Salute to Veterans

[Ranger75]

1974 – 1976  U.S. Army, Enlisted Service, Sergeant. 11B2V
  3rd Ranger Company, Ranger Department, U.S. Army Infantry School

1976 – 2005 U.S. Army, Commissioned Service, Colonel, 11/48
  51st Officer Candidate Company, U.S. Army Infantry School
  Company C (Airborne), 1st Battalion, 60th Infantry (GO DEVILS), 172d Light Infantry       
     Brigade (SNOWHAWKS)
  HQ, 173rd Light Infantry Brigade (SNOWHAWKS)
  Company C (Airborne), 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry (TOMAHAWKS), 172d Light
      Infantry Brigade (SNOWHAWKS)
  Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry (BLUE LANCERS), 1st Cavalry
      Division (FIRST TEAM)
  HQ, 2nd Brigade (BLACKJACK), 1st Cavalry Division (FIRST TEAM)
  U.S. Defense Attaché Office, American Embassy Monrovia, Liberia
  U.S. Defense Attaché Office, American Embassy Lagos, Nigeria
  HQ, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry (WOLFHOUNDS), 7th Infantry Division (Light)
      (BAYONET)
  HQ, 7th Infantry Division (Light) (BAYONET)
  U.S. Defense Attaché Office, American Embassy Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
  Defense Intelligence Agency
  Executive Offices of the President, Office of the Vice President

[dmac]

1982-1985 Co B (Med) 67th Spt Bn, Nebraska National Guard, Supply Clerk and Armorer
1985-1987 226th MEDSOM, Pirmasens Germany, PLL Clerk, Motor Vehicle and MHE examiner.
1988-1989 HST, US Army Yuma Proving Ground, Assistant NCOIC Airfield Supply
1989-1992 261st Signal Company, 102nd Signal BN, Hanau Germany,  Supply SGT, Armorer and Operations NCO
1992-1995 Co D, 2/46th Infantry, Ft Knox, KY, Drill SGT
1995-1998 Co A, 94th Engr CBT BN (Heavy), Hohenfels, Germany, Supply SGT
1996 Operation Joint Endeavor, Camp Steel Castle, Bosnia
1998 HHC, 2/101 Aviation Regt, 101st ABN Div (AASLT), Ft Campbell KY, HQ PSG and BN Supply SGT

Thanks to all who have served!

[PHall]

CA ANG Apr 74 - Jan 75, USAF: Jan 75 - Sep 80, Apr 83 - Jul 90, CA ARNG: Sep 80 - Apr 83, USAFR: Jul 90 - Aug 05,

[Chappie]

I did not have the privilege to serve in our nation's military.  But I offer this salute.  One of the best Veterans Day tributes I have seen and heard in awhile....it is great to hear these young voices express their appreciation to those who have worn and wear the uniform of our nation. And from this older kid....I join them in saying, "Thank You, Soldiers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfBUUZNbFM

[bosshawk]

Commissioned 2Lt, TC, Bucknell University, 1957
USAR-1957-59, TC Gp Hq, Brooklyn Army Terminal
1959-61-Hq, USAG, Berchtesgaden, Germany
1961-62-Hq, USAG, Ft AP Hill, Va
1962-63-US Army Intel School, Ft. Holabird, Md.
1963-64-502 MI Bn, Seoul, Korea
1964-66-1st MI Bn, Ft Bragg and Saigon, VN
1966-68-Instructor, US Army Intel School, Ft Holabird, Md
1968-87-USAR-mostly assigned to the Pentagon.  Last five years as Div Chief, OACSI, DA and Military Academy Liaison Officer, West Point.
1987-Retired, Colonel.


1968-91-While in USAR and after Army retirement, Intelligence Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency.


My undying thanks and appreciation for all who have served.

[ColonelJack]

USAF 1975-1976

Grateful thanks and deepest appreciation to all for their service.

