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Basic Training |
 the following by gruntpain1775 this Forum is a place where like minded individuals get together and talk about our expeirances in the infantry world, help each other out, pass along information. When people get on here and ask questions We have no problem helping them out. HOWEVER, when you start coming in here and try to overstep your bounds we have a problem. Granted this is the internet, but our bonds as brothers in arms go beyond a computer. Ours is a world filled with great pain, joys, happiness, tears, blood, the list can go on. Everyone wants to be like us but they are not prepared to make the sacrifice to be one of us. What is that sacrifice? here are just a few. Spending countless DAYS without food, sleep calling home to see if your pregnant wife or sick mom are doing ok, pushing your body to the point your brain has to take over and from then on you don't remember half the **** you did, months in the field, years in a combat zone, spending 15 months or more woundering if today will be your last day, trying to imagine how you will die, if it will hurt. watching your buddy be cut in half from a IED and having to drag him out of the kill zone or having a bullet bounce off your shoulder after it just went thru your buddies head. and after that is done having to go back to the hooch and clean his bloody gear and pack his things to send send home to his wife. Then having to grab your gear and go right back out. You don't know about those things because you have spent you life in school, getting high, getting drunk trying to figure out if you can get into susie rotten crotches panties tonight, wondering if those new pair of shoes you got today will look cool with your new jeans and when the next HALO game will come out. You want to look cool and get as many "titles" under your belt so one day you can have people say "wow, he is such a hero, he has done X,Y and Z while he was in the military." well guess what, you get those titles, tell your "war" stories you want so bad. Rest assured that one day you will tell those stories and somwhere in that group of people you are telling those stories too will be that guy. The one who sits in the back. He doesn't hardly talk, not to many people know him, and even less people know what he has done. he will be that guy who landed on Normandy. He will be that guy that marched across the frozen ground in Korea. He will be that guy who slept in the enemies back yard in the jungles of Veit nam. He will be that guy who Liberated Kuwait, he will be that guy who who fought in Iraq, he will be that guy that climbed the mountains of Afganistan. He once wore a blue cord. The color of his headgear might have been green, tan, black. He watched his buddies die and everyday he wonders why it wasn't him. Everynight his wife wakes up and looks over and sees him reliving that fight from that far away land and she tries to wake him up, and while she is trying that she has one foot one the ground ready to jump back when she wakes him up because she don't know if he will try to hurt her. He is that guy that can't go hunting anymore with his kids because if he is in the woods and he hears a shot he is back there again. He is that guy that can't drive down the road without wondering if that bag of trash is an IED on the Intersate in AMERICA. He is your doctor, your lawyer, the cop who patrols your street, the next door neighbor who never really comes out of his house, he is the kid at the super market bagging your chow, he is the guy building your house. He is everywhere. and you would never know it because is a professional. He has lived things that you can't even imagine. He has done andseen what Hollywood can never capture on the silver screen. And the reason why you would never know about him is because he don't care about "titles". He knows that even if he tried to talk to you about what he has done you are to stupid to understand. He has been there done that and the only people who he can talk to about the things he has done are the people who have done it themselves. The Infantry is a small community. It does not matter if they served in WWII or Iraq they share a common bond that only we can understand. We can talk openly, and even laugh, about things we have done with each other but our wifes would never know we did. Why? Because when it's all said and done we are the only ones who will understand. There are only 2 types of people on this earth who hunt man and