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Iraq and Afghanistan vet on 5 august


m151mp
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i'm a nam vet, 69-70, and yesterday i met and had a conversation with a staff sgt on terminal leave out of ft lewis. he's getting out at 100%. he's still able to walk, but with some obvious challenges. as we talked about his time overseas, it was funny to see that some things in the army haven't changed much in the last 50 years. lieutenants still aren't very bright, and sgts still run the army. almost all army vehicles are automatics now, and most of the troops don't know how to drive sticks, including the sgt i met, and we laughed about how he had to learn on short notice, and his "2 hour block of instruction". there was a test, and he passed. i learned about the hummvees a little, and the touch screen gps they have. that would have been handy in the nam, but we made do with a map and compass. i wish him and his family the best. i would say the army is losing a good NCO right there.

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Hahaha...I, too, got my HMMWV "license" during a 2 hour crash course bouncing around the desert of Iraq. Needless to say, the license was void the minute I left a combat zone.

 

Those touch screen GPS do a lot more than that! I assume you mean the Blue Force Tracker...you can message adjacent units, plot routes, call of air or arty, order resupply, etc. They have tutorials to help you learn. When I was with the Colonel's PSD, we'd drive him to our positions and wait for him in the trucks while he had his meetings...many many hours...I did the tutorials to pass the time. You can order 99,999 refrigerated caskets. While that's because 5 digits is the field for typing, it just seemed macabre

 

The BFT's can be a PITA...and last I heard from the data tech installing them, they cost somewhere around a quarter million each! :blink: Granted, that estimate was when they first started being installed around 2005

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i'm a nam vet, 69-70, and yesterday i met and had a conversation with a staff sgt on terminal leave out of ft lewis. he's getting out at 100%. he's still able to walk, but with some obvious challenges. as we talked about his time overseas, it was funny to see that some things in the army haven't changed much in the last 50 years. lieutenants still aren't very bright, and sgts still run the army. almost all army vehicles are automatics now, and most of the troops don't know how to drive sticks, including the sgt i met, and we laughed about how he had to learn on short notice, and his "2 hour block of instruction". there was a test, and he passed. i learned about the hummvees a little, and the touch screen gps they have. that would have been handy in the nam, but we made do with a map and compass. i wish him and his family the best. i would say the army is losing a good NCO right there.

 

My grandfather was in during the Korean war and we talked before I joined the Army. After I got home from the Army we talked and compared notes about it. He also felt the Army itself never really changes, just the technology.

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