What Did You Work On While In The Military?

[JJReyes]

Infintry 8 years in mostly the jungles of central america. getting out was never on my mind but after being shot, chashing in a chopper, draged through the jungle caught up in my repel rope tied to a Huey it was time to try something else.

 

A close friend who now lives in the Philippines had similar tales about his Vietnam War days as a USMC Recon. One of his jobs was to hold a hatchet to chop the line if anyone got entangled in the jungle canopy. The idea was to save the chopper.

[johnb]

Did my time many years ago in the British Army, my regiment has been around for so many years and is still active today in many

areas including Afghanistan,

 

http://www.sekentfusiliers.co.uk/history.html#top

 

We lost several men at the end of the first Gulf war to friendly fire, in my day my role was that of a basic grunt with specialized training in Locating IEDs, as well  as being part of a search team seeking weapons and bomb making equipment from terrorist organizations, we would work in search teams some as small as two men only or on other occasions up to eight men we used a technique known as the winthrop theory, windthrop was an officer from my regiment and his search methods are used by many Military and civilian groups to this day, although not many Know where the name winthrop derived from.

 

http://www.fusiliers-association.co.uk/Fusiliers_at_Rest/Fusiliers_at_Rest1.htm

 

A more recent picture of serving Fus 2009

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1215612/Pictured-Heartbreaking-courage-injured-soldier-pays-respects-bravest-brave-killed-Afghanistan.html#ixzz0S18P34QZ

Edited April 12, 2013 by johnb

[jpbago]

We mover here to Surigao City in 2008 and our 17 year old son is presently attending his 4th year at Caraga Regional High School. He turns 18 this coming December 4th and soon he will be moving to Austin, Texas for 1 to 1/2 years before probably returning here to attend University here.

 

I am thinking of bringing our girls from PI to Canada to attend college (med tech). Med tech in PI is a 4 year course (lots of unrelated subjects) and only recognized in PI. Med tech in Canada is 34 weeks and world recognized. Other than the cost of tuition, what are the advantages of attending university in PI? 

[jamesmusslewhite]

We mover here to Surigao City in 2008 and our 17 year old son is presently attending his 4th year at Caraga Regional High School. He turns 18 this coming December 4th and soon he will be moving to Austin, Texas for 1 to 1/2 years before probably returning here to attend University here.

 

I am thinking of bringing our girls from PI to Canada to attend college (med tech). Med tech in PI is a 4 year course (lots of unrelated subjects) and only recognized in PI. Med tech in Canada is 34 weeks and world recognized. Other than the cost of tuition, what are the advantages of attending university in PI? 

Cost is a big factor to many. A college here is 1/10th the cost as in the US. There are over 18,000 universities and the Philippines has 4 Universities ranked in the top 600 schools world-wide. There are also the Science High school programs (entry allowed in start of 6th year only) which provides a solid high school curriculum steeped in Science and Math studies. My son just graduated Caraga Regional Science High schoo here in Surigao City. It is the best High School serving the whole of the Caraga Region to include Butuan, CDO, and Surigao City)

  .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caraga_Regional_Science_High_School

 

Parents with children grades 5 or under should check in the Regional Science High in your area to see about their testing for entry level to see if they score high enough for acceptance. My son received an excellent High School education from a Philippine Regional public high school. A child can get a degree suitable to making them credible and competitive in the world market. You may have to adjust where you choose to live while your child is attending such a curriculum. If a child's chosen curriculum exceeds the educational ability in the Philippines than they should be allowed to seek that curriculum where it is provided. In the case of my son He can obtain his paper in a respected Graduale Engineering program, and then he can latter choose to attend other engineering courses in Austin once he has set his course on a career choice.

[BrettGC]

Finally getting around to posting here :)