kill them. The first is a criminal and we try our best to keep them locked away, never to bother us again. the 2nd is an Infantryman, Army or Marine. And they try their best to keep us tucked away in bases far from "the better folk" of society. But when it is all said and done we are the ones who make sure that you wife isn't being raped at the will o soldiers from an invading army. We are the ones who have provided a place for your children to go to school and get one of the best educations in the world. we are the ones who have made it so you can be born the son of a farmer who can't pay to have running water in his home yet you grow up to be the President. We are the ones who "only join the military because they are un-educated criminals who can't make it in the real world" We are the ones they try so hard to shut away in the closet when the polite company come to visit but when the bad guy is knocking at their door they want us to answer it. We come from all walks of life. One guy in my company in Iraq was a freakin Medical Doctor. Not going to school to be one, he was a full fledged Doctor. E-4. Why? Because He wanted to serve his country, contribute to a cause GREATER THAN HIMSELF, H had a title. He didn't brag about it and it didn't make him a better soldier, citizen or anything else. I can attest this, He was a damn fine Infantryman. We don't do this job because we want a title. Matter of fact, I would be willing to best 99%of us wish we were out of a job, because we are the first ones to die when a war comes along. 99% of us would rather be doing something else, yet we choose to do this because we have a greater sense of being. We choose to serve a cause greater than ourselves. And thank god for that because if we left this job to people like you then one day I will be telling my grandchildrean what America was like. Bottom line, if you want a "title" go be a damn lawyer or congressman or mayor or what ever it is that will satisfy your sense of selfworth. Whatever it is that will get you into the pants of susie and and whatever it is that will make you think your "friends" will suck you dick over. What ever it is stay the F*** away from my Army and My INFANTRY untill you figure out that you are willing to sacrifice beyond all possible human norms to live this under apreciated, seldom reconized, step child of america way of life. And remember when you do get those "titles" you want so badly, there is always an infantryman somewhere in that group you are talking to. And he still keeps in contact with other infantrymen (hence forums like this) an he will make you pay ever so dearly for utterring even the small lie. gruntpain1775  This message has been edited. Last edited by: wannabEOD, |
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ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
I don't have any problem with the request but get his permission first via Email in his profile.
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Member |
That post by gruntpain reminds me of two people...
One is this elderly man who is always there when I show up to work at the YMCA. He's a pretty quite guy and is very active for his age (84). Turns out he fought in WWII as an Infantryman at the Battle of Huertogen Forest and the Bulge where he was captured when his division was overran (the 28th ID) and ended the war in a German POW camp. He is still proud to have served that war as an Infantryman though he is more quite about it (though he will talk about it if asked). And then there is one of my heroes, my High School Calculus teacher. Best teacher I knew in my life. He was a Green Beret in Vietnam with MAC-V SOG. He doesn't talk much about the war and has just recently been able to attend re-unions and get over his PTSD mostly. From what I read about him he was quite the hero, having saved a fellow soldier from a burning helicopter. Since I was interested in history and the Army then I talked to him, and he seems to almost blame himself from the copter going down (though he didn't pilot it and wasn't the team leader). However, just like grunt said when he came back to America nobody wanted anything to do with him. It took him 8 hours in the rain to hitch hike a 2 hour trip home (something that was common back then). People wouldn't pick him up because he was in uniform, but they would pick up the hippie hitch hikers all around him. |
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Hot Topics Moderator  |
A-friggen-MEN, gruntpain! Hooah, brother.
