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re: My son just left for basic training
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:32 am to King Crab
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:32 am to King Crab
quote:
I just realized my days of seeing him every day and being his father that he lives with are over.
I know kids leave the nest when they grow up. I just didn't expect to feel as sad as I am right now.
If you raise healthy children (yay) they leave (boo).
You cant prepare for it it just happens and it hurts. My two favorite times every year are a week in the summer when we go to the beach and Christmas. I have all 3 under the same roof.
quote:
My son just left for basic training
Less than 1% of our society step in to the ring. 70% of 18 to 25 year old are not fit for military service so be proud of all that.
Write him a letter every other day. Getting mail in boot camp is without a doubt the highlight of some shitty days. Its been decades since boot camp but I still remember the feeling I got when I got a letter fom home.
1
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:33 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
Yep. 11 Bang Bang would have been fun.
As a 19 Killer myself, I always liked the 11 Bang Bangs and the 13 Foxes.
I didn’t envy those boys. Especially when the snow was knee deep and that heater in my tank was working.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:36 am to Lakeboy7
quote:
Less than 1% of our society step in to the ring.
I was the last in my family's history to serve, my niece and nephews did not.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:38 am to Darth_Vader
I didn't envy them either. Had a lot of respect for them, but didn't envy them.
We traveled in style. With extra cases of MREs strapped in tip of the blowout panels, and pogie bait stuffed in the sponson boxes and bustle rack.
Some tanks would be so strapped down with extra bullshite it looked like Sanford & Sons.
We traveled in style. With extra cases of MREs strapped in tip of the blowout panels, and pogie bait stuffed in the sponson boxes and bustle rack.
Some tanks would be so strapped down with extra bullshite it looked like Sanford & Sons.
This post was edited on 6/9/25 at 9:43 am
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:42 am to Darth_Vader
Yeah my son scored expert on the rifle (don’t recall the score). Graduation surprised me to find out they were a co-ed battalion during BMT.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:44 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
We traveled in style. With extra cases of MREs strapped in tip of the blowout panels, and pogie bait stuffed in the sponson boxes and bustle rack.
I remember we had a guy in my platoon named Gadison. He was as country as you could get. And not the sharpest tool in the shed. He misunderstood when he first found out about pogie bait. He thought we were saying “poultry bait”. And we never corrected him. As far as I know, he’s now an old guy back home telling his grandkids about how he’d always take a ruck sack of “poultry bait” to the field with him.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:48 am to Mid Iowa Tiger
quote:
Yeah my son scored expert on the rifle (don’t recall the score). Graduation surprised me to find out they were a co-ed battalion during BMT.
My son went through infantry school year before last, so 11B was open to females. But as far as I remember, I don’t recall seeing any females graduate with him.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:49 am to Darth_Vader
Haha. I had a crust platoon sergeant in the 90s that would take a bottle of nice whiskey, wrap it up and put it inside the breech of the main gun to go to every gunnery. He was a so scared of gunneries. Back then in 1st CAV, if you didn't score 800+ on Table 8, your career was not looking so good.
Mant tankers' careers were made or lost on that Blackwell Gap range at Ft Hood.
Mant tankers' careers were made or lost on that Blackwell Gap range at Ft Hood.
This post was edited on 6/9/25 at 9:52 am
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:52 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
Haha. I had a crust platoon sergeant in the 90s that would take a bottle of nice whiskey, wrap it up and put it inside the breech of the main gun to go to every gunnery. He was a so scared of gunneries. Back then in 1st CAV, if you didn't score 800+ on Table 8, your career was not looking so good.
My first TC was a Vietnam vet. He was our platoon sergeant. Normally he was the most cool cat you’d ever meet. But once we got to tank table 8, he’d be lighting one Winston off the last one and acting like he just drank a gallon of black coffee with extra sugar, which is probably close to the truth.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:54 am to Darth_Vader
My first Table 8 gunning, I was gunning for a cherry butter bar from West Point. He was too dumb to be nervous. I begged him to let me shoot the TC engagement. He said he had it. fricker shot 3 sabots and missed each time.
Cost me a 900.
Cost me a 900.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:56 am to Darth_Vader
I think I told this story, but my dad after a night of drinking showed up to muster and the DI dismissed everyone except the one the the red cowboy boots, my dad. 
