Never Again

[1Kona_Venom]

Hopefully I don't miss the boat on my response here. I've been trying hard over the last few days to direct my thoughts to this thread without going off in every direction.

I am a very angry American these days. (Join the club right?)

Growing up my heroes were Hasbro, Kenner, Mattel, GI Joe, and SGT Rock comic books. Small Wisconsin town, population 1800 people. We would play "guns" and roll around on our bikes, climb roof tops of local business and demonstrate our sniper skills at ages 11-13. In the winter months, I'd ascend on top of the biggest pile of consolidated snow mounds with my "jump pack" of soup, crackers and snacks from the cupboards of the house and occupy that snow mound for a little bit in the late hours of the night. No ipods, no cell phone.
Just me and a dream of being an infantry guy someday.


In 8th grade my parents got a call from school because I didn't select high school electives that would support going to collage someday. Didn't need to, I was going in the Army as soon as I turned 17. (National Guard). That would give me a headstart and than when I graduate school I can switch to Active Duty.

My Dad, being a Vietnam vet, MP, wasn't happy that I signed up for a job that would not be able to transfer to the civilian sector when I got out. But, they still signed the waiver for me to join at 17.

I served my country from 1991 - 2013. I did because it was in my blood and my soul. I am a retired 13Fox, Fire Supporter, better known as FiST Teams. In short, we controlled everything "indirect fire" related for maneuver units, (Infantry and Armor).

Everything includes, Naval gunfire, Attack Helicopters, Fixed Wing, Mortars, Artillery and Rockets. I was the guy either planning or executing the release of death to come to bad guys. (My favorite CAS platform, the A-10!!)

In 2013, the Army I had once joined had changed drastically. To this day now, I am not a big proponent of talking kids into joining the military. I joined because I LOVED the "college party that never ended" environment for me. Everything else, money, bonuses, hot chicks, cars, material things all sort of fell in place.

I liked being deployed because on a deployment that's the ****IN SUPERBOWL!! It's a place to showcase YOUR years of training, dedication, and a free pass to kill based on the rules of engagement.

Todays military.......

There is no place for WOKEism
Females DO NOT belong in certain combat arms professions
Military is to "administratively focused" more PowerPoint presentations and sexual harassment classes, checking the block stuff instead of going out and getting hands on training to combat the real problems.

Would I sign up today and do it all again? Yes! Because bad people need to be interdicted and expunged from this earth. And I have the skill set to do just that.

We lost in Afghanistan. We lost in Iraq. WE LOST



Everything else is lip service. People say, we as a nation haven't learned anything from Vietnam. I disagree. People have learned to be compassionate, encouraging and recognize through varies methods their appreciation of what service members have done.

Obviously, what wasn't learned from previous war engagements is that military leaders need to do military things and politicians need to do political things. What makes a good dynasty of a football team? The GM doesn't do the play calling, the Offensive Coordinator does.




~~Blackmail is a powerful weapon~~

 

[derklug]

If I were 18 again and looking at enlisting, I don't know if I would. In 82 we had a real enemy with a real threat that a kid could understand. Now I would be afraid of being turned loose on American citizens. I no longer trust the government in any way shape or form. The DoJ and DoD used to be who I trusted to be apolitical and do their jobs, but the last 12 years has shown me otherwise.

 

[_Snake_]

My MOS was 15T. Blackhawk Mechanic. You probably just read that and said WTF? Keep reading and I'll explain a little more.

During my 12 years I spent roughly 3 of them as air crew to include deploying to Afghanistan doing Medevac.

In that deployment I witnessed the absolute horrors of war. I've picked up everything from people having minor broken bones to those clinging to life and even some who were gone before the 9 line dropped. I don't wish some of the things I've seen on my worst enemy because at times it was that horrific.

That is where this thread is really coming from. This administration has done nothing short of completely disrespect the efforts of those that will never be made whole and those that payed the ultimate sacrifice.

To me at this point in time it was all for nothing. The literal blood, sweat, tears and lives all for nothing. The actions of this administration leaving the way they did, leaving people, service dogs and rebuilding the taliban has genuinely brought a tear to my eye.

I just found this thread. Probably because I wasn't in a good place when it was posted. Late August / early September sucked between the withdrawal and the 9/11 anniversary.

You DID make a difference. Not only with your brothers in arms, but with an entire generation of folks in Afghanistan.

 

[MG01GT]

I think no matter what you are justified and it is okay to feel the way you do about this situation. The unfortunate problem with Afghanistan is that we should have been gone long ago. I’ll explain that here in a second.

I retired from the Marine Corps in 2020 after doing 20 years. I joined straight out of high school because I felt there was nothing for me in Cedar City UT. But I never thought I would go on the whirlwind trip the next two decades of my some what adult life. I was an 0848 by trade (artillery fire direction center/ops chief) and that afforded me a lot of opportunities and billets outside of the norm. But my most eye opening deployment was doing Civil affairs in Marjha, Afghanistan.

This was late 2011 to early 2012. Afghanistan was never a strategic value. In fact everything we did was to keep our heads above water trying to fight a shadow government. But because of the idea of loosing a fight that so many others did as well and we are America and we don’t ****ing lose……. Shit got screwed and unfortunately leaders gave false hope and information to other leaders and ended up with the current debacle. Afghanistans population is tribal in nature. What you see in In the larger cities really only is a small percentage of what the population is. So when I say tribal, they really don’t identify with boarders or national pride. Their loyalty extends no further than their compound walls and even then you’d be surprised at some of the shit that happens inside those walls.

Where I’m going with this, is that leaders failed to inform properly and fairly because they wanted to bolster their careers with success. DOD failed to understand the enemy and the local population and respect their way of life. Truth of the matter is that you can’t really expect to have diplomatic relations with people that don’t use toilet paper. We were never going to win that fight there, and we honestly should have never stayed as long as we did.

So yes you are justified and should feel the way you do. But don’t take it too personally would be my advice. You served and did your time. Enjoy the life you have and don’t dwell on what was or what could be. Let the young bucks take the fight to whoever our next enemy might be. We will stand guard here and do what we do as any good American would do.


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