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THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY

Alexcabbie

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Jul 21, 2008
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Alexandria, Virginia, United States
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I noticed we have a poster who is writing from Mosul, and I am sure we have other current service members with us.

If you are currently in the Military or have recently served in the present war, post a bit about your service if you can and/or will.

If you would like to thank these fellow OCDO members then ditto leave a posting for them.

And all of you servicemen and women; no matter if you are or have been in the combat zone; but especially if you have been wounded; for all of you who serve our country with honor and with bravery; for your many sacrifices from disruption of your family life to the Ultimate Sacrifice; I offer my (wholly inadequate but nonetheless sincere and deeply heartfelt) THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE; and I do think I speak for all of us when I do. This is not said enough in this forum or for that matter anywhere else, so here's a thread dedicated to saying it.
 

Decoligny

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Nov 29, 2007
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Rosamond, California, USA
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Alexcabbie wrote:
I noticed we have a poster who is writing from Mosul, and I am sure we have other current service members with us.

If you are currently in the Military or have recently served in the present war, post a bit about your service if you can and/or will.

If you would like to thank these fellow OCDO members then ditto leave a posting for them.

And all of you servicemen and women; no matter if you are or have been in the combat zone; but especially if you have been wounded; for all of you who serve our country with honor and with bravery; for your many sacrifices from disruption of your family life to the Ultimate Sacrifice; I offer my (wholly inadequate but nonetheless sincere and deeply heartfelt) THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE; and I do think I speak for all of us when I do. This is not said enough in this forum or for that matter anywhere else, so here's a thread dedicated to saying it.

Retired Air Force (20 years) as of 2002. Currently working as a Civilian sitting in the same chair that I occupied asActive Duty Military.

I was overseas during Desrt Shield, currently have several co-worker friends who are deployed in various parts of the sandbox.

We are having our Squadron Christmas Party on Friday, and we have two of our Squadron members from WWII that will be attending. One was with our Squadron at Pearl Harbor. They will be our special guests of honor.

Whether it be this current War, Vietnam, Korea,WWII, or any operation without a name, we need to remember the sacrifices of all of our brothers in arms who sacrificed thier time, thier bodies, and sometimes thier lives, for thier country and their flag.

salute_500x406.jpg
 

1000ydshooter

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Jul 25, 2008
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173
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Formerly Kwajalein atoll, and Iraq. Now Zuni Va
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Former Marine here that served during The first gulf war. Now on my 3rd year here in Iraq working as a civilian contract fire fighter in support of the military ,since 2005.This will be my last time here,as i am getting to old and my kids are growing up without me.Ill be home in Hampton Roads, Va in Oct of 09.

"Freedom isnt free,but the United States Marines are more than willing to pay your fair share"
 

Dustin

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May 28, 2008
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Lake Charles Area, Louisiana, USA
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Sgt. Ducote, Dustin, L.

United States Marine Corps

M.O.S. 0351/0331 Infantry Assaultman/Machinegunner

O.E.F. Combat Vet.

O.I.F. Combat Vet.

My Time in Afghanistan was 9 months, we got extended b/c Geraldo Rivera said he didn't know why would leave, b/c we were doing such a good job. Thanks Geraldo !

My Iraq deployment was much different. I was in the Invasion of Fallujah in the Winter of 04'. Operation Phantom Fury. Considered the bloodiest battle in the Iraqi War. I lost 6 really close friends, and about 40 other fellow Marines. It's something I won't soon forget.



"Out of the thousands of rounds a day that fly by, it Only takes one, to make it a bad day." - Me

"Only the Dead see the end of War" - Plato

Believe it or not, during my two deployments, there wasn't many Marines that really had a clue of why we were really there, including myself. We just did what we trained to do. Nothing less. I didn't know crap about politics or Bush or anything to do with whay we were there. it was just day to day, kick door operations, night raids, I'm alive let me sleep for 2 hours and do it again for 8 to 9 months. Only when I got out did I start to learn about the politics of the war.

Regardless, I can tell you that the Main Stream media, GROSSLY destroys the credibility of the Military, and they NEVER show the positive side of what the Military is REALLY doing.

After the initial invasion when they started letting civilians back in, Soldiers and Marines alike were building schools, house's, giving money back to the people for blowing up their city. Medical care, Dental stations, Stores were being set up again and the people of Fallujah were given their FREEDOM back to be able to live without fear of some Extremeist cutting their hands off for some stupid reason.

