I may have been thanked back when I got out and I just don’t remember it, but I doubt it. In the early 70s as the Vietnam War was winding down, no one wanted to recognize or even hear about military service. And that probably suited me just fine, as I was glad it was over so I could get on with life. I joined the Navy to make sure I wouldn’t be the last GI killed in Vietnam.

Looking back, even though everyone hated the draft, especially how it was enforced so unevenly, I can see the value it had only because there is no draft today. It put lots of unwilling guys in uniform, both as enlisted or junior officer, and their presence forced the career military to deal with these civilians in uniform. It also strongly affected the decisions made by the politicians in Washington. I doubt the Iraq war could be run the way it has been if there was a draft today.

For anyone curious, I served on radio listening stations in Italy and Alaska. Southern Italy was sad and impoverished, Alaska was exciting and fun. 99.9% of the time my job was extremely boring, and the other 0.1% could be pandemonium. I got no medals and did nothing remotely heroic. The most interesting thing I did was fly several missions over the Arctic Ocean in a P-3, a large anti-submarine patrol plane, while listening on the radio for Russian subs hiding under the ice. Most of the time we flew we had Russian fighter escorts.

So, thanks for the recognition. I appreciate it. I'm sure other vets, no matter what their stories are, appreciate it too.

There's not only people int the US that should thank those who risked their lives, you and many others are very brave people, and quite often it involved people from many countries in united NATO operations. The world wouldn't be the same today without these efforts.

Thanks to you and everybody else that risk(ed) their lives for a good cause, and also to those out there that continually do so....

 

[Halon451]

As a veteran of the reluctant warrior type, US Navy 1970-74, I’ll be glad to accept thanks from someone. This may be the first time anyone has thanked me. I may have been thanked back when I got out and I just don’t remember it, but I doubt it. In the early 70s as the Vietnam War was winding down, no one wanted to recognize or even hear about military service. And that probably suited me just fine, as I was glad it was over so I could get on with life. I joined the Navy to make sure I wouldn’t be the last GI killed in Vietnam.

Looking back, even though everyone hated the draft, especially how it was enforced so unevenly, I can see the value it had only because there is no draft today. It put lots of unwilling guys in uniform, both as enlisted or junior officer, and their presence forced the career military to deal with these civilians in uniform. It also strongly affected the decisions made by the politicians in Washington. I doubt the Iraq war could be run the way it has been if there was a draft today.

For anyone curious, I served on radio listening stations in Italy and Alaska. Southern Italy was sad and impoverished, Alaska was exciting and fun. 99.9% of the time my job was extremely boring, and the other 0.1% could be pandemonium. I got no medals and did nothing remotely heroic. The most interesting thing I did was fly several missions over the Arctic Ocean in a P-3, a large anti-submarine patrol plane, while listening on the radio for Russian subs hiding under the ice. Most of the time we flew we had Russian fighter escorts.

So, thanks for the recognition. I appreciate it. I'm sure other vets, no matter what their stories are, appreciate it too.

Great post Swerd, and even though I never had to experience the lack of gratitude that this country showed towards you and your fellow Vietnam vets, I have always cringed at the thought of this, and the disrespect this entailed to servicemen and women everywhere during that time. It was shameful and ignorant of our country, and hopefully we learned a good lesson from it.

I too, served in the US Navy for about 8 years, and my job was to generate the steam from our twin nuclear reactors on board a carrier that launched squadrons of fighter jets into the sky; the ones that provided air cover and support to the real troops on the ground who were taking care of business - the real honest to god heroes. My job was to support them, and do my small part for the overall process, and expect little to no credit, as I was putting my a$$ on the line quite a bit less than these others, so they so very much deserved the bulk of the credit that was being given, and still do to this day.

So this is where my thanks originate from, as a veteran myself, to those who really put forth the true sacrifice and place themselves in harm's way for the benefit of the rest of us.

 

[Swerd]

There's not only people int the US that should thank those who risked their lives, you and many others are very brave people, and quite often it involved people from many countries in united NATO operations. The world wouldn't be the same today without these efforts.

Thanks to you and everybody else that risk(ed) their lives for a good cause, and also to those out there that continually do so....

