Military Service

Wrath · Nov 3, 2018

Big Phoenix said:
Man why do people do that. When I was at Al Asad waiting to go up to the Syrian/Turkish border I heard some guy blow his brains out in the middle of the night.

Just finished my psych rotation at a VA hospital. The stories I heard from some of the vets about combat, I'm not surprised anymore why the suicide rate is so high. Once when you guys are state side, we do a real shitty job of helping you return to civilian life, at least what I saw during my rotation. Thanks for all your services as well <3

Big Phoenix · Nov 3, 2018

Lejina said:
Man initial of 4 years... My initial contract was 9 years and I already had a degree.

Things are a bit different overhere. Most tech and officer occupations take like 3 years to complete qualifications (infantry, cooks, supply and the likes are a lill more than a year). Things are ran with the expectation people will do their full 25. Folks leaving after only 4 years basically held a spot in the training system for most of their time in and requested a release within their first year at a real unit.

Thats basically the exact opposite of the US military. Most people active duty start off on 4 year contracts with a few on 5 or 6 if their initial training is long.

Wrath said:
Just finished my psych rotation at a VA hospital. The stories I heard from some of the vets about combat, I'm not surprised anymore why the suicide rate is so high. Once when you guys are state side, we do a real shitty job of helping you return to civilian life, at least what I saw during my rotation. Thanks for all your services as well <3

As someone who spent a year in Iraq, I just dont get it.

I was pretty lucky that even with 300 or so trips outside the wire I never once had to fire my rifle at anyone, and no one tried to kill me. Even with that there where quite a few times we heard ieds going off in the distance and then the very next day had the drive by the fresh crater and wreckage. We got a flat tire once and had to change it in the exact same area where a month before a soldier was shot and killed. I even remember the 9 line going over the radio and medivac flying over heard when that happened as we where out on a mission.

In all the years since I have never had a single bad dream about my time in Iraq nor come close to having any of those same feelings as I did when I was a gunner in a humvee driving by a freshly detonated ied. The person I heard commit suicide, I have no idea what they had been through but it certainly didnt do it over their current deployment. The unit the guy was with had just gotten into Iraq a week or two before as they where the replacement for the unit my own was attached to so the guy had been done nothing so far but chill at Al Asad.

I think part of the problem is people love to handwave away shit behavior with their military service or time in country. Ive seen first hand people who never endured any hardships from being in Iraq claim the reason why they committed domestic violence is because of PTSD from deployment. Very few people saw their buddy get turned into red mist by an ied or had to kill. Theres a reason why in the Marines at least combat actions ribbons where so coveted, because saw few people so actual combat.

B_Mizzle · Nov 3, 2018

Muurloen said:
Sept 2000 to Sept 2004 I was on the USS ALASKA SSBN-732 (gold). When I reported onboard, she was in the middle of being overhauled from a c4 trident to a d5 trident boat. I road with the Ohio blue crew to get my fish in early 2001.

What about you?

Close, 2006-2009 Ohio Gold, after it was converted to SSGN. I loved it in Bangor. STS as well, got to E5 and just couldn't see myself being a chief and in charge of the division so I just got out and went to college.

Wrath · Nov 3, 2018

Big Phoenix said:
I think part of the problem is people love to handwave away shit behavior with their military service or time in country. Ive seen first hand people who never endured any hardships from being in Iraq claim the reason why they committed domestic violence is because of PTSD from deployment. Very few people saw their buddy get turned into red mist by an ied or had to kill. Theres a reason why in the Marines at least combat actions ribbons where so coveted, because saw few people so actual combat.

Oh yeah, there was actually a few vets just trying to get diagnoses so they could have service connections. That way they didn't have to work and would get income for their disabilities, even though they didn't really fit criteria for any combat related diagnoses. And then also quite a few vets that have personality disorders way before their military careers, but now blame the military for their problems. I was more just talking about the vets that did see combat and endured through some pretty terrible situations. Like seeing friends killed in front of them, multiple IED explosions, school of children decapitated, training Iraqi soldiers that turned on them in the middle of the night, etc. These vets were the saddest to see because you could tell they were struggling and the VA's attempt at help was 1 therapy appointment a month and a psych appointment every 6 months because providers are limited and busy.

Ossoi · Nov 3, 2018

Ossoi said:
One of my most vivid WOW memories was during an Onyxia raid. The warrior tanking her was basically trailer trash....went afk halfway through, came back in tears to say his girlfriend just left with their baby then carried on tanking

He went on to join the US military where he flew drones, lol

Fucking wow classic nostalgia got me on the wayback machine and I just found this old news post on the TR site from the tank in question

"Once again The Regulators prove that "This shits REAL SON". Our latest adventures have taken us out of the video games and straight into the heart of the terrorist hell that is "IRAQ". The Regulators have long time members scattered throughout the US military forces and today we bring you a special front line report in Baghdad from our man in the field PFC Razer.

