PhredLegg
Verified Military
Hi all. I am an Army veteran of roughly 30 years and I am joining Shadow Spear in hopes of connecting with some of my old comrades and maybe make some now ones. I'll try to keep this short, but 30 years is a long time to cover in an intro.
First of all, I'd like to list my interests. I have studied the martial arts for the last 25 years (I don't have any belts or certifications and like to keep it that way), so for you that want to discuss the merits of comabat styles, I have studied ShorinJi Kempo, Tae Kwon Do, Ishin-Ryu, KaJuKenBo, Escrima, Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Xing I and Choy Li Fut.
Now for the important stuff, my military bio (which I am very proud of).
Enlisted in the Army in 1976 under Delayed Entry and active duty in 1977. Units will be listed chronological with job stuff.
1977 - Delta 4/3 Blue Devils (Basic Combat Training), Ft. Leanard Wood, MO
1977 - Bravo 2/1 Bushmasters (Infantry AIT), Harmony Church, Ft. Benning, GA
Volunteered Airborne, refused for due to contract violation (this will be a recuring theme in my career).
1977 - Charlie 2/39 Inf. Rgmt (Falcon), 1st Brigade, 9th Inf Div, Ft. Lewis, WA
Rifleman/Grenadier/RTO/Asst. Dragon/Armorer (Can you tell I liked to do a lot diffent jobs?)
volunteered Ranger, refused for contract (Again!)
1979 - 21st Replacement Battalion, Frankfurt West Germany
Decided at this point that being a REMF wasn't all that bad.
1981 - Delta 2/1, "See a REMF, Be a REMF", Ft. Gordon, GA.
Technical Controller School, decided to switch to Signal here, did the Platoon Leader thing too (anybody with an infantry background got stuck with leadership, another recuring theme).
1981 - USACC, White Sands Missile Range, Assistant NCOIC and Signal Soldier. Got to watch all the neat stuff blow things up (this grunt likes to see things go boom).
1983 - NATO, AFSouth, Alt. War Headquarters, Southern Region Signal Support Regiment, Local Control Office-Naples, Technical Control Center. What a mouthful. Lots of sun, fun and pasta! Got stuck with the Asst. NCOIC thing again, somebody shoot me!
1987 - USACC, ISMA, Ft. Monmouth, more signal stuff and starting to get bored.
Volunteered for Airborne, received orders to Airborne School, start date my birthday. Refused by CO, said it was a waste of time, assigned as PTO NCO instead (Dammit).
Volunteered for SF, halfway through the process (mostly paperwork) then screwed again because......
1989 - Assigned by branch to Recruiting Command, deemed too valuable for SF and sent to Ft. Ben Harrison, IN, to Recruiter Course to help "replenish the force". Graduated top of my class (big mistake).
1989 - Assigned to my home state of California to recruit (now I have to pay state taxes, phooey). Assigned to Fresno Recruiting Company, helped enlist newbies to Ranger and Airborne programs and prior service to SF. volunteered every month for combat when Gulf War started, got slapped with an AR-15 instead and told to keep recruiting.
1991 - Got out of the active and into the reserve. Back to college.
1994 - Active reserve with 2nd Brigade, 91st Division, assigned as an 11B30 (Infantryman) to do the training NCO stuff, sucked of course. Qualified as an observer/controller to get out the office and work with the troops, much better.
2000 - Decided to switch to Counter Intel, assigned to Charlie, 368th MI Bn. in Phoenix, AZ. Assigned to two different CI Special Ops teams (Chief Warrants were all SF qualified, tells how these teams were run). Played Team Senior Sergeant for both teams, required to administer discipline (all the time, made for a sucky relationship with the troops sometimes). Occasionally stuck with the first sergeant job when the Top decided he needed to go on trip. Fun, Fun.
2001 - Recruited by the Information Warfare guys to join the Army's new Information Operations Command, assigned to Western Information Operations Center. Hackers! Was really fun, but hated the gag order that kept some of us from doing anything really damaging to our enemies overseas (on the network of course).
2003 - Deployed to Kuwait to support the war. Was assigned as a network engineer because they were in short supply. Supported the surge (some SF and IMEF) bringing in new network systems so people can call home. Best part of the whole deployment was qualifying expert on pistol and rifle (almost) and on the SAW (showing up the combat engineers at the range). Worst event in the deployment, having to ship my favorite headhunting knife home. Because. Best explaination why from the command. Because!.
