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SVTPerformance's Chain of Restaurants
Road Side Pub
Considering joining the Armed Forces.
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<blockquote data-quote="Blackshoe" data-source="post: 354650" data-attributes="member: 7669"><p>nyk438, I don't know what is right for you. But I wrote this essay a couple of years ago when I was trying to figure out if it was time for me to get out of the Navy. I did get out, because I decided the fun stuff was over and I'd be chained to a desk for 7 more years. It's a little long, but I hope it's worth your time. If it seems like I'm bragging, it's because I am.:coolman: </p><p></p><p>A TRUE NAVY ADVENTURE</p><p></p><p>It is a job and an adventure. I’ll leave out the “job” part and just describe the adventure.</p><p></p><p>First of all, in 13 years of service I got my first choice for every change of duty assignment. Other sacrifices have to be made for this to happen, but it can be done. I traveled around the world, visiting Yokosuka, Pusan, Hong Kong and Kowloon, Singapore, Olongapo City, Manama, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Esperence, Adelaide and Sydney. Stateside, I was stationed in seven different cities in Florida, Connecticut, California and Missouri. I visited 43 of the 50 states. At one time, I enjoyed the administrative adventure of living in Massachusetts, working in Connecticut, carrying a Missouri drivers’ license, driving a vehicle with Florida tags and making payments on it to a bank in Texas.</p><p></p><p>While serving as an enlisted sailor and later as an officer, I experienced a great variety of military activities, good and bad. I operated a nuclear power plant, piloted a jet aircraft and raced a Navy sailboat in a regatta. I have ridden in or driven all manner of small boats and amphibious vehicles, a hovercraft, two submarines, three aircraft carriers, and four different ships. With eight others, I survived a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on a crippled 24-foot Navy sailing yacht. Only the LT and I were functional though, because the other seven were bathing in their own puke below decks.</p><p></p><p>I was only seasick once in all of that time, and that was on the hovercraft! I was also contaminated with radioactive bilge water and sprayed with shrapnel from exploding ordnance. I nearly froze to death in the mountains of South Korea and the hills of Louisiana in January. I nearly cooked to death in the high deserts of California and Arizona. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the summer of ’91, I was on one of the ships that sprinted to the Philippines to evacuate our people from Clark Air Base and the Subic Bay Naval Station.</p><p></p><p>One of my favorite duties was being the Physical Security Officer on a “special weapons” capable warship, training and leading armed reaction forces to protect against terrorist attack while in port. With that came the additional duty of leading the armed boarding team used to enforce UN sanctions in the Persian Gulf. One of these actions was an unprecedented night boarding only yards from Iraqi waters. On another, I had the pleasure of conducting an intelligence gathering “interview” of an Iraqi ship captain while my men searched his holds for contraband.</p><p></p><p>While assigned to a Marine Corps ANGLICO unit in California, I earned my gold jump wings by voluntarily and dramatically exiting perfectly good aircraft in flight, mostly at night, out of six different kinds of helicopters and airplanes. And I don’t care how many sport freefall jumps you have. Until you have gone “knees to the breeze” at only 800 feet and 120 mph, in total darkness, carrying 100 pounds of gear and an automatic weapon, you are still a “dirty, nasty leg”. While operating with those Marines, I personally directed combined arms support from seven different Naval Gunfire platforms, Army and Marine Corps artillery, Navy Tomcats and Hornets, Marine Corps Harriers, Hornets, Hueys and Cobras, Air Force Falcons, Warthogs and Spectre gunships, and Army Apaches.</p><p></p><p>I am a qualified expert in pistol and rifle marksmanship to Navy standards, but more importantly to Marine Corps standards. I have personally operated the Beretta 9mm and Colt .45 pistols, M-14 and M-16 rifles, Remington and Mossberg 12 gauge shotguns, M-60 and M-249G machine guns, Browning .50 cal machine gun, the 25mm Bushmaster chain gun, M-79 40mm grenade launcher and the main gun of an M-60 main battle tank. I also trained with and operated four different models of laser designators for precision-guided munitions.</p><p></p><p>Without ever being credited with assignment to a “joint tour”, I still managed to serve directly with American Marines, soldiers, SEALs, airmen and coast guardsmen, and South Korean soldiers, sailors and marines. It was my distinct honor to have served with them all. I will gladly swap stories for the rest of my life.