All right, how was it?

".....what is it like? How were you trained? What do you think of innocent human life? Anything else you want to say?"



It was more than a job, it was an adventure.


Can you imagine sitting in your room, no phone,no computer, no internet, no tv, no radio, (yea, you can listen to recorded music and watch your vcr and play video games), no sunlight (keep your wondows closed and shades drawn), no mom, no dad, but you can have brothers (sorry, no sisters) to talk to, and all the books you can read. Now imagine staying in this room, not for a few days, not for a week, not even for a month.......try staying in this room for 72 straight days, and you might just begin to imagine what life onboard a submarine is like.

Training was done in a classroom for the first 8 months or so, then onboard for the rest of my 6 years. We trained every day. From fighting fires (the ships clothes dryer was notorious for catching on fire) to split pipes to leaky torpedoes (Otto fuel is one of the world's most toxic substances). We also trained in combat, tracking targets and sinking them (simulated of course).

We all had jobs.  Mine was calibrating, maintaining and repairing electronic systems (specifically navigational systems).  After a while you could qualify to stand watches outside of your rate (I qualified for both sonar operator and radio operator as well as ECM and Crypto.  It was all to keep the mind working, to stay fresh and avoid boredom (I was in during the height of the "Evil Empire" so it was anything but boring).

But we weren't "onboard" 365 days a year.  We had vacations and "stand downs", weekends and holidays, picnics and partys, swim calls out at sea, port calls in France, Scotland, Italy, Sardinia, Holland, Morrocco, Israel, Spain, a lot of guys traveled (I spent a lot of time in local watering holes taking in the local culture ).  Many of my shipmates were married some had children, even more had girlfriends (I think one guy had a "boyfriend" ).  We hung out, went to movies, video arcades, long motorcycle rides (Skyline drive was one of my most memorable)..... pretty much everything any other 18-21 year old kid did in those days.

As for why I enlisted, well it was a 50/50.  50% was my upbringing.  Patriotism wasn't a dirty word in our home, quite the contrary, it was an honor.  My father was a Ukrainian Nationalist freedom fighter in eastern europe during WWII, mom was a slave laborer for the nazis (luckily, she was given to a farmer who treated her well).  So being a warrior and NOT taking freedom for granted not only ran in my blood, but oozed from my pores.  The other 50% was I needed discipline, I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and headed in the wrong direction.  I felt that the service would teach me a trade and give me the direction I needed in life.  It taught me a trade that 25 years later allows me to bring home a rather nice paycheck.

I hope that in some way you can start to understand that those of us who have served, those who are serving and those who will someday serve are in many ways just like you.  We are not bloodthirsty haters.  We are believers in the principle that freedom comes at a price.  That there will ALWAYS be someone who wants to take it away from you.  That there will ALWAYS be a need for someone to defend you and your freedom whether you ask for it or not.  By virtue of being a citizen of the United States, it is given to you.  That's what we do, we defend.  We defend against the enemy that we know and see as well as the enemy we don't know and can't see but that those who lead us, in whom we put our faith and trust direct us.  Our president is our Commander-In-Chief, he tells us who we are to fight, it's not up to us to argue or pick and chose, we follow his command.  It's what we swore an oath to do.  No one made us do it, we do it of our own free will.

It sure does to me. Calling us hypocrites because we haven't saved every nation's people from tyranical dicatorships reminds me of the story of the guy throwing the starfish into the ocean off the beach. He is asked why save the few when there are so many, you aren't making any difference, and the guy says: For the starfish I throw in it is important. We can't save every person from every evil dictator, but for the ones we can save, like the Iraqi people right now it is a worthy cause to try. The same philosophy goes with the gospel. You can't win them all, there are too many, but that doesn't take away the command to go ye therefore. In other words we have to do what we can, when we can to help, and people should stop complaining about the ones we couldn't help or haven't helped yet.

Sorry for going off topic.

Today at 04:28 PM Michael0701 said this in Post #41

".....what is it like? How were you trained? What do you think of innocent human life? Anything else you want to say?"



It was more than a job, it was an adventure.


Can you imagine sitting in your room, no phone,no computer, no internet, no tv, no radio, (yea, you can listen to recorded music and watch your vcr and play video games), no sunlight (keep your wondows closed and shades drawn), no mom, no dad, but you can have brothers (sorry, no sisters) to talk to, and all the books you can read. Now imagine staying in this room, not for a few days, not for a week, not even for a month.......try staying in this room for 72 straight days, and you might just begin to imagine what life onboard a submarine is like.

