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ft benning 1970---the laughs on me


m151mp
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when the 199th inf bde was sent to benning from vietnam, a bunch of guys were sent home with the flags to retire the unit. i was one of them, oct 11, 1970 we left bien hoa afb, went to yokota, then to travis, then to hood and finally to benning. all of this in a C141, wearing jungle fatigues, because that's what we had. so while we were waiting around for new orders and stateside issue, we went wandering around post. i think there were 3 or 4 of us that happened to be walking around post housing, just enjoying being back in the world, goofing off. this kid comes up to us, probably 8 years old maybe, asks us if we're Rangers---( i guess at that time, Rangers on benning were also wearing jungle fatigues)---so we said, no, we're not Rangers, we just got back from vietnam. so this kid looks at us, says straight out " well, if you ain't Rangers, you ain't *&^*(&^!!! i thought to myself, wow---he's 8---what is going through his mind? anyway, hope you got a laugh out of it---i don't know what made me think of this today.

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  • 1 year later...
phantomfixer

I dig this story....guess the PR guys were doing good for the Rangers....while trolling through these stories, I was wondering what recollections the VN vets had and if they were willing to share any....

My uncle was in the Army in VN...never really spoke of it...was in the 9th ID 15th Combat Engineers...have a few pics

 

Thanks for your story and service

Welcome home

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My wife is a school teacher... you would be surprised how much kids pick up directly from their parents. It's very possible the kids Dad was a Ranger, and he was darn proud of him.

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m151mp,

 

Your post brought back an old memory for me today. :D

I was at Rhein-Main Air Base on my way back to the states. Went up to the room they gave me for the over night stay and there was an airman in the room.

He had two stripes on his sleeve and I asked him if he was like a corporal?, E-4? and he said "yes" (E-3 Airman 1st Class). I then asked him what he did/mos? and he said "rescue". I asked, What is that? He said, "Put it this way, If one of us was to go out that window right now, It wouldn't be me!". Being the proud (or maybe cocky) soldier that I was, Told him, It wouldn't be me either! Then he said, "We have a saying, Chew Tobacco, Chew Tobacco, Chew Tobacco, Spit. If you ain't rescue, You ain't *&^*!"

We both paced around a little bit, Didn't say much more to each other, and had an uneventful evening.

Thanks for posting!

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