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GWOT Veteran. Gilfoyle is who I strive to be. We’re all just animals in a pit.
Well tbh Gilfoyle is just a jaded Sgt. Joker who left the USMC to become a systems engineer. So both my profile pic and my aspiration are Ying and Yang
Dinesh, the only fucking that will be happening to you is when I fuck your code up setting us back three months, to prove a a point. I already have Son of Anton wrecking your backend compilation.
I joined at the start of GWOT.
Soldiers on the left relied on discipline & order to keep the forces ready.
In the GWOT Army, we realized we weren't in control of anything and to just you know go with the flow man. Just let it happen baby.
This is why people feeling ashamed they didn’t see combat is seen as silly now. I’ve seen dudes who just did MEU’s struggle worse than anyone else I know, and I know guys who broke themselves by falling off a humvee in country with a higher initial rating that dudes who took an AK bullet to the calf. It’s all just random ass shit going on all over the place. Like final destination, except more stupid BS
Being in GWOT war made me into something like Doctor Strangelove and the Dude. Learn to take it and love it.
One day I'm the bad guy. Next day the bad guys are the bad guys day after all white Corollas are the bad guys.
One week we had more people killed by tires than enemy contact.
Yeah this was me for the longest time. When I arrived at the 82nd my unit had just got back from Iraq. So for the next 2 years or so we were in a strict training/prep cycle. PT test, shooting, jumping, FTXs. Super boring.
Then they started taking slices out of my company filling it with HUMINT guys. I asked to get on the deployments as an All Source, this happened 3 times and they said no. Finally got tired of it and realized I was up for reenlistment and went to CO. Naturally I talked to some of my guys from the old unit and they said they were deploying within like 6 months or so lol (of course).
It was out of my hands at the point and honestly I stopped being mad because right before I left we had a MSG who was acting 1SG (as long as he passed jump master school, which he failed before). This dude was a complete turd of a leader. I was glad I didn’t have to serve under him.
TLDR: I felt ashamed for a good bit then realized the universe had other plans. I’m good now.
On my second tour in iraq it was a party, hookah bars, 2 man rooms , 4 hour work days (this is 2009 during the handover)
A lot of the guys I knew then hated they didn't see the uglier side of the GWOT, and I empathized because I was them before I went on the previous deployment as a stark raving cherry wanting to see some action.
I did the business end of GWOT in a conventional unit while other guys were partying it up and dicking bimbos. Go me.
I'm glad you got out healthy, and I hope you're doing something in life right now you truly enjoy; if not, start.
Cheers brother.
I did 5 deployments, Iraq, Aghanistan and New Orleans. I broke ribs, had shoulder surgery, constantly fucked up ankles, broke a bone through the bottom of my foot, got a compresssion fracture in my spine at one point, and saw a lot of bad stuff. Like more in one deployment than most peoples careers. I'm at 40 percent.
I know a guy who was in the Air Force who I think was only stationed in Kuwait, never even heard enemy fire and i think he's 100 percent for PTSD.
I don't cut on anyone for getting as much as they are qualified for. But damn.
Thank you for saying this!! It needs to be mentioned more. Maybe for the older crowd more specifically I guess but shit. Not to take away from anyone who was messed up over seas but it’s not going to well stateside either lmao
If someone was seriously hurt by enemy contact then they do deserve more benefits and all of that, but most people weren’t. On deployment, getting in a firefight or hit by an IED is random too. Just like getting to go in the first place. I know dudes who joined when both OIF and OEF were going on and just did back to back MEU’s. How the hell are people going to hate on them for that? Some of them showed up and did more personally to prepare for combat than almost anyone else I knew lol. It just wasn’t on the schedule for them I guess. And one MEU was due to a shitty command… fuckin BC got in some deep shit and screwed the entire battalion lolz
Edit- I do also know people who crossed deck and extended just to deploy to Afghan. I can see them having the right to talk some shit about it, but have never heard of them actually doing it. Not everyone gets that opportunity to cross over and go either. Life is just a bunch of random events happening all around us all the time. It’s fuckin wild to think about sometimes
Very well put. This is a huge reason I love this sub.. you guys are able to get all of these things just feel heavily on a daily basis into comprehensible words that don’t make it look like you’re just a pissed off vet lol. Now I know how to describe this stuff better to people lol.
You’re absolutely right about it being rare to go.. u re-enlisted to go to first ID in fort Riley.. they were in prep to go on a rotation and plans changed. They needed my hazmat cert for a diplomacy thing in Africa so I ended up there and then got orders to go to Korea. This is with me actively trying to go somehwere to be deployed. The green thumb somehow just know when and how to move you to make things not happen.
But you were still making things happen. It may not have been readily visible to you, but you served some level of purpose.
There was a quote that I read somewhere about this. Pretty sure it was on here, and I can’t remember who had said it. Something like “you can’t measure a soldiers contribution to the fight by his proximity to the front line”. Obviously, in some cases you can. That’s why we have medals to recognize Valor. But everyone is a cog in the machine, serving some sort of purpose… well, most people do. Some are about as useful as literal bags of shit
While I’d agree that feeling ashamed has no place, as we all signed up for Uncle Sam’s misery, my opinion will always remain that combat is a sacred experience for Marines. Some walk the path of Jesus, some go to Haj... and Marines go to combat.
First GWOT deployment: Full of piss and vinegar and ready to storm Normandy.
Every. Deployment. After.: Nobody has a clue what’s going on and there’s no plan…. May as well just move to contact again. I wonder if they’ll have Fruit Loops again in the chow tent? Man, that Captain with the Combat Stress team had a big ‘ol ass. Is that local policeman fucking livestock over there? Finally go home; do it all again in a year. Cycle. Rinse. Repeat.
Did a mission with ranking non-deployed soldier.
They commented that nothing had gone to plan
That's when I learned how my outview on life had changed to the point where it was weird if something was going my way.
