There are some troops who can go through the whole Gas Hut experience with no ill effects. I was not one of them.

Part of the our Gas training was "hold breath, mask on, breathe in hard to check seal.".

I came to regret the "breathe in hard" part.

​

Into the hut we went, and made ready.

"Gas! Gas! Gas!"

Hold breath! Mask on! Breathe in hard and ... my straps were just a bit too loose. In practice,...

Welcome to the Drunken AMA with the moderators of /r/MilitaryStories! Below are bios for the mods who are participating tonight. Please, raise a glass and enjoy yourself, and if you aren't drinking, have a good time with us anyway!

Like we said in the announcement, we have no idea how this is going to go. It may flop, it may be great fun. We are going to execute this mission regardless. When it is...

One fine day we were doing convoy and mout town training with the MPs. In this scenario second vehicle gets blown up so we gotta provide dismounted security for the other mechs to hook up the tow bar and get the second vic outta there. Well while this was happening we started to receive fire from up the hill and the send a fireteam up the hill to send rounds back and this pvt decides too lay prone...

I've been meaning to write up the stories my grandfather told me of his WW2 experiences as a member of Royal Marines 41 Commando. Grandpa didn't like talking about the war, he was never proud of what he'd done. In fact, his daughter in law (my mother) had no idea he'd even fought until she'd known him for about 30 years. But he told me and some other family members a few incredible tales (one in...

A couple of years ago my uncle told me about my maternal grandfather's (who died of cancer before I was born-) service during the Winter war and Continuation war & I filled some of the blanks based on his "Soldier's Passport", a passport-like document recording his military service, here's what I know so far:

My grandfather did his mandatory military service in Pori Regiment in 1938-39 and...

Let's step into the Way Back Machine today:

I've made it past the 8-week basic phase and now I'm in the 5-week Infantry training portion of my first 13-week adventure at Fort Benning.

I find myself on yet another patrolling exercise out in the Georgia woods, but this time we're not with the Drill Sergeants. Instead, my squad has been handed off to a couple of newly-minted Rangers. It seems they...

If you are struggling, please see the suicide prevention numbers at the bottom of this post.

If you are looking for Story of the Year and other type posts, links are at the bottom of this post.

The shortest month is here. Time to start thinking about taxes if you are an American. Don't forget, we have a Drunken AMA coming up on 2/3/23 (that is this Friday night!) with at least some of our...

So no shit, there I was, hanging out with some old friends I hadn't seen in a while, enjoying a few beers (who am I kidding, way more than a few) and chatting.

Somehow, as it seems to often do, the conversation turned to reminiscing about our mandatory military service in the Finnish defense forces. Now, we all had vastly different experiences.

We had served in a wide range of roles: Regular...

The base I was stationed at had guard towers along the perimeter. Each tower was manned by two guards.

The base also had an operations center with a digital feed of cameras mounted in the base. These cameras had various optics (including night vision) and powerful zoom cameras. The cameras were well inside the perimeter and elevated for a clear view for miles around. And also a clear view of the...

Sorry, this is really, really long. But hopefully its also informative and entertaining.

I had just finished an excellent dinner of steak & lobster, got a few chocolate chip cookies wrapped in some napkins and a nice hot cup of coffee, and headed up to the radio room. Leaving my stuff in the radio room, I went to the attack center/control room, to read the captains night orders, then back to the...