Category: warriors deployed

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The Loss of a Buddy During Your Time in the Military is Hard at Best

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My last post caused quite a stir. Talking about suicide is not an easy thing to do, but when 22 veterans take their own lives EACH day then we need to reach out.

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Military news…

It’s a bad day for one Missouri bar after a video went viral over the weekend of a bartender berating a group of six service members who tried to get drinks with their military identification card. The bartender, identified as Josh Weitkamp, refused to serve them, appeared to bend and throw away one of the service members’ military IDs, told them they “don’t even look old enough to know about f—ing 9/11” and then denied that they were in the military at all, which is funny because at least a few have been to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target. Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target on a live-fire range while fighter planes drop ordnance near you for 20 minutes. But that’s what one French Air Force pilot said his fellow aviators put him through in March 2019. The pilot recently filed a criminal complaint because he felt the French military was not taking the matter seriously enough.

‘Wait, they just now started doing this?’ is a perfectly reasonable reaction that the 18th Airborne Corps wants anyone found guilty of sexual assault or harassment to be immediately separated from the Army. But it’s true: the new policy marks a major departure from how such crimes are handled elsewhere in the service, and it’s a direct result of soldier feedback to their leadership.

Remember that scene from The Matrix where Neo orders up a big honkin’ arsenal of virtual guns? Well that’s what the deck of the USS Monterey looked like last week. After the Navy ship stopped a small boat in the North Arabian Sea that was chock full of Type 56 assault rifles, PKM machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades and kaboodles of other kinds of firepower. In fact, the cache was so large it took the crew 36 hours to unload all of it.

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One of the many things that sticks out in my mind about my time in the military was the loss of lives during peacetime.

In my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, I wrote about two buddies I lost while in Korea. Neither one of them were in combat.

The first one was a buddy that I signed up with to get into the military. We went through basic together. We went through MOS training together, and was sent to Korea together.

When we got there, he was sent to another part of Korea. Things went Ok for a few months until I was notified that he had died from some kind of crud he caught there.

I couldn’t believe it. He died from an illness? I found out it happens a lot in foreign countries. I still think about him to this day.

The second incident was right in my own company at Camp Red Cloud, outside of Uijeongbu, Korea.

A close buddy had been drinking heavily, and went out into the village to be with a girl. He was coming back to the Camp, and he was staggering very badly. He could hardly walk.

As he was walking he fell into a “honey bucket.” A honey bucket is where the locals keep their human waste for fertilizer. It is about seven feet across. My buddy actually suffocated.

We had no idea it had happened until our morning formation the next morning. I noticed a gap where he was suppose to be in the ranks. I didn’t think much about it. However, the company commander came out and announced that he had died the night before.

We all were in shock. He was a good guy that everyone liked.

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These and many other stories like them will be in the book that will come out this fall. Be sure to follow this site to see the latest on the book.

Better yet, subscribe now by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of this page. You won’t have to come back here to find out more. It will be sent straight to your inbox each time I post.

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How are you doing? Did you lose a buddy while in the military? It is hard at best to even think about it.

FEAR NOT!!

There are more than 11,800 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.

BUT! If you heart is broken, and you need further assistance, 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. AND IT IS FREE!

Never face another day that causes you to hurt.

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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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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+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.

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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.