All those Arctic Ocean flights I mentioned involved quite a lot of cooperation from NATO countries. Those flights were very long, we usually landed to refuel in Iceland. Once on a much longer mission, we landed to refuel in Spitsbergen (or was it called Vas Spitsbergen?). To my surprise, the Russian fighter flying with us also landed and we both refueled, with Russian-made JP3 . It would have been much easier if we just exchanged our flight plans and gone home. No one else would have known.

 

[haraldo]

All those Arctic Ocean flights I mentioned involved quite a lot of cooperation from NATO countries. Those flights were very long, we usually landed to refuel in Iceland. Once on a much longer mission, we landed to refuel in Spitsbergen (or was it called Vas Spitsbergen?). To my surprise, the Russian fighter flying with us also landed and we both refueled, with Russian-made JP3 . It would have been much easier if we just exchanged our flight plans and gone home. No one else would have known.

Most of these guys are very nice people indeed, and when you meet them you will see they are regular people, many of them also fighting a war they don't want to. I wonder how many of the Russian soldiers that really wanted to go to Georgia to defend Russian interest in another country... (or should I say attack Georgia)? now recently.... not many I think

Over here our relations with Russia is excellent and we have never ever been in an armed conflict with Russia.....

To my knowledge regular Russians are being criticized many places because of some of the horrible actions by their state leaders... that's not fair....

 

[Swerd]

I too, served in the US Navy for about 8 years, and my job was to generate the steam from our twin nuclear reactors on board a carrier that launched squadrons of fighter jets into the sky; the ones that provided air cover and support to the real troops on the ground who were taking care of business - the real honest to god heroes. My job was to support them, and do my small part for the overall process, and expect little to no credit, as I was putting my a$$ on the line quite a bit less than these others, so they so very much deserved the bulk of the credit that was being given, and still do to this day. ...

Was your rating boilermaker? I was a communications technician (CT) which was a radioman with a top secret clearance. I listened in on lots of radio messages, but never once tuned in any US Navy radio communications.

Your a$$ may have been on the line more than you realized. Once in the summer of 1974 I intercepted a Russian sub's contact report as it penetrated a carrier group's anti-sub screen during the annual NorPac games. It obviously was only interested in the carrier, which to a submariner was the world's largest target. Needless to say, in a few minutes, right after that got reported to the fleet guys, all hell must have broke loose. I imagine someone got yelled at .

 

[Halon451]

Was your rating boilermaker? I was a communications technician (CT) which was a radioman with a top secret clearance. I listened in on lots of radio messages, but never once tuned in any US Navy radio communications.

Your a$$ may have been on the line more than you realized. Once in the summer of 1974 I intercepted a Russian sub's contact report as it penetrated a carrier group's anti-sub screen during the annual NorPac games. It obviously was only interested in the carrier, which to a submariner was the world's largest target. Needless to say, in a few minutes, right after that got reported to the fleet guys, all hell must have broke loose. I imagine someone got yelled at .

My rating was Electronics Technician (Nuclear) - which entailed qualifications as Instrumentation and Controls supervisor, Reactor Operator and Maintenance Group Supervisor, among others. They had phased out the BT ratings long before I joined, which was late 90's. They have also since phased out many other rates and/or combined them with other more standard rates (for example, the BT's are now grouped under the basic MM rating (non-nuke).

My last deployment over in the Persian Gulf actually, now that you mention it - we did have one developing situation where an Iranian sub was poking around in the vicinity of our ship. It kept everyone on edge for a good couple of days, but our boys on the support ships managed to run it off and 'twas never seen or heard from again. Other than that though - we sat and watched the war unfold on CNN like the everyone else back home. I still give those guys top credit for doing what they do.

 

[tcarcio]

God bless all of our brave men and women who put themselves in harms way so we can be free, Thank you very much.....

 

[Swerd]

My rating was Electronics Technician (Nuclear) - which entailed qualifications as Instrumentation and Controls supervisor, Reactor Operator and Maintenance Group Supervisor, among others. They had phased out the BT ratings long before I joined, which was late 90's. They have also since phased out many other rates and/or combined them with other more standard rates (for example, the BT's are now grouped under the basic MM rating (non-nuke).

