Kids, if you are thinking about joining the military then enlist in the Air Force. Sure you can get assigned to random air bases all over the world, but the living ain't so bad and the risk to life and limb is a bit different than the Army or USMC.
Seriously, how bad can life be when you work on an Air Force base?
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Sir:
Have you ever been stationed in Germany?
When I arrived in Germany as a draftee fresh out of training in the Autumn of 1968, I was a Private First Class, stationed in Kaiserslautern with the 11th Air Defense Signal Battalion, 32d Army Air Defense Command.
It was cold, rainy, lonely, and miserable.
The food at our mess hall was nothing but thin, inedible swill.
The mess sergeant later got arrested and court-martialed for selling the good food to Germans.
I survived my hunger by going to the street venders to buy myself a delicious bratwurst und brotchen, with that spicy German mustard you can't find in America.
But, on a PFC's pay, I knew I couldn't keep doing that every single day.
Well, either God was paying attention, or I just got plumb lucky!
I was sent on temporary duty to a small signal repair team detachment at Spangdahlem Air Force Base.
Oh, WOW!!!
Being a PFC in the United States Army and getting stationed on an AIR FORCE base is like dying and going to Heaven!
In addition to regular meals, they served MIDNIGHT chow!
Not only that, but when you went through their chow line, you were given a CHOICE of what you wanted!!!
At that time, in the Army, that was unheard of.
During alerts, when the rest of the Army was going to the field in the snow and the mud, our little detachment was already technically considered to be "in the field", so we'd just walk over to our shop, turn on the heat, listen to AFN radio, and read the "STARS AND STRIPES" newspaper.
Because we were just a tiny Army detachment on an Air Force base, in the barracks, I and one other guy shared our own private room, with a door we could lock, and where we had a REFRIGERATOR!
When I first got to Germany, I was miserable, but by the time I left, I had grown to love it there.
A year later, I reenlisted to go to Viet Nam, and although I was initially stationed in Saigon, living in the lap of luxury at the Phu Lam Signal Battalion, I volunteered to go where the fighting was, eventually serving with the 101st Airborne, and staying in Viet Nam for two (02) straight years.
So, yes, the Air Force and the Navy REALLY do have the comforts of home, with hot showers, hot chow, and actual beds with sheets and things.
But, from my own experience, the Army gives you far more opportunities for variety, adventure, foreign travel experience, and learning combat and wilderness survival skills (necessary for our coming civil war).
I really wanted to be in the United States Marine Corps, but they turned me down, so that's how I wound up getting drafted by the Army.
Mox nix.
Also, while Marines get to wear those dress blue uniforms to impress girls, the Army is more liberal about awarding medals, especially units like the 101st Airborne, which have a historic reputation they want perpetuated.
One of the guys here at the Armed Forces Retirement Home started out in the Navy, switched to the Air Force, and made his career in the Army.
He loved the Army, and hated the Air Force.
Another guy here at the Armed Forces Retirement Home began his service in the Army, but chose to make his career in the Air Force.
Good luck to you in your foreign combat deployment, and may God bless you and your family.
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
AM - I tell kids, if they're thinking about joining the military, to go Navy, but volunteer for submarines, for basically the same reasons you cite. Plus, the food is good. At least it was when I was in.
Sir:
In case you aren't able to access your blog again before Tuesday, which as you well know, is the two hundred and thirty-sixth birthday of our beloved United States Army, here's wishing you and all your fellow troopers, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"
"OOOOH-RAAH!!!"
(I think we probably stole that phrase from the Marines, because I never heard anyone do that when I was in the Army.)
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
Sir:
Of all the jobs I had when I was in the Army, my favorite was being a scout in the cavalry.
In fact, I think cavalry units exhibit more enthusiastic esprit de corps than the paratroopers do, and that's REALLY saying something!
Anyway, as a soldier, I hated garrison duty.
I loved being in the bush, and on the move.
I also loved flying all over Viet Nam in UH-1"Iroquois" helicopters and C-130 "Hercules" aircraft.
And, yes, if I have to be in a war, it's a lot better to be a soldier and have the security of always carrying a loaded weapon, which you even sleep with, than it is to be UNARMED and stationed on an Air Force or Navy base.
Thank you.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Gulfport, Mississippi 39507
I was in a unit once that shared a building with some Air Force people. My soldiers lived two and three to a room, and had "adequate" furniture.
The A.F. guys lived one tow a room, rotated out furniture about once a year (giving the castoffs to the lowly Army guys), and still got an allowance for "substandard quarters" or some such nonsense.
AP
Having served in both the USAF and US Army yeah I gotta agree AP the Air Force is the sweet spot of the military.
Food in the USAF was better good, steak three times a week and pretty good the rest. More of a "its not an adventure its just good job" atmosphere. Just dont do anything to wind up as a SP and its was damned tolerable.
The Army? Food made me crap softballs on a good day and the living quarters were worse. Lets not talk about fleas.
Think you have to have a four year degree to get in though but damn that was some good duty.
My cousin is at an airbase "over there" and during his Christmas leave, he was discussing an event where he had just gotten up from the porcelain pot and exited the building. Someone lobbed a rocket onto the base and it landed just outside that same building, putting metal through the walls and taking chunks out of the aforementioned porcelain pot.
Luckily no one was home at the time.
Even the sweet job locations have hazards.
Bull. Life in the AF wasn't so great.
Once we ran out of vanilla ice cream at U Tapao RTAB in 1969 and had to eat strawberry and chocolate for almost one whole week!
jjet
USAF (Ret)
Back in 1968 the Air Force boys in Dong Ha lost their air conditioning when a dump truck driver from 11th Eng. USMC 'forgot' to lower the dump bed. I still chuckle about that!
RVN 67-68-69
I had occasion to be around the air force at the airbase near FT Wainwright AK. (can't remember the name now) I was astounded at how much better the Air Force treated people than the Army.
Ah, how well I remember being "escorted" about the concertina-surrounded AF Base within the Army base at Camp Anaconda in 2003. The precisely aligned tents, the air-conditioned workout tents, the immaculate offices.
Why, it was as though they didn't trust us around their stuff ;)
I have to agree. As an Army grunt who got to spend a few weeks on an Air Force base there is no comparison. The Air Force truly is the country club of the armed forces.
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