"Ok so from 27MAR08 - 11APR08 I had 41 rockets land within 400meters of me. Im not going to get to shoot anyone. My current job is working with milatary intelgence. I get to operate the UAVs once in awhile and I get to make the next to final call for airstrikes, artilary, and ground forces. Im still on the tank once and awhile. I got some pics Ill post.I have called up a couple AWT (Air Weapon Team) that have sent Apaches and got to see some Iraqs take hell fire in the back. Shit is no joke out here but I make it one. I always whistle like there is incoming and get yelled at. O I had a Lob Bomb (Rocket with a wielding tank full of gas and ball bearings) land next to me. Got shrapnal out from a tire about 4 inches from my head. They arent very acurate but 300 ball bearings flying around dont have to be. Ossoi its cool Im bigger than Jesues(Get yelled at all the time for saying that.Guess some people arent imortal like me) I can combat rez myself."

TR is ranked #1 in Iraq and Razer is the #1 PFC in the army currently.

"

Agraza · Nov 3, 2018

Big Phoenix said:
As someone who spent a year in Iraq, I just dont get it.

Marine buddy of mine did two tours in Iraq and he had a similar perspective on people losing their shit. He even has some fucked up stories he doesn't tell much. One about having to shoot a driver of a car that wouldn't stop, not being allowed to ever approach the car, and then never getting answers from the investigation. Makes you wonder what you did. But he claims no disability, no mental trauma, and he has quite a few other questionable incidents he was a part of. He told me that a lot of the guys exiting the military fucked up entered that way and used the military as an excuse to misbehave. Met a survivor of the McCain collision who was outright calling people babies.

I think this shit is real, but I don't know how many people it really affects. The financial incentive to have been affected by it masks the real numbers. I don't think mental resilience is something the military wants to be aware of early on. They are probably of the opinion that they can train you to possess more of it over time.

Sumdain x · Nov 3, 2018

Janx said:
Buddy of mine that was in the Navy posted this on FB then told me the story of how accurate this type of shit is.

100% accurate at most Navy commands. I've spent most of my time supporting specwar so that community is different.

I'm quad warfare qualed and represented a fairly large three letter agency at several meetings where I was a primary presenter (requested by name to be a presenter). Missed a promotion with a bad eval to the generals driver (same rate, same pay grade) but he drove the general around.

a_skeleton_03 · Nov 3, 2018

I think that I have had just close to a dozen of my guys from various years kill themselves after they got out of the military. Those are just the ones I know of and I don’t keep track of very many at all.

Pollo · Nov 3, 2018

22 years US Army. 10 years as 13C/D then went to the sham side as a Warrant 131A. Got medically retired in 2016 cuz my blood decided to develop a clotting disorder after coming back from deployment number 3 (total 42 months between Iraq and Afghanistan). Now I’m contractor scum...well paid contractor scum that is.

Dandai · Nov 4, 2018

TJT said:
US Army 2005-2010, 82nd Airborne. Hooah! 2 years in Iraq, DLI Arabic graduate, interrogation specialist...

Okay I've expended my gung ho allotment for the year. Not even Veteran's day yet! Shit. I should at least get my free Steak and Shake.

I was in 1-504 from 2004-2006. Lucked out and only spent about four months in Iraq.

Sebudai · Nov 4, 2018

Was Jerle military or am I mixing him/her up with some other guy who applied to my guild and then killed him/herself?

SeanDoe1z1 · Nov 4, 2018

Wrath said:
Oh yeah, there was actually a few vets just trying to get diagnoses so they could have service connections. That way they didn't have to work and would get income for their disabilities, even though they didn't really fit criteria for any combat related diagnoses. And then also quite a few vets that have personality disorders way before their military careers, but now blame the military for their problems. I was more just talking about the vets that did see combat and endured through some pretty terrible situations. Like seeing friends killed in front of them, multiple IED explosions, school of children decapitated, training Iraqi soldiers that turned on them in the middle of the night, etc. These vets were the saddest to see because you could tell they were struggling and the VA's attempt at help was 1 therapy appointment a month and a psych appointment every 6 months because providers are limited and busy.

Just a depressing atmosphere for a lot of people. Lot of one person, two person jobs out there where you're really isolated. Really sane person and I had to really find time to stay mentally fit on some FOBs. The really depressing ones are people that get sucked into sensor operator billets (honestly forget exactly the slot, comm troops could fill it) that are severely under qualified to handle that type of job. Seen two people off themselves almost immediately ETSing and even being pretty vocal about needing help. Others just manics personalities to begin with I think.

