A veterans day of Rememberance

[Gothicshark]

When I sit and think of a moment which has impacted my life strongly, I always remember the morning I boarded an Amtrack for San Diego.
I was 18, wearing an Armani sweater and khaki pants; I was the epitome late of 80’s fashion. It wasn’t as if I had much say in my choice since I still wore the Clothes my parents bought for me. In fact I had just the day before left home for the first time.

On the train there were others on the same journey as I was. The guy I remember most was the Heavy Metal guy wearing a Slayer tee-Shirt. He had long hair and was from Long Beach, we got to talking about stupid stuff, Video Games Sci-Fi movies, and stuff that hid the fact of what our final destination was.

Once we got to the appoint stop we disembarked the Train and some guys in camo uniforms pointed us to some buses. They didn’t talk much after all it was still 4:00am on October 17.

After a short bus ride we were at our final destination. I noticed as we pulled up a bunch of other buses pulling to the same spot and men in “Smokey” Style hats standing were the buses were pulling into, this was the moment I had mentally prepared for, or thought I had. The second the bus stopped the yelling started, everyone was rushed off the busses and told to stand in yellow foot prints, we were then given a few basic instruction on how to reply when spoken to and then yelled at to form up in lines, the first thing that happened was we wear given sweat shirts, Camo pants, socks, underwear, and New Balance running shoes. We had to put all of our possessions in a bucket, which was marked with our name and Social. These were taken from us, and we were then lead to a room where we had our heads shaved. The whole day was a series of moving from point A to point B while being yelled at; we had a folder with our information in it, and a check list of things that had to be done first.

Around mid afternoon another man with a Smokey came up to us and called out a list of names, mine and the others from the train were all called. Apparently a massive Earthquake in San Francisco had happened, fortunately I was From Los Angeles and had no problems, it also seemed everyone in my group at the phones was equally lucky.

Over the next few months we were molded from normal guys into Marines, I made close friends and comrades during this time. The Metal dude was one of them.

Upon graduation we had a last formation, he was laughing hard because he had put on the Slayer tee shirt under his Dress Greens.
After this we ended up in SOI, for the training after Boot Camp, once we were done with this we went to our duty stations or if you were like me I ended up at additional Schools. The Metal Dude ended up going to LAV school and was assigned to first LAVs. I went to Security Forces training in Vallejo, and from there I was sent to Alaska. During this time Iraq invaded Kuwait. Over the next few months the world focused on the Persian Gulf, while my unit was focused on the Collapse of the Soviet Union and the near Nuclear war that could have happened. Thankfully Spetsnaz decided to favor change.
Meanwhile, the day we retook Kuwait the US suffered hardly any casualties, but there were a few most of which were the crew of two LAVs, killed by friendly fire from an A10 Warthog. My friend the Metal Dude was a Crew Member of one of those LAVs.

So for Him, I will now listen to heavy metal music and Drink a Beer for him.

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So, politics aside and nationalities aside take today and tomorrow and remember the people you knew who are not here anymore.

Also Please no nation bashing, no pro/con discussions about the merits and faults of war/imperialism/capitalism/Socialism ect. Just remember the fallen and lost for a minute.

[serenka]

is this the reason i have a day off work tommorow?

edit: sleepy, isn't veterans day in November?

[mikeakanice]

Monday is Americas veterans day man. You gotta include that op

[serenka]

Monday is Americas veterans day man. You gotta include that op

aha, Veterans day here is 11th November i think.

happy veterans day USA!

[Reg]

Veteran's Day is in November, Monday is Memorial Day.

EDIT: I guess I should expand. Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veteran's Day is a day which honors people who have served in armed service both living and dead.

[DEATHETERNAL]

Hail the honored dead. Pray they lived well, died well, and found life eternal waiting for them.