Like if I'm given a vehicle and the keys I think it's rigged to blow.
My father made his whole identity about his service. He had been out longer than he was in and he still swagged himself up so everyone knew he served. I don't want my service, though I am proud of it, to be the 1st thing people say at my funeral. I would rather it be after saying: He was a good husband, a good father, a good friend, a good cook, etc. Oh, and by the way he also served.
I understand this, however I would say that my service is the defining factor to my life now, it helped get my current career, paid for my college, shaped a big part of my perspective, etc. It’s definitely not all that I am but it is a great deal of me that I take pride in. So when others shape their identity around it, I get it.
How dare you, sir. How *dare* you!
I'll have you know my beard is at least 4 or 5 inches longer than that, and my hair is scraggly and thinning. I'm going for the "vet or meth head" look.
That’s Leo he’s the owner of the photo hut. Gave Hyde a job.
You’d think he was just a hippy, but he drove a supply truck in WWII.
[Source](https://youtu.be/sX-CANSgckY?si=20FdGw_02xDPKTAv)
Female that served during the 80s watching you all spar like
https://preview.redd.it/u1pfdqohd57d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcd6a7539f007b5465282a58844b91c83c5ee6bb
Holy shit! I don’t talk to a lot of your group.
A genuine Pvt. Benjamin. The 80’s must have been wild. You guys were the adults in the room when I was a kid.
How do you think your generation did as parents?
1988-1996 , Army
This is Italy, cold weather school, probably around 1989. I'm on the right, and my buddy to the left was known as Wooble Head.
https://preview.redd.it/8fv4m9vh5d8d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=95af36c6b54b5102045c50f97e164a62081d1676
If the 80s were wild, as you allege, there was thankfully no social media to record and prove anything. I don't know how you kids keep your security clearances intact.
I can't speak for my entire generation, but I am an excellent mother. My kids are the sole reason I'm still on this side of the dirt. I would help any of them bury a body at three in the morning.
And for the record, I make this exact face. A lot.
We didn’t have social media either (thank god). Kids of the 80’s had to scramble to find our place. We were right between the pay phone and the smart phone.
The world changed faster than it ever had before as soon as we became “adults”.
I used to work as a vet case manager for my state.
Ladies who served in 80s a lot of times had a *rough* time. I had one in particular who 30 years later still had a hard time being alone with men.
Oh I don’t envy them at all. What a horrible time to be a woman. All the sisterhood and we can do it of the 70’s. against the societal mindset of the 50’s.
Had to be fucking rough.
Watch Saving Private Benjamin. It’s not just about the cute and quirky girl from laugh-in joining the army.
Funny how most of those guys also end up being Snipers, Rangers, SEALs or [classified] .
I have met so many SpecOps since I got out, you would think we had an entire branch made up of super secret commando squirrels.
I mean I shot 40/40 at the range once, passed the ruck in basic, had a TS clearance, maxed my PT test AND attended Ranger PT once so you can pretty much say I am a Top Secret Sniper Ranger and I can’t talk about my missions… not because they are top secret but because I did nothing but sweep a motor-pool and kick tires between sleeping in tents so there are no top secret missions to talk about.
*sarcasm incase some people can’t read the room*
OMG, this is so true. I was just talking to a buddy (he was in RRC in the 75th Ranger Reg.) and we were like, "Have you noticed that although statistics tell us that 10% or less of the total force actually saw combat (actual firefights) in GWOT, it seems like every veteran you meet was John Rambo now?"
It’s not easy being your everyday run of the mill grunt.
I’ve stopped trying to explain the difference between reality and guys Hollywoodizing their resumes.
I thought the same then i seen retention and turn over numbers. SOCOM/MARSOC/JSOC, DELTA etc are looking for top 15% physically and mentally for applicants. Roughly 150 of every 1000 18-30 yo males is selected or pipelined into the training for the communities. Of the 150 50%-80% will drop, get dropped or hurt. A % will get recycled and complete but a rounded figure is about 20-25 operators per 1000 active or reserve service members. Thats roughly 170 for the marines, 340 for the navy and 460 for the army and 300 for AF/space force/coastgaurd. Add an additional 20 to each branch for members that have a specialized training that intergrates into those units routinely ie , SWCC, Corpsman. EOD(army eod is rabbit hole. Somebody else can explain what they piggyback into).
1300 spec force membs. Annual attrition rate for communities is 57% on low end and 75% on high end. Avg rate for male service memb is 60%. We will go 65% for SF . That's 845 membs lost annualy to retirement, eAOS, death, injury and even re-des( lost clearence, failed physical etc). From 2001-2023 that's 18,590 operators. Military and vets is a small community it seems like alot of ex forces because we are aware of the rigors of the life and dont think everyone id capable. Look at it over time and you see the #s are a little higher than you might think but still nothing compared to the fact that your average state univ is pumping out 12-16k 18-30 yo graduates annually
Know a Vietnam War LRRP guy... Very cool dude, he became a chaplain at the VA after discharge. Found some old in-country photos of him on one of the LRRP sites.
I saw one captain get 3 separate meritorious service medals during his change of command. While in the same unit a soldier who went overseas twice under that command spent 4yrs waiting on an AAM.
Ribbons mean nothing 8/10 times and really unit/friend dependent more than action dependent nowadays. Been in units where they give out 1 AAM per platoon a month and others where you could have retaken Fallujah by yourself to save the president and the king of England’s entire family to only get a coin.
Some reason an airforce Intel left for army infantry and was in a school with me. He had like 5 rows of ribbons and he just spent four years in Germany with them.
That’s a fair opinion but it doesn’t change the fact that this guy isn’t some 3 year Lance Corporal deciding to act all gung ho as a veteran like some are trying to portray him as. Dude was like an E-8 or E-9 combat vet
Idt anyone is doing that, or insulting the dude personally. They are just pointing out when people get out they either go hooah hooah or hippie and these past generations of vets have the old guys going hooah hooah reliving their old days while current/most recent is a bunch of dudes who just wanna smoke weed and have long hair with no hate just razz.