Give a 18-19 year old a loaded weapon and put him halfway across the world where they may be struggling with what they think was the worst decision of their life already and you're gonna see those randoms blow their brains out.

I got out because of the hush hush bullshit when calling out criminal activity. There is a big difference between going out for some foreign tang and wholly endorsing sex trafficking, underage at that. Every 04+ or SNOC's balls will go so far up their throat the second someone important tells them to cover it up. Seeing good people let bad things happen turned me into a cynic real fast.

a_skeleton_03 · Nov 4, 2018

Sebudai said:
Was Jerle military or am I mixing him/her up with some other guy who applied to my guild and then killed him/herself?

He was most definitely not.

a_skeleton_02 · Nov 4, 2018

Military Service is something I regret not doing, My father and my Grandfather both served and both of them stressed on me NOT to join the military. I'd probably be in better shape at least.

Chanur · Nov 4, 2018

a_skeleton_03 said:
I think that I have had just close to a dozen of my guys from various years kill themselves after they got out of the military. Those are just the ones I know of and I don’t keep track of very many at all.

That's awful. I'm sorry.

Gravel · Nov 4, 2018

Big Phoenix said:
In all the years since I have never had a single bad dream about my time in Iraq nor come close to having any of those same feelings as I did when I was a gunner in a humvee driving by a freshly detonated ied. The person I heard commit suicide, I have no idea what they had been through but it certainly didnt do it over their current deployment. The unit the guy was with had just gotten into Iraq a week or two before as they where the replacement for the unit my own was attached to so the guy had been done nothing so far but chill at Al Asad.

3 deployments and really only after the first one (2004) did I have something that I'd mildly call PTSD. I'd basically get anxiety driving around anytime I saw a piece of trash on the road and loud noises made me jumpy. But after a couple months it faded. Deployments 2 (2005-2006) and 3 (2006-2007) I didn't have any issues. I'd say the 2004 problems were mostly because those weeks around April 2004 were just a fucking nightmare. That's when the Mahdi Militia spun up and Fallujah happened.

Anyway, I was a support guy for one of the battalions in 5th Group for my entire time (seems like support guys were able to spend an inordinate amount of time there; some guys doing over a decade in the same Group), 2002-2008. Was a good time in retrospect and something pretty much no one else gets to do. I got to do all the "cool guy shit" without having to actually go through the Q course.

Got out, got a finance degree, and about a year from graduating kind of started missing the military. I didn't want to go back in the Army and the Marines are just an automatic no. I thought about going back into Special Ops, but I was going to be pushing it on age for SEALs. Decided flying would be pretty cool so I applied for an Aviator slot with the Navy and got it my first go (which, looking back, I feel bad about with how it shook out. A lot of guys will spend their whole adolescence wanting to be a pilot and never get in, and I just decided almost on a whim to do it). Got a month into OCS and was like, "Oh shit, now I remember why I hated the military." I called my wife to tell her I'd dropped while she was in Pensacola for the Blue Angels' celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Naval Aviation. I'm told it was a hell of a show. Worse, she was actually in the ready room because we knew some other people who had recently started flight school.

After that I ended up working for the Navy. My wife works for the same program I do now too, which is kind of cool. The program as a whole is more "cool guy shit" but I'm a government employee. All in all, I've been pretty lucky. And the military has treated me incredibly well. Heck, of my 20 years of working experience, all but two is in the DoD.

Erronius · Nov 4, 2018

Big Phoenix said:
In all the years since I have never had a single bad dream about my time in Iraq nor come close to having any of those same feelings as I did when I was a gunner in a humvee driving by a freshly detonated ied. The person I heard commit suicide, I have no idea what they had been through but it certainly didnt do it over their current deployment. The unit the guy was with had just gotten into Iraq a week or two before as they where the replacement for the unit my own was attached to so the guy had been done nothing so far but chill at Al Asad.

When I look at my Active Duty time stateside, there were still a lot of folks with issues. That isn't to say that there aren't folks that get deployed who are completely 'ok' and then come out as a wreck, because clearly there are...but the number of unbalanced dudes I knew in the Army was abnormally high. And that was w/o a war going on.

I was a civilian in Iraq, so that was kind of different. But they had a lot of issues, too. Some freakouts. I think part of that was the fact that when you recruit civilians to go overseas, a lot of them are folks who can't hold a job and are desperate, so you get some...interesting folks. Kind of like the Army, I guess. But I think most of the mental issues I saw with contractors was separation anxiety. The same dudes who spent every night in line to call via satellite to their wife and kids. Every. Night. Then it was us guessing how long someone would last after seeing them do that, because odds were good that they would bail before their contract was up.

