US Army Recruitment Standards. (You've got to be kidding me....!)

[temfarang]

as a medic i never 'camped out' or ate K rations

 

(un a/c) barracks & hospital chow

+ ugly enlisted womens on every ward.

 

had more memorable totally crazed fun on $26 a week than I can have on a $1000 21st century night.

 

probably more fun in memory than it was then.

[Flashermac]

From what I've read, the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" was maybe caused by nervous sailors mistaking some whales for torpedoes. The Navy wasn't sure it had been attacked, but LBJ didn't want to wait until they could confirm it. Then after he had announced it was an attack, he was too proud to admit that it was all a mistake. So the US involvement began over a lie.

 

I remember getting paid in cash, and then having to hand back a fair amount of it for various things. 1968 pay scale - E-1 trainee $102.30 a month! I'd been making over $600 as a high school teacher. As an E-5 under two years, I got $226.20. Add on $65 for hostile fire pay and something like $14 for overseas pay, and I was rich!

 

An E-1 under two years nowadays gets $1,447 - not bad for pocket spending money. An E-5 under two gets $2062, and E-4 $1889. Wow ... an E-8 over 8 years gets $3742 base pay and an E-9 at 20 years gets $5361. Bit of a difference from when you could draft all the folks you wanted.

 

 

Here the 1968 military pay chart:

 

http://home.covad.net/~hlbusbyco/pdfs/1968.pdf

 

 

[Flashermac]

OH, I have two friends who photographers - one in the Navy, the other in the USAF. When they got out, they used their training for the military rest of their lives. One set up his own studio and does all of the high school graduation photos for the schools within about a 200 mile radius. The other became a photographer for NASA.

 

Nobody even told me such a job existed, or I might have signed on for another year to do it. My service records say "civilian occupation equivalent - none". Well, I suppose I was qualified to become a hitman, mad bomber or mercenary.

 

 

[USVirgin]

They had to go through the motions, even though they didn't need anyone - just for appearances sake! Meanwhile, I'd wasted so much time with the Navy, that the draft board got around to me.

 

That's a real pisser! The private sector still does this too, the difference being the consequence of your wasted time and energy is not a life or death matter. You're just still out of a job.

[Flashermac]

I taught some Army recruiting sergeants at the NCO Academy in the early 1990s who told me they had to go through the motions of recruiting people, even though they were not allowed to sign up more than maybe 1 or 2 a month. This was when Clinton was cutting back hard on the military and career soldiers were being paid nice lump sums of money to get out instead of staying on to retirement.

[cavanami]

It is quite the thing for someone go retire from the US Navy and then sail with the merchant marine, making at least twice what they made in the US Navy!

[Flashermac]

There was a poster on the old Nanaplaza board who had been going career Navy. He was an E-6 with about 10 years in. He decided to pull the plug and go Merchant Marine, since he discovered than an ordinary ABS in the Merchant Marine was making as much as a Navy rear admiral - provided he belonged to the merchant seaman's union. Why pull another 10 years in the Navy when he could triple his income by getting out?

 

 

 

I had a great uncle who had been a master mariner - served as a merchant ship captain or first officer. I should have followed in his footsteps, instead of arsing around teaching. Oh, well ... I wanted to say in LOS.

 

 

 

 

 

[cavanami]

The skipper usually makes $20K USD / month!

[dave32]

<

 

100 sits

16 pulls

3 miles in 22 min.

 

And it kicked my ass!>>

 

 

early july i could run 4 miles in 28 minutes

 

Holy shit. That's pretty fucking awesome there for both Phil and Corinthian. I'm beginning to suspect the 'lazy' moniker is a misdirect. I wonder if those reading realize how difficult those times are at 3 and 4 miles. Both of you guys are over 30, no? I think that would put you in the top <5%.

 

When I was in the Army -- 100% on the run was 11:55 for two miles. After months of running hard I could hit 11:30, and I was considered pretty damn good (not track star level, but in the top 10 of my battalion) -- even then, there's no way in hell I could sustain that pace for more than 2 miles. Ran a 5k recently and was happy to have 8 min mile pace average. Sad. I need to hit the fucking bricks.

 

Bullshit aside. Props and respect. Not bad.

 

Ps. - you guys ever try and run in LOS? I ran @ Lumpini a couple times, the humidity and heat is so thick I felt like a water buffalo and was exhausted after 2 miles at some ridiculously slow pace. I had old ladies on crutches passing me by and waving.

[kamui]

 

When I was in the Army -- 100% on the run was 11:55 for two miles. After months of running hard I could hit 11:30, and I was considered pretty damn good (not track star level, but in the top 10 of my battalion) -- even then, there's no way in hell I could sustain that pace for more than 2 miles. Ran a 5k recently and was happy to have 8 min mile pace average. Sad. I need to hit the fucking bricks.

 

Bullshit aside. Props and respect. Not bad.

 

 

I am in the 4th week of the "Couch to 5K" running plan. Yesterday I did 2.5 KM in 22 minutes. :content:

(But I am not in the 30th anymore).