I know you are all thinking about Halloween right now, but I am acknowledging Veteran's Day here in the US a lot more, mostly because I had a lot of family serve in the military.
So post any war stories, anything you are doing in the military, or about anyone you know in the military.
I am going to share some stories that I shared a while back for you newer members or for whoever didn't see them.
Ok, there are a couple of rules to this thread.
Be respectful of ANY army, from any country, from any alliance.
Be respectful of what happened, sometimes things are miraculous, but they may seem ********tish.
Don't troll, being part of the military is not any normal civilian job, and we should be respectful of those in it. If you can't, then please do not post.
Don't ask stupid questions (you'll know what they are)
No derailing, being stupid, etc etc.
Responding to the stories is appropriate.
If this thread offends anyone, I apologize in advance and please discuss it with me through PM, not ranting in the thread.
So I'll start, I have two actually.
Albert Notley
The first part I ever heard about him in the military is being part of a tank crew in Vietnam. He was riding through with his buddies in the jungle, and he decided to go down into the tank because one of them was getting a bit cramped up down there. So he went down into the tank and the other guy went up to man the tank's machine gun. His buddies were staying on the outside of it I think. Well, anyway, they continued into the forest, and they got hit with a chemical weapons. My grandpa, Albert, saw all of his buddies die a slow and painful death RIGHT in front of him. He managed to survive without even the most minor of injuries physically. He headed back and decided he wanted to be a sharpshooter instead, due to not wanting that to happen ever again.
So he was a sharpshooter, and he was a GREAT one at that. About half a year (unsure of) after the incident, he got selected to go on a mission that in this case was basically considered 'black operations'. He was supposed to go on a series of assassinations with his fellow sharpshooters and take out several targets. Civilians were targeted due to women and children armed with grenades and would explode as a soldier got close to them. You know what the worst part of the mission was?
He wasn't supposed to finish it...
The counts were gruesome:
100 enemy targets dead (assassination targets, guards, soldiers, etc)
Unknown civilian kills (would have been a MUCH larger number than you expect)
Friendly casualties? All dead except for him.
And he came back from all of that. He was severely affected by it mentally, and he committed suicide from a heroine overuse a few months later after returning from Vietnam. It was to live up to his promise and was extremely traumatic. It's all in my aunt's poetry. Her name is Alice Notley if you wanna look up the actual poem.
I got some great sharpshooting skills from him naturally. I shot guns out in the desert back in January, and I almost always hit near or on the bullseye. He had all sorts of guns, like Uzis, AKs, M16s, grenades, German WW2 weapons, etc. Enemy uniforms and their accessories were there too. I have a Nazi pocket knife once belonging to an officer in the Nazi army, that came right from him.
I really wish sometimes I got to meet him. He seemed like an amazing guy. He is one of the main reasons I respect my military. He died when my mom was like, 2 or 4.
'Uncle Bill'
This one is a lot shorter and don't have much information on.
He was in World War II and he fought the war in Germany. During one battle, he got shot in the head THROUGH his ironsights and survived.
He got thrown into a pile of bodies and then later got up and said:
"Hey, what can a soldier get to eat around here?"
Some miracle, right? Heard he got put in the hospital for a REALLY long time. He didn't die from it though.
He got the Medal of Honor I believe...very rare considering only 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers ever received it.