Umm...Eric.. you have your entire biography posted online here. Not speaking about your religious beliefs..we all have them.
And I don't really follow all the Military-speak except to realise that people who have been in combat, gotten shot at, shot others and generally had an absolutely horrible time out there feel extremely strongly about military service. I used to run a small online gaming group for combat flight sims, and that attracts military and ex-military types. Had some guys who were F18 mechanics, one or two who were pilots. They all took the military stuff seriously. If we ever caught someone lying about being in the service they were kicked out immediately. The US services were easier to verify than the European ones, most US servicemen or ex-servicemen seemed to make it their duty to check each other's credentials for some reason. http://www.witchnet.org/index.cfm?bodypage=abouteric.cfm "After basic training, I went to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX for my medical training. My permanent duty station would be at Ft. Polk in Louisiana with Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 6th United States Infantry (Mechanized). I was defiantly not military material. I never did make a good follower. I remember one incident that I got an Article 15 (non-judicial punishment) for...we were digging foxholes with our little entrenching tools while 20 feet away there was a back hoe. Now inquisitive me thought this was pretty dumb... not to mention very inefficient, so I inquired as to why we were wasting our time with the entrenching tool when that back hoe right next to us would get the job done in about 5 minutes. I thought my sergeant would appreciate my blossoming leadership ability and my thinking of better and more efficient ways of doing things...I was wrong...he didn't. I got an Article 15 instead of "good thinking private Roberts" so much for military life *grin*. Life at Ft. Polk was very boring. Seeing as it was nestled in the southern end of the Kisatchie National Forest, it was a very beautiful area...just absolutely nothing to do. We ended up pretty much drinking and going to topless bars. That got pretty old after awhile." "In late august of 1989, we got deployed to Panama to replace a unit sent down there back in April. This was part of Operation Nimrod Dancer, which in December of 1989, would become Operation Just Cause...it was the military operation to remove the Panamanian dictator, Manuel Noriega from office and arrest him and bring him to the US for trial on drug trafficking charges. It was a different situation...we actually had a purpose...it was almost nice... it would have been nice if it weren't a combat situation. Panama was such a beautiful country. We were encamped on a small outpost just off of Farfan Naval Air station...nestled just above the Panama Canal near the Bridge of the Americas, on the opposite side of the canal from Panama City. We would run "harassment" missions into Panama City...we would send a company of armored personnel carriers accompanied by a few hum-vee's (hummers) and drive through Panama City, scarring the heck out of the Panamanian Defense force soldiers. Many would just put their weapons up in the air then lay them down in a gesture of surrender as we passed by. It was pretty intense. On October 10th, 1989, several of Noriega's generals, at the behest of the President George Bush I, staged a military coup to remove Noriega from office. President Bush promised them that if they did this, we would assist, a promise that he did not keep. We witnessed the execution of these brave leaders. That was a wake up call for me. It really shook my world up and caused me to question a lot of things. Especially questioning my government for not following through on a promise that led to the death of some brave and honorable people. This was probably the birth of the political me. Prior to this, I was pretty Republican...a "kill a Commie for Mommy" gung-ho...watched Rambo a few too many times kinda guy. In high school, I was voted most likely to start a revolution in Central America hehehe. That all changed. Ask any veteran who has been in combat or in a combat environment and they will tell you that it radically changed their outlook in life. It is so against our senses that it's almost like going into shock...and when you come out of the shock, you are much different. It instilled a greater appreciation for life in me. Enough of that...Panama...the rainforest that surrounded us was intense. Every sunday, each platoon had a section outside the concertina wire (kinda like barbed wire, except it had razor blades instead of spikes...nasty stuff) to clear out 50 meters (keeping the edge of the clearing just outside of grenade range) in case we were attacked... which was a possibility. We had a problem with infiltrators, so when on guard duty, we were armed with a loaded M-16 and a set of night vision goggles for night duty. One night in late October, I was on guard duty... yes...even the medics had to pull guard duty. I heard some noise in the wire, so I switched on the night vision goggles and radioed it in. I didn't see anything...the officer in charge contacted me and i cleared it...no infiltrators. After I got off the radio and took off the goggles, I turned and there was this gorgeous female black panther. She just sat there for about 20 minutes and watched me...then got up and disappeared into the the darkness of the jungle. I was awestruck...as well as having my loaded M-16 aimed at her just in case she got a little too close...I wasn't in the mood to be a panther snack *grin*. Later on she kept appearing in meditations. I knew I had found my familiar/totemic spirit. She has been with me ever since...guiding and guarding me." I think the above should end the arguments about who did what and when? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:315027 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
