education level of current troops

The only bad taste I left with was that of an "Omelet with Ham" MRE. Sometimes I still can't believe I ate those. I did 6 active, 2 active res. I won't say I loved every minute, but I am not the least bit sorry I served. I might have stayed in, but I would have had to do a "B" tour. I wouldn't have minded the drill field, recruiting or MSG duty, Barracks would have probably driven me nuts though. The problem was I was serving in a secondary MOS and would probably not have been able to return to that field. I would have returned to my primary (0311). That was not the direction I wanted to go at the time so I decided to get out.
The reason for my post was not to disparage current troops. It was to express how much more educated you men(/women) have become than when I was in. Anyone who can maintain the level of their professional obligations as required by the military AND have the time/energy left to research and study on their own deserves a lot of respect.

"My other car is a BULLDOZER"

Maybe you're on to something.If I would have known I would end up doing almost three tours in VN shooting folks and being shot at, I probably would have found something else to do. I really think in those days they wanted us to be uninformed (I almost wrote stupid). That's the reason they want guys 18 - 19 years old to fight wars. So they can build them the way they want them before they're old enough to be set in their ways. BTW, doing "almost" three tours in VN means something really bad happened during that last one....

JP
'94 YJ and '85 CJ7 with stuff done to it/wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

I'm not military, but I do enjoy Knob Creek every year! If you've been there and haven't visited the Patton Tank Museum...shame on you. That place has some of the coooooolest "Boomers" around. If any of you into shooting haven't been to Knob creek just once, you MUST go. Their web site is http://www.machinegunshoot.com/index.html. Check it out for more info! See you in April!

Mike H.
1983 CJ-7 Laredo
1999 Dakota 4x4
/wwwthreads_images/icons/cool.gifo[[[[o

Aaron I have a tape rec. of knob creek...........
A crowd yelling and................all h*ll breaks loose/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif
/wwwthreads_images/icons/smile.gif you know I have to play it to all my friends!/wwwthreads_images/icons/wink.gif
When it gets closer maybe we can see how many of "us " are going?
(hope I am again)

Wider is better but taller is cooler!

Well Tom, don't be too impressed! I had already went to college for four years spending my senior year and two years afterwords as a research assistant for a professor - this taught me how to really dig for info from a lot of sources. I also owned my own business for five years before I enlisted at age 26 with a wife and two kids (recruiter failed to mention something called OCS, and hooked me up with a 5yr open instead! /wwwthreads_images/icons/mad.gif) Now that's using your edjukayshun! Try going from owning your own business as "Mr. Anger" to "this recruit!" I wanted to go to grad school, but wanted the discipline the Corps had to offer, and the Montgomery G.I. bill to help off-set the cost of my books for the first semester.

I was in Japan (mainland) on an unaccompanied tour and had a MAJOR surgery (for a Marine) from an injury I received during training. After 45 days convalecent leave back stateside, I spent alot of time on Air Force country clubs throughout the Pacific over the next four months going back and forth from mainland to follow up appointments at Camp Lester on the Rock. This gave me access to university class libraries, and a lot of completely unsupervised free time to visit them. During the time I was back with my parent unit, I also had a lot of free time since I was wearing a brace from the center of my butt cheeks to the tops of my collar bones - those not in the Corps would not understand how much unsupervised free time this gives a Marine when you don't have a med-hold company at your unit. I used all of this time to research a lot of things from politics and pop-culture science - especially the liberal agenda; to American history - especially the Civil War and the life of Abraham Lincoln. I was really trying to find out why we changed from what we were as a nation to what we are as a nation. I couldn't believe the amount of info you can uncover in such a short time! (I even found out we were winning in Nam when the liberals would let us kill people and break things like we are trained to do!) Now, research is almost an addiction, and I cannot wait to sign my DD214 to go to grad school.

I still love the Corps dearly, and always will - even though I have only served as a jockstrap for the green machine. But it isn't any fun being a Marine when you can't go to the field (and sleep in your truck,) or deploy (and sleep in your truck,) or wake up at 0400 P.T. throw down some chow then report to work (and sleep in your truck,) or go out with the grunts and train no matter what - rain, sleet, snow, or shine (and sleep in your truck,) or throw some grunts who think they are really hard out of the back of your truck on those really nasty bumps to and from training areas after they call you a nasty Motor T bubba who just sleeps in his truck all the time! (These are usually the same ones that almost cry and kiss your feet when you come rolling up in the 5 ton roach coach BTW.) And if your are not in the Corps, you are not ROTFLYAO right now - because it's a Marine thing - and you just wouldn't understand! See Tom, SOME things are STILL the same.