sergeant Archives - Doug Bolton

March 10, 2023March 10, 2023

The Military Doesn’t Have to be Serious All of the Time.

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Military news…

Injured Marine recalls deadly Kabul suicide blast as House Republicans scrutinize Afghanistan withdrawal

Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews said his unit had warned commanders that they saw two suspects in the chaotic crowd outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, that fit a description flagged by U.S. intelligence, but the Marines were denied permission to shoot.

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Troops up for 5.2% pay hike under White House’s $886B defense budget request

The White House’s $6.8 trillion funding request for fiscal 2024, which begins Oct. 1, includes $842 billion specifically for the Defense Department, representing a $26 billion increase to the amount appropriated by Congress last year.

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North Korea fires short-range missile ahead of US joint military drills with South

North Korea fired its fifth ballistic missile of the year after U.S. intelligence officials assessed that the communist regime had “no intention of abandoning” its weapons program.

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The Russian military is so low on ammo that troops are reduced to fighting with e-tools

“One of the reservists described being ‘neither physically nor psychologically’ prepared for the action.”
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Ukrainian Pilots in Arizona Working With US Military Pilots

According to defense officials, while Ukrainians aren’t flying planes, U.S. military pilots are assessing their skills and familiarizing them with new aircraft equipment like the F-16. This comes as President Zelenskyy repeatedly asked the U.S. for F-16s, but the Biden administration has resisted.

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Not all moments in the military have to be serious. During my basic training I had an incident that I love to tell others about.

We were just finished with our firing range training, and our sergeant that was suppose to march us back to our barracks had to leave. He asked a Warrant officer to march us back.

Before he came over to us we decided to follow the rules of orders when he took over. That meant he had to say things exactly like a sergeant would say to get us moving.

He came before us and said, “Ok guys let’s get into formation.” No one moved. He tried two more times, and then he went to another sergeant to asked what he should say. The sergeant told him, and we go into formation when he said the right thing.

The he tried to get us to start marching he said, “Start marching,” No movement. He tried to do this several times,and had to ask that same sergeant what he should say. He then told us, “Forward march.”

We started marching. Eventually we came to a spot that we had to turn, or we would walk into the bay. He said, “Let’s turn here to avoid the water. We kept marching. We got to the edge of the water and he yelled, “Stop!” We kept going and the first part of the platoon was in the water. he was panicked, and called for help for another sergeant. The sergeant yelled “Halt.”

We stopped, but by that time we were all in the water, laughing our heads off.

We finally got back to the barracks and the company commander had us get into formation. He chewed us out for what we had done, and then you could see he was smiling as he walked back to his office.

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I had the privilege to meet a Vietnam veteran while shopping for groceries. I seem to have the knack to find them. This guy is a true hero. His name is Milt Hoch. He had three tours in Vietnam. He didn’t have to. He chose to.

He was in intense fighting, even face to face fighting. He was once stabbed through both legs at once with a bayonet. He was still able to kill the enemy and survive.

I have an interview with him in my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life. It is riveting.

Keep coming back to hear about other heroes. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on subscribe. When you do all future posts will go directly to your inbox.

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Checking in on you. How are you doing? Is everything going OK, or are you fighting back memories?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 15,219 Veterans on this site who have your back.

If you are battling mentally, but you are losing, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number that you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will not hang up until they know you are OK.
1-800-273-8255…texting 838255.

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up.

+Now there is an easier way to get help. Just dial 988, and you will have help ready for you.

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April 26, 2021April 28, 2021

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!

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March 1, 2021March 5, 2021

Basic Training in The Military Can be Interesting and Quite a Rude Awakening

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I have had a drastic drop in subscribers recently. From 2-24-21 to 3-1-21 I have only had 7 new subscribers, when I averaged over 20 a day.

Am I doing something wrong? Are you not happy with something I am writing? Please let me know. The whole purpose of this site is to reach out to my fellow veterans and give them hope.

Please make comments in the comment area below.

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I am going to share some more excerpts from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of life. with you today. They are from different parts of my military career.

In Basic Training, back in my day, we still had draftees. we had two in my platoon. They were not happy campers. The rest of us who enlisted finally told them to shut up and serve.

One of the draftees wouldn’t stop. He was a Native American. He was a good sized drink of water. Looked kind of like a linebacker.

The drill sergeant finally had enough of his whining and told him to straighten up and serve his country proudly. The Native American told him where to go.

The drill sergeant then told him to come into his room at the end of the barracks. It was pretty quiet for a while, and then all hell broke loose from that room. You could hear crashing of things, grunts of pain; cursing, and screaming.

Then it got very quiet again. We all figured that our drill sergeant had been beaten up, because he was 5’9′ and couldn’t have weighed more than 150 pounds. The Native American was 6 foot tall and around 200 pounds.

The door slowly came open and out staggered our drill sergeant. He looked like he had hit by a truck, but he was still standing. We all rushed to look in his room and there was the Native American out cold on the floor.

We had nothing but respect for our drill sergeant after that. Even the native american respected him.

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While I was deployed to South Korea, they gave us a thing called R&R. (Rest and recuperation.)

It was a week of going to Tokyo, Japan. All paid with free room and board. My very first vacation.

A buddy and I got there and settled down. The next day we went touring the area. We saw Japanese flower gardens. Pagodas, and lots of shopping areas. We were awestruck. Nothing like this back in the states!

Later in the week, we decided to venture into a bar that could be considered a disco bar later on in the states. We sat down and had a couple of beers.

Then an announcer who spoke English came on and announced that there was a belly dancer coming out to dance for us.

He went on to say that they were having a contest. The contest was to see who could hold onto the belly dancer’s hips the longest while she shimmied.

The dancer came out. She was beautiful and a caucasian girl. She started dancing around the circle of tables. At each table she would stop and invite a soldier to try to hold on to her. There were many who tried, but none that could hold on very long.

Then she came to my table. I had way too much the drink by that time and accepted the challenge. I put my hands on her hips and she began to shimmy. I kept a hold of her until she had to stop to rest.

I had won the contest. Then the announcer said what the prize was. YOU GET FREE DRINKS FOR THE REST OF THE EVENING!

Just what I didn’t need!! I also looked at my hands and they were full of blisters. The pain was setting in. What did I do about it? Had several more beers. I do not recall the rest of the evening. My buddy must have gotten me back to our hotel.

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