Wayyyy back in the mid 70's when I attended "A" School (for you army types its a school to teach you basic MOS training) and I was a young green teenager, this happened. This is not a story about me but one of my classmates.

Now Seaman (SN, E-3) Greenhorn, obviously not his real name because I can't remember his real name, was a real hick. 17 or 18 years old, fresh off the mid-western farm, and...

CALLING ALL POSTERS, LURKERS, AND FRIENDS:

Been lurking a long time and wish you could actually talk to the other community members? Miss grabbing a couple beers and just shooting the shit with the fellas? r/MilitaryStories will be hosting an open AMA where we'll crack open our beverages of choice and get loose with the mods as we discuss whatever smoke pit/ bar room tales spring to mind.

February...

It was a cool and wet December day off the coast of North Carolina at Camp Lejeune in December of 1982. I had just gotten out of trouble for telling a Chief to perform oral sex on me. Had gone from being the Coxswain of an 80 ton Mike Boat hauling Marine tanks to the beach, back to running the deck of an LCU that carried 3 tanks. Minus my E-4 Chevron, the Skipper busted me to E-3.

I was at the...

Monday morning came for me at 05:30 with the ringing of my alarm clock. It would have been no different from any other work day, but today I was going to work at MSD Concord, CA instead of MSO San Francisco. I hit the off button to silence the alarm, took a breath, got out of bed and headed for the bathroom to start the day.

My day always started out with a shower to wake me up. For the first few...

So another story reminded me of this. I don't usually talk about it. But I think its time.

Its been 27 years since this took place. If you have read my stories you know that I enlisted in the WANG or Washington Army National Guard as a junior in high school. That summer I got sent to Benning for first phase of my indoctrination into military life.

Now a little info on my paps. Grandpa was born in...

Way back when, I had just picked up Master Chief Petty Officer (E9). I was stationed in Chesapeake, VA but living an hour away in a small town in North Carolina. That drive was a LONG hour through the Great Dismal Swamp. For those not familiar, this part of the country has very mild weather in the spring and fall and is hotter than hades with high humidity in the summer. I was driving an SUV which...

I joined the Navy at the age 20 , and my first post after boot camp, and school was a base in the middle of no where base in Japan. I arrived at the International Airport in Narita, first time out of the US, and way more nervous then I would ever admit. There was no one to meet me, but I remembered to look for the USO. I found the USO and called the base, and was told to get on the bus to Camp...

This was early Red Phase of Basic Combat Training. This story does not involve Squirrel beyond him being in the room at the time. At this point we were being entrusted with the task of sending a canned letter home to our families from the battery commander. Apparently they didn't entrust us too much because our first-line DS was walking us through how to send a letter step-by-step (again, Squirrel...

I was reminded of this event, after seeing a news story about a Spanish runner helping a Kenyan runner finish the race in first place, because he misunderstood some signals as meaning he was done. The Spanish runner tried telling the Kenyan runner to keep going, but there was a language barrier. So the Spanish runner pushed the Kenyan across the actual finish line. Why? "It was the right thing to...

So, inspired by the warmth of the discourse under the mod's recent positive and encouraging post about welcoming civvies to the subreddit, I decided to stop being a Debbie Downer and post something heartwarming for once (no one likes a Debbie Downer, mmkay?).

So, to set up the background; my fiancee and I were in a long distance relationship (that actually worked out! We had some great examples...