Was told this story should be here, so, enjoy:

Went to a bowling alley in uniform with group of buddies after the training day was over. Patrons began buying us beer. Lots of beer. One hot-shot E6 in the group gets in fight with some old drunk retired Marine because he's a retard (and so are Marines).

Leave bowling alley before cops show up because some other patron got scared of a "tussle" and...

Jump #2 in Airborne school. We're in the back of the C-130 on the way to Fryar Drop Zone.

The Private to my left sees a new Butterbar next to him, puffs himself up and asks me, voice full of bravado and challenge: Hey sir - you scared?

I see what he's about. He doesn't know that I was SGT Baka until I finished OCS about 4 weeks ago and I'm a little more seasoned than the typical LT who can't land...

Longtime lurker, first time poster. First off, I want to thank the Mods for the recent post welcoming those of us who never served to submit stories. Thank you for this community, and thank you to everyone who is serving, has served, or is going to serve in the military.

My family tended to the sea, rather than the land, for their service. My dad's father was in the Merchant Marine, my dad was in...

Just a silly story.

Iraq 2009, our platoon is on the last mission before heading back to a main base to prepare for going home at the end of our deployment.

We we're one soldier short to do a mission, having given some up for other duties in preparation for leaving. So command told us well just take the cook..

So everyone else is Jaded as F by this point as we'd been there 9 months now, but the...

So right at the onset of Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, our unit was one of the first ones deployed (USMC).

After spending a night at the Mogadishu airport, we moved into the back of the embassy and started setting up firing holes etc.

Because that area had been abandoned for so long (except for the Somalis using it as a graveyard) there was tons of trash, critters, etc. there.

A couple of...

Yeah, I know. This is as much an editorial as a story - posted nine years ago. I dunno - It's the shag-end of February, it's snowing and business is both slow, a pain in the ass, and too good to be true.

Time to meditate on the little dark cloud of confusion hovering over my head. When the snow gets deep enough, I'll shake it off and go shovel.

Toy Soldiers

Gaming the System

Back in my teens we...

Just read another post about a guy assaulting soldiers in a car.... even though they were probably 1 vs 4...

So we were conscripts at the time, been in for probably 6-7 months.

In our unit we had this tiny guy, probably of indian origin. He landed the cushy job of driving the company XO around most of the time, in the danish forces Gelendewagen (mercedes). A very robust little vehicle, but it...

In November 1984, I arrived at my first assignment, a large training unit for Air Force fighter pilots. After a couple weeks of orientation it was my turn to open the shop. Being a training unit the hours were generally pretty civilized--first take offs at 0800 and last landings rarely after 1800.

The opening guy had to be there at 0500. My trainer was very specific.

Pay attention new guy. You...

Upon arriving at Fort Davis, I heard about the brothels in Colon. Colon is the second-largest city in Panama, and the closest city to Fort Davis. Colon was the destination for an ungodly amount of American greenbacks at the numerous bars, brothels, and shops in the duty-free zone. Cab rides to Colon were two dollars. Beers were fifty cents. Any of the assorted prostitutes on rotation from Columbia...

In the fall of 1979, I was driving a few shipmates to the firing range for yearly qualifications, all of us in uniform and in a GSA sedan. The range was located near Mt. Diablo, inland from the Bay Area, and we were passing through the far side of Oakland.

We had to hang a left at the intersection ahead of us, but there was a car simply sitting there, despite having the green, as the driver...