(If you guys re-call the Marine who shot the Un-Armed Civilian, who was lying on the ground, begging for his life.)

Well the REAL Story is thathours earlier, that guy was an ARMED INSURGENT, who just got finished ATTACKING US Forces with RPG's and AK's AND was taking refuge in a MOSQUE !! ALSO TWICE that week INSURGENTS were playing dead with grenades and/or I.E.D.'s underneath them. When Marines would walk over the supposed dead bodies, the Insurgents would set off the bomb. This is why Marines and Soldiers ALL OVER Iraq were double tapping all bodies of insurgents. To make DAMN SURE that they were dead, and if they did have explosives underneath them, they were going to take the brunt of the blasts. We LEARN from our mistakes in Vietnam and WWII. The Japanese were famous for playing dead and then pulling the "Hello handgrenade" from their ass. Not going to happen this time. This guy opened his eye, looked at the Marine, then closed them. BANG ! No Sleepy Games here. Thiswas during that heaviest fighting for Fallujah, and if you've ever seen the video, you can see where he didn't shoot the guy who was right next to him, b;/c that guy wasn't acting like he was sleeping. He was begging for his life, and the Coprsman later fixed him. It's called WAR, and far worse things have happen in other wars, than this one. I DON'T condone any of them. Unless your there, in those boots, with the same sweat, blood and tears running threw your viens, than DON'T JUDGE !

The Geneva Convention is NO DIFFERENT than Gun Control ! The only one's who obey it, are the Good Guys.

Burn'em All !

Semper Fi !
 

nitrovic

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Mar 8, 2008
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Alexcabbie wrote:
I noticed we have a poster who is writing from Mosul, and I am sure we have other current service members with us.  

If you are currently in the Military or have recently served in the present war,  post a bit about your service if you can and/or will.

If you would like to thank these fellow OCDO members then ditto leave a posting for them.

And all of you servicemen and women; no matter if you are or have been in the combat zone; but especially if you have been wounded; for all of you who serve our country with honor and with bravery; for your many sacrifices from disruption of your family life to the Ultimate Sacrifice;  I  offer my (wholly inadequate but nonetheless sincere and deeply heartfelt) THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE; and I do think I speak for all of us when I do.   This is not said enough in this forum or for that matter anywhere else, so here's a thread dedicated to saying it.

Awesome thread Alex. I served in Albania in the late 90's in Security Forces. Clinton was our "boss", so we sat there while the planes did most of the work. I respect you guys who are out dealing with all the new threats the military has to face now. God bless you all.
 

nitrovic

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1000ydshooter wrote:
Former Marine here that served during The first gulf war. Now on my 3rd year here in Iraq working as a civilian contract fire fighter in support of the military ,since 2005.This will be my last time here,as i am getting to old and my kids are growing up without me.Ill be home in Hampton Roads, Va in Oct of 09.

"Freedom isnt free,but the United States Marines are more than willing to pay your fair share"

 

If you don't mind answering, how is the work doing the contract stuff? I was just offered a position in that part of the world doing training with a big company. It was a 120k offer with some nice perks. I hate to leave the family, but 100k tax free is hard to turn down.
 

1000ydshooter

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Formerly Kwajalein atoll, and Iraq. Now Zuni Va
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NitroVic. The contract work isnt to bad it mostly depends on which company you will be working for.You would be doing somthing completely different from what im doing.Each would have its own hazards and rewards.I do a 1 year contract with R&R every 120 days.Im not 100% tax free just 80%.In the end I will clear little over 100k for a year, but thats working 7 days a week 16 hrs or more a day.I do the standard fire fighting duties,as well as help train local Iraqi fire fighters. You will get out of it what you put into it.This is my 3rd contract and my last(but i said that back in 06 when I finished my first). the way the job market is in the states right now this isnt a bad gig, as long as they dont lob too many mortors and rockets our way.
 

Dustin

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nitrovic wrote:
If you don't mind answering, how is the work doing the contract stuff? I was just offered a position in that part of the world doing training with a big company. It was a 120k offer with some nice perks. I hate to leave the family, but 100k tax free is hard to turn down.
I was offered 16.5k a month to do 3, 9 month deployments with 6 months apart for Blackwater.