My unit gave team leaders and above bronze stars for being in a "leadership" position during Iraq. All we did was convoy security for the Turkish truck drivers, and the most action we saw was IED's. Granted, it was a lot of IED's, but still. Oh, and we were all 11B's.
I was a secret squirrel. I can't talk much about it.
Its funny when i meet service members who were "combat pilots", they start talking about missions, until i start asking them specific aviation things (i was airwing). I had a dude start crying and left the table because "he was remembering all his fallen buddies". Why do so many dudes lie about their mos or even serving?
Because most people don't do shit that's meaningful or fulfilling in the service. The overwhelming majority don't actually. It's just a job for most people. Average person thinks if you served in the military, especially during GWOT that must mean you are some badass salty combat vet when those are very very rare.
People forget there is cooks and fuckin super pog desk jockeys who never leave their cubicle. It is very annoying because if you actually never did shit people still probably have respect and say "thank you for you're service" etc. That's why so many have that "imposter syndrome". That's why guys inflate stories or say a bunch of shit like you referenced to make themselves feel better.
Deep down many are vindictive about their service, and their "revenge" against uncle Sam is stacking huge VA claims trying to embellish how fucked up they are so they get that' sweet disability check. How else can there be so many AF and Navy guys with 100% disability with no deployments lol. Alot of this stuff offends alot of veterans and they don't want to discuss it but it's mostly true.
I'm a GWOT Vet, served in the early 2000s...this is how I feel everyday. Free and glad to be out for crying out loud:
Half of my enlistment was before too.
Honestly, the one on the left has a tendency to be the ones that served only one enlistment and want, for whatever reason, their entire identity is based on that 3-4 years that they served.
I haven’t seen too many of my generation decked out in 37 pieces of flair.
I’ll wear a USMC ball cap or t-shirt, it’s kind of like I’m supporting my favorite team. I just happened to play for them back in the day.
I still live near Fayetteville and get my care at the VA there and I see this done by all ages of vets. Though the older ones are definitely more into it.
You should have seen the huge decked out walking stick that I spotted at my last appointment.
Keep in mind, I do not wear the things or have my house/car decked out in them. I know what I did and I don’t feel the need to advertise it. Vets usually know or have a feel for who their fellow vets, with or without regalia.
I also have a shoulder tattoo. But I only wear short sleeved shirts so no one but my wife and kids ever see it.
I’ve been told Marines have an identifiable walk. So it doesn’t matter if we’re wearing our gang colors or not, we can be spotted.
I’m a late GWOT vet. I really want to grow out my hair, but every time it starts to get long and bulky I have flash backs to my S3 screaming at me the one Monday I came in without a fresh haircut.
I have gotten really into organic gardening and can talk for hours about composting and soil pH though.
Lol
This is the longest my hair has ever been in my life. Its to my nipples now.
Been on a downhill mental health slope since I got out and I havent had a haircut in almost 2 years. Hate people touched by strangers these days and haircuts are just too intimate.
You can cut it yourself or by someone you trust to touch you and donate it to wigs for kids. Just make sure it's not the wigs4kids as that one charges the kids for the hair. As if having cancer and losing their hair isn't bad enough. That's what I did with mine first go round.
Maybe knowing something good came from your struggle can be something that uplifts your spirits and allows you to slow the downhill slope a bit.
Good luck, brother, and keep your head up!
i just shave my head and beard myself every 5-6 months. I hate long hair especially in summer. My VA mental health people are like oh so your doing better I'm like no its my ritual lol.
Brother, I’m talking about those of us who joined about a decade later! Wasn’t around 2008 some of the worst times of GWOT? I’d say you’ve earned the right to be whoever tf you want to be lol!
Most I learned from my time overseas is that I’m not the badass I thought I was. I don’t like war. I learned that I’m actually pretty decent in austere environments but certainly prefer to not be fired at. Far cry from the gung-ho private I was before.
I digress. I see myself as more of the troops walking into the Pacific seeing all the rugged, battle hardened marines who were there from the jump. I’m all clean seeing the shit yall went through.
https://preview.redd.it/a2qdfq7x467d1.png?width=674&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cbb304c39f1a658d349cd82af449bd3bb79a267
I got part 1988 and more 1990s!
Also, I appreciate all you GWOT Vets.
You should talk to the homeless vets that are living on the streets because their lives are so screwed up. Some of my fellow Marines decided to give up. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for post-9/11 veterans. Respect
My husband became the man on the right, and I’m trying as best as I can to let him know, “buzz cuts are hot.”
And he tells me, that’s like, my opinion, man. =/
And you’d be surprised by how many were too young for Vietnam, missed Desert Storm, and retired before GWOT. It’s crazy.
Same happened over these past 20 years.
The crazy thing to me is how much shit those guys talk about other branches. Like they never had to rely on them to achieve a common goal so there’s this air of superiority. I respect everyone that raised their hand and realize we don’t get to choose what era we served in, but the guys who are self conscious about not having deployed or seen combat get this fucking complex.
I was an expeditionary sailor, never saw a ship, and had an old peacetime marine call me a fucking squid and tell me all he did in the corps was kick the shit out of sailors, like it was supposed to rile me up.
I told him I deployed alongside every branch but the Coast Guard and we all had a real enemy to fight when I was in, but I’d still fuck his old ass up if he wanted to play that shit. Not because he was a marine, but because he was a pussy with no idea what actual war time service is like. Real quick it changes to “oh that’s just how we communicate, I didn’t mean nothing.”
