**Veterans Day/Remembrance Day AW Sign-In**

jst5150

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On Nov. 11, we honor the work of military veterans across the globe, US and allied, who've served their countries from Anzio to Tokyo. Fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters who've served, fought, were wounded or died in service to a greater cause.

So, as we think of each veteran's sacrifice from leaving families behind to deploy overseas for 15 months at a time to dying in the service of a nation, please take time to thank a veteran on Veterans Day (Nov. 11) -- British, Canadian, German, Dutch, Japanese, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Australian, French, American or otherwise. Military service, especially during times of war is a singular experience that many will tell you is multifaceted, challenging and endures for a lifetime.

As part of that tribute, I'd like anyone whose served in the military (for ANY amount of time) to sign in here with the name of their service, the dates of that service, their MOS/specialty, their rank, and any wartime experience they might want to share. This will allow the better than 16,000 AW Water Cooler people to understand the breadth and depth of military service across the globe. This is also an opportunity for those who may have a tribute or a story about or for our veterans to post their message here. I'll start:

US Air Force
1987-2002 (retired)
Journalist
Master sergeant
Deployed to Iraq and two undisclosed locations for Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and Joint Task Force Horn of Africa
Various locations worldwide
 
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SPMiller

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I remember when, on a Vet's Day in the early 90s, my maternal grandfather, who had recently been widowed, went to a coffee shop wearing his second-world-war flight jacket.

No one noticed or commented.
 

JJ Cooper

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Australian Army
1990-2007
Australian Army Intelligence Corps
Sergeant
Deployed twice to East Timor and once to The Middle East (undisclosed location for the initial push in 2003) - just received my Iraq 2003 Medal (six and a half years later).

JJ
 

Fran

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For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted:
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

This is read at the service at the cenotaph in London every year.
 

JJ Cooper

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I picked up my six-year-old son from school today. He was proudly carrying a poppy flower that he'd purchased (using his own pocket money) for Rememberance Day.

He handed it to me and said 'Thank you for coming home, Dad. This is for you'.

I'd missed the birth of my boy whilst in Iraq - that's the kinda stuff you never get back. Goes a long way to making up for it when we talk to our kids about why soldiers do what they do, and they show they understand and appreciate the sacrifices soldiers (and their loved ones) make.

JJ
 

heyjude

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I just wanted to say thank you to every person who has served and works so hard to ensure our freedoms. We appreciate you more than we can say, we love you, and we pray for you daily.
 

jst5150

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How to Prepare for a Deployment

Ask a vet, esp. a vet of Iraq/Afghanistan:

How to Prepare for a Deployment

1. Sleep on a cot in the garage.

2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.

3. Two hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open
the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong cot."

4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of
your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of
soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere
but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for
best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom
experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor
who lives at least a quarter mile away.

5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and
dump dirt on your head.

7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for
that tactical generator smell.

8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your
family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper
noise level.

10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the
wind carries the soot across and on
to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.

12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in
the other side of your bathtub.

13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich on a saltine cracker.

14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your
food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an
unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.

15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it
goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate
there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the
garden hose.

16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back
together again.

17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours
before drinking.

18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange
hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes
with them.

19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and
lie under it to read books.

20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors
so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every
time you pass through one of them.

21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the
bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every
time.

23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as
you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry,
it's for the other Smith."

24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean
clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage
where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing
the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings.
Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat
the process for another week.

25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed,
wearing IBA and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot.
Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.

26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.

27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale
phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.

28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.

29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and
fragmentation.

30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert
and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.

31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m.
When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just
registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for
their shattered windows.

32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.

33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.

34. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel you
placed outside the front door before they come in.

35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the
backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them
rebuild it.

36. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.

37. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact
stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up
a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your
spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son the gum.

38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot
it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back yard.

39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family
that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much
needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell them you are doing
this so they won't get cold/ hot.

40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself
to repeat this process for another 12 months to simulate the next deployment
you've been ordered to support.
 

StoryG27

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To all AWers who have served, thank you so much for you courage, sacrifice, and selfless service.


I'd also like to give a little shout-out to the soldiers who have affected me the most:
My grandfather and father (Air Force) and my old neighbor in Colorado, Earl McClung, a member of the Band of Brothers and a true inspiration to any who have the pleasure of knowing him, and of course, to my two brothers and my hubby who all serve the U.S. Army.
 

