MILITARY LIFE and contact thread (NO TROLLS! None at all)

[medhvac]

Well guess who`s home for two weeks! Been busy around here,hope to get some pics from brett before he leaves again!

[bigredtruckmi]

Hope you had a KEG ready when he arrived home.

Say HI from all of us from FTE (wishing he could stay stateside)

[Greywolf]

MAN!

I hope he gets to see everything he missed, has a chance to decide what's different and what isn't, still has all his old school friends, and doesn't get in trouble....

I hope he takes lots of pictures back with him too.

For we change every day, learn more and see more. Going to different places and seeing and doing different things alters the way we think and what we once believed was possible, so that familiar places seem to blur and at times don't feel familiar anymore at all. We have to look at them again, and come to realise that we see them in a different way. That something has changed - our perspective is not what it was before.

The people we left behind?

Some took a similar trip before and we suddenly find that for once we understand people who used to seem strange. And a lot of our old buddies never changed - and seem oddly shallow or inexperienced in ways we just can't help them with....

A bunch of them we find we just can't explain anything to - their preconcieved ideas are comfortable and telling them about bootcamp or schools or deployments just makes their eyes go out of focus, because they can't imagine what we have seen. They don't have a similar experience that they can relate our own experiences to, and so they seem seperated or alienated in some ways.

You can't revisit or indulge in the "Good old times" either, because some of them are (if not illegal) seriously bad for a military guy to get caught up in...

Career busters, in fact. Go kick the town bullies butt once and for all - you have the means and the skills now. But if you get caught doing, it's off to the stockade for you.

PARTY! You've got lots of cash...
But the town police know it, and you're a prime cash cow for local government funding YOUR FINES will be paid...

This is one of the strange experiences that many young military people make - returning home very different than when they left, and not realising how different until they come home.

Very strange. Very true.

Better than when leaving home, confident, focused, secure in a future that wasn't there before. That change is no more evident than on the first leave after being away a long time. It is a path that diverges so far from our buds of the same age so quickly that we will never know how "JOE" or "BOBBY" that never went in became who they did later on. We can't know - because we went somewhere else and missed all of that part.

"What happened to 'X'?"
"He's a junior manager at a car lot."
"NO WAY! He's as crooked as they come! Ripped me off for my lunch money in grade school! Why that SLY S.O.B...."
"BINGO - any questions? Don't get a car there..."

[mongo75]

First off, welcome home!! Hope he has a blast while on leave.

Secondly, wolf, once agin brother you hit the nail on the head! It is definitely a difference when a oung man comes back home after being away for a while. You come home to the same folks doing the same things, but you never fit in again because of all the things you've done that they will never have the experience of doing..... just one of the many prices you have to pay for serving your country....

[Greywolf]

Yeah, but you come back someday.

Not the same, is it?

You understand a lot more, and the guys you knew are just not the same. They seem stupid somehow, just for being like they always were.
And it isn't their fault, because they never knew what you saw.


Life in the "Good Ole USA" is not the same as "OVER THERE"

and no matter how you try you cant explain it....

I always believed in the place I just left. Good Lady, and fast cars. I messed it up when I married. Tennessee girl - what a bad choice!

[hoosierbaby64]

When my daughter Heather turned 17 I told her it was time to gain some job experience and get a job. She came home with the National Guard recruiter. (NC army) Now I was thinking taco bell or Target after school) She said she wanted to follow in her dads footsteps (30 yrs army) so I signed. She spent summer of her Junior year at basic and then summer after she graduated at AIT. She just turned 20 on Oct 10th marking three years in Natl. Guard. She will leave soon for Iraq and tho my heart aches knowing she will be there I know she will do her job (convoy fuel truckdriver) well. She will take her love for the Lord with her and will share it with others. I know there is a chance she will not come home and will never be able to fully prepare for that I know she is doing what she loves.
I am the daughter of a 25 year Navy veteran who ultimately died from an illness he recieved while on the USS Walke. I have lived the army life as the spouse of a CSM. So military life is nothing new to me.
I thank all those who have served and are serving now. I pray daily that those who will share the sands of Iraq with my daughter will watch her back and she will do the same and they will all just come home safe.
Send a care package, a card or just an email its the least we can do. Above all PRAY! (I know no religious stuff in here but I feel in my heart this shouldnt be included in that policy)

[alchymist]

Ya know what tho....I just retired after 47 years of workin for a living, and I have worked with a lot of people and have a few close friends. And the bottom line is.......I'd rather work with ex military people any day. And almost every one of my closest friends are ex military of one branch or another.

[medhvac]

WOW what can i say thanks all!we had a great time while he was here!yes he spent alot of time away from home when he was here!go figure!I did manage to get some pics from him,he has lots of videos,and he didnt talk much about it!hes now back in mosul Irag!havent herd from him in days!

[medhvac]

Hoosierbaby64 welcome to the thread!Thank your daughter for us!And who knows they may all be home soon!

[F350-6]

You know how it is at that age Greg. Parents are taken for granted as always having been there, and always will be there. Free time was for hanging out with friends and having a good time, not hanging out with mom & dad.

I'm sure you'll hear from him once he gets settled back in. Then you can share some more pics with us.

[medhvac]

some pic id like to share!

[medhvac]

i here ya chris!lol

[Gashead]

It's Remembrance Day in the UK tomorrow. That's why my avatar is a poppy. Do you guys have such a thing on Vets day? We buy poppies and the money goes to the British Legion to support soldiers families, the poppy of course being a symbol of the Western Front in WW1.

[bigredtruckmi]

Gashead , glad to see you was on the thread I started "veterans day" in general conversation area.

[F350-6]

Happy Birthday to some of you (us). The rest of you can wait until tomorrow for a special day.