I met a *REAL* hero once.
Posted on
I originally wrote this up for another sub several years ago, (/r/MilitaryStories) but it no longer qualifies per the rules, and I thought y'all might enjoy this. Strap in. And if this gives you the feels of the movie Stripes at some point...yeah.
So no shit, there I was.
I've been a teacher for close to 20 years now. There are a few veterans on campus including me. One (who has since moved on) was a guy who at first seemed OK. Another guy who did his hitch and got out. Served with the 173rd Airborne in Italy as an 11B. Discharged honorably. Nothing to be ashamed of.
I served a few years after he did. Got a tour on the DMZ in Korea and did Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
One of the history teachers at our school asked us each year if we would talk to the kids on Veterans Day. So we would put on our uniforms and speak to them about our time in.
Long story short, he got a case of the ass over my combat patch. He didn't like the fact that I had an XVIII Airborne Corps combat patch, despite the fact that I never went to jump school. Hint: Entire units served under XVIII Airborne who weren't "Airborne" units.
So anyway, one year we are in the auditorium. Talking to the kids. The history teacher leaves to see if the bus is here to take us the Veterans Day ceremony. And I was telling the kids how being attached to an Airborne corps could be stressful, because they would call you at oh-dark-thirty, give you a weapon and put you on a plane. You never knew if it was real or not.
Then THIS asshole chimes in with something along the lines of: "Yeah, that's right. One night we got put on a plane and were accidentally dropped in to Czechoslovakia and had to fight our way out. I lost some good friends there."
I was fucking stunned. While the kids are all going "Awwww, poor so and so." I'm thinking "WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST HEAR?"
This dude seriously told these kids that an ENTIRE AIRBORNE BRIGADE was accidentally dropped into a Warsaw Pact country during the Cold War. Somehow every single pilot, co-pilot, navigator and jump master in the ENTIRE FUCKING BRIGADE mis-read the terrain, maps, etc and dropped into enemy territory.
Somehow, every single Soviet and Czech air defense system and radar failed to see a convoy of American planes dropping an ENTIRE FUCKING BRIGADE into their country and failed to either shoot them down or send fighter interceptors to shoot them down.
Somehow, NOT A SINGLE DIPLOMAT was aware of this grievous incident and said anything.
They then fought their way out, without starting WWIII, and no one ever heard about this until now.
The kicker is this, after his little shit fit over my combat patch, he showed up the next year wearing one. He never went anywhere but Italy. He never saw combat. He wasn't wearing a combat patch in the years previous. And he was wearing an 82nd Airborne combat patch of all things.
The ONLY reason I didn't rip into him is because I need this retirement check this teaching gig will get me in a few years. And I couldn't tear him apart in front of kids. So I let it slide. But I quit talking to him, and I of course lost all respect for him.
I dunno - wish I had said something sometimes. But then again, how sad and pathetic are you to be jealous over a guy with 100 hours of combat experience?
smh.
Y'all have good one.
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