I belong to quite a few military forums and discussion boards (and only joined this one not .5 hours ago). I've been ETS'd since 1993, and since 1993 I have faced a daily reminder that I don't fit in "here." The time I spend online with my fellow ropers is my only reprieve. The VA doesn't help. Church doesn't help. The ol lady doesn't help. Being around my own... helps. In all of those forums, we get an ample share of the questions from those want to know. Like gruntpain said, we don't mind answering the kiddo's questions. We understand the curiosity, the fascination even, and with all the media BS and hype and outright falsehoods, we're happy to set the record straight and give you the no-bull. But these are OUR forums, MY forums, and when you enter touting your nonsense I'm going to call you on it. I will personally put your *** in the ringer and oust you for the poser loudmouth you are, and the end of your fantasy begins with 30 of us offering up a little wall to wall counseling. Ask me anything about service life, the Infantry, Basic Training, whatever. But don't be the dillweed 6-year old that wants to know if I've ever shot anyone, or if we smoked dope, or if it's true that the MPs feared us. Turn off the idiot box in your living room, go for a run, and sign the contract if you want to know what dust on the boots is like. Forget everything the television has taught you. Put down the bong, put down the beer, get off your duff and come experience it for yourself. Our bond is amazing, not even separated by nationality. I have a buddy, Dale, that I met on an international military site. Dale was a Korean Infantryman, visiting DC and heading to California to see another friend. I invited him to my house since I was on the way, he agreed, and for 3 days the beer and the stories flowed. Even though he served some 8,000 miles away from me, in a totally different time and country, our stories were no different. For those 3 days, we were both back where we belonged. No civilian will EVER understand this type of brotherhood. Once you have two guys behind triggers, they become inseparable in spirit. We become different people. We stop being people, actually. We live only for each other. Never let your buddy down. No REMF will ever understand us, either. You can spot them a mile away in their $60,000 spotless SUVs plastered with huge black and gold Ranger stickers and the Veteran adornment license plate. We're the ones on the city bus or the Harley Davidson with the POW vest. We're not a bad bunch of guys. We're just different. We are the old school, where respect is earned and not given in some sense of entitlement. If we seem arrogant, it is because we damn sure earned the right to be. The politicians point their fingers in the direction the dangerous end of our M4s go, we obey our CiC and leaders, and there is no "home" for us after that. All we have is each other. And I'll defend any of my brothers to the death. Thanks for the rant, Richard (11M20)(ret), 1989-1993 |
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"NEC ASPERA TERRENT" If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR  |
well said followme. I agree with you. As to the OP on this thread, these words were not meant to be inspirational or "hooah" or anything like that. They were just a tool used to put a knuckle head in his place. But if you want to use them go ahead. All I ask is that before you do, you learn what Sacrifice means.
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ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
If they post something stupid in this Forum, then they are fair game as far as I am concerned. Try to avoid pouncing on every newbie that comes into this Forum though. They need to post something stupid first at least for a pretext.  |
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Hot Topics Moderator |
Actually, Erich, I take no joy in pouncing on anyone. If you haven't lived the life, you will, at one time or another, post something ignorant - ignorance is a lack of knowledge, which is to be expected. Stupidity, on the other hand, while also expected, I leave to the moderators. I'm here only for edification. For others, for myself. To reestablish the brotherhood I once knew intimately. With a bit of the Lord's blessing, I'll be back in soon. If not, I simply have to remember that I never really left, even though I ETS'd. I've no animosity to spread. Everything I know and love has a blue cord on a set of Class A's, and it is what it is. Here's tipping a cold one to you and all my brothers in arms. EDIT to fix quotes. Damn grunts, we can screw up anything, lol. |
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Basic Training |
Roger that grunt. Here's to you and all the other "step children of the Army" for as you guys say "just doin' your job"  Erich, permission granted..I vote make this a STICKY so I can refer other knuckleheads like FT SAM to it when they start runnin' there sucks! |
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"NEC ASPERA TERRENT" If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
Why do I have this feeling that 6 months from now I will get this in an E-mail forward with the words changed to Amercian Soldier or Marine. And it will be attributed to a Marine Gunny SGT talking to a reporter or some crap. lol
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Basic Training |
Dammit man..I sent it to the Wash.Post and put Navy..lol  Nah grunt, I don't want to use them anywhere, I just thought they should be made a STICKY so it would stay permanent at the top of this forum for easy referrence and recognition. |
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"NEC ASPERA TERRENT" If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
yea i know. some shi*bird will probably post it in an e-mail and change it tho. lol. then When it gets posted in a compnay area i will have to try and prove I am the author. lol. but if you want Eric to make it a sticky no complaints form me. Just gotta talk Eric into it!
