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Have you served in any type of military?
- Thread starter Rex
- Start date
Scott1
Well-Known Member
I was a member of the United States Army for 10 years.
I started as a Military Policeman and served several other functions during my time in the Army..... traffic accident investigator, drug intel agent, personal security for the Commander of US Army Southern Command, etc. I learned a lot and am pretty pleased with the quality of education and training that I received.
I was stationed at Fort Bragg NC for 11 days before I jumped into Panama with the 82nd Airborne Division in support of Operation Just Cause in 1989. From my next duty station, Fort Carson CO, I was deployed all over the world for the next 4 years. Cuba, Sinai, Korea, Kuwait, and Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. I was in Somalia for 9 months before I was unable to continue due to an injury. I spent the next few years in an administrative capacity for the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) doing drug awareness briefings for soldiers and supervising unit urinalisis programs.
Cool...... I never wrote all that down before! Thanks Rex!
I started as a Military Policeman and served several other functions during my time in the Army..... traffic accident investigator, drug intel agent, personal security for the Commander of US Army Southern Command, etc. I learned a lot and am pretty pleased with the quality of education and training that I received.
I was stationed at Fort Bragg NC for 11 days before I jumped into Panama with the 82nd Airborne Division in support of Operation Just Cause in 1989. From my next duty station, Fort Carson CO, I was deployed all over the world for the next 4 years. Cuba, Sinai, Korea, Kuwait, and Somalia for Operation Restore Hope. I was in Somalia for 9 months before I was unable to continue due to an injury. I spent the next few years in an administrative capacity for the US Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) doing drug awareness briefings for soldiers and supervising unit urinalisis programs.
Cool...... I never wrote all that down before! Thanks Rex!
Davidium
Active Member
I also served in the U.S. Army, and at Ft. Bragg also!
I was on active duty for 5 years, and in the reserves for another three.
While on active duty, I was trained as a Signals Intelligence Analyst, and as an All-Source Intelligence Analyst. I also learned to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, and a few other schools, including Spanish.
My first assignement was to the Military Intelligence Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, at Ft Bragg. There, I served as a part of a 4 man covert signal intelligence team, known as a SOT-A. I got to run around the woods with a gun and an intercept radio, listening to what the bad guys were saying on their radio.
During those three years, I made several different deployments into several different Latin American Countries, including Panama, Colombia, and Peru. I also had the great opportunity to work with the DEA for three months as a part of an analysis team that operated out of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador.
I left active duty in 1995 to work on my bachelors degree, but was re-activated by the reserves in 1996 and sent to Bosnia, where I worked as an intelligence analyst and watch NCO for the U.S. National Intelligence Cell in Sarajevo. There, I was one of the regular breifing analysts for Gen. Wes Clark, whom some of you may remember.
On my way to and from Bosnia I also worked and trained with the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade in Augsburg, Germany.
I feel that I was very lucky in my military carreer, because I had great units and great assignments. In the first few years I was in the service, I spent much of my time "in the field" with my face painted and an M-16 (and later Fabrique SAW) in my hands... Yet as I grew a little older, I spent more time as an analyst instead of a collector/operator of intelligence, and at the end of my military carreer got to work on an even footing with some of the best intelligence analysts this country has (In Bosnia from 96-97). I spent my time in the field when I was young enough to enjoy it, and my time behind a desk when I was able to appreciate it...
Many of my beliefs were shaped by my experiences in the service. In Bosnia, I saw a beautiful country that had been torn to shreds by three religions, each fighting the other. I saw religious hatred the likes of which most Americans cannot fathom. In our nation, it matters not what religion your neighbor is, but in Bosnia, even different factions of Christians were killing each other, not to speak of the Muslims.
In Latin America, I saw what real poverty is. Here in the U.S. even our poor have cars and TV's. In Colombia, Low-income housing is some cinderblocks and a piece of tin roofing. I also saw a culture where only one religion really exists, and to think differently about God is just unfathomable. They could barely grasp that a Deist was not Catholic...
In El Salvador, I saw a nation that was full of hope. A nation that had decided to put their war behind them and move forward. I am so proud what they have accomplished in the past ten years, since I was there in 1994. I hope Iraq can follow their example.
I hope someday to complete seminary, and return to the Army as a Unitarian Chaplain. I guess I will always be a soldier at heart. I was raised in the military. My father was Army Criminal Investigations Division, and later Army Counter Intelligence. My Great Grandfather was an Army Medal of Honor Winner. I guess you can say it is in the blood.
Yes, I know, some would say that a soldier/unitarian is a contradiction in terms... hehehe. I can deal with that in this case.
And my favorite Deist/Unitarian hero, Col. Ethan Allen... well he founded what became the U.S. Army Rangers... so maybe it is not that big a contradiction...
Reason and Respect in all you say and do,
David Pyle
Formerly,
SGT David Pyle
98c2s qb la
U.S. Army
I was on active duty for 5 years, and in the reserves for another three.
While on active duty, I was trained as a Signals Intelligence Analyst, and as an All-Source Intelligence Analyst. I also learned to jump out of perfectly good airplanes, and a few other schools, including Spanish.
My first assignement was to the Military Intelligence Detachment, 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group, at Ft Bragg. There, I served as a part of a 4 man covert signal intelligence team, known as a SOT-A. I got to run around the woods with a gun and an intercept radio, listening to what the bad guys were saying on their radio.
During those three years, I made several different deployments into several different Latin American Countries, including Panama, Colombia, and Peru. I also had the great opportunity to work with the DEA for three months as a part of an analysis team that operated out of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador.
I left active duty in 1995 to work on my bachelors degree, but was re-activated by the reserves in 1996 and sent to Bosnia, where I worked as an intelligence analyst and watch NCO for the U.S. National Intelligence Cell in Sarajevo. There, I was one of the regular breifing analysts for Gen. Wes Clark, whom some of you may remember.
