Thank you veterans

[DCT]

Civilian
Ft. Leonard Wood - Basic Training
Redstone Army Arsenal - EOD AIT
20th EOD - Kaiserslautern Germany
168th EODCC - Mannheim Germany
23 Overseas missions of various types
Indian Head Naval Ordnance Station - Advanced EOD Training in Naval, Air Force, & Army Ordnance, as well as IEDs, Chem, Bio & Nukes.
Special Training in a special place
47th EOD - Ft. Hood, Texas
47th EOD - Operation Desert Shield
47th EOD - Operation Desert Storm - Much destruction was brought upon the tanks, artillery, & ammo of Iraqi during those days by the 47th EOD.
47th EOD - Ft. Hood, Texas
Civilain

The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Memorial

[TexKan]

Oh my - I'm impressed with everyone's resume. Mine says 1974 - 1976, The original Pvt Benjiman...... LOL
OK OK..... I was well suited for Presidio - San Franciso. I left for "motherhood"....... back then as now you had to have someone to take guardianship of your children "just in case"...... I decided motherhood was more as important than serving

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by TexKan

Oh my - I'm impressed with everyone's resume. Mine says 1974 - 1976, The original Pvt Benjiman...... LOL
OK OK..... I was well suited for Presidio - San Franciso. I left for "motherhood"....... back then as now you had to have someone to take guardianship of your children "just in case"...... I decided motherhood was more as important than serving

ANY military service is honorable. Being a good mom is as equally honorable!!!

[K C Muffin]

We have honorable men and women in uniform and may God bless each and every one of them and their families. They have all made sacrifices for the country. It's just too bad that Veteran's Day isn't held in as high a regard as other holidays country-wide. I know that business has to be continued, but we do need to stop and salute those who've given their all in the name of freedom.

No matter our personal feelings about the war, these 'kids' deserve our respect and their families need a hand every now and then. They're all in my prayers.

[TexKan]

I'm all out of rep power - but to KC and AOO.
PS - I turned out to be a much better mom..........LOL Pays less but bennies are pretty good.........LOL I got my honorable DD214 - but everyday as a mom is my "honorable" to me. The kids never went to jail, never caused too much trouble and they say it's cause they were too scared......can't imagine that..... LOL

[K C Muffin]

Sorry, Tex, I have to spread some rep around before I can give back to you again. But we all appreciate your service to our country.

[Army_of_One]

Originally Posted by TexKan

The kids never went to jail, never caused too much trouble and they say it's cause they were too scared......can't imagine that..... LOL

Sounds like DRILL SGT mom to me...LOL

[TexKan]

Don't know - still the no BS mee maw........ so figured I have mellowed with age......... kids are followin in mom's footsteps with raisin kids tho....... It's all good.......LOL LOL
KC - I have had to start doin "rep" in posts.......darn they just never give ya enough power anywhere do they??????? LOL

[lurker]

An amazing insight on being a Uniformed Soldier (in Iraq) from http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000125.html

What is the obvious difference between an enemy Prisoner of War, and an Unlawful Combatant? Suppose two of them were standing in a line-up. What one glaringly obvious thing sets them apart?

That’s right! One is wearing a uniform, and the other isn’t.

And why do soldiers wear uniforms?

It certainly is not to protect the soldier. As a matter of fact, a soldier’s uniform is actually a big flashing neon arrow pointing to some kid that says to the enemy, SHOOT ME!

And that’s exactly what a uniform is for. It makes the soldier into a target to be killed.

Now if that’s all there was to it, you might say that the whole uniform thing is not such a groovy idea. BUT! What a uniform also does -- the corollary to the whole idea of a uniformed person – is to say that if the individual wearing a uniform is a legitimate target, then the person standing next to him in civilian clothes is not.

By wearing uniforms, soldiers differentiate themselves to the enemy. They assume additional risk in order to protect the civilian population. In other words, by identifying themselves as targets with their uniforms, the fighters provide a Sanctuary to the unarmed civilian population.

And this Sanctuary is as old as human history. The first civilized people on Earth, these very same Iraqis, who had cities and agriculture and arts and letters when my ancestors were living in caves, wore uniforms as soldiers of Babylon. This is an ancient covenant, and willfully breaking it is unspeakably dishonorable.

Now, imagine you are involved in street-to-street fighting…

We should actually stop right here. No one can imagine street-to-street fighting. It is a refined horror that you have lived through or you have not, and all I can do with the full power of my imagination does not get to the shadow of it. Nevertheless, there are men who have peered around corners in Fallujah, and Hue, and Carentan and a hundred unknown places; places where the enemy’s rifle may be leveled inches away from your nose, awaiting the last split-second of your young life.

Most of the time, you do not have time to think. A person jumps up from below a window three feet away. If he is wearing a grey tunic and a coal-scuttle helmet, it’s a Kraut and you let him have it before he kills you and your buddies. But what if he is wearing street clothes? What if he is smiling at you?

For brutal soldiers – like the Nazi’s those of the far left accuse us of being precisely equal to – this is a moot point. The SS killed everything that moved. They executed prisoners in uniforms, partisans, hostages and children. They were animals.

Our soldiers are civilized, compassionate and decent citizens doing a tough, horrible job. That means when they see someone who might be a civilian, they hesitate. That hesitation can and has killed them. And some people wonder why enemy soldiers without the honor and courage to wear a uniform are treated less than honorably after being captured by men full of courage and restraint.






Worse – worse by far – than the artificial safety given to enemies not wearing a uniform is the additional horror such behavior will inevitably inflict upon their own civilian population.

And it doesn’t hurt to point out – repeatedly – that the people they are putting at infinitely greater risk are supposedly the very people these so-called Muslim Warriors claim be trying to protect: their own women and children. Michael Moore has called these ruthless cowards the moral equivalent of our revolutionary Minutemen. I would point out to Mr. Moore that when confronted by an overwhelming enemy force, our Minutemen grabbed their guns, put their elderly, their women and their children behind them, and went out to face their adversary as far away from the weak and vulnerable as possible. These people do precisely the opposite. Our Minutemen fought for Freedom and Liberty; these fight for repression, state torture, and the right to force everyone to behave as they see fit. Am I surprised that Michael Moore cannot see this difference? I am not. The man has not seen his own toes for two decades, and they are a good deal closer to him than the streets of Fallujah.

[dustinwadams5]

Bravo 2nd Battalion 54th Infantry