Training was done in a classroom for the first 8 months or so, then onboard for the rest of my 6 years. We trained every day. From fighting fires (the ships clothes dryer was notorious for catching on fire) to split pipes to leaky torpedoes (Otto fuel is one of the world's most toxic substances). We also trained in combat, tracking targets and sinking them (simulated of course).

We all had jobs.  Mine was calibrating, maintaining and repairing electronic systems (specifically navigational systems).  After a while you could qualify to stand watches outside of your rate (I qualified for both sonar operator and radio operator as well as ECM and Crypto.  It was all to keep the mind working, to stay fresh and avoid boredom (I was in during the height of the "Evil Empire" so it was anything but boring).

But we weren't "onboard" 365 days a year.  We had vacations and "stand downs", weekends and holidays, picnics and partys, swim calls out at sea, port calls in France, Scotland, Italy, Sardinia, Holland, Morrocco, Israel, Spain, a lot of guys traveled (I spent a lot of time in local watering holes taking in the local culture ).  Many of my shipmates were married some had children, even more had girlfriends (I think one guy had a "boyfriend" ).  We hung out, went to movies, video arcades, long motorcycle rides (Skyline drive was one of my most memorable)..... pretty much everything any other 18-21 year old kid did in those days.

As for why I enlisted, well it was a 50/50.  50% was my upbringing.  Patriotism wasn't a dirty word in our home, quite the contrary, it was an honor.  My father was a Ukrainian Nationalist freedom fighter in eastern europe during WWII, mom was a slave laborer for the nazis (luckily, she was given to a farmer who treated her well).  So being a warrior and NOT taking freedom for granted not only ran in my blood, but oozed from my pores.  The other 50% was I needed discipline, I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and headed in the wrong direction.  I felt that the service would teach me a trade and give me the direction I needed in life.  It taught me a trade that 25 years later allows me to bring home a rather nice paycheck.

I hope that in some way you can start to understand that those of us who have served, those who are serving and those who will someday serve are in many ways just like you.  We are not bloodthirsty haters.  We are believers in the principle that freedom comes at a price.  That there will ALWAYS be someone who wants to take it away from you.  That there will ALWAYS be a need for someone to defend you and your freedom whether you ask for it or not.  By virtue of being a citizen of the United States, it is given to you.  That's what we do, we defend.  We defend against the enemy that we know and see as well as the enemy we don't know and can't see but that those who lead us, in whom we put our faith and trust direct us.  Our president is our Commander-In-Chief, he tells us who we are to fight, it's not up to us to argue or pick and chose, we follow his command.  It's what we swore an oath to do.  No one made us do it, we do it of our own free will.

Click to expand...

I salute you.

OK Susan

I'm from a different generation, but back in the 60's the draft was still in place. There was a thing called the Universal Conscript Law. This law stated that if you were an able bodied, native born male or citizen born overseas you owed the country six years.
At that time draftees served two years active dutyand four years on rserve status, Air force and Navy were four year hitches, Army volunteers three.

At that time, our parents were the WW Ii generation and we were the generation that grew up saying, "What did you do in the war, daddy?", not "How did you beat the draft daddy" as the most of the children of pareants of the Viet Nam generation would do.

But basically, we were brought up to believe you owed your country.

Just my personal opinion for this part, but the fact that without a draft most people don't even consider military service is really sad. There should be some kind of mandantory service for a year or two, all the way from civic or medical tasks, auxiliary police, and others to instill some kind of loyaly, sense of duty, sense of service.

What I did while in will be another post.

I was labeled "dependant" while my husband served in the USMC. I was much like you Susan in wondering why would a country EVER need to go to war? Like I would tell my 2 year old in those days,"USE YOUR WORDS!" lol It was during the Yugoslavia (IFOR) campaign that led me to have to defend my husbands morals, values, and his servtitude to his country that I woke up. Here I was a young mother in So California with absolutely no clue, and my best friend, my lover, my life, my little daughter's daddy was fighting for peace in an unbalanced country torn to shreds. When he came home, I held him closer, loved him more.....because he was a Hero.

We don't understand what its like not to have the freedom to worship God openly and freely without getting shot. The luxury of having a meal served on a dish every single day.

 

The sercurity of knowing that tomorrow morning when those kids get out of bed their parents will be alive to hug and kiss them.

I salute all of our military!  For putting aside EVERYTHING to a call of duty. Thank you.

Apparently the Brits have been teaching the Iraqi's some new words.




For anyone who thinks that the Iraqi's didn't want to be liberated, or thinks that the human shields were right, here's something direct from your adversaries.