Noah Body

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US Army
1984-1994
Pilot (152F, 152C)
Chief Warrant Officer 3
Operation BLAST FURNACE
Operation PRIME CHANCE
Operation JUST CAUSE
Operations DESERT SHIELD/DESERT STORM
Operations PROVIDE COMFORT I, II
Operation RESTORE HOPE
Operation GOTHIC SERPENT
Two additional contingency operations
 

jst5150

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Bumping (and will do so as often as needed until the end of Vets/Remembrance Day).
 

Wayne K

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I hate war. I hate the reasons for war. I hate the fact it's necessary.

I have always loved our soldiers. Thank you all for your service.
 

Snowstorm

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U.S. Air Force, 1976-2000, Retired after 24 years
Electronics maintenance 16 years; First Sergeant for 8 years


Thanks to jst5010 for the laughs--and the memories!
 

mscelina

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My father was career Army, serving through one tour in Korea and two in Vietnam as a master sergeant in the 101st Airborne division. My father-in-law was Air Force Special Ops in Vietnam and still can't talk about his duty there, although we know enough about it to not want to talk about it either. My brother and all five of my paternal uncles are retired military, mostly Army. One of my uncles retired as a Lt. Colonel, and infiltrated Kuwait weeks before the first Gulf War. (Arabic translator) Now I have one son in law who is active duty, who will be shipping to Iraq then Afghanistan for his second tour with his unit in the next few months and another whose National Guard unit is likely to deploy next spring.

So today is when I go off to do volunteer service at the VA. Thank God for our veterans and their service to our country.
 

nighttimer

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U.S. Air Force, Air National Guard: 1974-1980, Staff sergeant

Today, I'm on my way to Dayton National Cemetery, to honor my father who served in the Navy during WWII.

I salute all veterans. :e2salute:
 

Mr Flibble

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They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

This always makes me cry.

It's not coincidence that the British Odinist Fellowship celebrates Heroes Day (Einheriar) on November 11th


And I love the fact that the whole of Britain stops for 2 minutes.

Makes me proud dammit

Thank you to all servicemen, current, retired and fallen.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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You know you're a veteran when...

My son's Scout Pack had a flag retirement ceremony at our last meeting. We were each given pieces of the flag to throw on the fire, while we listened to the ceremony. As I listened to the speaker describe the flag (ceremony here), and as I clutched my piece of the flag, I found myself getting emotional and fighting back tears.

There's a reason I served and it was for love of country.

U.S. Navy 1976-1983
 

mscelina

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I'm a Winston Churchill fan, and for me he's always epitomized the courage and resolution of the British people.

.... You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.
--Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965), 1940, in his first address as the newly appointed Prime Minister.

And this quote, above most others, kind of sets that resolution in stone.
 

Gretad08

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Thank you thank you thank you to everyone.

I've never served, but I support our military in all of their endeavors.

Tomorrow I'll call my family members and my good friend Mark to thank them for their services in Iraq.
 

Lost World

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USMC 1992-1996
Artillery Fire Direction

I am fortunate enough never to have gone to war.

In addition to Vets Day, happy 234th birthday USMC! (Nov. 10th)
 

regdog

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Thank you to all of Veterans.

Thank you for being willing to risk everything for us.
 

ofriv

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CPT(R) Otto F. Rabe IV
US Navy - Rescue Swimmer, 1984-1990
US Army - Gun Pilot (AH-1, AH-64A), 1990-2005

Retired (and lovin it!)

Been all the way around the world - a couple a times. Got a tan, frostbite, bored, scared shitless, fat, skinny, cold, hot, hungry, and old. Wouldn't change it for the world...If you've been there, you know what I mean

Halfway down the trail to hell
in a shady meadow green.
Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
near a good ole time canteen.
And this eternal resting place
is known as Fiddlers Green

See you there my brothers and Sisters!
 

Williebee

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United States Navy 1983-1991
Broadcast Journalist - Public Affairs Officer
Tin Can Sailor -- "USS Eversail" :)
Lebanon & The Arabian Sea (Persian Gulf)

My father was career Air Force. My wife was Army.
My brother was Navy.
 
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Williebee

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Actually, both my Dad and my wife were "spooks".

They hold entire conversations without specific nouns.

It's like listening to an "intel" version of the Sopranos.

"You remember when that guy with the thing did the thing in that place with the tank/ship/plane?"

"And those guys with the operations in the place? Yeah."