If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

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kalikraven
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by kalikraven »

Well he said that the 101st Parachuted too! He also didn't have a Air Assault Badge. I'm also aware that he could be a five jump chump...
Going a little more discrete here due to some of my opinions...
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by whiterussian1974 »

If he hadn't earned the Trident, then he was in violation of UCMJ and an Officer should have preferred charges for Court Martial.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by tsands974 »

whiterussian1974 wrote:If he hadn't earned the Trident, then he was in violation of UCMJ and an Officer should have preferred charges for Court Martial.
He was legit
AkGun&ammo
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by AkGun&ammo »

i knew three that wore the pitchfork on their army BDU's...

and they each earned it...

and could/would demostrate the fact at PT and "other" group events

Chris
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kalikraven
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by kalikraven »

I'm not surprised at all that a Seal would cross over to another branch...
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by n.franklin »

Spent my active duty time as a 15D, reclassed to 12B in the guard chasing deployments that never happened. Hung up my hat at 15 years to focus on my real career, i figure when I retire at 50 Ill go back into the guard or reserves and be the ignorant old asshole that spends all drill at the smoking area talking s--t and drinking coffee.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by cdrissel »

11b1p (airborne infantry)

I annoys me when a POGUE talks sh!t about grunts. Don't get me wrong, have total respect for support the non combat arms MOS personnel provide - without them we could not have done our job, but when the think they are better than us "dumb grunts" - F@ck them!

Light infantry (airborne) might just be one of the most challenging roles in combat.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,

I was a cook. Just a lowly cook.

Does that count?

Paul
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by CATM93 »

I am a little confused. I retired as a Combat Arms Superintendent AFSC 75399. Should I tell everyone that I wasn't combat arms even though it was my duty title?
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whiterussian1974
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by whiterussian1974 »

http://www.careerinfonet.org/moc/MOCResults.aspx
Military Occupation - Combat Arms Training & Maintenance Superintendent - Air Force - Enlisted - 75399

The military occupation you selected has no direct equivalent to a civilian occupation, however the close teamwork, discipline, and leadership experiences it provides are helpful in many civilian occupations.
It seems to be that this AFSC is a "Firearms Training and Armorer" type job. So yes, you should state that you "handled, trained and maintained" firearms usage; but weren't a "Tanker, Infantry, Artilleryman."
(Tanker doesn't mean KC-135R or KC-10 boom operator.) :roll: :lol: 8)

I enlisted as a Security Forces E-3. During tech-training at Lackland AFB, I applied to schedule my DLAB and Intel exams because my Recruiter and MEPS hadn't. I scored 125 out of a then possible 130pts. Now the max score is 164.

Since the "recommended grade is at least a 130 or above for Foreign Area Officer program or the Olmsted Scholar Program"; there would probably have been a mathematically nearly-zero number of qualified Officers in the early 1990s.
---
I guess that I could have claimed to be a "Special Forces nuclear and non-nuclear weapon systems, integrated defense, combat arms, force protection, anti-terrorism and law enforcement" Officer. But while being technically correct, I would have been EXTREMELY stretching credulity.

Yes, I was trained to shovel snow off of ICBM silo doors over 'Maelstrom' (Malmstrom 341st Strategic Missile Wing) or Minot (91st Missile Wing). Yes, I was trained to use M-2s, M-60s, M-249s, M-19s, M-9s, and conduct Ground Forces Special Unit Maneuver Combat tactics. (For the M2 and M19 we were allowed to load and trigger exactly 1 inert training round and watch where the dirtpile poofed.) Sure, I wore a Black Beret. (Back then US Rangers were called "Black Berets.")

But most of my time 'In Service' I manned a radio in a basement/RC-135V or spoke with beautiful Foreign women.
Darn, life was 'rough' for me. (#Doggie-style Superstar.) :P 8)
I also engaged in some 'missionary' work. And taught some to ride 'cowgirl' Texas-style. :D
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,
whiterussian1974 wrote:http://www.careerinfonet.org/moc/MOCResults.aspx



Yes, I was trained to use M-2s, M-60s, M-249s, M-19s, M-9s, and conduct Ground Forces Special Unit Maneuver Combat tactics. (For the M2 and M19 we were allowed to load and trigger exactly 1 inert training round and watch where the dirtpile poofed.) Sure, I wore a Black Beret. (Back then US Rangers were called "Black Berets.")

But most of my time 'In Service' I manned a radio in a basement/RC-135V]
Even as a cook, just a lowly cook, I was trained to use M-16, M-60, M-203, S&W Model 15 .38 Special, Colt 1911A1, sniper rifle, LAWS rocket, Claymoor mines, and a few other items.