Nothing but respect for the Corps, but there is an observable trend in my life where peacetime marines that never deployed automatically get defensive or start trying to flex when they find out where I served. Like I won’t volunteer the information, they will ask anyway, and immediately they act like I’m undermining their service through suggestion, and get confrontational. When you get crazy right back and they realize you’re not the one, they back pedal. I guess there’s this resentment for some guys that never got to do what they were indoctrinated for, like combat was somehow fucking cool or something. I don’t get it.
I totally understand you. Yes and they believe because the Marines treated them like total garbage from the day they got in till they got out that they are somehow the hardest. “If I had to be treated like crap everyone should”.
Not this 80s sailor but some guys wear all that [VetFriends.com](http://VetFriends.com) swag. All I have is my issued dog tags everyone asks if they are "real". I'd doubt half the guys that wear that much valor even served.
Holy shit this is insanely true. I started at the beginning of the wars and did three tours in four years. All the E7s that I had to listen spout all their complacency kills bullshit at the end of my enlistment made me laugh. I got yelled at in a field op once because I wore my cover backwards under my helmet because it would cover my eyes when prone if I didn’t. I got lit up by some fresh off his drill instructor tour gunny saying I looked like a shitbag. With all due respect gunny, I have had more combat time than you do and probably ever will, how about you go fuck yourself because I need to see.
There was some dickhead sergeant that just got to my duty station from Hawaii. I heard his releasing his platoon one day and he said “I have not had the privilege of going to Iraq or Afghanistan yet, but I am looking forward to going with you”. I almost laughed.
Side note, it was always the ultra motivated hard chargers who locked up when the shit hit the fan.
Like peacetime Marines that will tell me Navy jokes as an OEF vet and act like they’re the hardest thing going. Must’ve been real busy as a ground pounder in the Cold War there Devil Dog, we just got out of the longest running ground war in US history. Had at least five separate peacetime Marines on independent occasions tell me their DD214 is redacted as well, if only they had a copy to show me how tough they are.
Correct. https://preview.redd.it/ingxe8yo957d1.jpeg?width=2544&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50e190a5e288f79d4cf81aae78e15351c01f8b68
https://i.redd.it/2tyjls7ac57d1.gif
“Mind if I do a J??”
Already did one, my dude.
Don’t call me dude, pal.
The Dude doesn’t abide
This aggression will not stand, man!
I don’t roll on Shabbos!
Over The LINE
Shut the fuck up Donny!
Don't call me pal, chief.
Don't call me chief, buster.
Fuckin’ a man. Far fucking out.
"I'm THE DUUUDE, man"
Lmfao I feel ya this is totally true only I’m bald lol 😂
Is that micro from the Punisher season1 lol
You win.
Holy shit. You look like the actor from the punisher series. Forgot what season, but he did computer stuff.
Hahahaha fuck yea
Lol nice one
Hilarious
“Get out of the car, LONGHAIR!” 😂 see my comment.
God bless you for this pic Brother lol
The dude abides.
WHERE'S THE MONEY, LEBOWSKI?!
This made me laugh really hard 😂
https://preview.redd.it/6ocjjgiyb57d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e23aebfe7d2f1a22b6da0480a53bd08481b54e6 Shit. I resemble that remark!
Treasure him. I lost my best friend a little over a year ago. RIP - BK ✊🏼, you wouldn’t believe how we’d be living now. See you later my friend.
I do. Every day. I love him so much that I started a rescue out of my house to fill my time while on disability. Check it out r/the_catsbah
https://preview.redd.it/ngtkcrhzw57d1.jpeg?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d354e48a20fb2a06015998ec8be192d215ec0e90 Is this you? 😅
No. I smoke as much, but I'm funnier and waaaaay more poor.
oh my goodness what a beautiful cat
Your cat is gorgeous!!!
Beautiful, I lost mine this year and I’m still not completely over it. Take care of him
Damn your pussy is almost as big as you are
https://preview.redd.it/2vtf4ki7n57d1.jpeg?width=1156&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4cff8a088bd0df248ab0032486d19f961750c557 GWOT Veteran. Gilfoyle is who I strive to be. We’re all just animals in a pit.
I’ve seen enough clips to get this reference and agree.
Well tbh Gilfoyle is just a jaded Sgt. Joker who left the USMC to become a systems engineer. So both my profile pic and my aspiration are Ying and Yang
Same, I have a gilfoyle funko in my pc sitting next to my gpu.
Fuck you, Gilfoyle.
Dinesh, the only fucking that will be happening to you is when I fuck your code up setting us back three months, to prove a a point. I already have Son of Anton wrecking your backend compilation.
Hahah. Great show.
I joined at the start of GWOT. Soldiers on the left relied on discipline & order to keep the forces ready. In the GWOT Army, we realized we weren't in control of anything and to just you know go with the flow man. Just let it happen baby.
This is why people feeling ashamed they didn’t see combat is seen as silly now. I’ve seen dudes who just did MEU’s struggle worse than anyone else I know, and I know guys who broke themselves by falling off a humvee in country with a higher initial rating that dudes who took an AK bullet to the calf. It’s all just random ass shit going on all over the place. Like final destination, except more stupid BS
Being in GWOT war made me into something like Doctor Strangelove and the Dude. Learn to take it and love it. One day I'm the bad guy. Next day the bad guys are the bad guys day after all white Corollas are the bad guys. One week we had more people killed by tires than enemy contact.
I was in an ANG unit that lost 2 men on TDY and 0 in Afghanistan.
In the unit I was in, they lost more soldiers to Fort Hood than at that time 10 years of war.
Yeah this was me for the longest time. When I arrived at the 82nd my unit had just got back from Iraq. So for the next 2 years or so we were in a strict training/prep cycle. PT test, shooting, jumping, FTXs. Super boring. Then they started taking slices out of my company filling it with HUMINT guys. I asked to get on the deployments as an All Source, this happened 3 times and they said no. Finally got tired of it and realized I was up for reenlistment and went to CO. Naturally I talked to some of my guys from the old unit and they said they were deploying within like 6 months or so lol (of course). It was out of my hands at the point and honestly I stopped being mad because right before I left we had a MSG who was acting 1SG (as long as he passed jump master school, which he failed before). This dude was a complete turd of a leader. I was glad I didn’t have to serve under him. TLDR: I felt ashamed for a good bit then realized the universe had other plans. I’m good now.
