Flashermac Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 Sounds familiar. My cousins had been or were in the Navy and loved it, so as soon as I graduated from UC I tried for a Navy commission. They sent me up to San Luis Obispo for a battery of written exams. I sailed through them, so they had me go to the LA induction center for a physical. Passed ... so I got told to go to Santa Barbara for an interview. First thing they said at the interview: "Are you a pharmacist? The only people we want are pharmacists." They knew from day one that I was not a pharmacist, yet they had me running all over California for a month playing games with them. Effing Navy. I drove home in disgust. About six months later, I got my induction notice. The day I reported only the Army was taking people. The previous day, the Marines had grabbed a bunch. For some unfathomable reason, after BCT I got orders for Fort Leonard Wood. I was one of just 2 guys picked to become combat engineers. All the other draftees got infantry. I'd scored high enough on the AFQT that they sent me for the OCS qualification test. I passed and then more or less forgot about it. Turned out half of my platoon in AIT was OCS qualified. At the end of training, 2 got orders for Fort Belvoir - Engineer AIT. They went to Virginia, while the rest of us went to RVN. Thus it was a surprise to be suddenly told months later that I was to report to Fort Benning for Infantry OCS. I'd have gone for engineers, but not infantry. Combat engineers was the closest thing to being infantry, but at least we seldom had to go out and look for Charlie. We let him find us. After a couple of months in a line platoon, doing daily minesweeps, occasional recons, working our butts off rebuilding the bridges the VC blew up during the night, sitting in holes during mortar attacks, getting sniped at and once almost being ambushed, the first sergeant asked me if I'd like to be the new operations sergeant. "When do I start, top?" And the Army thought I'd give that up for the dubious honour of being a platoon leader? Ironically, the Army was always short of combat engineers. We'd get GIs sent to us who'd been trained as infantry. Then we had the fun of trying to teach them their new job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiery Jack Posted February 14, 2009 Report Share Posted February 14, 2009 That clown that posts on here Sileakhunt's about 71. He looks older, like. Hope that's helpful. jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bunthom Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Any octogenerians? I would think that you are the only one, but there may be others Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unit731 Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Any octogenerians? Is this a trick question? I do have all my fingers and all my toes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Munchmaster Posted February 25, 2009 Report Share Posted February 25, 2009 Any octogenerians? I would think that you are the only one' date=' but there may be others[/quote'] That's bunthom trying to be funny. Obviously humour is not one of his strengths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 That's bunthom trying to be funny. Obviously humour is not one of his strengths. sure! so he will not be able to compensate your weakness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 So everybody agrees TB and Faustian are a tie for being the oldest memeber now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WorldFun Posted February 27, 2009 Report Share Posted February 27, 2009 ok like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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