where did you get that idea?

Me too. 9mm sidearm is about as useful as a slingshot and rocks.

The written word, without the visual cues of a smile or raised eyebrow, without the vocal intonations that signal humor, can easily be misinterpreted. Officers and enlisted, those who lead and those they led, have provided each other with volumes of humor and criticism since the Roman legions were issued weapons and had to polish (burnish) their brass.

Good to be on this side of the dirt, WAM! Wishing you and yours a wonderful Christmas and new adventures in 2012!

The thing about the military is you can always expect that whoever you're working for is going to have half the brains and common sense you do, if you're a normal person. Now, I say you should EXPECT that. It isn't always the case. But, hey, look what they have to do for a living. What kind of reasonable person would WANT to do that? It's a job that has to be done but no one should WANT to kill people. Not if you're human anyway.

When I went in I tested out for West Point prep school and, yes, I was delighted to accept. But after being in basic for a few weeks and thinking about it, I called my dad and told him I was going to withdraw. Boy, was he disappointed. At first anyway. He asked for my resons. I told him that though it would be essentially a college degree when completed, there's no career that West Point could prepare me for that I could live with. He couldn't argue with that (anyway Dad was the listening type not an arguer). And then there is 4 years of putting up with the worst kind of foolish BS to get through the program and then four more years of it active duty when I got out. I'd never have survived that. Military life is not cut out for all of us. However, I have to say that the really good thing about the draft (which compelled me to join) is that it forced some of us who looked at things from a more "normal" perspective to partake of the military experience. I think it was good for us and very good for the military. I ended my tour just as the govt completed the transition to the New Modern All-Volunteer Army (the last draftee was discharged just a few weeks before I was). I definitely did not like what I was seeing as far as the quality of the soldiers in the new system. Formerly I was working with draftees who were med students, tradesmen, etc. Kids with solid middle class backgrounds. After the transition there were too many kids getting out of jail free or social losers needing to prove something or those running away from a bad environment. Too many of these kids had too much baggage. We had them too during the draft days. Just not so many of them. The balance was lost when the draft ended. My observation anyway.

Anyone who's served has earned the right to complain. It's the civilians under their protection who do not.

But like any other field, David is right. There's the infamous "10%" wherever you go.

One scary thing about deploying to the middle east with a Reserve unit, is that you find out who has Active Duty under their belt pretty fast.

Our Company CO was, in "real life" a real estate lawyer. On our one night of real danger, he began running around talking about how we would hold our area "to the last man". He also had me lay a machine gun pit covering a Navy field hospital. Thank the Lord we had a Chief WO with plenty of Viet Nam campaigns behind him to keep things straight.