I know a lot of you have been following all of this, and I want to ensure that when and if we DO post such a forum DEFINING thread happens, it says it right for every single one of us.

When once the several colonies of America formed a constitution - they consulted representatives of all the various colonies of what was to become America and held a CONGRESS of REPRESENTATIVES to decide what the fundamental charter of the united states was to be.

Strange as it may seem - this is a similar situation

How do we state who we are, what we are about, what we are here for, and soon - in a way that represents all of us?

Not just RETIRED vets who have all sorts of privileges, but also active duty and those who served - but not to retirement, and do so equally and fair handedly?

How do we represent all of us?

What are our FORUM RULES?

What is allowed, and what is not allowed?

When one day (soon maybe) we place a sticky thread at the top of this forum that reads: "READ FIRST"

What should it say?????


That is what this thread is about - we have to decide what that message should be, and it is up to us.


I AM NOT GOD!
Yeah, I have been here a long time, and served until I could decently retire, but that does not make me a genius by any means. I am not qualified to speak for all of us...
I'm not the Lone Ranger

WE (not just "I") need to hear from as many of "US" as possible, to decide what that message should be.

This will be our "CONSTITUTION" if you will...


So far we have:

VETNET IS:
The VETERANS NETWORK, or "VETNET" is a place for the vastly diverse VETERAN Community at FTE to meet and help one another

Our Mission:
The reason for such a group within FTE is because Veterans are different at a fundamental level. We take care of our own, recognise one another no matter where we are, and have a mutual respect for our people that goes right to the core.

In addition, some veterans have options and access to resources that the average citizen does not have, in addition to Veterans Administration resources.

In addition to the knowlege base at FTE, we have many skilled professions available (even free legal advice) that can be called upon at need. We are a group with a wealth of experience like few others - and these abilities we share as needed for those of us who need whatever we can offer in support.

We are the Brother and Sisterhood you joined when you took the oath at the MEP station.

TROLLS will not be tolerated at all - if you have a problem with military people, take it elsewhere. This forum and all the threads in it are moderated STRICTLY
We do not make policy - we simply serve our nation to the best of our abilities. It is an honorable profession

AT ALL TIMES maintain Operational Security - post nothing here that jeapordizes our troops! Classified is CLASSIFIED

 

Fixed the title for ya Dutch! This is exactly what I was hoping for. Everybody needs to put their input here in this thread and we can chose what we want to include in our Mission Statement and Forum Rules. Once we reach agreement on what we want to say, I can take those parts and form a new thread and sticky it at the top of the forum.


Post up guys and let's make this happen!

 

There should probably be the usual noise about abusive language (since it IS in the general forum kinda sorta) but I see few problems with adapting the general forum message to this one.

We can copy and paste, and roll on....

I DO strictly caution about mission sensitive and classified information here once again - but that is standard OPSEC doctrine. OPSEC needs to be a message line, I think, that we will need to include somewhere.

Ship and troop movements, deployments, and so on.


Be very clear about what should be said, and what should not

*FIXED IT! I added a line about that.

 

I wonder if a line should be added that says "and some of us have unique problems that are not encountered in ordinary professions"

?

That is very true...

You get thrown into traumatic experiences that no one else could reasonably be expected to confront...

What are the consequences? This is different from anyone living a normal life would experience.
To put it mildly - unless you grew up in an inner city environment like I did...

I like living out in the country now - the worst violence I have seen recently was when my border collie fought a pit bull that lived across the street from us.


I saw a video on YOUTUBE recently - about getting used to combat. It talked to the point that once you have been hit enough you can think instead of freezing in place. I think it was titled "You have to get punched in the mouth", and it was about becoming de-sensitized to initial combat, so that you think instead of being in shock.


My older brother did that to me - I hear a hit on my head for example, and look around to find who did it...
I don't feel it, I just sense it

A punk in a bar in downtown Memphis punched me blind-side a few years ago, and I turned around and stared at him. He claimed he thought I was someone else.
I think he wet his pants...

I think someone made a bet with the stupid sucker, and I should have waled on him. But I told him to go away, and he ran

I heard someone say: "anyone who can take a hit like that..."

And I picked up my beer and went back upstairs like business as usual....


Should I have gotten busted for tearing hell out of a young dumb *****?
It didn't seem worth it


Some of us are very different from normal people
What my psychotic older brother did to me was to CONDITION me to react far differently than someone else in a stressful situation - I see that now.
But I still think he was a rotten and sick individual, and that was the last thing on earth he intended. He was creating his own worst enemy.

I found the video I mentioned, it is here:



I never wanted to be a fighter. But that was all long before I joined up

The NAVY actually seemed like a peaceful existence after the way I grew up, it was the politics at some commands that ruined it for me.
Politics within an organization were a new kind of violence and evil with which I was totally unfamiliar. With the right paperwork and influence, someone else can be destroyed - I was unprepared for that on the USS Nimitz

But that ALL has nothing to do with this thread.