Like WR, I too wore a Black Beret and spent most of my time either staring at a chain-link fence, saluting Officers's cars as they passed through the the gate, freezing my butt off in a C-130, or sweating it off in a foxhole somewhere in the desert.

Don't even bring up wondering why LT or the Squad Leader cannot read a map or use a compass when doing LanNav.

Paul
"The number of people that I've killed is not important. What is important is how I get along with the ones that are still alive."

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'" (Author unknown)
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by CATM93 »

Paul,
I never underestimate the power of a military cook. An example, During Desert Storm/Desert Shield, our camp was nearly rendered non effective because of an innocent mistake by a couple of cooks. The cooks decided that it would be nice for us to have cold drinks with our meals, so they obtained ice from a nearby town and added it to our drink containers in the mess hall tents. I guess they didn't think that the water the ice was made of might be suspect. Ever see 3000 plus people get a case of the trots at the same time. Long lines of people bouncing from foot to foot outside of the latrine tents.

I salute all you non tankers, infantry, airborne who got sucked into performing convoy duty in Iraq and other scenic wonderlands so that the important people could be spared for other duties. I know that none of you were ever shot at or experienced IUDs. In the Air Force, Combat Arms were classified as Cat A personnel. The same classification as Forward Air Controllers, Para Rescue, and Security Police (now called Security Forces). All that means is that we were armed daily in the performance of our duties. For you really old troops, remember Security Police Augmenters (known then as Auggie Doggies) . They were drawn from support units and were used for perimeter defence during Vietnam War. Can Support troops have war stories that are true. Yes they can.

I get the jest of you complaint. Don't claim to be special ops if you were just attached to them. No problem. The difference between getting shot or in juried by my students launching a grenade short and you getting shot or injured in Combat is that you get a purple heart medal and I would just get razed by my co-workers for being slow. Some jobs are inherently dangerous (i.e. EOD, Combat Arms in the Air Force . They are support jobs . Doesn't make them safe just because support troops do them. Neat thing about Combat Arms is I got to train foreign troops on weapons in their countries. Because of a weird section in our regulations, I was also loaned to other branches of the service to train their troops on request. I got to work with the Army and Marines quite a bit. I was also honour graduate of my Marine Corps 2111 Small Arms Repairman class at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. As a side question, do you guys give crap to your support troops in your branch of the service as well ? I'm betting yes. Doesn't matter. I spent twenty years in as a support troop doing a thankless job and having the time of my life. Where else could you get paid to shoot and blow things up for a living?
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by Capt. Link. »

[quote="CATM93"]Paul,
I never underestimate the power of a military cook. An example, During Desert Storm/Desert Shield, our camp was nearly rendered non effective because of an innocent mistake by a couple of cooks. The cooks decided that it would be nice for us to have cold drinks with our meals, so they obtained ice from a nearby town and added it to our drink containers in the mess hall tents. I guess they didn't think that the water the ice was made of might be suspect. Ever see 3000 plus people get a case of the trots at the same time. Long lines of people bouncing from foot to foot outside of the latrine tents.

I think this is very funny as my father told a similar tail while stationed in Taiwan after the war.They had hired a Chinese cook and after much convincing he boiled the water before it was put in the ice box.The problem was he filled the ice cube trays from a nearby ditch.The men suffered from the runs and malaria.
I salute the military cooks giving us their best and adsorbing our insults and jabs in style.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,

I really wasn't a cook, I just stole that line from Steven Seagall in "Under Siege".

Paul
"The number of people that I've killed is not important. What is important is how I get along with the ones that are still alive."

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'" (Author unknown)
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by whiterussian1974 »

stengun wrote:I really wasn't a cook, I just stole that line from Steven Seagall in "Under Siege".
Then you should have enclosed it in "quotes." :roll:

You had me tricked. I really thought, "Yeah, that makes since. 'Every Marine a Rifleman.' So every cook is AT and MG trained too. Maybe he just kept applying for additional Schools to get added Training to help w Promotion and get free cross-training. (And maybe to Shirk?)" :wink:

Boy! Did you make ME feel foolish. :oops: :(
---
CatM93: Unlike in Politics and many other Gov't jobs; every (Enlisted) job in the Mil is necessary. "An Army marches on it's Belly." -I don't recall who. (Maybe Napoleon or Gaius Julius Caesar?)

Same with Arms Trainers/Maintainers. W/o YOU, I wouldn't have gotten MY early training. Same with soldiers from other Branches/Nations, as you stated. SpecFor GreenBerets were founded by JFK to do similar operations to what you performed. Training ForNat'ls. They get added Language Training to help avoid the need for Interpreters.

And anyone who abuses the risk/dedication/necessity of Support Troops is only showing their own Psych Perturbations.