Before the Former LT. Colonel finishedhis offerI said NO. Two of my buddies said yes. They were both young and single.

I had a wife and kid on the way and just finished two back to back deployments with 3 months in between.

And like I said above, it only takes one bullet my friend. One Bullet to ruin your families life.

Over what ? Money ? I can do without that kind of money. There's plenty of ways to make money.

I personaly DO NOT reccomend ANYONE to join the service, OR go Gov. Contract UNLESS they are YOUNG or SINGLE. That's just my opinion.

Of course working in a chow hall might not be near as bad.
 

Dustin

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Lake Charles Area, Louisiana, USA
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SFCRetired wrote:
To all my brothers and sisters in arms and especially to those who have so recently served: Thank you.

My service was almost all Cold War and spanned from the erection of the Berlin Wall until shortly after it was demolished.

I do think that, when I retired, I passed the duty on to some very capable hands.


I'm in complete humility to even be in your presence.
 

DocV

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Active Duty Navy. Been all around the world, most recently the Gulf and Horn of Africa

18.5 years of having the honor of caring for the finest men and women our country has to offer. Thank you all.

DocV
 

1000ydshooter

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Jul 25, 2008
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173
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Formerly Kwajalein atoll, and Iraq. Now Zuni Va
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Dustin wrote:
nitrovic wrote:
If you don't mind answering, how is the work doing the contract stuff? I was just offered a position in that part of the world doing training with a big company. It was a 120k offer with some nice perks. I hate to leave the family, but 100k tax free is hard to turn down.
I was offered 16.5k a month to do 3, 9 month deployments with 6 months apart for Blackwater.

Before the Former LT. Colonel finishedhis offerI said NO. Two of my buddies said yes. They were both young and single.

I had a wife and kid on the way and just finished two back to back deployments with 3 months in between.

And like I said above, it only takes one bullet my friend. One Bullet to ruin your families life.

Over what ? Money ? I can do without that kind of money. There's plenty of ways to make money.

I personaly DO NOT reccomend ANYONE to join the service, OR go Gov. Contract UNLESS they are YOUNG or SINGLE. That's just my opinion.

Of course working in a chow hall might not be near as bad.
the contract work isnt to bad.Most of the guys over here doing what i do are married and have kids (like myself married 14 yrs and 2 kids).The money helps pay off old debts and put money away for college,with a little to spare.I to turned down blackwater to ba a medic for them.they do to much cowboy stuff. As far as the "it only takes one bullet" I got shot at more working on the eastend of Newport News as a fire fighter. Here they just use bigger stuff. Most of the jobs like DEFAC Are subcontracted out to companies from other countries,so there are very few americans working in those places.
 

TheMrMitch

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Jun 9, 2008
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Hodgenville, Kentucky, USA
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I salute our warriors on watch now.

USMC Military Police 1959/1963......USS Spiegle Grove LSD 32 during the Cuban Conflict of 1962. Kind of an old timer here.:dude:
 

Gunslinger

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Mar 6, 2008
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Free, Colorado, USA
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SFCRetired wrote:
Gunslinger wrote:
Former USAF, Vietnam Vet, WSO in F-4s. Work for the Air Force again, but they won't let me play with fighters anymore...:X

Sounds like you and General Yeager have something in common, although I understand he stepped down from the high-performance cockpit willingly.

Me, I had too much fun with the HAWK missile system to want to fly. Those things were flat-out awesome.



To Dustin: Don't be in awe of me. I'm totally in awe of folks like Gunslinger and others here who have, in Civil War terms, "seen the elephant."

We took the slogan for our VN days, but it applies to all who are or have served honorably: All gave some; some gave all.

Let's hope we never forget it.
 

MetalChris

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Jul 26, 2007
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SW Ohio
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I've been Active Duty Air Force (3C) since April of 2000 and plan on bein a lifer. I deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Southern Watch two weeks after the '01 attacks, and spent 3 years in England.
 

Pol Mordreth

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Joined
Jun 27, 2008
Messages
153
Location
Smyrna, Tennessee, USA
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US Navy, 1995 - 2002, Reactor Mechanic on a ballistic missile submarine.

I have the utmost respect and admiration for all the ground pounders and leathernecks doing the dirty work while we watched your backs from the comfort of the 'sinking hilton'.



Respectfully,

Pol
 
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