Jack

[flyboy53]

Air Force 27 Dec 1977 to 15 July 1994.... Security forces, public affairs, recruiting service and mission essential aircrew with a tours of duty that included Lackland AFB, beautiful downtown Camp Bullis, TX, Ft. Harrison, Ind., Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, Mt. Home AFB, Idaho, Youngstown ARB, Ohio, Westover AFB, Mass., and Selfridge AFB, MI...a whole slew of TDYs and deployments to interesting places like back to Alaska for Brim Frost and Spain for Operation El Dorado Canyon...all during the Cold War and Desert Storm.....and assignments to things like the 21st TFW (Alaskan Air Command), 71st ARRS (MAC), 366th TFW (TAC), 910th TAG (MAC), 439th MAW (MAC), 459 MAW (MAC), 927 ARG (AMC), and 2400 RRMS (AFRES).

Thanx not nessary...I did it for you and was only doing my job.

[Senior]

USAR 1992-2000
13B Artillery Crew Member
44E Machinist

[ol'fido]

1988-1992 U.S. Army, B Co., 4th Bn., 27th INF(WOLFHOUNDS), Schofield Bks, HI and proud son of Derrell E. Mitchell, SSG, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, WWII(Manhattan Project) and Korean War.

To Ranger 75: WOLFHOUNDS, BY GOD!! NO FEAR!!

[jb512]

USAFR 2008 to Present - Operations Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn.

Third generation to serve the U.S. in a time of war, fourth generation overall.

[Desert Dawg]

USAF Security Police  1982-1986
US Army Reserve UH-1 Crew Chief/Gunner 1986-1992

[caphornbuckle]

USAF Security Police 1995-1997
Army National Guard Military Police 1999-2000
Army National Guard Infantry 2000-2005

[SarDragon]

It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.

By: Father Denis Edward O'Brien M.M. USMC

[GrandMoffClark]

USAF Security Police. Grand Forks AFB, ND 1986-1988, Sembach AB, Germany 1989-1992. Desert Storm Vet.

[TCMajor]

U.S. Army October 1978 to November 1999 (Combat Engineer, Transportation Corps) 

Deployments too many to list.  On the day I retired, my wife and I had calculated that I had been home a total of 5.5 years out of 21.  Most deployments were self inflicted.  I HATED being near the flagpole.  The Army was great as long as you weren't in garrison.  I served almost 18-years before signing into my first HHC assignment. Thank you to all who served!

"My job was so secret I didn't even know what I did" 

[CAP Producer]

IL Army National Guard Feb 1983 - Feb 1989 NBC Warfare
1 Deployment to Honduras/Ecuador - Operation Blazing Trails 1986

Thanks to all of my brothers and sisters who have served.  :clap:

[tarheel gumby]

NC ARNG 1984 to 1985
Thank you to all who have given a whole lot more than I have.

[ironputts]

U.S. Army and Reserve 1983 - 1996

Army Ranger (Jump School)
Drill Sergeant
UH-1 Pilot (medevac)
Reserve School Instructor

1983 Grenada
1989 Panama
1991 Desert Shield

Proud to be all I could be! Thanks to all of you doing the same and especially those serving now!

[flyboy53]

I did not have the privilege to serve in our nation's military.  But I offer this salute.  One of the best Veterans Day tributes I have seen and heard in awhile....it is great to hear these young voices express their appreciation to those who have worn and wear the uniform of our nation. And from this older kid....I join them in saying, "Thank You, Soldiers"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfBUUZNbFM

Never assume that your service in the CAP -- or for that matter any CAP member -- is any less relevant. You are serving our Country as a volunteer and sometimes in harm's way.

I am sometimes very awed by the dedication, determination and sacrifice of my fellow CAP volunteers.

[SarDragon]

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
 
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
 
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
 
You can't tell a vet just by looking.
 
What is a vet?
 
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.
 
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
 
She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
 
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.
 
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.
 
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
 
Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".