The Old Guard

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2005-11-04T18:39:00.000-05:00

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Day Four

2005-11-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

Well the last few days have been a little crazy so needless to say I have not been very diligent with my updates. As for the ongoing saga of my adventures in trying to get deployed to Iraq, well they appear to be stalled at the moment, but there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Every soldier’s friend AKO has yielded a few pearls, and I’m following up on them. I posted a message on the AKO and several people have responded with advice and a few are working on getting me contact names and numbers. It’s really amazing to me how hard it is to actually get deployed as a volunteer! I know some of you may be asking yourselves what’s wrong with this guy. Why the hell would anyone want to volunteer to go to Iraq? Well, if you have to ask that question, maybe you shouldn’t be reading this Blog anyway. Every man, well maybe not EVERY man, asks himself the question How would I react in combat?” Would I shit my pants? Would I puke at the site of a dead body? Could I pull the trigger when the time came? Well I want to find out the answers to these questions for myself. That and the fact that being an American and a soldier, I feel it’s my duty to go. Besides I feel guilty sitting here while others are returning for a second and third tour. I’m not asking you to agree with me here, these are just my feelings on the situation that’s all.

Well, still crazy here so I have to cut it short today…

Day Three

2005-10-27T16:44:00.000-05:00

Things are busy today, so I'll just post a few pics of my trip to Mexico with the Greatest Woman in the World!

Out for now...

Day Two

2005-10-26T15:46:00.000-05:00

Here is a little something that was e-mailed to me by a co-worker:

A Marine was attending a college course between
missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The professor, an
avowed atheist, shocked the class one day when he
walked in, looked toward the ceiling, and said loudly,
"God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off
this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes."

The lecture room fell silent and the professor began
his lecture. Ten minutes went by and the professor
proclaimed, "Here I am God - still waiting."

It got down to the last minute when the Marine stood
up, walked toward the professor and threw his best
punch knocking him off the platform and out cold. The
Marine went back to his seat and sat down.

The other students were shocked and stunned and sat
there looking on in silence. The professor came to,
noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked,
"What is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"
The Marine calmly replied, "God is busy today
protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your
right to behave like an idiot and say stupid shit.
So… He sent me!

Ok, well back to where I left off on day one…

I joined the NJ National Guard on Feb. 16th. 2005 as a 19 D after all my messes (for lack of a better term) were cleaned up. I was fortunate to work out a deal with my recruiter to re-enter the military at the same rank that I left at. (E-5) By March 23rd. 2005 I found myself on a plane to lovely Fort Knox, KY for 6 glorious weeks better known as the Warrior Transition Course.

This course for those of you that don’t know is designed for prior service members from all branches who are re-entering the military. Imagine the fun when you take members of all branches of the US Military throw them into a reception barracks for two weeks (with BCT soldiers as well) and tell them to get along! Needless to say there was much excitement to be had for those two weeks as we waited for enough people to start our actual WTC training.

Being ex-Navy, I had it a little rough in reception, but not half as bad as the Air Force & Coast Guard folks. Every branch of the service hates the other (good natured for the most part), and arguments and fights were part of our every day routine. Guess the training was starting to work as apparently we were all becoming fighters!

Once we moved down range to our platoons, things started to move pretty quickly! Our training day began at 04:30 and ended between 19:00 & 20:00 after which you could usually attend to personal matters. Now I consider myself lucky going in to the WTC course as my recruiter was very up front with me about the course… He told me he knew basically nothing about it, and that was that! Others I met there informed me and anyone that would listen, that they were told the WTC was a “Gentleman’s Course”, and that it would be easy. Since my recruiter really couldn’t elaborate on the course, I researched it myself while I was supposed to be working. Now the information I located did not depict the course as something out of Full Metal Jacket, but it did tell me that it was both a physically and mentally demanding course, and was basically 9 weeks of boot camp compressed in to a 4 week period. (By the way, it’s run by Drill Sgts.)

Now I’m no rocket scientist, but that to me meant that I had better be in shape, and I could leave my smoking jacket and ascot at home. In hindsight I should have brought the smoking jacket because it seemed we got “Smoked” at least three times a day! I can’t speak for everyone in my platoon that went through the course, but I enjoyed it and learned tons. Others, not so much… Once I graduated, I came back home and was assigned to HHC 1/114 Infantry.

This is where I talk about my unit’s patch.

I know what you are thinking… “What the hell is that?? Is this guy a member of some quasi military unit for gay pride??? I’ll let you finish laughing at my patch first before I answer. Here is the explanation. Not so funny anymore huh? Ok, maybe a little.

More tomorrow…

Day One

2005-10-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

First off I suppose I should explain the title for this Blog. Well, I’m old and in the NJ Army National guard so it just seemed an appropriate title.

I guess the logical place to start would be at the beginning otherwise none of this will make much sense to you…

It all started on a cold rainy October morning much like the one here today… Just kidding, I won’t go that far back. Actually, On September 11th, 2001 I was working as an editor for a South Jersey web site listening to Howard Stern talking about how much he would like to “do” Pam Anderson when they started talking about a plane hitting the WTC. Like many others listening that morning I assumed he was kidding, and was waiting for the punch line. Well I got it when I switched stations and began hearing the reports. The guys in the design shop across the hall thought I was insane when I told them, but willingly followed me to the TV room. As we all stood there watching the images live on TV I began to get that feeling in my gut that told me I had to do something, and that something was going back into the military. I say back into the military because from 1980 to 1984 I was a member of the US Navy assigned to the USS Constellation as a flight deck troubleshooter for the ground support division. I had a great time in the Navy, saw the world and grew up quite a bit in those four years. For those of you doing the math, I was 18 when I joined… After my initial enlistment was up I was all set to re-enlist, but as per SOP for the military, I did not get the duty assignment I requested, (BUDs training), instead I was offered recruiting duty in Denver Colorado of all places! Not really being one for cold weather, I declined the invitation and got out. Mistake # 1. That day (9/11/01) really got me thinking about the path my life had taken, and the bad decisions I have made along the way. Now when I say bad decisions I don’t mean I robbed any banks or stole cars, It’s just that growing up I was the kind of kid who played with GI Joes, watched every movie and read every book I could about WWII or Viet Nam, and grew to be extremely patriotic. I always knew that I would grow up, join the military and go off to war. Well, to this point I’ve only grown up! As for going off to war, believe it or not it’s more difficult than you would think! Due to a bad marriage (two actually, but that’s another story), I was postponed from joining the National Guard until February 16th, 2005. You see my second ex-wife told me she would divorce me if I joined. Had I known what I know now, I would have joined that minute… Well real life demands I get back to work so more to follow…