</p><p></p><p>Any young person that I meet that is thinking about joining the military will get a brisk shove in the direction of the nearest Navy or Marine Corps Recruiting Station. No other service, or civilian life, could have provided me a more unique and interesting adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blackshoe, post: 354650, member: 7669"] nyk438, I don't know what is right for you. But I wrote this essay a couple of years ago when I was trying to figure out if it was time for me to get out of the Navy. I did get out, because I decided the fun stuff was over and I'd be chained to a desk for 7 more years. It's a little long, but I hope it's worth your time. If it seems like I'm bragging, it's because I am.:coolman: A TRUE NAVY ADVENTURE It is a job and an adventure. I’ll leave out the “job” part and just describe the adventure. First of all, in 13 years of service I got my first choice for every change of duty assignment. Other sacrifices have to be made for this to happen, but it can be done. I traveled around the world, visiting Yokosuka, Pusan, Hong Kong and Kowloon, Singapore, Olongapo City, Manama, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Esperence, Adelaide and Sydney. Stateside, I was stationed in seven different cities in Florida, Connecticut, California and Missouri. I visited 43 of the 50 states. At one time, I enjoyed the administrative adventure of living in Massachusetts, working in Connecticut, carrying a Missouri drivers’ license, driving a vehicle with Florida tags and making payments on it to a bank in Texas. While serving as an enlisted sailor and later as an officer, I experienced a great variety of military activities, good and bad. I operated a nuclear power plant, piloted a jet aircraft and raced a Navy sailboat in a regatta. I have ridden in or driven all manner of small boats and amphibious vehicles, a hovercraft, two submarines, three aircraft carriers, and four different ships. With eight others, I survived a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on a crippled 24-foot Navy sailing yacht. Only the LT and I were functional though, because the other seven were bathing in their own puke below decks. I was only seasick once in all of that time, and that was on the hovercraft! I was also contaminated with radioactive bilge water and sprayed with shrapnel from exploding ordnance. I nearly froze to death in the mountains of South Korea and the hills of Louisiana in January. I nearly cooked to death in the high deserts of California and Arizona. When Mount Pinatubo erupted in the summer of ’91, I was on one of the ships that sprinted to the Philippines to evacuate our people from Clark Air Base and the Subic Bay Naval Station. One of my favorite duties was being the Physical Security Officer on a “special weapons” capable warship, training and leading armed reaction forces to protect against terrorist attack while in port. With that came the additional duty of leading the armed boarding team used to enforce UN sanctions in the Persian Gulf. One of these actions was an unprecedented night boarding only yards from Iraqi waters. On another, I had the pleasure of conducting an intelligence gathering “interview” of an Iraqi ship captain while my men searched his holds for contraband. While assigned to a Marine Corps ANGLICO unit in California, I earned my gold jump wings by voluntarily and dramatically exiting perfectly good aircraft in flight, mostly at night, out of six different kinds of helicopters and airplanes. And I don’t care how many sport freefall jumps you have. Until you have gone “knees to the breeze” at only 800 feet and 120 mph, in total darkness, carrying 100 pounds of gear and an automatic weapon, you are still a “dirty, nasty leg”. While operating with those Marines, I personally directed combined arms support from seven different Naval Gunfire platforms, Army and Marine Corps artillery, Navy Tomcats and Hornets, Marine Corps Harriers, Hornets, Hueys and Cobras, Air Force Falcons, Warthogs and Spectre gunships, and Army Apaches. I am a qualified expert in pistol and rifle marksmanship to Navy standards, but more importantly to Marine Corps standards. I have personally operated the Beretta 9mm and Colt .45 pistols, M-14 and M-16 rifles, Remington and Mossberg 12 gauge shotguns, M-60 and M-249G machine guns, Browning .50 cal machine gun, the 25mm Bushmaster chain gun, M-79 40mm grenade launcher and the main gun of an M-60 main battle tank. I also trained with and operated four different models of laser designators for precision-guided munitions. Without ever being credited with assignment to a “joint tour”, I still managed to serve directly with American Marines, soldiers, SEALs, airmen and coast guardsmen, and South Korean soldiers, sailors and marines. It was my distinct honor to have served with them all. I will gladly swap stories for the rest of my life. Any young person that I meet that is thinking about joining the military will get a brisk shove in the direction of the nearest Navy or Marine Corps Recruiting Station. No other service, or civilian life, could have provided me a more unique and interesting adventure. [/QUOTE]
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