Category: excerpts

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We All Need to send Letters to Our Troops Deployed. It Makes Them Feel Loved

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One of the hardest things for a soldier to go through is not getting mail from home. I had that happen to me, while I was in Korea, I got very few letters from home.

Back then there were no Skype, Zoom, smart phones, etc.

I hated to go to mail call. I could see the excitement in the eyes of guys who got their mail, but I seldom got any.

I got a letter once and awhile from my mother, but none from anyone else. I didn’t know how much that would affect me. It did, and when my son was in Iraq, I sent him at least one letter every week, and told others to write to him.

He kept many of his letters, and stated that he would reread them often while there.

Never forget!

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One of the interesting things I did while in the military was going on R&R. (Rest and recuperation.)

A buddy and I were sent to Tokyo, Japan for a week. My first ever paid vacation.

There was such much to do there. We walked the streets and saw all the vendors selling their goods. We also saw pagodas, Japanese Gardens, etc.

One night when we was walking we saw a bar that looked enticing.(Remember, we were still teenagers.)

Found they didn’t care what age you were, they sold you beer.

We sat down and had a few beers. There was a DJ playing music, and much of it was disco type music. This is long before it became popular in the the U.S. This was 1960. You could tell it was the hang out for GI’s. Most of the place full of American military.

Then the DJ stopped playing and announced there was a contest starting.

The contest was that belly dancer was coming out, and we were to see how long we could hold onto her hips while she shimmed. The problem was she was loaded with sequence.

All the tables near the dance floor had a chance to win. We had a table right near the dance floor.

She started on the other side of the dance floor, and guys tried to hold onto her hips. There were lots of pain sounds coming from each of them when each tried.

She finally got to our table. I was pretty blotto by that time and I said I am going to try it.

She came up to me and started her shimmy. I put my hands on her hips and held on. I kept holding on until she stopped because she was tired.

My hands were bloody, but I had won. What did I win?? The DJ announced that I had won free drinks for the rest of the night.!! Just what I didn’t need.

I think I blacked out an hour or so later. I don’t remember getting back to our room.

+Both of these stores are in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Keep coming back to hear more stories. Better yet, subscribe to this site by going to the subscribe button at the top. When you subscribe, all future post will go directly to your inbox.

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Time for bed check. How are you doing? Do you fear going to sleep because the dreams are too intense? Do you fear the 4th of July?

FEAR NOT!!

There are over 11,900 fellow veterans here who have your back.

BUT! If it is just too much for you right now, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never face the storms alone!

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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A Warrant Officer Was Marching us Into a bay, and Couldn’t Stop us.

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President Biden just received his approval rating and it is 52% That sounds pretty good, except that means 48% do not approve of him. Half the country.

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Military news

“The military justice system simply is in the wrong hands” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), specifically about military commanders’ ability to block the progress of sexual misconduct cases. But that could come to an end,. There is a Pentagon panel’s recommendation to remove prosecution authority for sexual misconduct cases from the chain of command. Instead, an independent civilian-led office would prosecute those cases.

The recommendation could be a huge step forward for holding military sex offenders accountable, advocacy groups say, but there is a long way to go before any lasting change might be made.

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“It bothers me a little bit that it’s just going to end like this,” one Marine veteran said about the possible withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan this Sept. 11. It’s one of many mixed emotions veterans shared with Jeff about the end of a 20-year long war that killed several of their friends, shaped their own lives, and which never seemed to produce any tangible results. In the end it seems like everyone’s left to their own interpretation of what it all meant.

“I want to believe that everything that we did over there made a difference,” said the Marine vet added. “That’s what I’d like to believe.”

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Dear media, ‘military-trained marksman’ doesn’t mean much

I am talking about the ‘expert marksman’ award, which is not nearly as impressive as it sounds. Unfortunately, it happened again when Nicholas Reardon, a police officer and a staff sergeant in the Ohio Air National Guard, fatally shot 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio last week. That’s bad because it implies Reardon was more likely to do this because of his military background, and not because of other issues which could be at work here, such as police violence or systemic racism.

+ I was an expert marksman. I am very proud of that, but I certainly understand how people might think like they do.

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I have an excerpt from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

While in Basic Training we were marched back and forth from the firing range. One day our drill sergeant couldn’t be there and asked a Warrant Officer to do it.

We saw that he was going to take us back, and we made a sudden decision. We would only take correct orders when he was marching us.

We were all standing around at the firing range when he said, “Let’s get together men.” No one moved. He said it again. No movement. He finally asked one of the sergeants there tell him what to say. He finally said. “Get into formation men.”