I joined the Royal Australian Navy at the tender age of 18, in 1987. Did my first 8 years waving flags, flashing lights, and sitting on tactical voice circuits. During that period I served mainly on what you USN types would know as Charles F. Adams class destroyers with a holiday in the GOO (Gulf of Oman) during Gulf 1 and a stint as a UN peacekeeper in Cambodia leading up to their first democratic elections since the Pol Pot regime was toppled. This involved manning a mobile COMCEN in the jungle in support of a French regiment being shot at every night by rogue elements of the Kmer Rouge; fun stuff. At about this point I'd risen to the dizzy height of Leading Seaman (sorta E5/6ish in US terms) and decided that I really wanted to be in the Navy again based on the premise that it was a lot less likely that I'd be shot at; well on such a personal level anyway. So I transferred jobs, was duly demoted (that's what happens in the RAN if you change jobs, they knock you back to base rank again) to Able Seaman (E4ish?) and began my career as a maths nerd intercepting transmissions of various sorts (my specialty was data) and working out de-cryption solutions for them whilst safely ensconced in the bowels of a nicely hidden submarine. After about 2 years I made it back to Leading Seaman again and low and behold, the army is short of tactical signals analysts so after a brief time being yelled at by army infantry instructors with this strange thing they call a rifle (Styer) I arrived in beautiful downtown Dili in East Timor - oh joy. No being shot at this time as I was mainly providing tactical intel to the guys running around being shot at. After about 7 months of this I happily arrived back in my windowless building in Canberra. Then 9-11 happened...

I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and tried to set the example for being professional and a subject matter expert. As part of my training for my new career I'd spent a fair bit of time in the US under the tutelage of all 4 arms of the US military. In the meantime, Mr Clinton had decided to offer voluntary redundancies to a swathe of US military personnel. The problem was that far too many people in key positions took the redundancies so the US military turned to their Aust, UK and Canadian allies to fill a training short fall for their personnel. Off I went for probably the most fun 12 months of my career, living in Annapolis and doing the daily commute to a very big building about 45 mins away not too far outside of Baltimore, instructing US military personnel in the art of finding out what the bad guys are saying via all those 1's and 0's. Whilst there I was promoted to Petty Officer (It's our lowest rank of SNCO so it does equate directly to E-7) and that came with a nice new hat and more importantly badge, and wearing a tie rather than a funny looking sailors collar. I didn't realise the informal traditions the USN has with regards to the initiation of Chief Petty Officers - I look back at those days with much fondness, some embarrassment and a little wincing lol. Needless to say I made it through in one piece though :).

Meanwhile back in Australia the army still hadn't sorted out their shortfall so I was recalled to Aust, some more time spent with infantry types yelling at me again (much more politely this time, given my rank), and off I went to scenic Tarin Kowt, the capital of Oruzgan Province in Afg. Quiet possibly the worst 9 months of my life, but I won't go into details other than to say I lost close friends but thankfully arrived home physically unscathed.

Another promotion to E8, appointed head instructor out our joint int school for two years then back to Afg :/. Second worse 9 months of my life. Back to Australia, diagnosed with severe, chronic depression and PTSD (makes my nights interesting sometimes), back in my windowless building for 2 years waiting out my 20. Offered my Warrant (E9 - Warrant officers in the ADF aren't commissioned and are still considered SNCOs, sort of) to re-sign after my 20 on the condition I went back to Afg. I told my CO in no uncertain terms that no, I would not be accepting the promotion. So in December 2007 I walked out of my windowless building for the last time after 20 years, 4 months and 13 days of service.

Despite the downs of my service, I still look back largely with fondness at my time served. I wouldn't have changed anything really. the highs, the lows, the mates, the camaraderie I've been unable to emulate in civilian life. The fallen (that I would change of course).

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Edited April 13, 2013 by BrettGC

[NavyRN]

People

[Jake]

People

Hello Andy,  

 

If I understand it correctly, a Navy RN is usually a medical officer versus corpsman who are

in the enlisted ranks.  I have nothing but outstanding reviews about the Navy Medical Center

in Balboa San Diego, CA.  They took very good care of me after my kidney stone extraction.

 

Respectfully -- Jake (ETCM retarded)  

Edited July 11, 2013 by Jake

[Tukaram (Tim)]

I had a corpsman, E-5, friend on the ship and while he was stationed in the PI's was the doctor.  He got pushed out on a medical discharge and said all his training and experience counted for absolutely zero on the outside world!  Really a shame.  Most of my training was accepted at our local college for credit.

[Old55]

People

LOL, if it were some place in South East Asia about 40 years ago I may have been one of those people. :tiphat:

[Geoff Thomas]

Royal Navy, Hunter Killer Submarines Courageous, Tireless and Torbay. 1988 till 2004. Mostly a sneaky boat gathering intel around the Northern parts from our "friends" and special ops drop off pick ups. 

Marine Engineering on everything including nuclear systems whilst on watch, Fire Fighter off watch.

 

All good fun but thank god thats long gone 

 

Run Silent Run Deep! & of course Submariners go deeper for longer!  :thumbs-up-smile: