What sticks with you?

NeverSayDie · Post by **NeverSayDie** » June 2nd, 2011, 8:03 am

KW Driver wrote:hey Never,

how bout you come back in a few years and answer your own questions.

Ranger KW Driver,

Roger

Grunt · Post by **Grunt** » June 3rd, 2011, 11:32 am

-- The paradigm shift that occurred to me in Ranger school. At age 20, I went into it with a lot of bravado and confidence. It didn't take long for me to see how easy it was to get dropped or recycled; i.e. get an asshole RI and get a no-go, or slide off a ridge and get injured, or kneel on a thorn and get cellulitis, etc. Lesson: you are not invincible and there is plenty in life that you can not control.

-- My PSG while with 1/502, SFC Brady. By far, the best example of a soldier I have ever had the pleasure of serving with. I have never seen another come close to his professionalism, compassion, wisdom, and overall leadership.

-- Winning the CG matches (pistol) at Ft. Campbell in 1985. Cloud fucking nine.

-- My final jump which was at Ft. Richardson, AK. Night jump, snow covered DZ, and a full moon. The illum was amazing. My exit wasn't the best and I was twisted sideways. This enabled me to clearly see, peripherally, my fellow paratroopers exiting the ac behind me, one after the other, with the 130 streaming away. I can still see that image in my head 24 years later, and it still brings a smile to my face.

-- Hearing an explosion about 150 meters away and thinking to myself that it was way too close, and in the wrong direction, to be a VBIED. Then a second or less later, hearing the rockets of the other 107's as they passed over me, and then explode as they hit the compound. As I was running for cover, hearing the debris and shrapnel hitting the building, and thinking, "OK, this is getting serious."

Grunt

KW Driver · Post by **KW Driver** » June 4th, 2011, 8:29 am

Hell's Bells... Another SL liked to smoke his privates and use the bells to metronome everyone up and down, in unison. Took a long time to get to the end of the song. I hated getting caught up in it.

Zonks... I came in early and spent over an hour setting out urban orienteering points all over main post only to get zonked. I looked at the 1SG and said I wished he'd have told me. I then had to go police up all the signs.

FloridaMP · Post by **FloridaMP** » June 23rd, 2011, 12:47 pm

"mister mister, pen mother fucker pen"

IntelToad · Post by **IntelToad** » July 3rd, 2011, 3:13 pm

Brothers I met here, and brothers that call me at Christmas time 25 years later.

FloridaMP · Post by **FloridaMP** » July 14th, 2011, 1:29 pm

TAPs being played for my Soldiers

IEDmagnet · Post by **IEDmagnet** » July 14th, 2011, 1:35 pm

Last Roll Call....

RMP-RLTW · Post by **RMP-RLTW** » July 14th, 2011, 4:37 pm

IEDmagnet wrote:Last Roll Call....

X2

Slowpoke · Post by **Slowpoke** » July 14th, 2011, 7:21 pm

Going through the ruck of a man I'd just killed...the first man I'd ever killed... and finding the picture of his wife and daughter.

Carrying my best friend to the Dustoff, loading him on board with green tracers flying all around, then cleaning his brain tissue off of my face.

mortar_guy78 · Post by **mortar_guy78** » July 15th, 2011, 6:50 am

RMP-RLTW wrote:
IEDmagnet wrote:Last Roll Call....
X2

X3

RMP-RLTW · Post by **RMP-RLTW** » July 16th, 2011, 4:35 pm

The smell of jet fuel.

The sound of rotors coming apart as they hit the ground.

KW Driver · Post by **KW Driver** » July 16th, 2011, 6:14 pm

IEDmagnet wrote:Last Roll Call....

And hearing a child cry at their father's name being called.

goon175 · Post by **goon175** » July 16th, 2011, 7:26 pm

- Thinking that I can just stay sitting, I don't need to get up, I'll never see any of these guys again...on the call to stand up and hook up on my first jump in airborne school.

- Calling my mom after my first day in Battalion at 11:30 at night, drenched in sweat still, telling her I have no idea what I got myself into.

- Attending my first memorial service in Batt. (SSG Davis)

- Learning the hard way about the importance of doing proper PCI's.

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