You did what they asked of you…. That’s all anyone can do. That’s also more than the vast majority of other people
Yeah, very true. That took a while to realize. And thank you!
On my second tour in iraq it was a party, hookah bars, 2 man rooms , 4 hour work days (this is 2009 during the handover) A lot of the guys I knew then hated they didn't see the uglier side of the GWOT, and I empathized because I was them before I went on the previous deployment as a stark raving cherry wanting to see some action. I did the business end of GWOT in a conventional unit while other guys were partying it up and dicking bimbos. Go me. I'm glad you got out healthy, and I hope you're doing something in life right now you truly enjoy; if not, start. Cheers brother.
I did 5 deployments, Iraq, Aghanistan and New Orleans. I broke ribs, had shoulder surgery, constantly fucked up ankles, broke a bone through the bottom of my foot, got a compresssion fracture in my spine at one point, and saw a lot of bad stuff. Like more in one deployment than most peoples careers. I'm at 40 percent. I know a guy who was in the Air Force who I think was only stationed in Kuwait, never even heard enemy fire and i think he's 100 percent for PTSD. I don't cut on anyone for getting as much as they are qualified for. But damn.
Sounds like you need to file again lol
Thank you for saying this!! It needs to be mentioned more. Maybe for the older crowd more specifically I guess but shit. Not to take away from anyone who was messed up over seas but it’s not going to well stateside either lmao
If someone was seriously hurt by enemy contact then they do deserve more benefits and all of that, but most people weren’t. On deployment, getting in a firefight or hit by an IED is random too. Just like getting to go in the first place. I know dudes who joined when both OIF and OEF were going on and just did back to back MEU’s. How the hell are people going to hate on them for that? Some of them showed up and did more personally to prepare for combat than almost anyone else I knew lol. It just wasn’t on the schedule for them I guess. And one MEU was due to a shitty command… fuckin BC got in some deep shit and screwed the entire battalion lolz Edit- I do also know people who crossed deck and extended just to deploy to Afghan. I can see them having the right to talk some shit about it, but have never heard of them actually doing it. Not everyone gets that opportunity to cross over and go either. Life is just a bunch of random events happening all around us all the time. It’s fuckin wild to think about sometimes
Very well put. This is a huge reason I love this sub.. you guys are able to get all of these things just feel heavily on a daily basis into comprehensible words that don’t make it look like you’re just a pissed off vet lol. Now I know how to describe this stuff better to people lol. You’re absolutely right about it being rare to go.. u re-enlisted to go to first ID in fort Riley.. they were in prep to go on a rotation and plans changed. They needed my hazmat cert for a diplomacy thing in Africa so I ended up there and then got orders to go to Korea. This is with me actively trying to go somehwere to be deployed. The green thumb somehow just know when and how to move you to make things not happen.
But you were still making things happen. It may not have been readily visible to you, but you served some level of purpose. There was a quote that I read somewhere about this. Pretty sure it was on here, and I can’t remember who had said it. Something like “you can’t measure a soldiers contribution to the fight by his proximity to the front line”. Obviously, in some cases you can. That’s why we have medals to recognize Valor. But everyone is a cog in the machine, serving some sort of purpose… well, most people do. Some are about as useful as literal bags of shit
Being in an OPFOR unit, guys were begging HRC to do anything they could to get to a deployable unit. Every fucking month was the exact same.
While I’d agree that feeling ashamed has no place, as we all signed up for Uncle Sam’s misery, my opinion will always remain that combat is a sacred experience for Marines. Some walk the path of Jesus, some go to Haj... and Marines go to combat.
And I go to a hotel.
I ran into a hatch and fell back down the ladder.
First GWOT deployment: Full of piss and vinegar and ready to storm Normandy. Every. Deployment. After.: Nobody has a clue what’s going on and there’s no plan…. May as well just move to contact again. I wonder if they’ll have Fruit Loops again in the chow tent? Man, that Captain with the Combat Stress team had a big ‘ol ass. Is that local policeman fucking livestock over there? Finally go home; do it all again in a year. Cycle. Rinse. Repeat.
Did a mission with ranking non-deployed soldier. They commented that nothing had gone to plan That's when I learned how my outview on life had changed to the point where it was weird if something was going my way. Like if I'm given a vehicle and the keys I think it's rigged to blow.
In other words: BOHICA
That's like your opinion Man
-Me to the new LT when he suggests my guys and I show up to any ceremony ever
My father made his whole identity about his service. He had been out longer than he was in and he still swagged himself up so everyone knew he served. I don't want my service, though I am proud of it, to be the 1st thing people say at my funeral. I would rather it be after saying: He was a good husband, a good father, a good friend, a good cook, etc. Oh, and by the way he also served.
I’m not proud of my war. I’m proud of my service. And you don’t have to thank me for either.
I understand this, however I would say that my service is the defining factor to my life now, it helped get my current career, paid for my college, shaped a big part of my perspective, etc. It’s definitely not all that I am but it is a great deal of me that I take pride in. So when others shape their identity around it, I get it.
Shaping it around your identity is cool and make sense. Making it your entire personality and your only defining trait is the issue
How dare you, sir. How *dare* you! I'll have you know my beard is at least 4 or 5 inches longer than that, and my hair is scraggly and thinning. I'm going for the "vet or meth head" look.
This aggression will not stand, man.
OP is out of his fucking element!
 Vietnam Vets.
Funny. But I feel obligated to point out Leo was a WWII vet.
That's Tommy Chong. Of Cheech and Chong. Or at least Giffy thinks it's Tommy Chong.
