How many military bubbas here?

[Ruanaidh]

US Army 1965-1971

[davedove]

Served in Viet-Nam and flew the third of the last Helo out of country.

It's quite possible you crossed paths with my cousin then. His ship was used in the evacuation and a lot of helicopters landed on it.

[scottish]

well im not , my husband is ex navy stationed in the holy loch were we meet then went to desert storm on the saratoga when the base in the holy loch was closed,his grandfather was navy too he was one of the men that captured the only german sub ww2 if you have seen the pic with the men standing on the german sub his granpa is one of them,my farther served in the army and of course i come from a long line of militery scotts

[scottish]

Didn't check any of the boxes, as I was a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy for 6 years, during which time I served at Holy Loch, Alameda, and deployed on a WestPac aboard the USS Enterprise.

Best regards,

Jake

do you know about the holy loch web site heres the addy if you dont
http://holyloch.com/

[morrison]

3yrs '72 - '75. Nixon's VOLAR (US Army) - end of draft- and more.

[Wompet]

Never enlisted, but probably wouldn't have passed the physical anyway, at least out of high school.
Ended up an uniformed civilian officer with USDA, then DHS. Have to keep telling the non-coms I work with to not call me "Sir."

Father served two tours in the navy pre-Vietnam.
Three of my four great-uncles served in the Army in WWII.
Family history of service going back to 1670 or so (at least in the U.S.).

[gilmore]

while I'm one of those who hasn't served, I'd like to think that the military and wearing the kilt today have a hell of a lot in common, specifically standing up and fighting for what you believe in. The symbolic meaning of the kilt, in many ways, shows how an entire country refused to be controlled by a leader that was not their own. I may be wrong, but it would be liked someone walking around in a uniform from a country that fought back it's oppresors, honoring those who fought before you to allow you to do the things you do today.

any historians chime in on this?

It just occurred to me that the above might be referring to William Wallace and friends, as portrayed in the movie "Braveheart." I had assumed that its great historical inaccuracies were common knowledge, but something recently reminded that they are taken as truth by some.

To wit:

The kilt, both great and small, came about several hundred years after the time of William Wallace.

(The last Scots---or rather Picts---who painted themselves blue for battle or otherwise lived close to 1,000 years BEFORE the time of William Wallace.)

The leading figures in the war over succession to the throne of Scotland---Bruce, Balliol, Comyn and Edward of England---were basically French-speaking Normans. The notion of Scotland----or any other European country--- as a nation as we think of them today was centuries in the future. Far from being a war in which "an entire country refused to be controlled by a leader that was not their own," it was a fight among men who did not think of themselves as Scots over who would own land and the serfs/peasants who went with it and who had little in common with the leading combatants.

It is a matter of some debate as to whether William Wallace thought of himself as Scots, or was Scots by anyone's standards . His name, Wallace, is Scots for "Welshman," and indicates that his family had not been long in Scotland, if at all. If he wanted to become a rallying point for Scots, why did he not at least not choose a foreign surname, or not to be called by a foreign name? It would have been a simple thing for him or his colleagues to do, living at he did at a time when the use of surnames was much more fluid than it is today.

Isabelle of France could not possibly have been impregnated by William Wallace. She was only 13 years old when he died and had not yet left France to be the wife of the future Edward II.

The Battle of Stirling Bridge took place on a bridge at the town of Stirling, not on a field in the country.

It was Robert the Bruce who killed Comyn (or was it Balliol?), not William Wallace, and he did so in a church, a very big no-no at the time.

As I recall, there were several other anachronisms and inaccuracies. These were the only ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Best wishes

[Oatmeal Savage]

It is great to see all the other folks who served their countries. An interesting glimpse into other people's lives.


Kevin

[KiltedKnight]

My dad was too. Usually the only guys that do like to talk about it were the ones safely at the rear.

Adam

This may have been true of the Navy but we grunts and dogfaces enjoy talking about our tours of combat. Had any of you been at the reunion of the First Infantry Division ( or any Army Division for that matter, I belong to the 1st ID [ B Co. 2/16 Inf.] and the 3rd ID [FROG]) this last July in Phoenix you would have heard lots of stories from men who were there chewing the dirt.

I have found just the opposite, those that don't like to talk about it are those that weren't there to talk about it. Of course there is always the exception to the rule.

I server from 21 Jan. 1970 to 1 Jan. 1991. Retired an SFC.

Chris.

[davedove]

This may have been true of the Navy but we grunts and dogfaces enjoy talking about our tours of combat. Had any of you been at the reunion of the First Infantry Division ( or any Army Division for that matter, I belong to the 1st ID [ B Co. 2/16 Inf.] and the 3rd ID [FROG]) this last July in Phoenix you would have heard lots of stories from men who were there chewing the dirt.

I have found just the opposite, those that don't like to talk about it are those that weren't there to talk about it. Of course there is always the exception to the rule.

I server from 21 Jan. 1970 to 1 Jan. 1991. Retired an SFC.

Chris.

It depends a lot on the individual and his circumstances. I sat in an office most of my service, so I don't have too many stories to tell.

My uncle, however, saw lots of action but he never talked much about it. He passed away several years ago, but from what I've been able to get out of other relatives, apparently he helped liberate some of the camps in WWII and saw some horrible things. There are some things a person just doesn't want to talk about.