Black People : Happy Veterans Day

[legit-writer]

Go hug both





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already beat you to it.

 

[SlickBeast]

My heart skipped a beat. I thought he said Happy Valentine day. I thought I was screwed.

 

[Kemetstry]

My heart skipped a beat. I thought he said Happy Valentine day. I thought I was screwed.

Nope, you got a few more months to go. Plus, dont forget xmas





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[MimiBelle]

I'm late, but here's a salute to all the vets in the house.

My family doesn't have a bunch of military folk in it, anymore. But, at least, two people from every generation joins.
- My daddy and his brothers joined the army. I have 4 kinfolk that went to Vietnam. My daddy went to Korea during it's war.
- My daddy's brother was the only one that stayed in and he retired as a 'master gunnery sgt' (I think) in the marines. 32 years...
- One of my older brothers is a Major in the army. I've a younger cousin in the army and I think he's doing OTS or something. I've no idea. It's, like, one minute he's contracting and the next he's in the military.

I'm prior-svc AF. Then, I up and joined the national guard....*smirk*
I couldn't stand 'army culture'. I hated 'drill'. It was 36 hours of non-stop meetings, PT, Power-Point, harangueing and bulls...t. I never adjusted and had I gone 'active'?
Probably would've ended up goin' AWOL...
*laugh*

If I didn't have a problem with getting cabin fever on a ship and being 'at sea', I would've joined the navy. Not only do they get cute uniforms, but the medics get to be in the company of fine marines all day. *laugh*

**************

But... when we actually conducted 'missions'? The 'why' of it all...y'know: 'Why' I signed up in the first place...
That became clear. In the reserve components, as you may/not know, you spend the bulk of your time in preparation. In training. Doing exercises.
Training for natural disasters. Training for theater. Pretty one-sided because the medical units only ever focused on 'whiskey' skills (military folk with nurse training, basically. All whiskey's aren't nurses, but all nurses are whiskey's.).
Yet, everyone in a medical unit isn't a nurse/medic. They were 'support'.
Yada, yada, yada...
...and it did frustrate some of the soldiers. I never blamed them. They never got to train on their equipment or for their particular skillset. They rarely got a chance to do their job. Even during annual training or whatever community events that we'd participate in...we'd have, for instance, civilian mobile xray.
...when 7 members of the military support platoon were rad techs! We were overstrength, actually.

So, what were the xray techs doing?

Height and weights. Intake/Processing. Moving chairs. Serving food to the public. <-- Talk about a waste of manpower/resources. But... the mission comes first and our command (as I'm sure it was true for commands all over Texas) was hell-bent on turning all of medical support into a bunch of half-a..sed nurses.
*laugh*

So...again - it's really easy to lose focus and forget why you ever joined when you deal with things like that. *laugh*

But... I've always been very much impressed with Army medics. I gravitate towards the 'helping professions', so, I liked the whole humanitarian/'first responder' aspect of the Guard. I knew that i'd get to really increase my skill level in the army, because you encounter so much.

I never got to deploy, because I gave my slot to a colleague that wanted to make a career of it. I kinda wish that I hadn't b/c you get to be involved in a lot of interesting medical cases abroad. It gives new meaning to the phrase, 'nursing is 24/hour operation'. It's just non-stop action.
That's where you really get to do the most good. That's where your critical thinking and skills are really tested.
And...also? It's about wanting to fix what our nation has screwed up over there.
....and a bunch of military folk deploy with this mindset. That's why, despite it being an unpopular war, a large amt of military folk didn't want to 'cut and run'.

So, when some americans say, '...the hell with it! We need to leave. America needs to take care of itself!'

I understand, but I disagree.
I think America owes the Iraqi people. We owe them better than a pity-protest, internet outrage and a puppet govt that's likely to descend into chaos via power vaccum once we, the proverbial cork in the bottle, leave.
Hell...who am I kidding? It'll be years before we completely vacate that place, anyway.
'Combat operations', notwithstanding. *smirk*
This country destroyed it's middle class, destroyed it's infrastructure, destroyed it's govt, overthrew it's leader and destabilized that entire region.
So...'leave' ? No.

Why?
*shrug*
You break it? You fix it.

To deploy is an opportunity to step in, do your part and improve a life. You'll never see it, though. All the good that many of our personnel try to do over there.
Not if the 'anti-military' media has anything to say about it. Unless we're talking about suicide, PTSD and sex scandals, this bulls--t a--s media won't cover it.

All in all, I did have more opportunities to 'help out' on a larger scale with an army component, at least.
...because, in the Guard, you do tend to operate with a community/public health focus in mind.

 

[Kemetstry]

Better late than never Mimi





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