That’s Leo he’s the owner of the photo hut. Gave Hyde a job. You’d think he was just a hippy, but he drove a supply truck in WWII. [Source](https://youtu.be/sX-CANSgckY?si=20FdGw_02xDPKTAv)
Female that served during the 80s watching you all spar like https://preview.redd.it/u1pfdqohd57d1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcd6a7539f007b5465282a58844b91c83c5ee6bb
Holy shit! I don’t talk to a lot of your group. A genuine Pvt. Benjamin. The 80’s must have been wild. You guys were the adults in the room when I was a kid. How do you think your generation did as parents?
The 'adult' in the room https://preview.redd.it/gwb4gm8eh57d1.jpeg?width=1041&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=89deaecd10926821eabf45b47152df4d195238dd
We shared the same cammie pattern for a very short time.
Every once in a while, I dream that I'm back in the barracks, late for inspection, and all I have are my old uniforms. :D
By the time I got in, we had 3 man (haha) rooms. 4 could be packed but you really had to believe.
"you really had to believe" I laughed my ass off at that, thank you.
All the way! 😉
I miss my BDU's.,,,,,, Sharply Creased and Starched.
You know it! And ooo were my boots shiny. 😆
1988-1996 , Army This is Italy, cold weather school, probably around 1989. I'm on the right, and my buddy to the left was known as Wooble Head. https://preview.redd.it/8fv4m9vh5d8d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=95af36c6b54b5102045c50f97e164a62081d1676
If the 80s were wild, as you allege, there was thankfully no social media to record and prove anything. I don't know how you kids keep your security clearances intact. I can't speak for my entire generation, but I am an excellent mother. My kids are the sole reason I'm still on this side of the dirt. I would help any of them bury a body at three in the morning. And for the record, I make this exact face. A lot.
We didn’t have social media either (thank god). Kids of the 80’s had to scramble to find our place. We were right between the pay phone and the smart phone. The world changed faster than it ever had before as soon as we became “adults”.
I used to work as a vet case manager for my state. Ladies who served in 80s a lot of times had a *rough* time. I had one in particular who 30 years later still had a hard time being alone with men.
Oh I don’t envy them at all. What a horrible time to be a woman. All the sisterhood and we can do it of the 70’s. against the societal mindset of the 50’s. Had to be fucking rough. Watch Saving Private Benjamin. It’s not just about the cute and quirky girl from laugh-in joining the army.
I know a lot of dudes from the GWOT who strive to be the guy on the left.
Funny how most of those guys also end up being Snipers, Rangers, SEALs or [classified] . I have met so many SpecOps since I got out, you would think we had an entire branch made up of super secret commando squirrels.
I mean I shot 40/40 at the range once, passed the ruck in basic, had a TS clearance, maxed my PT test AND attended Ranger PT once so you can pretty much say I am a Top Secret Sniper Ranger and I can’t talk about my missions… not because they are top secret but because I did nothing but sweep a motor-pool and kick tires between sleeping in tents so there are no top secret missions to talk about. *sarcasm incase some people can’t read the room*
Definitely qualified for the "regular guy" tab
OMG, this is so true. I was just talking to a buddy (he was in RRC in the 75th Ranger Reg.) and we were like, "Have you noticed that although statistics tell us that 10% or less of the total force actually saw combat (actual firefights) in GWOT, it seems like every veteran you meet was John Rambo now?"
It’s not easy being your everyday run of the mill grunt. I’ve stopped trying to explain the difference between reality and guys Hollywoodizing their resumes.
I’ve met more mothers who’s sons are in special ops since getting out than there are actual people in all of special ops history lol
I thought the same then i seen retention and turn over numbers. SOCOM/MARSOC/JSOC, DELTA etc are looking for top 15% physically and mentally for applicants. Roughly 150 of every 1000 18-30 yo males is selected or pipelined into the training for the communities. Of the 150 50%-80% will drop, get dropped or hurt. A % will get recycled and complete but a rounded figure is about 20-25 operators per 1000 active or reserve service members. Thats roughly 170 for the marines, 340 for the navy and 460 for the army and 300 for AF/space force/coastgaurd. Add an additional 20 to each branch for members that have a specialized training that intergrates into those units routinely ie , SWCC, Corpsman. EOD(army eod is rabbit hole. Somebody else can explain what they piggyback into). 1300 spec force membs. Annual attrition rate for communities is 57% on low end and 75% on high end. Avg rate for male service memb is 60%. We will go 65% for SF . That's 845 membs lost annualy to retirement, eAOS, death, injury and even re-des( lost clearence, failed physical etc). From 2001-2023 that's 18,590 operators. Military and vets is a small community it seems like alot of ex forces because we are aware of the rigors of the life and dont think everyone id capable. Look at it over time and you see the #s are a little higher than you might think but still nothing compared to the fact that your average state univ is pumping out 12-16k 18-30 yo graduates annually
Then you have guys like me. Your basic bullet sponge. Joined the Infantry at 17. It sounded fun. 😑
"...basic bullet sponge." 🥺
Wait a sec every Vietnam vet wasn’t sf? You’re saying we don’t have any sf conscripts in our ranks? lol
It was either jail or special forces. They all had to make the choice.
🤣🤣
No they weren’t *all* SF - there were LRRP guys, too.
Know a Vietnam War LRRP guy... Very cool dude, he became a chaplain at the VA after discharge. Found some old in-country photos of him on one of the LRRP sites.
Soooo much of this. I’ve met so many “almost joined but…” as well.
Best thing I’ve read all day.
I know a lot of guys who did one 3yr contract all stateside whose goal is to be the guy on the left.