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ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
LMAO! Well since it is an Army quote it is going to be forwarded to you in the future from a Marine whose going to say that it came from another Marine and was emblematic of service in the Marine Corps. If ever you want it removed you can just send a Email and we will take it down. Let me know what you want for a title though as I can change that anytime along with the context of the post. |
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ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
Your going back on Active Duty? I'm guessing your in your mid-30's which isn't that bad. You know I am always curious what happens to those over 42 that go back Infantry, I see them in the WTC forum, they leave for WTC and thats it. We never hear from them again. I don't know if that means they didn't make it. Or they made it and are too busy. The cycle before my Nephew's class they had a guy that went through OSUT all over again at 44. That had to be hell. I know corresponding with the DS' on the WTC Forum a lot of people fail WTC. I think they said they have like a 30-40% failure rate. I suspect that is mostly made up from other branches like the Navy, Air Force but I am sure there is some former Army in there. There was one ex-AF guy in there that clicked on the post notification alert because he thought the DS were being rude (freaking funny). They were actually being truthful and honest and he did not like what they had to say to him. The WTC people said over and over again that it is mostly overweight and out of shape people that ship thinking they can make up the difference in the training program and it doesn't happen. The PT at WTC sounds pretty easy to me so thats sad if that is happening. Well sorry to go off on a tangent. If your thinking about entering again go to the WTC Forum link at the top of the Wannabe Forum if you have not already been there. Lots of good info and huge opportunity to learn from others before you go. |
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"NEC ASPERA TERRENT" If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
The title you have up there is good. Might want to spell check the content tho. lol |
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"NEC ASPERA TERRENT" If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
and your right on about how a marine will change it up!
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Hot Topics Moderator |
It's all good, brother. No need to explain yourself. Yes, I am trying to get back in to AD. I'll accept Guard, but I want AD. I am 37 years old. I was enlisted 1989 to 1993 (Infantry), and I re-upped in 2001. Directly after I re-upped, I ruined my lower right leg, at which time they denied my package. For 6 years now I have been fighting the VA to remove the metal from my leg, up to the point I requested amputation and a prosthetic. The docs at the VA called that "elective" surgery, as if it was a Botox injection  I finally convinced the VA to remove the metal, but now I am fighting the recruiters. I have no less than 20 letters attesting to my character, but I am still meeting opposition. The medical review board, the Army in general, the recruiters... They all want to use my age and my condition against me. I have an RE-1 discharge, and while I may be 37 with one leg (according to the VA), I can still max the 18-year old APFT. No ****, brother, I am not kidding, I can EASILY knock out my 2 miles in 14, and pushing out 100 in 2 minutes is cake. I am in great shape. What astounds me is that they'll waiver in felons, but guys like me, proven leaders, get d1cked around by these REMF recruiters that want 18-year old kids only. And it is p1ssing me off, my friend. I'll do anything to get back in now that my leg is healed. For 6 years that's been my only goal. When I do, and IF I do, I'll be here, still posting as time affords me, and I'll answer anything y'all have questions on. I am not here for answers, I am here for the brotherhood, for what I miss, for all I have ever known. I am Infantry. I don't leave my brothers behind. |
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Member |
There is no need to change it up. There is brotherhood in infantry altogether, regardless of branch. |
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ARMY FORUMS MODERATOR |
Thats true and you know we were kidding on the Marine stuff I hope......just getting a little revenge for the fat boy thread in the MODF. Interesting story there FollowMe, I have no idea how medical waivers work but good luck and keep trying. I think if you go high enough everything is waiverable. Never heard anyone going higher than USAREC but I'm sure it's doable......MEPS is only a DoD level agency after all. |
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NSDQ |
While I feel you and everyone else here, I have to say something about this. That SGT or SSG who has been goatroped into recruiting in today's Army is far from a REMF, they have served in the sand. And afterward, when they thought they would be able to trained for another go round, got "drafted" into being a salesman for the Army the joined to fight for. They did not (for the most part) ask for this duty, and all the ones I know would gladly trade it to be back in the sandbox with theiir brothers. Also, they don't make the rules as to who is qualified and who isn't. Recruiting medically qualified personell is like throwing a bunch of those old velco balls against a wall and seeing which one stays up. The same with the moral waiver folks. I know in your frustration with that system you probably said that comment in haste. Just remember, those recruiters are frustrated with it, too. Don't hate the detailed guys, hate the 79R. Those guys who chose to stay out there. No, not you FO. I remember your story. |
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