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In reply to the discussion: What Is The Point Of Risking Your Life In The Military To Protect The Right Of Billionaires To [View all]cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)I was working at the GM plant in South Gate, CA. I was painting Cadillac Cimarrons and Chevy Cavaliers. 56 every hour. I was making more than my Dad (who was managing an industrial laundry business that serviced gas stations, hotels, and hospitals in Los Angeles). One Friday afternoon I showed up to work the Swing Shift and saw, much to my dismay, a hand printed sign above the door that said "LAST SHIFT".
I turned around and went back to the parking lot where I got in my car and started to my apartment in Whittier. I never even bothered to clock in that day. I was 20 at the time. On the way home I drove past a Navy Recruiting office. My Grandfather sailed with Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, and my Father sailed during the Korean War. I had various other Uncles who served in the Navy as well. I grew up hearing amazing stories about places like Perth, Manila, Portsmouth, San Juan, Nassau, Naples, Sigonella, Palma, Athens, Nice, Caracas, and other places. I thought "what the fuck, I'm not going to find another job like this any time soon..." so I stopped in, and joined the Navy. I cut a 94 on the ASVAB two weeks later.
It was a fucking awesome ride, which ended after 10 years when I injured myself mounting a tire on an A-6E and had to have an ACL reconstructed, which was an absolutely new surgery at the time.
I didn't join the Navy for YOU, MILLIONAIRES, BILLIONAIRES, or ANY other reason other than going to some of the places I'd heard about as a kid. FOR FREE. And you know what? I not only did that, I got to live experiences very few people could ever know. I'd compare some of the things I did with kids doing backflips on motorcycles in the X Games. I worked on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, in the daylight, at night, in driving rain, in 40 foot seas with GREEN WATER breaking over the bow. I helped fight a couple of fires. In 1988 I sailed on the USS Constellation out of San Diego which caught on fire BEFORE we even passed under the Coronado Bridge.
Yeah... I don't remember fighting any dreaded Reds... I do remember though seeing Russian Bear Bombers in the air and throwing apples at Russian trawlers disguised as fishing boats from the catwalks of the USS America.
It was a fucking blast. Snorting coke on the sidewalk in Caracas with wild parrots in the trees over our table was my Number 1 experience. Or wait... maybe it was meeting the Chief Bo'sun's Mate in Palma who went AWOL in the 70's and now owned the bar and gave me a Marlboro cigarette pack filled with hash. Nope... now that I think about it; it was snorkeling off the coast of Mombasa in the glass bottom boat with the German girls and more weed than I'd ever smoked in my life...
Yeah... Guess again.