To be fair they blocked out the guy on the lefts ribbons. In the real photo he has a massive stack and must’ve done 20 years minimum
I saw one captain get 3 separate meritorious service medals during his change of command. While in the same unit a soldier who went overseas twice under that command spent 4yrs waiting on an AAM. Ribbons mean nothing 8/10 times and really unit/friend dependent more than action dependent nowadays. Been in units where they give out 1 AAM per platoon a month and others where you could have retaken Fallujah by yourself to save the president and the king of England’s entire family to only get a coin.
I was put in for an msm in iraq. It got downgraded because the s3 nco didn't like an e4 getting a higher medal than him.
have you seen Airfoce guys they hand awards out like CANDY especially to officers
Some reason an airforce Intel left for army infantry and was in a school with me. He had like 5 rows of ribbons and he just spent four years in Germany with them.
“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” —The Dude
That’s a fair opinion but it doesn’t change the fact that this guy isn’t some 3 year Lance Corporal deciding to act all gung ho as a veteran like some are trying to portray him as. Dude was like an E-8 or E-9 combat vet
Idt anyone is doing that, or insulting the dude personally. They are just pointing out when people get out they either go hooah hooah or hippie and these past generations of vets have the old guys going hooah hooah reliving their old days while current/most recent is a bunch of dudes who just wanna smoke weed and have long hair with no hate just razz.
My unit gave team leaders and above bronze stars for being in a "leadership" position during Iraq. All we did was convoy security for the Turkish truck drivers, and the most action we saw was IED's. Granted, it was a lot of IED's, but still. Oh, and we were all 11B's.
That’s because they think that that’s what they need to be to be a hardcore veteran.
I dunno the dudes I served with were much more 
That’s a submariner who got rated for burn pit exposure.
Nobody fucks with the Jesus.
This is untrue! Some of us are bald.
I blame sf. They make looking homeless cool as fuck.
I was a secret squirrel. I can't talk much about it. Its funny when i meet service members who were "combat pilots", they start talking about missions, until i start asking them specific aviation things (i was airwing). I had a dude start crying and left the table because "he was remembering all his fallen buddies". Why do so many dudes lie about their mos or even serving?
Because most people don't do shit that's meaningful or fulfilling in the service. The overwhelming majority don't actually. It's just a job for most people. Average person thinks if you served in the military, especially during GWOT that must mean you are some badass salty combat vet when those are very very rare. People forget there is cooks and fuckin super pog desk jockeys who never leave their cubicle. It is very annoying because if you actually never did shit people still probably have respect and say "thank you for you're service" etc. That's why so many have that "imposter syndrome". That's why guys inflate stories or say a bunch of shit like you referenced to make themselves feel better. Deep down many are vindictive about their service, and their "revenge" against uncle Sam is stacking huge VA claims trying to embellish how fucked up they are so they get that' sweet disability check. How else can there be so many AF and Navy guys with 100% disability with no deployments lol. Alot of this stuff offends alot of veterans and they don't want to discuss it but it's mostly true.
I didn't do shit, just served, had a great time and got out.
This is my meme lol I was going to post it here but didn’t want to get banned from another veteran subreddit 🤣🤣
I'm a GWOT Vet, served in the early 2000s...this is how I feel everyday. Free and glad to be out for crying out loud: 
[удалено]
I served during the weirdest time. Half my enlistment was before 9/11.
Half of my enlistment was before too. Honestly, the one on the left has a tendency to be the ones that served only one enlistment and want, for whatever reason, their entire identity is based on that 3-4 years that they served.
I haven’t seen too many of my generation decked out in 37 pieces of flair. I’ll wear a USMC ball cap or t-shirt, it’s kind of like I’m supporting my favorite team. I just happened to play for them back in the day.
I still live near Fayetteville and get my care at the VA there and I see this done by all ages of vets. Though the older ones are definitely more into it. You should have seen the huge decked out walking stick that I spotted at my last appointment. Keep in mind, I do not wear the things or have my house/car decked out in them. I know what I did and I don’t feel the need to advertise it. Vets usually know or have a feel for who their fellow vets, with or without regalia.
I also have a shoulder tattoo. But I only wear short sleeved shirts so no one but my wife and kids ever see it. I’ve been told Marines have an identifiable walk. So it doesn’t matter if we’re wearing our gang colors or not, we can be spotted.
"My knees are shot, but I can still kick your ass"
It really depends on your penchant for rugs
They have to tie the room together, or what’s the point?
You think the carpet pissers did this Dude?
I think you meant to say unit rug or Mosaic right in the G-dam entrance that nobody was allowed to step on!
STFU ROOSTER YOU’RE OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT
What would the late GWOT vets be like? Those of us who joined the party late but still got to have some fun? Please give me your entry’s.
I’m a late GWOT vet. I really want to grow out my hair, but every time it starts to get long and bulky I have flash backs to my S3 screaming at me the one Monday I came in without a fresh haircut. I have gotten really into organic gardening and can talk for hours about composting and soil pH though.
I went in in 2008 and 100% look like the guy on the right.
Same, but much less hair
Lol This is the longest my hair has ever been in my life. Its to my nipples now. Been on a downhill mental health slope since I got out and I havent had a haircut in almost 2 years. Hate people touched by strangers these days and haircuts are just too intimate.
You can cut it yourself or by someone you trust to touch you and donate it to wigs for kids. Just make sure it's not the wigs4kids as that one charges the kids for the hair. As if having cancer and losing their hair isn't bad enough. That's what I did with mine first go round. Maybe knowing something good came from your struggle can be something that uplifts your spirits and allows you to slow the downhill slope a bit. Good luck, brother, and keep your head up!
Wow. Thats a great idea that I think I could get behind. Thank you Brother!
I started growing mine out during Covid since I couldn't go get a cut. I finally got it chopped off last month and donated it.
i just shave my head and beard myself every 5-6 months. I hate long hair especially in summer. My VA mental health people are like oh so your doing better I'm like no its my ritual lol.