On my way to and from Bosnia I also worked and trained with the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade in Augsburg, Germany. I feel that I was very lucky in my military carreer, because I had great units and great assignments. In the first few years I was in the service, I spent much of my time "in the field" with my face painted and an M-16 (and later Fabrique SAW) in my hands... Yet as I grew a little older, I spent more time as an analyst instead of a collector/operator of intelligence, and at the end of my military carreer got to work on an even footing with some of the best intelligence analysts this country has (In Bosnia from 96-97). I spent my time in the field when I was young enough to enjoy it, and my time behind a desk when I was able to appreciate it...
Many of my beliefs were shaped by my experiences in the service. In Bosnia, I saw a beautiful country that had been torn to shreds by three religions, each fighting the other. I saw religious hatred the likes of which most Americans cannot fathom. In our nation, it matters not what religion your neighbor is, but in Bosnia, even different factions of Christians were killing each other, not to speak of the Muslims.
In Latin America, I saw what real poverty is. Here in the U.S. even our poor have cars and TV's. In Colombia, Low-income housing is some cinderblocks and a piece of tin roofing. I also saw a culture where only one religion really exists, and to think differently about God is just unfathomable. They could barely grasp that a Deist was not Catholic...
In El Salvador, I saw a nation that was full of hope. A nation that had decided to put their war behind them and move forward. I am so proud what they have accomplished in the past ten years, since I was there in 1994. I hope Iraq can follow their example.
I hope someday to complete seminary, and return to the Army as a Unitarian Chaplain. I guess I will always be a soldier at heart. I was raised in the military. My father was Army Criminal Investigations Division, and later Army Counter Intelligence. My Great Grandfather was an Army Medal of Honor Winner. I guess you can say it is in the blood.
Yes, I know, some would say that a soldier/unitarian is a contradiction in terms... hehehe. I can deal with that in this case.
And my favorite Deist/Unitarian hero, Col. Ethan Allen... well he founded what became the U.S. Army Rangers... so maybe it is not that big a contradiction...
Reason and Respect in all you say and do,
David Pyle
Formerly,
SGT David Pyle
98c2s qb la
U.S. Army
Pah
Uber all member
My twenty year career in the Air Force started in Turkey where I was an electonic intercept operator. Our data went into creating the National Air Order of Battle and Land Order of Battle War plans that were shared with our allies and additionally, we tracked the early Soviet space effort (we learned as much from their shots as they did). I returned to the states to Rome, New York where I began to learn computer programing. I actually started on punch card systems but wrote programs to convert the personnel punch card system to an early RCA computer. From there to the Air Force Headquaters in Japan and my mission was to write and maintain the programs that gave flight plans to reconaissance aircraft while a nuclear war (if needed) was being fought. It was a bit hairy - the main program took all but a dozen bytes of a 16K memory - but we did it.
Louisiana was next - Barksdale AFB - and the responsibilty was to provide computer support for a 52 bombing system used in Vietnam. Headquarters SAC was next in Nebraska. Here we produced the nuclear war plans for all American and British nuclear weapons including all intercontinental missiles. It was the time of Mutual Assured Destruction with the Soviets and I know that we would have done a very good job had we had to use it. That plan and that policy was what kept the war from happening. The cost to us, had the war broken out, was stupendous but was worse for the Soviets and/or Chinese. I'm happier we learned the folly of nuclear war and started disarming.
I left there for Germany where I finished my service first writing and designing a computer system that supported the same type of intelligence gathering activity that I did in Turkey and second running and coordinating intelligence reporting for all the services in Europe and Nato.
I retired as an E7 Air Force Master Sargeant with a bronze medal. for service (not valor). In order of "taking care of" and respecting the troops the Air Force is the best -followed by the Navy, Coast Guard, Army and Marine Corp. The best for spirit is, of course, the Marine Corp. But each of the branches has unique missions and none were superior to the other in support of the nation.
But I also have experience with the Army as a civilian at Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Hanua Germany. I was fortunate to be able to make the European tour for our soldiers and their families a little bit like the States. I really enjoyed those jobs too!
The best experience was learning to become dry behind my ears. I recommend the service to anyone - there is an openness to the world and/or nation that was available at every assignment. Travel is really broadening.
-pah-
Louisiana was next - Barksdale AFB - and the responsibilty was to provide computer support for a 52 bombing system used in Vietnam. Headquarters SAC was next in Nebraska. Here we produced the nuclear war plans for all American and British nuclear weapons including all intercontinental missiles. It was the time of Mutual Assured Destruction with the Soviets and I know that we would have done a very good job had we had to use it. That plan and that policy was what kept the war from happening. The cost to us, had the war broken out, was stupendous but was worse for the Soviets and/or Chinese. I'm happier we learned the folly of nuclear war and started disarming.
I left there for Germany where I finished my service first writing and designing a computer system that supported the same type of intelligence gathering activity that I did in Turkey and second running and coordinating intelligence reporting for all the services in Europe and Nato.
I retired as an E7 Air Force Master Sargeant with a bronze medal. for service (not valor). In order of "taking care of" and respecting the troops the Air Force is the best -followed by the Navy, Coast Guard, Army and Marine Corp. The best for spirit is, of course, the Marine Corp. But each of the branches has unique missions and none were superior to the other in support of the nation.
But I also have experience with the Army as a civilian at Stuttgart, Heidelberg and Hanua Germany. I was fortunate to be able to make the European tour for our soldiers and their families a little bit like the States. I really enjoyed those jobs too!
The best experience was learning to become dry behind my ears. I recommend the service to anyone - there is an openness to the world and/or nation that was available at every assignment. Travel is really broadening.
-pah-