M14 Forum

Whatsinaname181

Micheal,

I heard fairly recently that back in VN days, selection was a heck of a lot shorter than it is now, more along the lines of "hey, are you half bat $hit crazy? Do you want to kill VC? Can you operate effectivly as a member of a small team? Then have WE got a deal for YOU!" While no joke im sure, the process of being selected to be an SF operator was probably more more expidited than todays traning courses, right?

BTW, you old corps army guys were made of much sterner stuff, I am convinced. Wish i had half of it.

8654Maine

Holy cow, you guys were right about the DD214 being wrong.

I just checked mine...there is no mention of Ranger school.

I thought I was hallucinating and checked my class graduation list. My name is on it. Ranger class 12-89.

I know when I checked back in to my Company, they logged my return orders. I hate admin douchebags.

Guess I'm a phony ;-)

Buds, you're right. Sometimes you gotta let things go. But, the older I get, somehow the little things bug me more.

Plt 1054

I'm usually a cheerful old grunt...but I just left McDonald's when some fake wannabee started telling me that he was a Command Sergeant Major in Vietnam in '68... Said he served with the 9th Green Beret...THE WHAT?

I'm sorry, I'm just an old former jarhead who decided to join the Army Infantry cause the Corps ran out of places I wanted to see...but what the blazes is the 9th Green Beret?

I asked him if he served during the TET...he told me no he had already gotten his shots...

Now I gotta tell you, anybody who served in Vietnam (before, during and after) the Tet offensive could not have possibly missed what I asked him...
Sorry guys, I know it's my very first visit but I had to get it off my chest...

Why? because not long ago I was visiting Cleveland, Ohio and went to the mall...saw I guy wearing a Marine Corps Baseball cap...so I did what comes natural for one of yester years Marines, I asked where did he serve...

Well, to say the least I was terminally p'oed when dude started spouting out non-existent units...

Thanks for listening...I'll try to be more cordial the next time...

dprice3844444

charlied,how old is he?

CAVman

Funny!



Clearly He Confused the '9th Special Forces' with 'F Troop' !!!



BTW, I, No Doubt Like Many Here...Know Some Command Sargeant Majors...
ANd They STILL Exude...A COMMAND PRESENCE !!!



WELCOME, 'Pit' !

CAVman in WYoming

Michael

In the older days, SF still trained for different designated areas and missions.
That was determined by the group one was in.

A lot of emphasis was on schoolhouse stuff.

We were already airborne qualified and most had infantry backgrounds.
All were in great shape including older guys who came in from other units.

We had much less harassment and the hoowa stuff was not an issue.

It was pretty easy to get kicked out and sent down the road-especially if you lost your clarance. The weak lame and lazy were weeded out pretty quick.
You never saw anybody on sick call unless it involved a lot of blood and bone splinters.

Training never ceased-the real stuff started after training group and assignment to an operational unit.
You have to train for the team oriented concept-some guys can't get it and did not last long. Most of them were sent down the road.

Most everybody volunteered for RVN and many did several tours.

There were also operations going on in other parts of the world that involved SF.

Most guys were very motivated and ready for anything, including Mike Force, SOG, and border camps.

Lots of knowledge and professionalism was involved- no place for bat shit crazy people. You had to know your job and be willing and capable of taking on others.
You didn't see any of the FTA stuff that was present in a lot of the conventional army.

A great many made careers and went pretty far. I served with vets from WW2 including Germans and others recruited under the Lodge act.
There were Bay of Pigs survivors as well as Iron Curtain refugees.

4 years was enough for me, but I have always missed being part of such an organization.
The military simply required more time than I wanted to give it.

I just attended the 50th anniversary of 5th group at Ft Campbell.
We had a lot of interaction with currently serving guys and their equipment, atitude, and capabilities are incredible. Most have numerous current deployments and see SF as a way of life.

willriskit

A sad fact that has caused a growing rift within one of the vet's organizations to which I belong, is that once a poser has attained high status, they become protected from exposure by their friends in that organization. The loophole here at the local level, is that drinking buddies are able to attest that an individual's credentials are in order and national approves the application for membership based upon that recommendation. Those joining from predominantly rural areas far from organized detachments are required to provide national with their 214 with their M-A-L application. Why the local detachment isn't required to submit an applicant's 214 is anybody's guess. In this case, the individual's own statements contradict the claims of her supporters. About the only positive development in all this is that the pretender and her friends had been wearing dress blues at ceremonies (in the presence of active duty Marines) with bogus rank and decorations and although it hasn't appeared in their newsletter, the wearing of dress blues by other than retired Marines has been prohibited in this detachment. The situation has become so acute that a group of local retired Marines is exploring the possibility of forming their own organization which will ironically, be based on the same values which created and now are rejected by our present body.

Regarding verification of service, a member of our family is a senior VA official who observes their confidentiality regulations. He also has the capability of verifying the status of any veteran from his laptop in a few minutes. When a national organization claims that it is unable to do this, we have a major red flag.