I stepped onto a plane to go to bootcamp in Cape May NJ.... Still remember the Company Commanders yelling at us to get off the bus and fall out onto the yellow feet....
One of the few good decisions I’ve made in my life.
Thanks dad for nudging me in the right direction.This message has been edited. Last edited by: MikeinNC, September 12, 2020 10:38 AM
"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein
“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020
“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
September 11, 2020, 11:29 AM
PHPaul
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC: I stepped onto a plane to go to bootcamp in Cape May NJ.... Still remember the Company Commanders yelling at us to get off the bus and fall out onto the yellow feet....
One of the few good decisions I’ve made in my life.
Thanks dad for nudging me in the right direction.
It'll be 52 years this coming February for me. Been retired for 30 years as of the end of this month!
Going in was not so much a choice as a given - Draft, ya know. STAYING in was the second best decision I've ever made.
Be careful when following the masses. Sometimes the M is silent.
September 11, 2020, 11:31 AM
Scoutmaster
quote:
Originally posted by MikeinNC: I stepped onto a plane to go to bootcamp in Cape May NJ.... Still remember the Company Commanders yelling at us to get off the bus and fall out onto the yellow feet....
One of the few good decisions I’ve made in my life.
Thanks dad for nudging me in the right direction.
Mine was 50 years ago (this Dec). For me it was the drill sgts yelling at us to get off the bus, get in formation. Looking back there were a lot of lessons learned during that experience.
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it....While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it" - Judge Learned Hand, May 1944
September 11, 2020, 11:46 AM
Jimbo54
53 years for me. Reported to Ft Ord for basic and that was the start of becoming a man after being a snot nosed know everything teenager. Glad I went through it.
Jim
________________________
"If you can't be a good example, then you'll have to be a horrible warning" -Catherine Aird
September 11, 2020, 11:50 AM
sjp
I got to Cape May in 2005 for G-172, heard about Katrina in week 6. Attended the MK school for misguided youths at Yorktown in 07 and am counting the days until I'm eligible for retirement.
That said I'm the EPO of a small air station (4 permanent party 1 seasonal H-60) in AK and loving it!
September 11, 2020, 12:07 PM
cworetired
48 years for me. Some good some not so good. But I do miss it even after being out now 26 years.
September 11, 2020, 01:26 PM
YooperSigs
6-14-74. Took the oath in the recruitment center in Cincinnati. My first really sobering moment was when I realized I was taking the same oath my father did during WWII.
End of Earth: 2 Miles Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
September 11, 2020, 01:54 PM
Hobbs
34yrs ago ... OCT 86, San Diego Was an "elderly recruit" going in (33yrs old) Knew up front I'd only do 20. Figured I'd be too old to "play" after 53. Absolutely best decision of my life.
September 11, 2020, 03:00 PM
RETTOP
Enlisted on October 17, 1970 and was delivered to the gates of MCRD San Diego. Still remember the feeling of helplessness. Retired 20 years later from Andrews AFB (Marine F-4 Squadron). It just hit me that come next month, I'll have retired for 30 years.
USMC (Ret) 1970-1990 Recovering 1911 Addict NRA Benefactor Member
September 11, 2020, 04:38 PM
Warhorse
45 years ago I fell off the bus at MCRD San Diego, and was ordered to stand in the yellow footprints.
____________________________ NRA Life Member, MGO Annual Member
September 11, 2020, 05:13 PM
HayesGreener
51 years ago-Lackland AFB in San Antonio TX, I remember the yellow footprints like it was yesterday. Thank you my fellow warriors for your service.
CMSGT USAF (Retired) Chief of Police (Retired)
September 11, 2020, 05:22 PM
Edmond
Damn you guys are old.
12 years ago, I looked out of the bus and saw "Welcome to Sand Hill."
_____________
September 11, 2020, 05:54 PM
straightshooter1
I went in 55.5 years ago.
I made lots of stupid decisions both before and after that, but, fortunately, I'm still having fun.
I'm just old.
Bob
September 11, 2020, 06:09 PM
ArtieS
28 years ago for me. Ft. Lee, Va.
"I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation."
Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II.
September 11, 2020, 07:19 PM
divil
It will be 25 years ago in late OCT, That my naive self wound up in Lackland AFB.
September 11, 2020, 07:23 PM
dgb2324
Sept 19, 1990 Fort McClellan. Al. Charlie 787 rock steady.
September 11, 2020, 07:31 PM
rexles
Sept 28, 1971 for me at Great Lakes Naval Training Center for boot camp. Guess that would be 49 years ago.
NRA Life member NRA Certified Instructor "Our duty is to serve the mission, and if we're not doing that, then we have no right to call what we do service" Marcus Luttrell
September 11, 2020, 07:46 PM
sj4550
For me, 40 years ago, I was just finishing up my 9 weeks. I had the West Coast boot Camp in Alameda, CA. First Duty station was as a SA at the Group Station in Galveston, Tx
I agree,was one of the best decisions I've made.
September 11, 2020, 07:48 PM
SigFan
My father, mother, and sister were all Air Force and my brother was Army. So into the Air Force I went. I was the only one to make it a career, though.
I swore into the Delayed Enlistment Program on 28 JAN 86, the day the Challenger exploded during liftoff. Went to Lackland on 28 May 86, retired on 1 JUN 2006. I miss some parts of it, some parts not so much. Been a DoD Civil Servant since 7 AUG 2006. Some folks never learn... 5 years, 11 months, and I’m done!
Regards From Sunny Tucson, SigFan
NRA Life - IDPA - USCCA - GOA - JPFO - ACLDN - SAF - AZCDL - ASA
"Faith isn't believing that God can; it's knowing that He will." (From a sign on a church in Nicholasville, Kentucky)
September 11, 2020, 07:57 PM
Yellow Jacket
This November 7 will be 54 years for me.
Lackland AFB. Where have all the years gone?!
God's mercy: NOT getting what we deserve! God's grace: Getting what we DON'T deserve!
"If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal
