Olds son revisited

On a preveous post Old made coment of his sons, expert shooting in the military.

Dave 2 made a coment as to my thinking my son should not ever go in to the military. I tried to respond before, but have issues with not being registered, so I changed my handle yet again.

Dave 2, your insults do not bother me, you haven"t a clue where I"m coming from, I forgive you and any one else that wants to take a crack at me.

I watched allot of combat movies before I went over the pond, I"m sure there are others reading this post also that understand. For those that understand, my hats off to them for there military efforts, or the sacrafices your children, or loved one gave. the ones that never came home alive or unharmed.

What is ahead for my son is no doubt less than what is promised by the recruiting officers. My son is backwoods, and could never get to the silver spoon squad, so he would probably get his rifle right a way. I personally don"t care if he has to work his whole life doing dirty jobs. As long as he is in one unit, healthy, and mostly alive.

Before you tear me a new one, I forgive you for what you are going to post to me before you begin. If you don"t understand, I hope and pray you never do.

By the way I did enlist, good thing because I would have been drafted first. My birthday is Sept 14th the very first lottery number in the draft.

And as a foot note, if it is such a great opportunity, I"m confused why I do not know of a single soul in my outfit that reenlisted? I do know some guys that did, but they were in the rear, and don"t understand either. For them, it was indeed a great opertunity, with a early retirment, good health care etc. Heck, some of them have war stories that would make John Wayne look like a fool. The stories go on and on, but I personaly roll my eyes when I listen, or jut leave the room.

Three of our unit got together twenty years ago, and never was their a word mentioned of the past. After we met that time we all agreed to never meet again, (other than by phone) because it caused us all to have to deal with unplesant things in our sleep.

I was spit on at a airport while escorting a buddies remains home. yet I to this day respect her opinion, it was different than mine at the time.

I opolagize to you Dave 2 if this comes across as rude, that is not my intent, I just would like you to try to understand a different point of view from a very loving dad, that raised his son pretty much by himself.

I"m not sure if I will read your return post or not, as it will probably not be bemificial to anyone.
http://thewall-usa.com/

Times have changed. If you want to stay in the past, stay there, if you can deny your son the opportunity of making his own choices based on information coming from someone informed as apposed to a bitter old man and still look in the mirror, then do that too. Just don't wear your heart on your sleeve and whine about it.

No disrespect intended and I thank you for your service.


Dave

I did not see the post's that lead to this I just want to thank any and all folks who served and are serving for giving me the freedon to write this. NO one should be insulted on this tractor forum. Old a special thanks for you military service and also for your son.

(quoted from post at 18:02:07 04/11/10) I did not see the post's that lead to this I just want to thank any and all folks who served and are serving for giving me the freedon to write this. NO one should be insulted on this tractor forum. Old a special thanks for you military service and also for your son.

Click to expand...

Go back a page or so and check out "New from my son in the Navy",
There were no insults.

Dave

I've got to chime in on this one - as I think anyone who has/is serving our country is someone to be admired!
I was very lucky to be at the end of the Vietnam WAR (1972) and did not have to serve. BUT, my Dad served in WW II, went to reserves and then served in the Korean Conflict. Dad is now 88 and has pasted down swords, guns, etc. but hasn't pasted down the pictures.

Jim
proud memeber of the Sons of the American Legion Post 506

It's odd how so many enlightened people seem to know more. Than the man/women in the battle that has just killed or dodged the enemy that was trying to kill them.

I'm somewhat surprised I read your post, and even more surprised I am responding.

Dave, I guess you could easy say I am a bitter old man, I don't consider that a insult at all. I did meet a few guys in the old days that were high on love for the military. In the old days we disresectfuly called them lifers, then we soon called them point men. Seems the casulity rate of point men was increased with the amount of this love they had. One never knows why?

I was in a chicken poop outfit, we were all scared cowards, and we never intentionaly took on more than we thought we could chew.