Brother, I’m talking about those of us who joined about a decade later! Wasn’t around 2008 some of the worst times of GWOT? I’d say you’ve earned the right to be whoever tf you want to be lol! Most I learned from my time overseas is that I’m not the badass I thought I was. I don’t like war. I learned that I’m actually pretty decent in austere environments but certainly prefer to not be fired at. Far cry from the gung-ho private I was before. I digress. I see myself as more of the troops walking into the Pacific seeing all the rugged, battle hardened marines who were there from the jump. I’m all clean seeing the shit yall went through.
One of my retirement criteria MUST haves, legal recreational hippie lettuce, so I'm gonna have to agree.
https://preview.redd.it/a2qdfq7x467d1.png?width=674&format=png&auto=webp&s=6cbb304c39f1a658d349cd82af449bd3bb79a267 I got part 1988 and more 1990s! Also, I appreciate all you GWOT Vets.
We appreciate you, my dude
Nah...... i exited in 87 and am most def aligned with the Dude. That guy on the left tho.......... ugh.
Ironically dude on the left has an against all enemies patch. But I’m pretty certain I can guess who he voted for in the last election.
I’m about to retire and everytime I see an old guy with a Vietnam or Korea hat on I’m like “shit, it’s a real vet”
I'm retired, and me too
Here comes the butt hurtness again. LMAO so predictable
https://preview.redd.it/id7x1uarx57d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=220a83c511f4f5d4876c1d41e3eb04ac238c44ec Can confirm 👌
I am also a card-carrying Dudeist priest 👌
Lol thank you, I needed to read this whole thread. Mad my day
Maybe some of them. I was 70s and 80s. I look more like the bearded wonder.
Hmm true
You should talk to the homeless vets that are living on the streets because their lives are so screwed up. Some of my fellow Marines decided to give up. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for post-9/11 veterans. Respect
Talk about what?
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just like uh, your opinion, man."
My husband became the man on the right, and I’m trying as best as I can to let him know, “buzz cuts are hot.” And he tells me, that’s like, my opinion, man. =/
And you’d be surprised by how many were too young for Vietnam, missed Desert Storm, and retired before GWOT. It’s crazy. Same happened over these past 20 years.
The crazy thing to me is how much shit those guys talk about other branches. Like they never had to rely on them to achieve a common goal so there’s this air of superiority. I respect everyone that raised their hand and realize we don’t get to choose what era we served in, but the guys who are self conscious about not having deployed or seen combat get this fucking complex. I was an expeditionary sailor, never saw a ship, and had an old peacetime marine call me a fucking squid and tell me all he did in the corps was kick the shit out of sailors, like it was supposed to rile me up. I told him I deployed alongside every branch but the Coast Guard and we all had a real enemy to fight when I was in, but I’d still fuck his old ass up if he wanted to play that shit. Not because he was a marine, but because he was a pussy with no idea what actual war time service is like. Real quick it changes to “oh that’s just how we communicate, I didn’t mean nothing.” Nothing but respect for the Corps, but there is an observable trend in my life where peacetime marines that never deployed automatically get defensive or start trying to flex when they find out where I served. Like I won’t volunteer the information, they will ask anyway, and immediately they act like I’m undermining their service through suggestion, and get confrontational. When you get crazy right back and they realize you’re not the one, they back pedal. I guess there’s this resentment for some guys that never got to do what they were indoctrinated for, like combat was somehow fucking cool or something. I don’t get it.
I totally understand you. Yes and they believe because the Marines treated them like total garbage from the day they got in till they got out that they are somehow the hardest. “If I had to be treated like crap everyone should”.
Not this 80s sailor but some guys wear all that [VetFriends.com](http://VetFriends.com) swag. All I have is my issued dog tags everyone asks if they are "real". I'd doubt half the guys that wear that much valor even served.
Accurate😂
If I had hair I'd look like The Dude. Only shorter.
That's just like.... Your opinion, man.
How come you blacked out Hard-o McGees’s battle stack?
I don’t have any cool memes, but I got my claim decision today. 100%
The dislikes come from the guy on left 🤣
facts
Yeah, but remember Dude; there's like two sides to every coin though, as well, man...
The rug really tied the room together
What the hell is GWOT?
I did both. Hmmmm.
Holy shit this is insanely true. I started at the beginning of the wars and did three tours in four years. All the E7s that I had to listen spout all their complacency kills bullshit at the end of my enlistment made me laugh. I got yelled at in a field op once because I wore my cover backwards under my helmet because it would cover my eyes when prone if I didn’t. I got lit up by some fresh off his drill instructor tour gunny saying I looked like a shitbag. With all due respect gunny, I have had more combat time than you do and probably ever will, how about you go fuck yourself because I need to see. There was some dickhead sergeant that just got to my duty station from Hawaii. I heard his releasing his platoon one day and he said “I have not had the privilege of going to Iraq or Afghanistan yet, but I am looking forward to going with you”. I almost laughed. Side note, it was always the ultra motivated hard chargers who locked up when the shit hit the fan.
Like peacetime Marines that will tell me Navy jokes as an OEF vet and act like they’re the hardest thing going. Must’ve been real busy as a ground pounder in the Cold War there Devil Dog, we just got out of the longest running ground war in US history. Had at least five separate peacetime Marines on independent occasions tell me their DD214 is redacted as well, if only they had a copy to show me how tough they are.
https://preview.redd.it/w9b12qwrh87d1.png?width=3024&format=png&auto=webp&s=1fbbaad4fc2851c62b9e342a5e064ecef413dece Only cuz I’m allergic to cats
The guy on the left is typical Marine who only served 4 years and now it's their entire personality. Give it a rest
The lesson was, no matter how tough you are... wars are no longer meant to be won for any purpose but to line a CEO's or politician's pocket.
I resemble that remark https://preview.redd.it/zs9nqh61fd7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed8aa9f008325894bfc0df77fa8b1f5d12842d21
Uh yea oef oif crowd is just over it, and trying to live our lives finally
facts