Like the guy who drives a big honking SUV w/o any family or need to carry cargo. Just to make him feel big and important. I enjoy flexing my little pinky at such people. They MUST be overcompensating for "something." Maybe "tiny hands?"

And if cooks, supply, bosuns or whoever want to brag that they're 5th SpecForces Group or 10th Mountain. Just let them. Everyone needs to feel important.

Knots need tied and forms failed, too. (ETA: I meant "filed." I guess that this was my Subconscious breaking through? :P :lol: ) "Nothing is ever done, until there's a Triplicate Record in several databases."

It's just sad that they took so much razing that they feel compelled to tell such inflations. That's a failure of Society and Service as much as a Personal flaw. (IMHO) :wink:
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by CATM93 »

I used to tell everyone that I was the rarest thing to come out of the Vietnam War. I was the only known support troop to serve in SEA. Every one else was a Seal, Green Beret, Recon, Tunnel Rat, Sniper etc. You don't know how tired I got supporting all those guys by myself. Seriously, I think people embellish their military war stories because their military service won't be respected if everyone knew that they were just a cook, clerk, or a combat arms specialist. It is one reason why I don't join the VFW , American Legion, or the DAV even though I am qualified to be a member of all of them. Side note, my wife is a member of the VFW. I doubt she has told anyone there that she was in Combat Arms for eight years and in target intelligence (including being assigned to the !st SOW in Korea). Another support troop who worked with the Special Ops Community. Don't hear women telling war stories much. Must just be a guy thing.

I don't talk much about my military history at work unless it is in the area of partying and women chasing in foreign lands. I could spin yarns about working with the CIA or with SEAL Teams(both of which I did work with , but not in anyway interesting to anyone) but that was in the performance of my job in Combat Arms. I don't tell war stories for the same reason I didn't hang out at the bar at the NCO Club when I was in. I can't think of anyone I want to impress with my military service. When some civilians thank me for my service, I thank them for paying me for twenty plus years and enabling me to travel to foreign countries and enjoy those countries cultures. I was in Combat Arms. I don't claim to be anything else.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,

One of my former co-workers always talked about being with the 5th. Special Forces and I always assumed he was 18B because he looked liked a badass, kinda tall, muscular ( but not a meathead ), faster than a scared cat and extremely athletic. Turn out he was a humvee mechanic.

Go figure.

I was Security Police/Law Enforcement ( SP when they need someone on the flightline, LE when they need gate guards or patrol cops) in the Air Force.

After playing two seasons college football and losing my scholarship for disciplinary reasons ( I just could NOT stay out of trouble on campus.) I had the bright idea that I wanted to be a Seal so I joined the Navy as a Machinist's Mate ( One of the required ratings be be a Seal/UDT at the time.) which is a maintenance mechanic.

I busted up my knees along with a hearing loss from the Air Force and was dropped before ever attending BUD/S.

Paul
"The number of people that I've killed is not important. What is important is how I get along with the ones that are still alive."

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'" (Author unknown)
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,
CATM93 wrote:I used to tell everyone that I was the rarest thing to come out of the Vietnam War. I was the only known support troop to serve in SEA. Every one else was a Seal, Green Beret, Recon, Tunnel Rat, Sniper etc. You don't know how tired I got supporting all those guys by myself. Seriously, I think people embellish their military war stories because their military service won't be respected if everyone knew that they were just a cook, clerk, or a combat arms specialist. It is one reason why I don't join the VFW , American Legion, or the DAV even though I am qualified to be a member of all of them. Side note, my wife is a member of the VFW. I doubt she has told anyone there that she was in Combat Arms for eight years and in target intelligence (including being assigned to the !st SOW in Korea). Another support troop who worked with the Special Ops Community. Don't hear women telling war stories much. Must just be a guy thing.

I don't talk much about my military history at work unless it is in the area of partying and women chasing in foreign lands. I could spin yarns about working with the CIA or with SEAL Teams(both of which I did work with , but not in anyway interesting to anyone) but that was in the performance of my job in Combat Arms. I don't tell war stories for the same reason I didn't hang out at the bar at the NCO Club when I was in. I can't think of anyone I want to impress with my military service. When some civilians thank me for my service, I thank them for paying me for twenty plus years and enabling me to travel to foreign countries and enjoy those countries cultures. I was in Combat Arms. I don't claim to be anything else.

Too funny and very true.

I was using the VFW to help with my disablity fight with the VA and the VSO would always talk about being a " 'Nam Vet" and how only Combat Vets from 'Nam should get benefits from the VA.

Come to find out he was rated at 70% and had just started boot camp when the 'Nam Era ended. If he would have went to boot a week later he would have missed the Nam Era.

Plus he always wanted to brag about all the gooks he had killed.