Todays military is indeed different, but a few things still exist. They still give out shinny things to put on your uniform to make some feel proud. They also have body counts of 4,375, and 31,616 injured from the us military. They still give flags, a very personel letter from the comander in chief (not nesasaraly hand written) to all the proud families. Yet still the family often dies, as their loved one dies, like in the past or olden days.

Friday I helped scrape up a 18 year old off the HWY, so kids aren't probably any safer in any ocupation. Yet to a bitter old man, I still think their is a big differance.

Dave, I wish you the best, be careful, young guys can also die, and us old folks must die. Alot of us old bitter guys living in the past used to think like you. Our eyes are geeting worse, but we can still see things young folks often can not see.

You made mention of air in tires now days, Us red necks had no clue of that. That could be as a result of gettin hitched to our cousins an all. And we also do stupid stuff like helping a neighbor (often another cousin). We conserve water by cleaning a transmission as we take our monthly baths--once in a while we even throw in some home made Lye soap. Usualy the soap is reserved only for when dating a new cousin however.

Good Luck Dave, from Dave

This is from the experience of a fellow vet. We raise our children the best we can. At a certain point we have to turn them loose to make their own decisions. Whatever they decide, good or bad, it theirs to make. We can not live their lives for them. If he decides to enlist or not is his decision. The past is the past.

Let's just agree to disagree........

Fooling with your cousins' ain't so bad until you start telling people on the internet about it :shock: Al Gore didn't invent it so's people could disclose the nasty details of your youth.

Sorry you took offense to my remarks because there was no harm intended.

Take care,


Dave

I want to THANK any person that has served this great nation in the armed forces. I served three tours in Nam. I was not drafted. I was in front line combat. I did what I did so a few more men could come home. I saw with my own eyes what goes on in war. I also have seen what goes on when we don't fight for what is right. Too many liberals "talk" a good game but when things get down and dirty they are no where to be found. I don't count on anyone else to make the world better. You have to do it yourself one thing at a time.

Sir, Yes Sir!!!

As a vet that has never had any children, in my opinion, I'd say that you are exactly and very correct. I say that by watching family members, friends, and folks in general raise their children. Seems to me that parents can love, nurture, raise, and protect their children as best they can, but at some point children become adults and make decisions for themselves, and parents, family, friends, and neighbors can only hope they made the correct decisions, and hope that all turns out well.

And as a vet and a proud American, may God always bless our soldiers and nation, and I for one thank each and every last one of them.

It was my privilege to serve as it is my sons. Just wish that when we get out that we got what the commander in chief gets instead of a kick in the teeth

AMEN Old, hope the military of today never get spit on like we did for doing our duty so they could have the right to spit on us. 11 years in Army & Viet Nam vet. Keith

I never was in the service, my number wasn't drawn in the lottery, but I have a profound respect for those who are in the armed forces.

I haven't heard any stories from the war veterans because they understandably don't want to remember the horrors, but I have heard some stories from their chldren. Mainly they talk about dad having nightmares twenty years after the war. One WW2 vet in his upper 80's had the nightmares again after the 911 attack. When he was in the war he was ambushed and left for dead in Africa. 911 brought the memories back and he was ready to re-enlist so he could go after the 'rag heads'.

During Vietnam I got so mad at the people who spit on our men who came home. The 'spitters', whether they be man or woman, should have been enlisted and sent to Nam. If they came back alive they certainly wouldn't have been cowards anymore. Jim

Iowa, I would say that today's military is nothing like what you had to deal with. In general they do take pretty good care of the military members today, sometimes almost to the point of coddling them. If a kid has a good head on his shoulders (he doesn't have to be a genius), and knows how to keep out of trouble, they can go far.
As for becoming a causualty, far more soldiers and sailers are killed by non-combat injuries than combat injuries. They just don't make the news a often unless it's something like a helicopter going down. Somebody getting killed operating a forklift or getting a fatal disease just doesn't get attention from the news.
But anyway, if he's in the Navy, I'd say he's generally going to be well taken care of, at least better than us Army pukes.