HiDesertHal
Senior Member
I'll take anything from a 2nd Lieutenant to a General, or anything from an Ensign to an Admiral.
(I was an enlisted Man )
Hal
(I was an enlisted Man )
Hal
I graduated college before entering the Marines. When I enlisted, I was supposed to attend OCS, but my papers and those in charge of assigning college grads to their posotions and deployments had everything screwed up. I eventually ended up being a Second Lt., but that did not keep me from going to Vietnam and in combat. I was shifted around like a dog trying to catch his tail. I wanted to fly, but was told that I was too tall, which I found out later that was a bunch of b.s.
E8 could be a First Sergeant.Trade:
The application of names shift during years, have no idea what E-8's are called today.
In my time 63-66 it was 'War Hog,' 'First Pig,' also 'Curly Tail
stop, can't remember
Wow.I was enlisted. And I hate officers. Arrogant bunch of worthless overpaid Alpha Hotels.
Semper Fi oldman!
Several years after my tour of duty as an enlisted man in the Marines was up, I joined the Army Reserves. There was a program that allowed college graduates to automatically become officers once a few months of BS was completed. So I completed it, and lo and behold our Company Commander sent for us and told us that the Army adopted a new rule and some of us were deemed too old to become officers. I was pissed and resigned. But that's not the end of the story...my Civil Affairs unit was soon dispatched to Kuwait where it tried to help run the city for a few years...then they were sent to Afghanistan where they served two tours of duty. I can't imagine what I would have done had I been forced to leave my family behind and serve in a hostile environment for who knows how many years.
So my answer is no I was never an officer and am glad about it.
Wow.
Dividing the Military into Officers and Enlisted is an anachronism that should be done away with. It creates a class based society not unlike that of ancient Rome where you had the Patricians and the Plebians. Or like in Medieval times with Royalty and commoners.
The Military should adopt a system like the government has for civilian employees where they have just a straight up ladder going from GS-1 to GS-15. You could call it MS-1 to MS-15. MS standing for Military Service.
That's my opinion and I'm stickin to it.
Believe it or not, we had a few fellows in our platoon that were “drafted” by the Army, but then were able to become a Marine. Not sure of the specifics of how that happened, but it did. I saw their paperwork. Strange things went on during that war.
Indeed, had no idea that all drafted people were not put in the army-it happened; had a kid from my hometown placed in Marines. I wonder if
the navy used draftee's? Goggle will tell me
Keesha:
The military is a caste system. It will remain so far into the future.
The army attempts to make mindless robots out of enlisted men; it is somewhat successful until you become aware of how stupid of some of the decisions made that concern your welfare.
The reason troops willingly place themselves in jeopardy is camaraderie.-none other!
Once you become a company commander or battalion commander any battle plan, that is drawn up, you must have a casualty count::
How many casualties are acceptable before you have to abandon the objective? I've always considered casualties as an euphemism for
bodies. (Will have to goggle the etymology of casualty)
If you do not want to be a subordinate to a person that can decide your fate-stay out of the military.