I've met a couple of Nam support guys down through the years but I believe I have met everyone from the Nam Era that ever carried a gun or saw combat.

Paul
"The number of people that I've killed is not important. What is important is how I get along with the ones that are still alive."

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'" (Author unknown)
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by whiterussian1974 »

CATM93 wrote:I used to tell everyone that I was the rarest thing to come out of the Vietnam War. I was the only known support troop to serve in SEA. Every one else was a Seal, Green Beret, Recon, Tunnel Rat, Sniper etc. You don't know how tired I got supporting all those guys by myself.

Side note, my wife is a member of the VFW. Don't hear women telling war stories much. Must just be a guy thing.

When some civilians thank me for my service, I thank them for paying me for twenty plus years and enabling me to travel to foreign countries and enjoy those countries cultures.
A- So true. Even SEALs have trouble deciding which of them did what. (Gov Jessie Ventura vs Chris Kyle lawsuit.)

B- Women have some crazy stories, too. I had a female friend who was an AF computer programmer during the '90-91 Gulf War. She was cross-trained as SF and later told me that her job was to kill all of us Intel guys if the Base was ever overrun! :shock:

Her revelation didn't shock me a bit. If our RC-135V ever went down in "contested" Territory, our Primary Duty became destroying the equipment and data. The Flight Crew officers (Mission and Aircraft Commanders) had pistols w Gemtech 'Aurora' suppressors, so I wonder if they had Standing Orders to kill us Intel Wogs before we faced capture.

C- I view being 'thanked' as an often empty platitude. Usually I just nod my head. Sometimes I ask, "How thankful?" They stutter, so I ask exactly what they are thankful for and how they feel that they best express this 'thanks.'

It seems almost like Queen Elizabeth waving at the Commoners. Just an empty gesture intended to make them feel better about themselves, whilst contributing exactly nothing other than the Taxes which they had no choice in paying unless they wished to be imprisoned.

If they are clever enough to ask what I would want, I sometimes say "visit a VA or nursing home. Write a letter of Thanks to an Active Service Unit. These are the actions which would help the most." I sometimes tear up when saying this. True gratitude is far harder to express than the empty Platitude/Slogan of a Thought-terminating cliché.
stengun wrote:If he would have went to boot a week later he would have missed the Nam Era. Plus he always wanted to brag about all the gooks he had killed.
During USAF Boot Camp, in addition to the AF theme song https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_U.S._Air_Force_(song) we had to chant some macho nonsense about killing and aggression.

I asked our Capt if "since most of us will be repairing aircraft or performing other support jobs, the only people that we will be in a position to kill are the Officers serving on Air Crews. Are we really being indoctrinated to kill Officers?" 2 days later our Lt Col had all Training Flights suspend the "needlessly violent war chant" that we had previously shouting during Formations. 8) :lol:
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by stengun »

Howdy,
whiterussian1974 wrote:
B- Women have some crazy stories, too. I had a female friend who was an AF computer programmer during the '90-91 Gulf War. She was cross-trained as SF and later told me that her job was to kill all of us Intel guys if the Base was ever overrun! :shock:

Her revelation didn't shock me a bit. If our RC-135V ever went down in "contested" Territory, our Primary Duty became destroying the equipment and data. The Flight Crew officers (Mission and Aircraft Commanders) had pistols w Gemtech 'Aurora' suppressors, so I wonder if they had Standing Orders to kill us Intel Wogs before we faced capture.

8) :lol:
With the old Titan II ICBM silos there were two SPs at the site at all times, one top side to "protect" the entrance to the silo and one in the control/launch room.

The SP inside the silo job was to make sure the launch team pushed the button "if" the order to launch was ever given. He usually carried a 3" barreled S&W Model 36 .38 Special.

Paul
"The number of people that I've killed is not important. What is important is how I get along with the ones that are still alive."

"A veteran - whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve - is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to The 'United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.'" (Author unknown)
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by CATM93 »

Small world when it comes to the Security Police Field. I taught Block One of the Security Police Tech School from 1976-1978 out at Medina Training Annex. I was in charge of Classroom 906. My future wife taught on the basic trainee ranges over on the Lackland side.
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Re: If you want to be combat arms...just do it!

Post by sc63sallad »

Regarding the SEALs...these days it seems like the trident comes with a blog, at least one book deal, twitter and instagram accounts, maybe a movie, a gig as an "NRA spokesperson", a youtube channel, writer for RECOIL, and a "Tactical" school offering "Elite NAVY SEAL TRAINING to THE ORDINARY CIVILIAN, LE "operators", and otherwise just about anyone with money. Pretty sweet benefits package, gotta pull those type A's away from pro sports somehow I guess...
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