But then again, I can't imagine how many of these folks would deal with being in combat. Especially when you're Active Duty, making shit for money, and you can't just 'quit'. People would bring their busted-up vehicles to us, and they had to clear them first. Ammo and weapons, sure, but also stuff like blood, etc. Had one guy bring in a hummer and was telling us that they had to hose out the inside. You knew that happened (had one guy I worked with who found hair/scalp and other body parts while working under a hummer, supposedly from someone who got run over) but I was super thankful that we didn't have to do that. But did the folks dealing with the aftermath at the units take it hard? I honestly don't know.

Part of me is happy that I never saw combat, but honestly, another part of me wishes I had. Part of me wishes I hadn't gotten hurt and had stayed in to do 20, but /shrug.

OneofOne · Nov 5, 2018

Both my parents were military - that's where they met. Father was forced into an honorable discharge because a base commander was skimming money from one or more of the businesses, dad found out, called him on it, and yeah. Father's job was to go from base to base and turn all their businesses (clubs/bars, bakeries, golf courses, laundrymats, etc etc) that were doing poorly into profitable enterprises. He was good at it, so he usually was given 4-5 businesses per base and a year to turn them around (which equated to one school year, as we moved every summer to a new city).

The way he was pushed out left a sour taste in my mouth, so I never had any interest in upping myself. More power to those who did.

Big Phoenix · Nov 5, 2018

Erronius said:
But then again, I can't imagine how many of these folks would deal with being in combat. Especially when you're Active Duty, making shit for money, and you can't just 'quit'. People would bring their busted-up vehicles to us, and they had to clear them first. Ammo and weapons, sure, but also stuff like blood, etc. Had one guy bring in a hummer and was telling us that they had to hose out the inside. You knew that happened (had one guy I worked with who found hair/scalp and other body parts while working under a hummer, supposedly from someone who got run over) but I was super thankful that we didn't have to do that. But did the folks dealing with the aftermath at the units take it hard? I honestly don't know.

Thats the thing though, is there a huge problem of nurses, cops, doctors etc. burning out with PTSD or other mental issues? Plethora of people work in industries that see just as gruesome stuff as you would see in combat. Think of all the fucked up car crashes cops have to work.

a_skeleton_03 said:
I think that I have had just close to a dozen of my guys from various years kill themselves after they got out of the military. Those are just the ones I know of and I don’t keep track of very many at all.

Insane. I dont know of anyone who has committed suicide from my unit. Though one guy from my detatchment I deployed with did commit murder shortly after getting out.

Former Marine convicted of murder in death of friend

Says he has PTSD but again, at least on the deployment I was on with him, he didnt see any combat.

TJT · Nov 5, 2018

Only guy I've personally known who committed suicide is someone I had no respect for anyway. He was an 11B (infantry) in my brigade in the 82nd ABN. I spent two entire deployments in relatively close proximity with this guy.

He got a purple heart for breaking his thumb on the M2 .50 charging handle. Like he pulled it back, just not far enough, so when it shot back to its initial position his hand was in the way and this somehow broke his thumb. Purple heart. Dumb. He had a CIB but that doesn't mean anything with the blanket rules that were ubiquitous at the time. I don't know how it was for other Army bros in here but it was extremely common for infantry units to give an entire platoon the CIB when a single squad was in combat for this or that. From 2005-2009 or so this seemed to be the case everywhere as far as I could tell.

He ETS'd right as we got back from our second deployment. Spent the next few years as a sorry for himself shitbag on disability for PTSD and posting crap on facebook/spam texing those of us still in the unit. I guess 6 years after he got out he blew his brains out.

I got a CAB for being in a small convoy where an Iraqi Police technical truck got blown to shit. I didn't think it was deserved there as I didn't do anything but triage some dudes when we stopped the convoy. Never had to actually shoot at anything.

And PSA for any non-military bros in here. 99% of war stories are complete bullshit. Take them all with a massive grain of salt.

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Military Service

Wrath

Molten Core Raider

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer

B_Mizzle

Avatar of War Slayer

Wrath

Molten Core Raider

Ossoi

Potato del Grande

Agraza

Registered Hutt

Sumdain x

Trakanon Raider

a_skeleton_03

Pollo

Silver Knight of the Realm

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>

Sebudai

Ssraeszha Raider

SeanDoe1z1

Avatar of War Slayer

a_skeleton_03

a_skeleton_02

Chanur

Shit Posting Professional

Gravel

Mr. Poopybutthole

Erronius

<WoW Guild Officer>

OneofOne

Silver Baronet of the Realm

Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole