I probably should have posted this earlier but it just came to me. I’ll go first. USAF, VFW Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Looking back, even though I was so ready to get out when my time was up, looking back now I actually consider most of my time in the service as some of the best years of my life. Great bunch or people, for the most part, from all over the country, different races and we all got along fine, worked hard and partied hard.
Excellent thread premise imo. Thanks for your service.
USAF 1967-1971 Asaka, Japan and Korat, Thailand.
Enjoyed it.
17 K (Ground Surveillance Radar crewman, GSR)
83’-85’ Katterbach Kassern (Ansbach) Germany. 501st MI, 1st AD.
Worked German/Czech border with 2nd ACR out of Camp Pittman (Weiden)
85’-86’ Ft Polk,…105th MI, 5th ID
USN active duty 80-83. USNR 83-86.
Electronics Technician.
FFG out of San Diego.
USN Active duty 1973 - 1995
Aircrew Survival Equipmentman (aka Parachute Rigger)
Made it to the Italian/Yugoslavian border once chasing some drunken sailors off my ship (USS Iwo Jima) while I was on Shore Patrol. They wanted to go see a Communist country (1980’s).
I actually walked into Czechoslovakia .lol. Their fence was about 1 kilometer inside the actual border. There are border stones and poles that mark the actual border. We worked from sundown to sun up basically, so I walked around the poles/stones a few times …lol.
Army, 1989-1995, 33T.
As with a lot of people, an E7 ruined my last two years and when asked to re-up, it was a big NO. Sad, because the first 4 years I really enjoyed. Almost half of our platoon got Article 15’s for garbage. I got two, one because I was in a fight off post and broke a guys jaw, the other for telling our BN Commander what I thought when he was giving me the Article 15. I said “Sir, I was correct and I’m still correct. I acted in SELF DEFENSE. Punishing me for that is idiotic.”… He said “Be careful soldier, you’re about to get a second for disrespect.”… Well, wrong thing to say to me when I’m 3 weeks from leaving the Army and had already decided my career in the Army was done. I don’t remember exactly what I said but there were several f-bombs in it and I think I called him a piece of **** for allowing this SFC to completely ruin the morale of our platoon. (The first part was well practiced, the second part was just me going off the deep end.) 
I left with mosquito wings but it never made it to my DD214. When I left the post, the last signature was our Major to release me from the rest of my extra duty, I had 2 days left. . . He said, Well, no hard feelings son… I waited until he signed and I dropped a few more f-bombs and called him a few more names at him on my way out the door. He yelled but I didn’t look back. Got in my car and drove away not looking back, hoping like hell the MP’s didn’t stop me at the gate so he could screw with me more. I suppose he just let it go. Yeah, I was young and stupid but I acted out of pure rage knowing how they were screwing up a bunch of careers. Best technician we had was kicked out of the Army because of petty run-in’s with the same SFC. I think he got 4 article 15’s and he was flagged no reenlistment. I remember the first was for throwing a charged capacitor to him and we were all stunned when he was demoted from E5 to E4 over it. Our Chief used to do it to us so we didn’t think it was that out of line.
The electronics training I got from the Army landed me a nice career in the oil industry. I’d do it again and looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing, except I may have held my tongue in the Major’s office. . . then again, maybe not. Long term, didn’t hurt me and I felt like he needed to hear it because our SFC needed to be a civilian. Several years ago, that same SFC tried to friend me on Facebook. That was hilarious.
One more thought to anyone considering joining… two of my current best friends were with me in Germany, one was my SFC in Desert Storm. When he retired, I got him a job in the oilfield and he’s retired a second time! The Army had a lasting impact on my life and I’d do it again, 100 times out of 100. Recently, our old CW5 came to visit and we spent some time with him. What an amazing guy. I also still talk to my E7 Drill Sgt from AIT. He was another amazing guy. He was the post power lifting champion and one day when I was new to his platoon, he asked if our room was clean. Cocky as ever, I said yes. He walked over, picked up the wall locker from the side, slid his hand under and came out with some dust… nothing I could say but “Drill Sgt, I apologize, we thought that was bolted to the floor, only 4 of us in here, could you lift it so we can clean under it please?”… I became 1st Squad leader that day. He was hilarious and just another larger than life guy that made a huge impact on me.
Seriously? You worked for 2 years for half pay?
I would have gone till 24 until I hit High Year Tenure as a Chief (E-7). But I pulled the plug a little early because i would have hit 24 right in the middle of a 6 month Med deployment and I wanted to get started on transitioning to my next career.
Not many high paying job prospects out there for a Life Support equipment guy. The airlines don’t use chutes or ejection seats.
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Not a veteran but thank you all for your service to our great country 
Are you still in the oil industry? My son got out of the Navy as n E-6 after 10 years and landed a job in the industry, I believe in Houston. He has something to do with the software that controls the computerized valve systems at refineries.
What did you do? I worked on F-15’s. Okinawa was primary base, but went to the Philippines, Korea, and Australia as well.
Wow, so you did over 20 years. You get a pension right?
Yeah, You get 50% of your base pay (and only base pay) at 20 years, and then 2.5% for each additional year up to 30 years. Not a huge pension, but it’s a house payment. Joined the Navy at 17 and retired at 39.
I am. I’m going on 25 years now. I’ve worked my way up through the ranks and I’m managing several product lines for subsea equipment. I was a software engineer for years as well. Love this industry.
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My son was in shock. He went from E-6 over 10 pay to a high 5 figure salary in the oil industry to start. He really likes his job as well, and is finally settling down at 36.
My first year out of the Army, I made close to the same in the oilfield than all 6 years combined in the Army. 
Wasn’t a fair comparison though. I was making $16 an hour and grossed $86,000 for the year. I figured it up one day and it averaged out to about 82 hours a week. What’s funny was we had a few 40 hour weeks as well. There were days when we worked 18 hours. I can’t remember a time that I learned more in my life. After two years of that, I started working service and I haven’t made under $100K a year since.
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I was in Electronic Cryptographic Maintenance. I never left my home bases to work. I stayed on base and worked locked up in a crypto vault.
About the only war story I have to tell happened in Thailand. General Electric was building a new power plant on our base. GE shipped engineers, power specialists and their wives over from the states. The men who brought their wives over were housed off base in the town of Korat.
Local thugs kidnapped one of the engineers wives and demanded a $50 ransom. 50 stinking dollars. To the thugs that was a fortune. They could have probably gotten $100,000. The ransom was paid and he got his wife back safe and unharmed.
