Posted by Robert Kosusnik on Friday, July 05, 2002 at 2:03PM :
In Reply to: Sounds like you dont like Marines much, Bob... posted by Jonas on Thursday, July 04, 2002 at 11:58PM :
Jonas, The Marines are good. It's just that as I mentioned, many of the prior service types that I've known who were at one time Marines, after getting into the Army, all they want to talk about is "Well in the Marine Corp this" and in the "Corp we did it this way" and so on. Being a careerist Army type, sometimes this get's kind of old. You are right about always being on deployment. Things like that can really try a marriage. During the 13+ years that I was active duty in the Army I last track of the number of guys who's wive left them. And I was a mechanic. And in the Army one doesn't have to be in the Special Forces or Rangers to be out in the field alot. Back in the early 80's I spent 38 months stationed in Nurnberg, Germany. Was in a support unit for the 2nd ACR (Armored Cavalry Regiment). Back then a Cav Scout would do anywheres from 30 to 90 days border duty. Then rotate either back to home station for maybe 30 days before going out to the field in Hohenfelds, Ger. (major training area), or just go straight off border duty to Hohenfelds. After 2 maybe 3 weeks in Hohenfelds, it would be off to Grafenwehr ( another major training area in Germany most commonly known as "Graf") for tank gunnery. That was at least a month or so. After tank gunnery, depending on how things went, the guys might get a month or so back at home station before going back out on border duty. Another fun assignment was with the Army's 32nd Army Air Defense Command, again in Germany. Was with them guys in a support unit for a Patriot unit during the late 80's. Them guys would go to the field for 7 to 10 days about every 3 or 4 weeks. Sometimes more depending on how the unit did on their last NATO Tac Eval. And this didn't include time spent up at their assigned Tac Sites. What all this adds up to is, yes it's nice to be on a three year tour of duty in Germany, but just because you are there on a three year command sponsored tour with your family, doesn't mean you are gonna spend three years with your family. And as a result of all the reductions in the force during the 90's, for guys stationed oversea's, the deployments and FTX's come around alot faster. One last note, I'm sure that you spent many Holiday's away from your family while on duty, and I respect you for that. The 82nd Airborne Div. spent Christmas 89 in Panama. A year later they were in Saudi Arabia. But that's what being in the military is about, sacrifice. Robert
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