Wow, what a freak out. You were in the Pacific Fleet in the Navy during the late 1960's I joined the Army in the mid 1980's and did 20 of 22 years on the east coast of the continental United States and two years in the Pacific Theater on the mainland of Korea. Yet we are separated by three degrees of separation through the United States military.
Three degrees. You met Admiral McCain. Admiral McLain fathered Senator McCain. Senator McCain knew General James Risner, who rotated command with he and another officer at the Hỏa Lò POW camp in Hanoi, also known as the Hanoi Hilton. General Risner fathered Sergeant Risner who was a paratrooper in my first company in the 82D Airborne Division.
Oh, no, wait, it's only one degree of separation. I met Senator McCain when he came to Fort Bragg to re-enlist young Risner. Young Risner ended up being a fvck-up who melted a bottle and got chaptered out for cocaine abuse.
My dad was in the Pacific Fleet from 1947-1956. He got out as a Petty Officer First Class and went to work for the federal government. He retired with a total of 38 years federal service as a GS-15 top step. He was the ARPANet liaison to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was made a civilian member of the Andrews Air Force Base Officers Club, a membership we kept active well into the 1980's.
I was assigned to the Scout Platoon, United Nations Command Security Battalion, at the Joint Security Area, Pan Mun Jom, Repubic of Korea. I worked 15 days on, three days off for a year. Six of those 15 days were in the DMZ, 50 meters from North Korea. Credence Clearwater Revisited* came and toured the JSA and played a mini-set. I was in the DMZ. My Battalion personnel officer got my name and one other Soldier who wanted to make our own arrangements to travel to Seoul and see their full concert for free on New Years Eve. One of the Soldiers in the Tour Guide Platoon (Yeah, that's a real thing, rough duty, but they had to do it.) informed me that we would see the show and then link up with the band.
We did link up with the band and went to the Dragon Hill Lodge, a huge hotel, on the US Army Yong Song Army Garrison, Seoul. They had four different parties going on in the different banquet rooms of this hotel with bands or djs. Each party required a $10 ticket. We crashed all four, one after the next, until that place closed down at 1:00 AM. We then went to E Tae Won, (party central in Seoul), and partied with those three guys until 4:45 AM, and said our farewells.
It was colder than a witch's t!t in a brass brassier. We quickly walked to the nearest subway station and waited until 5:00 for a train. We got off at the rail station and bought our train tickets. We stepped on the train just as it began to roll toward Munsan. We got off the train in Munsan and had to walk 1/2 mile to the bus station. The bus ran from Munsan to the gate of Camp Bonifas. We arrived at the bus station, found the bus marked for our route and sat in it. It was running and the heater was on but the door was open. One minute later the driver got on, closed the door, and we rolled.
In less than four hours I went from partying with rock stars and making out with/feeling up all over a good looking Korean American female US Soldier, to eating bacon, over-easy eggs, and grits in the chow hall. A great ending to one of the best nights of my life. I could have closed the deal with the woman but instead I told her I was married and wasn't willing to do the deed.
I personally met and spent face time with both GEN Petraeus and LTG McCrystal when the were each the Assistant Deputy Commander (Operations) of the 82D Airborne Division as COL(P)s.
I don't think we have to worry about any involvement that GEN Petraeus may have with the incoming administration.
I wish LTG McCrystal had gotten his fourth star. Had he, he would have a chance to rehabilitate himself also. He was brilliant and saved a lot of American lives.
He dreamed up this idea called the Small Arms Master Gunner. Armor/Artillery/Bradley Fighting Vehicle units already had an experienced NCO at battalion and higher levels assigned to supervising/facilitating/improving gunnery accuracy.
The Light Infantry/Airborne/Air Assault/Ranger units never did. We got new day sights and night target acquisition systems, and the Javelin anti-tank missile dumped off on us with absolutely zero New Equipment Training. LTG McCrystal as a COL(P) got the money approved by the Division Commander LTG(John R. Vines, (commanded a battalion that jumped into Panama and was the first wave of Operation Desert Shield), for an E-8 to work at Division, an E-7 in each Brigade and an E-6 in each Infantry Battalion. The 101st and other Light units quickly followed suit. Ranger Regiment kind of did it's own thing but was inspired by our program and guided by it. They always do their own thing.
I was one of the SFC/E-7s to work at Brigade level. I had three Staff Sergeants, one in each Battalion that I facilitated, advised and worked along side to improve day and night marksmanship on all assigned Infantry weapons systems M4 Carbine, M203 Grenade Launcher, M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, M240B General Purpose Machine Gun, Javelin Anti-tank missile. We all went to Fort Benning and received five weeks of expert level day and night marksmanship training and three weeks of Javelin anti-tank missile training and train-the-trainer training. (Yeah, that's a mouthful.)
Before the program was first spun up to go to Benning in December of 1999 my Brigade's M4 night qualification average score was 4/40. By the time I left that assignment 18 months later, I, my thee counterparts, and LTG McCrystal had gotten them up to 36/40, two more than day. (Though day qualification is to 300 meters and night is only to 250 due to range limitations of the night vision device. Also they leave the targets up a little longer at night.)
*Doug Clifford and Stu Cook the original bass player and drummer for CCR and Eliot Easton the lead guitarist of The Cars, a couple of other guys who didn't come.
Thank you for your service. Until I broke the tradition by joining the Army, my family can trace Naval service back to wooden ships on both sides.
I've lived upon the edge of chance for 20 years or more...
Del Rio's Song
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