Humbled!

[jnevis]

JNevis, Was that just a tour, or a "Staff walk" ?

 I guess that would depend on if you understood the background of what the guide was telling you.  For the junior people without a clue: tour.

   The guide was a retired Navy Chief and had outstanding depth of knowledge of the unit placement and tactics.  To put things in perspective he used current landmarks/roads to describe the movement of units and locations. 

I guess that is why I'll never make Chief.  I think a couple paygrades above what I should.  Instead of what my immediate people are doing, I think what should the Navy be doing.

[PegLeg45]

Great story, Tim.
I can't remember if I posted this on here, but back in June of 2009, I had the honor and privilege of meeting and talking to a retired 'double' service veteran. My wife an I were over at a neighbors produce company buying some vegetables and this older gentleman came in with his wife. I noticed something 'odd' about his hat. The hat was a 30 year USAF Retiree hat........but it had some US Army pins on it also. Then I got to adding some numbers in my head (this gentleman was obviously in his 80's) and the curiosity got the better of me. So I introduced myself and asked if I could inquire as to his service......... and let me tell you guys, this man was a 'card' as we say in the south. He (and his wife too) kept us going for nearly an hour. He told me he turned 18 in 1942 and joined the US Army. His wife had an old photo in her purse of him sitting straddle of the barrel of a German Tiger tank his unit had helped capture. He said he stayed in the Army until the end of the war and then got out and come home. Then shortly after the USAF was created as a separate military branch, he joined and stayed in for 30 years, retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant. He was a hell of a story teller, kept us rolling with jokes, and had an iron-grip handshake for a guy in his 80's. What a generation, indeed.

[shooter32]

Tim and Peg, to be humbled in the presence of great men and for their service is something you'll never forget.

Thanks for sharing guys! 

[Timothy]

Wrong Tim, we all played out parts if it is Reserve, Guard or Regular Service - 3 years or 30 - you are no less a hero than the ones that come before us.
Its there honor and sacrifice that we must uphold and to remember those that came before us as those that come after will remember us.

If someone serves - They are Hero. 
 

While I appreciate the sentiment, my Navy time was more like Club Med than real military service.  I still have the scars on my back from my Icelandic girlfriends fingernails though.  Do I qualify for a Purple Heart!

 

Seriously, thanks for the thought!     Between my Pop, brothers and myself, we have a combined 42 years of active duty Navy time.

[tombogan03884]

Overheard  one of the regulars at the local Coffee shop today, telling this older lady That he had been on anti sub patrols off Fla. in an SB2C dive bomber during the war. I didn't get a chance to ask him any more about it since they left about the same time.

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