We did, and the he tried to start marching us. We were all in formation and facing him.

He look flustered. He couldn’t figure out how to get us into marching form. He again asked one of the sergeants what to say. He then said, “Right face,” We did it.

He again was frustrated because he didn’t know how to get us started. He went back to the sergeant, who by this time was not happy.

The officer then said “Forward march,” We started marching, and the officer was happy. He didn’t do any form a cadence, but we march for him anyway. We were moving along pretty good when we saw we were heading for a boat ramp on the bay. The officer saw that and yelled, “Stop!” We kept going. He yelled it again, “Stop!”

The front of the formation was in the water.

I was in the water soon. The officer screamed for help and there was a sergeant near that ran over to stop us, but that time, the front was swimming around and we were all laughing.

The officer finally got us to our barracks, and we were dismissed by a sergeant there.

All hell broke loose, because the commander didn’t like what we did. At least we thought he didn’t like what we did.

He got us in formation, and chewed us out, but then as he was walking away, He had a big grin on his face.

*This and many other military stories will be in the book. Keep checking in to see the progress.

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How are your doing? Have the nights turned into nightmares. Has the pain of your wounds not gone away?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 11, 900 fellow veterans here who have your back.

If it is just too overwhelming for you, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly trained counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never take on this, not so friendly world, alone.

1-800-27308255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

_________________________________

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.

Posted on

Stories of Near Death Experiences and Some very Funny Moments

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Some military news:

“We’ve got to keep pushing on this” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston talked about the branch’s efforts to prevent more soldiers like Spc. Vanessa Guillén from being sexually harassed and murdered. Thursday marked exactly a year since Guillén first went missing: and her death forced a reckoning within the Army on how it treats its lower enlisted soldiers, particularly women.
“They leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could” was how Marine Gen. John Kelly described the last moments of Cpl. Jonathan Yale and Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, two Marine grunts who died exactly 13 years ago Thursday while trying to stop a truck carrying 2,000 pounds of explosives as it barreled toward their post in Ramadi, Iraq. Marine veteran and Task & Purpose deputy editor James Clark remembered the fallen infantrymen and the lives they led in a moving story. Both Marines were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for their actions that day.

Speaking of sacrifice, Navy vet Stephanie Kroot is one of only 50 or so Americans to have donated two of her organs to two separate people, literally giving parts of herself to save the lives of strangers. But those donations are only the latest episodes in Kroot’s long life of service, which includes stints as a police officer, a Navy intelligence specialist, and a critical care nurse. Yeah, she’s good people.

There’s a first time for everything, like sending a general officer to court-martial, as the Air Force found out on Wednesday when it referred a sexual assault charge against Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley to a general court-martial.The former commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Cooley is the first Air Force general in the branch’s 73-year history to be court-martialed, though he’s far from the first to be accused of sexual misconduct.

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There are many soldiers who aren’t happy with the way our country is going. Many have joined ranks and formed their own groups. This is not good. We need to stand together and correct the problem. We do not need hundreds of splinter groups.

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Update on my upcoming book, Signs of Hope of the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of life.

It has been a long time since I last shared the outline of my book. I think it is very helpful to share this to let our kow what is coming.

This is the order that it is written:

  1. Basic training. Lots of funny stuff happened plus some good stuff happened.
  2. Mos training- FT Gordon, GA. Got hit with a hurricane. Fast and furious training.
  3. Korea- Here is where I learned about life. Just a teenager, and facing the dark side of life. Lost two buddies there as well.
  4. FT Bragg, NC. Got a huge scare with the Bay of Pigs incident.

Each section of the main book, will have many pages of things I faced and how I faced them. Some were life threatening. Some were embarrassing. Some were as stupid is and stupid does.

Another section will be interviews with soldiers who were actually in the field. Like WWII, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, etc.

Many of the interviews will have life threatening stories. Too many of the interviews were with buddies fighting PTSD, TBI, war wounds, etc.

The third section will Appendix #1.

Appendix #1 will have pages and pages of help for you and how to use them.

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How are you doing? Is the mile you walk in life, seem more like a marathon? Is it too difficult to continue the battle?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 11,880 fellow veterans here who have your back. Many of them are people I have met and are sharing some of their lives.

Please know, that if it is just to much for you right now, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number that is 24/7.

There are highly trained counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never, ever, face this world alone!

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

__________________________________

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And never, ever, give up!

__________________________________

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.