Military Life

[jeckel22]

You gotta love it. I have a temporary duty assignment in San Antonio in the middle of May. I will be there until the end of July and I am not sure how much I will be able to log on while I am there. Hopefully, I can, but I am not gonna hold my breath. It should be fun and I should get a pretty good base of preference out of it. At least I get to get out some aggression by firing a bunch of weapons (handgun, rifle, grenade launcher, machine gun, and even more). I am hoping to get a new base in Texas ot maybe Tennessee. Well, either way, my fun and games are going to be over for a couple of months (except when I am off duty). I am just glad that this time I am over 21 and I can have a different fun and games experience while in San Antonio (hehe). Well, I will be around a couple of weeks, then I am off. Best of luck to all and I will hopefully get to get on while there.

--Jek

You probably don't get it as often as you deserve, but I want to personally thank you for making all of the sacrifices that affect yourself and your family in order to protect everything that most of us in the good ol' U.S.A. take for granted. It sickens me when I see images on tv and in public of people trashing the men and women of our armed services. I think often times those people do not realize how different things could be for our country if millions upon millions of men and women had not given the best years of their life and for some their actual life in order to protect our freedom and liberty. Those who are leading this country currently may not have made the best decisions in every case, but hindsight is always 20/20 - we in the general public are never exposed to all of the extenuating circumstances that go into decision-making at such a level, so who are we really to critcize?

Well, I guess I'll step off of my soap box, but once again I have the utmost respect for what you and many others like yourself do.

[oasis]

i agree billy but i went out and got this box just for you

[jeckel22]

Originally Posted by oasis

i agree billy but i went out and got this box just for you

Ha Ha. Nice.

Thanks Billy Hoyle. You learn to just put the bad stuff behind you. Anyone can slander the military and what we are doing, but they don't see the big picture. The only thing that got to me was when the media assumed that we are doing bad things in Iraq. They fail to show the supply runs we make for the Iraq people; the medical care we give them; the protection we give them from terrorists in their own backyards. All this while taking the critisism from others because heaven forbid that we have to shoot someone to save the life of a civilian, a team member, or our own lives. I have learned to just let it go and keep a single thought in my head. If I was not doing this, they would not have the freedom or right to talk bad about me. Although they are talking bad about the military (with ignorance of our operations or orders), I am proud that I am giving them that right.

Just a quick "gee-whiz" kinda thing....a lot of people don't know that soldiers in the military do not get the same rights as civilians. The rights that I am protecting do not apply to me. I am bound by a completely different set of rules. Civilians have their amendments and rights; I have regulations (things I have to do, or things I can't do). I have been in the military now for over 4 years, and because of the nature of my job and position, I have not spoken to any old high school friends in about 3 1/2 years. I plan on re-enlisting when my first enlistment is done. Due to this new job (if I want it) I need to extend my current enlistment by two years. Tack on the re-enlistment after that, and I will be sitting at 12 years in the service. So I plan on retiring from the Air Force. The biggest advantage is that I will only be 37 and pulling a military retirement. How many people can say they can possibly get a double retirement by the age of 57? Granted, I can only do this by getting a federal job that lets you retire at 20 years. I guess that is all I have for now.

Oasis: I think you are going to need to find a bigger soap box now....lol

[oasis]

you can just put 2 side by side



and also my wife brought up a good point... we were watching american idol... i know i know ... but anyways she brought up a good point and maybe we dont see it because we dont live in other countrys but here in america you never hear of other countrys giving to other countries... like idol gives back the american people raised like over 50 million dollars and helped starving people in africa and bought misquito nets to help preven malaeria... you never hear of germany rasing money to help the suffering of the world or anyone else... like i said it may just be because we live here ... but we give a whole hell of a lot to other countrys the people here dont think about

<= and one for myself