I know what you mean. I enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1988 to help pay for college. I planned to become an officer after I finished school. By the end of my enlistment, I was sort of tired of the military and there was all the talk about a "Peace Dividend" after the end of the Cold War, so I went a different direction. It's a little tough watching some of my friends retire as Navy or Coast Guard captains or commanders. It makes me wish I had followed through.Buck Turgidson said:Well I never was on active duty or deployed during a war. I was a reservist at the end of the cold war, so it was a narrow window without a war for the US to fight. So, I feel like Vietnam & Desert Storm Marines are more genuine Marines than me in a way. Still view my brief time in the USMCR as a key life experience.Eliminatus said:
Can be lighthearted or not of course.
I didn't realize mine until I had gotten out. I was a Marine and I never once wore dress blues. I never even owned a set. Nor did I ever once attend a Marine Corps Ball.
For some reason that bothers me now. Like I wasn't a real Marine or something without those.
Y'all?
What is a point of shame from your service?
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Last: 2 yr ago by CenterHillAg
Same here. My wife sort of looks at me funny when I tell people in a disappointed tone that I almost deployed in 2012 but my detach lt. screwed up our paperwork to go supposedly. Wish I had gone so I could have been part of the fight, but life had other plans.aggiejim70 said:
Shame is not the right word, but it does play on my mind that my grandfather, my class of '50 dad, my son, and several uncles and cousins all went to war for this country, and I spent two long lonely years keeping Oklahoma safe for democracy.
I dont have many regrets, but my biggest regret is probably going reserve instead of the guard for my SMP program at A&M. I wanted to do infantry and ended up as an 88N, which many think is a made-up MOS it is so obscure and niche. I got my ASVAB back and the recruiter at MEPS in Houston told me that I can have my pick of any job in the Army. I pointed to the Airborn Ranger poster behind the guy and said "spit out whatever job number gets me doing that." 11B
The guy backtracked and informed me that as a reservist and as a 19-year-old in school I cannot sign up for combat arms at this time. I went 15R and reclassed to 88N once they realized my contract in the Corps wouldn't let me go to Basic/AIT for 6 months to learn to be an Apache mechanic.
The recruiting process in the military (even on campus at A&M) is fubar.
In response to those who for some reason value their service less due to circumstances beyond your control, I think you're looking at this wrong. If you served honorably, then your status as a veteran is as good as any one else's. Take my case: served mostly during the Cold War era, made numerous contingency deployments which saw no combat, went on one real world operation to Haiti in 1994, and retired in 1995. I had no control over which battalions I was assigned to, or if those battalions saw combat. I did my job and trained my Marines to the best of my abilities, and I'm confident we're would have acquitted ourselves well if we had had the opportunity. I don't feel any less of a Marine because I served during a time in which there were less combat experiences. I have zero regrets for my service, and you shouldn't either.
I had a real similar experience in the guard. Enlisted as an 09S and planned to go to accelerated OCS and hopefully flight school after basic. Got to my unit and nobody knew how to get our paperwork together to send myself and a couple others to OCS, and told me to hang out with the 13F guys in the meantime. Ended up loving that MOS and started working towards going that route and put in a warrant officer packet when I hit E5. Showed up to drill one weekend and halfway through the 09S's were sent to admin and told we were honorably discharged because they had waited too long to send us to OCS, but we were welcome to come back in Monday and re-enlist. I was so disgusted I walked away and never looked back. Bothered me for a while that I never deployed, but it is what it is.