When I was a young I earned 11 cents an hour, a penny more than convicts making license plates to defend Democracy against GODLESS COMMUNISM with guns. I've taken a pay cut to nothing. I'm still defending Democracy, no gun just the truth, an awesome weapon. Did I hit you? Made you feel good or bad?
I mowed lawns. $1/hr. My Grandma’s yard earned me $1.25, but she always has two sugar cookies and Koolaide, and we would chat for awhile. I now understand that the mowing and the money were incidental for both of us. Treasured memory!
I was alone in my fox hole when there was gunfire and somebody dove head first in with me, too dark to ID. At daybreak I saw it was the skipper. He stuck his head up and a sniper took a shot at him and missed. I shot at the sniper and missed too. I said, "stick your head up again. I'll get him."
Curley, Moe or Larry? We know Billy is your social media id.
You mean Trump, Musk and Stone don't you. I can tell you this much 302 is the name of a restaurant in Santa Ana CA where I went for my last steak, $1.50 before going overseas and where I heard, "By By Love" by the Everly Brothers after 3 days processing in San Fran and arriving in Santa Ana.
As a Navy guy I am required by tradition to give you crap, but you seem nice enough. Consider yourself dissed!
😇. I posted this incorrectly on another reply. It belongs here. Swabbies generally had great respect for Marines but maintained the traditions! It was only polite to pose.
In aviation at the time the only difference was the uniform and promotion schedule. We had 2 independent bases, Cherry Point, NC, a swamp and El Toro, Santa Ana Ca where I was capture by a group of girls while being very vulnerable. One's been guarding me for 68 years, 5 kids, 8 grand and 3 GG.
We sometimes need to surrender.
The chances of meeting her is so great it's like winning the lottery 10 times in a row. If I hadn't's are woven like straws in a straw hat. The first one is going to the AF recruiter, the time being lunch time and the Marine recruiter coming to go lunch with him, and me falling for his pitch...
As a general post I’ll post this:If you are young and don’t know what you want to do or who to be, please consider the Military. It will expand your horizons immensely.You will be underpaid, disdained by many, but you will protect America! A few years of your life will not be wasted.You are needed.
Well said. I have had a wonderful life and I feel like I owe it to that little misunderstanding of what I was signing up for. I would have been drafted into the Army anyhow. If I had known I would have ran for my life. It made my life for it led me to my buddy the mother of my babies. Nothing beats.
I had to sign up for Naval Air Weapons school. Get sick and set back 2 weeks, not take my leave coming back from overseas, being sent to El Tore to re-up me, another Marine with us nit taking our leave being a competitive skater and me deciding to go to a rink with him. Her only time being there...
Her girlfriends taking me to her. Me remembering her phone number for weeks. Me with no buddy to go on liberty with, Saving enough of my pay to make a down payment of a car. Saturday afternoon and nothing to do. I found me a buddy. Marines owe their lives to their buddies. Semper Fi to my buddy.
We all had mad respect for Marines. That was the most dangerous thing anyone could do, but it needed done. Courage is admirable!
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I almost stayed in the "service" ship over to the Navy. Not a seagoing bellhop a highly trained electronic tech for which there was a great shortage in the Navy/Marines. I went to school with and libertied with sailors. They got promoted and I got told there were too many sergeants in the infantry.
We went to the Philippines, trouble in SE Asia to a Naval Air Station and shared a shop with ET sailors. I was a trained RO but was too valuable to fly full time only fill in. My Navy buddies were all E-5 and I was E-3. They flew on patrol planes and I was stuck in the shop fixing RADARs.
My times in Olongapo were intensely stupid but fun. A buddy and I took a bus to Manila. In many ways it was a strange culture to us. Bloots comes to mind. And Hell No!
I and my buddy left the base once while in the Philippines, in uniform require. I've never been more shocked. We were treated like royalty. They were still recovering from the occupation. We got finger V signs, free rides, drinks (soda pop) and food. The Army liberated them. No look gift horse...
Same. My trip to the US military cemetery on Luzon is still a treasured memory.
Airdale 2nd Class. CVAN65. Gulf of Tonkin. We went through the Straits of Malacca to the Indian Ocean as India-Pakistan did their usual crap. The sea snakes I saw off the stern are reputed to be the most poisonous critters on earth. “Join the Navy, See the world!” Hydraulics specialist.
I had gone through Air Force boot camp in the Air National Guard.1500 miles away from my unit I went to the AF recruiter to sign over full time. He said go back to your unit. I turned and there stood the Marine recruiter, "Why boy we have an air force too" said he and gullible me. I can't regret it.
I took the same test you did and really didn't have a choice. It was ET and no options. I found out after boot camp. I had a rifle except in schools. They passed out amo and told us there was a threat of Russian paratroops. We were happy for our training we hated at the time we got it.
Life is a one-shot deal. There are a lot of forks in the trail. You can only take one. How I ended up in the Marines was a fork I could never have imagined. I'm the only person who ever joined the Marines when there was a shooting war on to avoid combat. My DI fixed that, FMF Fighting Mother F- Sir.
We have been to San Francisco several times. We went there on our honeymoon in August and it was so cold there, then that we had to buy sweaters. Fisherman’s Wharf was WAY too expensive for our budget. Treasured memory. Drove a Falcon with a stick shift. Wore out most of the clutch plates. ❤️ it!!
It's a matter of perception. My best 14 months in the Marines was in a frontline outfit. You feel your worth. I was doing what I signed up for and was trained to do, I was worth my pay. 11 cents an hour was an inside joke. 24/7 at $65 a month. Never checked the figures. Nickel sodas dime burgers.