2007 - Transferred to the Retired Ready Reserve, still ready to be called up if the Army and my Country needs me (NOT!).
Okay, that's my story, what's yours.
First of all, I'd like to list my interests. I have studied the martial arts for the last 25 years (I don't have any belts or certifications and like to keep it that way), so for you that want to discuss the merits of comabat styles, I have studied ShorinJi Kempo, Tae Kwon Do, Ishin-Ryu, KaJuKenBo, Escrima, Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Xing I and Choy Li Fut.
Now for the important stuff, my military bio (which I am very proud of).
Enlisted in the Army in 1976 under Delayed Entry and active duty in 1977. Units will be listed chronological with job stuff.
1977 - Delta 4/3 Blue Devils (Basic Combat Training), Ft. Leanard Wood, MO
1977 - Bravo 2/1 Bushmasters (Infantry AIT), Harmony Church, Ft. Benning, GA
Volunteered Airborne, refused for due to contract violation (this will be a recuring theme in my career).
1977 - Charlie 2/39 Inf. Rgmt (Falcon), 1st Brigade, 9th Inf Div, Ft. Lewis, WA
Rifleman/Grenadier/RTO/Asst. Dragon/Armorer (Can you tell I liked to do a lot diffent jobs?)
volunteered Ranger, refused for contract (Again!)
1979 - 21st Replacement Battalion, Frankfurt West Germany
Decided at this point that being a REMF wasn't all that bad.
1981 - Delta 2/1, "See a REMF, Be a REMF", Ft. Gordon, GA.
Technical Controller School, decided to switch to Signal here, did the Platoon Leader thing too (anybody with an infantry background got stuck with leadership, another recuring theme).
1981 - USACC, White Sands Missile Range, Assistant NCOIC and Signal Soldier. Got to watch all the neat stuff blow things up (this grunt likes to see things go boom).
1983 - NATO, AFSouth, Alt. War Headquarters, Southern Region Signal Support Regiment, Local Control Office-Naples, Technical Control Center. What a mouthful. Lots of sun, fun and pasta! Got stuck with the Asst. NCOIC thing again, somebody shoot me!
1987 - USACC, ISMA, Ft. Monmouth, more signal stuff and starting to get bored.
Volunteered for Airborne, received orders to Airborne School, start date my birthday. Refused by CO, said it was a waste of time, assigned as PTO NCO instead (Dammit).
Volunteered for SF, halfway through the process (mostly paperwork) then screwed again because......
1989 - Assigned by branch to Recruiting Command, deemed too valuable for SF and sent to Ft. Ben Harrison, IN, to Recruiter Course to help "replenish the force". Graduated top of my class (big mistake).
1989 - Assigned to my home state of California to recruit (now I have to pay state taxes, phooey). Assigned to Fresno Recruiting Company, helped enlist newbies to Ranger and Airborne programs and prior service to SF. volunteered every month for combat when Gulf War started, got slapped with an AR-15 instead and told to keep recruiting.
1991 - Got out of the active and into the reserve. Back to college.
1994 - Active reserve with 2nd Brigade, 91st Division, assigned as an 11B30 (Infantryman) to do the training NCO stuff, sucked of course. Qualified as an observer/controller to get out the office and work with the troops, much better.
2000 - Decided to switch to Counter Intel, assigned to Charlie, 368th MI Bn. in Phoenix, AZ. Assigned to two different CI Special Ops teams (Chief Warrants were all SF qualified, tells how these teams were run). Played Team Senior Sergeant for both teams, required to administer discipline (all the time, made for a sucky relationship with the troops sometimes). Occasionally stuck with the first sergeant job when the Top decided he needed to go on trip. Fun, Fun.
2001 - Recruited by the Information Warfare guys to join the Army's new Information Operations Command, assigned to Western Information Operations Center. Hackers! Was really fun, but hated the gag order that kept some of us from doing anything really damaging to our enemies overseas (on the network of course).
2003 - Deployed to Kuwait to support the war. Was assigned as a network engineer because they were in short supply. Supported the surge (some SF and IMEF) bringing in new network systems so people can call home. Best part of the whole deployment was qualifying expert on pistol and rifle (almost) and on the SAW (showing up the combat engineers at the range). Worst event in the deployment, having to ship my favorite headhunting knife home. Because. Best explaination why from the command. Because!.
2007 - Transferred to the Retired Ready Reserve, still ready to be called up if the Army and my Country needs me (NOT!).
Okay, that's my story, what's yours.
