Ozarks Burning

[rps]

I wound up serving six years in the 700th Support Battalion of the Oklahoma National Guard. The last three years I served as "Radar" for the colonel commanding the battalion. I was the only one who knew how to do emergency leaves, accident reports, and AWOL's paperwork. A month before I was due to be free, they came to me and offered to make me a JAG captain. I politely said no.

Tomorrow morning I will have breakfast with another Fort Lost in the Woods alumni. I will talk with him about this thread.

[snagged in outlet 3]

Big Thanks to all you guys that served.   It never crossed my mind at that age to go in the service.  But now that I’m older (old) I wish I would’ve.  

[Terrierman]

29 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

Big Thanks to all you guys that served.   It never crossed my mind at that age to go in the service.  But now that I’m older (old) I wish I would’ve.  

If you'd had a low draft number it would have.  Feel free to ask how I know.🙃

[fishinwrench]

1 hour ago, Terrierman said:

If you'd had a low draft number it would have.  Feel free to ask how I know.🙃

I had to "register" at the post office on my birthday, and was scared to death that I'd get CHOSEN and sent to Iraq🥴 

I didn't believe in the reason WHY......and I've been sceptical about the "News" ever since. 

All the guys in my area that had made it home from Vietnam warned us that the weapons they were given were total pieces of ---- that couldn't be "sighted in",  would jam or malfunction all the time, and that the ammo was inconsistent.    The only thing that was decent about the gear they had to fight with were the BOOTS.  

[rps]

9 hours ago, Terrierman said:

If you'd had a low draft number it would have.  Feel free to ask how I know.🙃

I had draft number 1.

[Quillback]

On 3/20/2025 at 4:52 PM, rps said:

I wound up serving six years in the 700th Support Battalion of the Oklahoma National Guard. The last three years I served as "Radar" for the colonel commanding the battalion. I was the only one who knew how to do emergency leaves, accident reports, and AWOL's paperwork. A month before I was due to be free, they came to me and offered to make me a JAG captain. I politely said no.

Tomorrow morning I will have breakfast with another Fort Lost in the Woods alumni. I will talk with him about this thread.

When I was in Basic we had to go to UCMJ "training" a couple of times, and I think it was 2 hours at a time.  It was in a hot stuffy room and they had us sitting crowded together on those lousy folding metal chairs.  It was in the afternoon and of course we'd been training all day.  There was a JAG officer seated at a desk in front of us and he read to us, in a monotone, the UCMJ.  It was a battle to stay awake.

The drill sergeants stood along the walls and watched us during this training.  Anyone that nodded off was sent outside and made to run around the building holding their rifle above their head with a drill sergeant yelling at them the whole time.  It's not an easy deal to spend 10 minutes running holding a rifle with your arms fully stretched out above your head.  

Fortunately, I was able to stay awake, but it was a struggle.

[Terrierman]

2 hours ago, rps said:

I had draft number 1.

Mine was somewhere in the 30's can't remember for sure.  But they were drafting down into the low 200's that year.  If you got drafted you went to basic, Fort Hood and then Saigon for assignment to the field with a bunch of pukes who did not want to be there with a bunch of lousy officers.  So, not wanting to do that or flee to Canada, I enlisted in USMC for the shortest enlistment possible.  Two years.  It was horrid as first but by the end of my time there I was having a lot of fun.  Do not regret it at all.  My time in Viet Nam was on deck of USS Mobile or USS Denver.  Never got SVN mud on my boots.👍