Things for me started back in May of 71........been around the block a few times.....Gentleman by an act of Congress, too.     Too many memories.....

Edited November 11, 20169 yr by steven newman

Ron Altier

Drafted into the Army

Viet Nam 1965-66

Heavy Artillery 8" and 175 mm cannonsl Our battalion  fired over 8000 rounds while I was there. Each round weighed 200 pounds. Yes, I have hearing aids My job was to calculate firing data for the guns. The guns were, at that time, the most accurate artillery piece in the world. We could move a round 6 feet from the previous round, 10 miles away. 

I arrived in Viet Nam on a WWII troop ship 50 years ago this month. I had some trouble accepting the 50 year part, but one look in the mirror  brought things in focus.

  

Edited November 11, 20169 yr by Ron Altier
Wanted to add something, but didn't

There was a street in Quang Tre City.......best beer in town....at least in Christmastime in 71.

 

Got assigned an old Master Sargent  who always had a metal canteen with  him.....well, it did LOOK like water....

 

Was trying to teach southern city boys how to kill their northern relatives.....about the same time as we were handing over the local Firebases to them...

 

Many times..they simply called me "Tie-wee Steve"    well, at least that how it sounded....

 

Them 122s that arrived in the middle of the night,  were enough to bounce you right out of the rack.....

Some things that might not be readily known...

Of the 2.5 Million Vietnam Vets, only 850,000 were alive as of 2014 with 390 dying each day. Average age of entry into the military was 19...in 1967, every male who turned 19yrs 3 mos in June/July/August were drafted and sent to South Vietnam or Southeast Asia...Estimates of the total number of American citizens who moved to Canada due to their opposition to the war range from 50,000 to 125,000...these were pardoned in 1977 with about 1/2 remaining in Canada...(CBC, 2004)... Canada had a number of excellent reasons for not entering the war and some hard criteria for getting into it...

Yes, Vietnam was a controversial war...but the men and women that served during that era were as dedicated to their service as in any other era of our military history. The Vietnam Veterans of America's founding slogan is "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another"...

"Ancestry" sees it so beneficial and important to capture that era that they even prepared questionnaires for interviewers, families and friends of Veterans...this because there is not as much publicly available information about the Vietnam era as for other wars...go figure...

(some of the above obtained from Ancestry.com)

Don't just know a Vet...know the era they served in...it will help to understand them better without seeming to pry...

 

Regular Army 77-81

Inactive Reserve 81-83

Idaho Army National Guard 87 - 04

Retired Reserve 04-2019 (I can still be called, very, very unlikely, but still )

 

 

Since I can still be called up (however remotely) I won't add more until I reach the 60 year mark and can't be activated.

 

Edited November 13, 20169 yr by Wichman3
update/ additional information

I am late, but other stuff has kept me off for a bit.

I was in the USAF from 1970-1974.  Joined right out of high school so that I could get the GI Bill when I finished my enlistment.

I was a weather man, after basic training and 4-5 months specialized training I was sent to Warner Robins, Georgia.  My next assignment was a joint USAF-Navy outfit on Guam called the Joint Typhoon Warning Center at the Naval Headquarters.  That assignment was doing weather research on tropical storm systems (typhoons in the western pacific & hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern pacific).

It was good duty, and I (mostly) enjoyed my time - especially my time in Guam.

 

When my tour was up, I did get out and used the GI Bill.  Got 4 years of schooling.  Let me say this - that was probably some of the best money your tax dollars have been spent on.  In my last few years working I paid more in taxes each year than those 4 years of GI Bill cost!!!

Cal

On 11/10/2016 at 2:52 PM, Dadio said:

I served in the Regular Army,from  1/1/1960 - 4/1/62 ,Active Duty and Reserve 4/1/1962 -1/2/65 in Seattle.

Boot Camp, basic Infantry training, Ft. Ord Cal.

1 year Army Language School, Presidio of Monterey, Hungarian language Section.

Assigned to Army Security Agency at the NSA Ft.Meade Md. as a linguist, and Crypt Anyalist.

Honorable Discharge as a Specialist 5th class.

 

Herb, I stumbled across this old topic, and realized, you share the same MOS with my daughter! She is in Monterey now learning Russian.