Scroop -

Lots of us vets on here, but like I, most don't talk about it much.  For me, originally Army, then Air Guard after that.

Sorry, no pix - I couldn't begin to get a old uniform buttoned around my girth these days.

In 1966 I was looking at the Draft, Army, and a trip to Viet Nam -- so I enlisted into the Air Force.  Serving four years in the Air Force versa two years in the Army?  DUH!!  They trained me, 9 months in school, then sent me to Athens, Greece.    
A couple of us in the 2879th GEEIA -- Asak, Black Pete, and Bozwell.
Bob Wagner and me, 2006, in San Diego.  He was on vacation, I stopped for lunch (just 120 miles one way.)  We reminisced while his wife sat dumbstruck -- she realized that all those stories were true!  (Bob had received a ticket for loud mufflers on his Triumph Bonneville, fastest wheels in Greece.  "How plead?"  "Not Guilty.  My mufflers are under my bed and are very quiet."  "Dismissed."  They cited him for a loud muffler, not for no muffler.  Heh!  I love the Law.)

I still have my International License, issued 28 Jan '67.  Rank listed as A2C (Airman Second Class) SGT (Sergeant) S/SGT (Staff Sergeant, E5.)  The Air Force is slower to get rank than the Army.  Promotion to E-5 before four years was exceptional.  I made E-5 just before three years.  Usually a E-5 has salad over his pocket -- I have two, national defense service which everyone had since since it was wartime, and my Marksman ribbon.  No one bothered to give me a Good Conduct Medal, even though I earned it.

It was four good years, good memories, good friends.

My dad was an instrument mechanic and electrician serving with a Lancaster squadron during WWII. Years ago CURA in Hamilton was restoring a Lank and they asked him to help. He turned them down because he didn't want to drive to Hamilton (72 mi) every weekend to work on it. Years later at a local airshow the Lank was on display and for a Father's Day gift I had pre-arranged for him to have a tour and a flight on it.
After he got out of it I asked him how he liked it and he said "They were a hell of a lot bigger when I was 18".

USN Diesel Engineman 60-64. All ComServPac duty assignments. USS Delta AR-9 (Long Beach, CA) and USS Conserver ARS-39 (Pearl Harbor, HI). Was good for me and I went to OIT in Klamath Falls afterward for more schooling. Would like my ashes spread at sea but my wife says no. Such is life. Max

phhhht

Now now,, lets not be splittin hairs..

Me?served 73 to 76,, wore the Nam svc medal, but never left the country.

Our military is used like the strong arm of the mafia, to do the bidding of the world elite,, we arent THREATENED by any of these targets,, gimme a break,.

WD wrote on 06/17/11 at 15:04:08:

Sounds like my job in GEEIA, The Air Force's Ground Electronics Engineering & Installation Agency.   We were  based in Athens, Greece, but our job was everywhere else.  We had no work to do in Athens.  In Athens we would simply show up in the morning and noon and ask about any jobs coming, about 15 minutes, disappear.  Athens had the weather Los Angeles claimed.  I was there for 2.5 years.  Base did not have a chow hall -- so they gave us $70 a month for food.  I could eat for a month for $25.  Barracks not enough space, since GEEIA was off the base, we others lived off base -- another $70 a month.  Heh!  Liberty and I shared a house that ran $50 a month.  About $90 excess over bed and board.  Cigarettes were $1.70 a carton.  A fifth of good whiskey was $1.75, $2.25 for 12-year-old.