STIPULATED: Our experiences make us different from a normal person

A guy or girl that works at Taco Bell or ITT doesn't go through all this stuff.

 

One thing for sure, no one person here is better than the other. It does not matter if you did 3 years or 35 years, it shouldn't matter that you left as an E4 or an 06, what matters is we all did our part, we gave of our self for something bigger than ourselves for the greater good of our homeland. We must treat each other with respect, understand that opinions are just that and every person in this forum has the right to express their opinion, but they don't have the right to try and force their opinion on someone else.

Just my .02, thanks for starting this thread.

Bob

 

Have to agree that we might be a bit different. It's recognizable, too. I've noticed over the years that on large construction jobs (100-300 men) that within a few days all the vets are lunching in groups separate from the "others", and further in groups by branch of service. It might be weeks before that comes out in conversation but the grouping is immediate.
Still get asked by strangers "when were you in", 40 years later.

Mission and rules are beyond me; you seem to have it in hand.

 

Yes I have noticed that even overseas where I live. for a short period of time after I got out I worked for local companies that had nothing to do with the military.

Of course being a foreigner here in Japan, you make acquaintances with just about any other English speaking person you met, but the ones that you (I) seemed to stick with were guys who had served in the military. But most especially the Corps as we had shared similar experiences, hell a couple even served in the same battalion as me at the same time, I just did not meet them in person until well after I got out.

Ken

 

I know in some other chapters, there is a google maps location of all the chapter members, only accessible by using the link made for it. I think a tool like that would be a great way to know who is near you, and if they need help and don't know anyone else to turn to, there is somebody there to talk to them. I'm not saying to go as far as posting personal cell numbers, and address in open forum, but that's something you could choose to do, or not do.

Also, I think its on the right track. As it is a family website, language should be tuned down, even though it's not the way we would speak in person, or outside the forum.

OPSEC is the big one there too. A read first, and an OPSEC thread. Although we all know what OPSEC is, and have had god knows how many briefs on it.. If you hesitate to say it, you probably shouldn't.

I realize a lot of people here, mostly retired, got out, or some like myself are still on AD service, but in open thread, respect should be an automatic given, not just based on rank. We all raised our right hand, not to say a little cross service/MOS ribbing isn't fun, I know we all have those MOS in our respective branches that we talk crap on, but at the end of the day, we all got each others back, out on the town, or in a combat zone.

Another sticky could be a Professions, skills and services that you are good at, and could offer assistance in. A quick and easy way to ID somebody if they need that service, rather than searching through pages of threads, just a quick list that you can offer, and maybe a way to contact you off site.

And the military clique... I feel out of place back home on leave, because I can't talk about my lifestyle with my friends, because they don't understand. How to be trained to efficiently kill the enemy, and love doing it for your country. I usually end up drinking with the guys I can already pin-point as soldiers, and older vets when I go to a bar back home.

I guess as a statement, I was thinking about something along the lines of:
We are the brotherhood, the 1%, we served this country with distinction and honor, to protect the ones we love, and the people of this United States.

That's all I got for now. I have to go back to work!

 

When I worked on RV's for a while (and yeah, I could help out on those in the Mid-South region) the first place I was at there were four of us altogether who were vets, and the rest of the people there with few exceptions I came to the conclusion that they just could not be counted on for anything - and I do mean ANYTHING. Several of the non-veterans were downright sleazy in fact.

The other vets working at the place though, I always knew that if they had a responsibility to do something and get it done, or to oversee something, it was never left for somebody else to pick up a sorry mess that was left behind without even an explanation. They took care of it completely, or made damned sure whoever the ball was passed to had a complete passdown on it.

The non-veterans were like a bunch of children with no sense of responsibility at all. Several of them also had poor ethics, and one in fact I caught stealing a tow chain out of the back of my truck! You couldn't leave your toolbox open ever - because these scumbags would walk off with whatever they needed or wanted...

And people wonder why I really don't want to go back to work, even though I am barely making ends meet.

THAT'S WHY!!!

 

Its a shame to see it really!

I was raised on good work ethics though. Work hard, late, and make an honest paycheck. The Army didn't make me that way, but I think would have trust issues with non-vets when I get out. As it is, there are guys I've worked with in the past I wouldn't trust to do their own laundry, let along put it in a laundry bag. I don't even trust people to pump my fuel if I happen to be in a self serve pump.

It's not that I haven't trusted people in the past, but even when parking in the BN, everything is locked up. Why risk the chance that a blue falcon in another company won't try to take the chains or the tools from my bed box.

One thing the Army has taught me though, if it can move, tie it down, if it comes untied down, make sure it's marked. Uniforms, clothes, hard drives, laptop, tool sets, anything of value I own, has my name in some color of permanent marker etched into it somewhere, in a not so readily visible place.

 

I think we know who we are