He made him dig a 6x6 hole and threw a match stick in it and told my dad to burry it. When he reported back the DI asked him which way the head of the match was facing, my dad too a guess and said North, the DI told him to dig it up and find out. 
He made him dig a 6x6 hole and threw a match stick in it and told my dad to burry it. When he reported back the DI asked him which way the head of the match was facing, my dad too a guess and said North, the DI told him to dig it up and find out. Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:56 am to El Segundo Guy
The best is ever saw pulling triggers wasa dude from Guam named Estay. He was on the CAT team in the late 80s in Germany.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 9:57 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
My first Table 8 gunning, I was gunning for a cherry butter bar from West Point. He was too dumb to be nervous. I begged him to let me shoot the TC engagement. He said he had it. fricker shot 3 sabots and missed each time.
Cost me a 900.
That’s what butter bars are for.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:04 am to Darth_Vader
I think i had lost a few points for time on the 2 PCs and troops and then on the stationary tuurret exposed tank, moving tank and troops, I shot the mover first. Lost points for not engaging the deadliest target first.
I still remember every Table 8 I shot or TC'd. I also TCE (evaluated) a.lot of crews, so I knew the engagements like the back of my hand.
I still remember every Table 8 I shot or TC'd. I also TCE (evaluated) a.lot of crews, so I knew the engagements like the back of my hand.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:10 am to El Segundo Guy
I'd give a ridiculous amount of money to do another Table 8 run.
There's nothing quite like laying the coax boogey on troops targets.
There's nothing quite like laying the coax boogey on troops targets.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:13 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
I'd give a ridiculous amount of money to do another Table 8 run.
Same. Just one more time.
quote:
There's nothing quite like laying the coax boogey on troops targets.
My favorite was two sets of troop targets at the same time. Hose down both, then suppress between the two.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:15 am to Darth_Vader
Suppression. I remember that. Good times. At some point in the 90s, they stopped requiring suppression, and as long as you got target effect on the troops, you were good.
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:17 am to Tree_Fall
quote:
I may be very out of date, but when I was in you got 30 days a year of leave time. They gave you 2 weeks off after basic and then 2 weeks after AIT. So less than 6m in and all your leave for year 1 is gone. Monterrey must be language school. Go visit him rather than wait for him to build some leave time.
My wife got to go out and see him in April but I couldn’t go due to work. He wants to come home at some point so I told him to let me know by end of summer because I have time in September.
Yes, language school. He’s basically a college student right now that has little hair and has to wear tan and green. He said a couple of his instructors were guys that escaped North Korea and they had some crazy stories.
My wife’s little brother was an Army grunt in Iraq in the early 2000’s. He got blown up when their vehicle hit an explosive and came home injured for life with PTSD. He’s better off than most though that got hurt over there. He can walk, has his limbs and still has sight in one eye. I got him to talk to my boy before he joined up and told him to tell him exactly what he could be getting into. He still wanted to go so, I’m ok with it and proud of him.
What will be tough is I am pretty sure in a year or so he’ll be headed to South Korea for a while.
This post was edited on 6/9/25 at 10:25 am
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:20 am to El Segundo Guy
quote:
Suppression. I remember that. Good times. At some point in the 90s, they stopped requiring suppression, and as long as you got target effect on the troops, you were good.
Where’s the fun in that?
Posted on 6/9/25 at 10:22 am to Darth_Vader
Reminds me of when I was a SSG TCing a Table 5 or 6 run. New gunner.
It was an offensive engagements with troops. I was telling at the Gunner to re-lase, because the coax was overline. He laced and was off just a bit, but we were gaining ground on the troops, but he wasn't re-lazing to input a new range into the fire control system.
I corrected that. Told him you laze at the base of troops and start walking up in a z pattern. He did well on Table 8.
I used to tell guys all the time--"your ballistic solution's all fricked up."
It was an offensive engagements with troops. I was telling at the Gunner to re-lase, because the coax was overline. He laced and was off just a bit, but we were gaining ground on the troops, but he wasn't re-lazing to input a new range into the fire control system.
I corrected that. Told him you laze at the base of troops and start walking up in a z pattern. He did well on Table 8.
I used to tell guys all the time--"your ballistic solution's all fricked up."
This post was edited on 6/9/25 at 10:23 am
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