My last deployment over in the Persian Gulf actually, now that you mention it - we did have one developing situation where an Iranian sub was poking around in the vicinity of our ship. It kept everyone on edge for a good couple of days, but our boys on the support ships managed to run it off and 'twas never seen or heard from again. Other than that though - we sat and watched the war unfold on CNN like the everyone else back home. I still give those guys top credit for doing what they do.

Halon451

I certainly have not kept up with ASW since leaving the Navy. I don't know what the depths or currents are in the Persian Gulf, but I bet that shallow, calm, warm water made hiding difficult for subs. During the cold war, at least half (by my guestimation) of the Navy's effort was directed against Soviet submarines, both the boomers and the attack subs. It was the only element of the Soviet Navy we feared. We usually had to deal with them in open oceans where it could be easy to hide. A great amount of effort was spent tracking them from the time they left homeport to the time they returned. We could intercept a brief radio message, triangulate a fix to within about 100,000 square miles, and then patrol planes or helicopters could easily do the rest. Of course, most of their boomer subs were continuously tracked by a US sub immediately upon sailing.

Even though I rarely think or talk about it much, trading sea stories with you has been fun. I guess veteran's day does have its benefits.

 

[Halon451]

Halon451

I certainly have not kept up with ASW since leaving the Navy. I don't know what the depths or currents are in the Persian Gulf, but I bet that shallow, calm, warm water made hiding difficult for subs. During the cold war, at least half (by my guestimation) of the Navy's effort was directed against Soviet submarines, both the boomers and the attack subs. It was the only element of the Soviet Navy we feared. We usually had to deal with them in open oceans where it could be easy to hide. A great amount of effort was spent tracking them from the time they left homeport to the time they returned. We could intercept a brief radio message, triangulate a fix to within about 100,000 square miles, and then patrol planes or helicopters could easily do the rest. Of course, most of their boomer subs were continuously tracked by a US sub immediately upon sailing.

Even though I rarely think or talk about it much, trading sea stories with you has been fun. I guess veteran's day does have its benefits.

I can't really speculate as the degree of difficulty there was or is in monitoring and tracking submarines in the Persian Gulf vs. anywhere else in the world, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I learned enough about ASW to put my surface warfare pin on, but my brain was very rarely unoccupied from my daily tasks down in the power plants to spend a lot of time gathering data on the goings on outside the big gray hull. Much of what I knew came from 1MC announcements from the skipper himself, or maybe the TAO or XO. We knew an Iranian sub was lurking, and we knew the frigates and destroyers in our battle group chased them off.

Of course, as anyone who has been on an aircraft carrier may tell you - an enemy sub is about the one true thing we fear. With four CWIS mounts, sea sparrow missile systems, and an array of fighter jets and support ships, the chances of getting at us on the surface or from the air is kept to a minimum. However all it takes is a single torpedo and it's game over.

Funny story: Following our last shipyard period at drydock in Norfolk, VA - we took the ship out for some test runs at high speed. High speed turns were to be a part of this exercise, just off the coast of N. Carolina. Some friends and I decided that it would be great fun to head up to the island on the carrier and take part in the high speed turns from one of the highest points of the ship (a maneuver, which by the way entails a full 180 degree turn in the water at the ship's max speed... a maneuver in which the ship will actually list in the direction of the turn by an alarming 45 degrees or so, until it rights itself again and continues on). This took place at night no less. We got out on the catwalk on the island about 140 feet above the surface of the ocean, and prepared to grab hold. As soon as the ship went into the turn, we all realized just how foolish we were being, but by then there was no way in hell we were going to let go of those rails!! I remember nearly peeling the paint off the railings from grabbing it so tight as I literally hung suspended 140 feet above the water, looking straight down into pitch black death. We all knew we would have to hang on, but didn't expect it to be as dramatic as it was. Needless to say, as soon as the ship righted itself again, we scrambled back down below decks as fast as we could, and sat there with our hearts pounding for at least a half hour afterwards...

 

[Swerd]

Great story. I bet you weren't wearing any lifejackets at the time .