Right on, Prince Harry

[cachecreekcctv 0]

To all you Englishmen, from an American of a "small bit "of English descent, regardless of your "politics", I am glad to see that Prince Harry defied the press for so long, and was able to do his family, and his country proud. If it was an American newspaper that broke the "rule" about reporting his service, I would be one of the first to denounce the newspaper. Whatever your personal beliefs are, we are in this together.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

Although I respect your right to voice .... and I wish him no harm...from this little corner of the globe I got no love for kings, queens or any people who consider themselevs as "ROYAL" and elite... unfortunately the world including my America is slowly turning back to that World Order. Regards

[cocacola 0]

I think he is not that tuff, who'd like to believe us.

In a fight i will probably kick his Royal ass...king, or not.

whehehe

[VST_Man 1]

remember this; the world is not getting safer and our alliances with "free" countries must remain strong. Reguardless of what the newspapers state or public opinion thinks, the reality is the threat is real and if "we" don't collectively seek them out and kill them, they will try to kill us.

 

oh, another fact. he could have stayed home and played prince. . He is there and is serving his country. Most "loud mouths" have never served or seen first hand what we are up against, in terms of death and suffering. what he experiences there will be in his heart forever and hopefully if and when he reaches power he will rule with humanity over Royality.

 

Been there done that, got the t-shirt. we may not be perfect, but we are pretty darn good at allowing all to live as they wish. and if you don't like it, go live somewhere else!

 

I feel better.......

[RickA 0]

Well spoken VST_Man, from another who has served.

[survtech 0]

hopefully if and when he reaches power he will rule with humanity over Royality.

The British Monarchy don't "rule" the country in the traditional sense. They are basically figureheads with no real power. That doesn't mean they can't be a positive (or negative) influence on their country and they do uphold standards and traditions that the British are very proud of. He appears to be one of the best.

[rory 0]

Yes he seems like a real person unlike the other royals .. although its probably not their fault either. He probably just wants to be like everyone else, a nobody, a normal person, course we all know that will never happen.

 

They should have sued that media company though.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

Well I dont wear a "t shirt" but collectively my family and I have over three generations of combat service to this country and as stated previous I still respect a persons right to voice their view. So while everyone is playing on their latest computer and cctv equip much of it produced in a country where workers are enslaved and dont realize that there is another war going on, the war to undermine the working people in this america I still say I got no love for King, queens or Royality. Also this "loudmouth" on every trip to my cancer center I make it a point to visit on a regular basis the VA nearby and spend time with other Vets that have leukemia and are fighting the disease. It sure would be nice to see all the self proclaimed "patriots" to take time and visit with a VA or for that fact even know where the wall is in Washington. Now I feel better. Best of health to you and have a good day.

[VST_Man 1]

like a great Commandant once stated; "you can be part of the solution or part of the problem, which are you?"

 

I did not intend to indentify you as a loud mouth..........my intent was to say that "most" loud mouths................

 

and in closing; it is one thing to be call an idiot, and another to prove it.

 

no, this is not "aimed" at anyone, just something to consider.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

History, life and combat has taught me to practice watchful prudence when goverments, politicians, Kings, Queens and other assorted "heads of state"- figure heads- or not start talkin about "solutions, final or ongoing. As a proud citizen of this country I reserve the right to voice my views and in turn respect yours. I apolgize to no one and still wish the best of health to all.

[RickA 0]

If I may say so "Amen" all have made valid points, rather we all agree or not, let's just agree that we can disagree with out anger and or violence.

[scorpion 0]

If, or when Prince Harry becomes King of England, then I would respect him when as "commander in Chief" he has to send soldiers in to combat then he will have a first hand knowledge of what the military is like.

 

I hope he will leave the war up to the "generals", and not the politicians.

 

I have always felt that they should take every teenager that comes out of high school, and send them in to the military, and send them to a third world country where they can see how others live (and I do not mean to say send them to war, just to another land, and another way of life). I think they will come back with a new found sense of what America is really about, or at least appreciate what they got.

 

I have to say that I respect Prince Harry for getting down in the dirt with the other soldiers. I would imagine it is a "great escape" for him where he can be "just one of the boys".

 

Hey! What is this shirt everyone is talking about??

 

When I was in the service, and in the reserves I had to buy all of my shirts!

 

My favorite story is the time I was in Korea during the two week war games that they have every year. Our unit was honored with packing up all of our gear, and packing the big stuff on rails, and going to Korea for some "fun".

 

A group of us decided to have some fun. Downtown we found places that could custom make jackets, and hats, and I mean custom right down to a quick made patch. Note that this was in the times before computers would create, and sew, patches, and monograms.

 

We has some "ball" caps make up with CF 88.

 

CF translates to charlie foxtrot, and that means in english Cluster F**K 88!

 

Needless to say some high ranking byrd got lost, and found his way to our area of operation! It appears that he was not to pleased with our

 

CF 88 hats!!

 

LOL! OH Boy did our CO (commanding officer) reem our deriere!!

Nothing like being in the doghouse, and not being able to go down town, and raise hell in the bars!

 

I got lucky, and saved a high ranking officer some embarrasment due to equipment failures, and I got him back in to the groove, and saved his behind, and he was not even in my unit, and I did not even know the guy. In return I got my Pass back. Whoo Hoo! Party Time!

Edited March 1, 2008 by Guest

[scorpion 0]

Do you want to hear about the time I almost got arrested at the border of Saudi Arabia, and Iraq where I was surrounded by a sh*t load of MP's during the first "Gulf War"?

 

or how about the time I got in trouble for "stealing" a trailer (the kind that is towed by a 2 1/2 to truck)?

 

Anyone??

[rory 0]

Do you want to hear about the time I almost got arrested at the border of Saudi Arabia, and Iraq where I was surrounded by a sh*t load of MP's during the first "Gulf War"?

 

or how about the time I got in trouble for "stealing" a trailer (the kind that is towed by a 2 1/2 to truck)?

 

Anyone??

 

sure

[cachecreekcctv 0]

WOW!! All I was trying to do was say "thanks" to you Englishmen. Here in the USA, most of us ( not me) are more pre-occupied with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, who are both basically "losers" as far as I am concerned. This young man must have pulled some "Royal Strings" , and instead of sitting at home partying with his girlfriends, decided to "man up" and show his countrymen what he is made of. Yes, we Americans got rid of Kings and Queens hundreds of years ago. So did Oliver Cromwell I guess. Bottom line , there are many people, in both the USA and the EU who basically despise our Western Culture, and would do whatever they could to destroy us and return us to the "Kings " of their culture. It was great to see this young man stand up and be counted, be his ancestry "Royal" or not. That is only my personal opinion, as someone who's ancestors basically "escaped" from the Kings ,Queens, and Tyrants of Europe, as most Americans of European descent did. By the way, US Army, 75th Infantry, 1st Battalion Rangers.

[VST_Man 1]

errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[kensplace 0]

He was probably the safest person over there, I bet he had extra security, plus all those news crews that were filming would have needed more security to, so probably not in any real danger...

[scorpion 0]

Here is a story that might bring a grin to your face!

 

My specialty was communications. I invented the the Tee Are Double EE for installing antennas in a forest environment!

 

(If you did not get the joke then T R E E).

 

I was "stationed" in Saudi Arabia about 10 miles from the border. I was in support of Army airplanes that flew tracks where they would record radio communications from the Iraqi Army, and they would do radio direction finding.

 

To give you an idea how close to the border we were, then I will tell you that we used to stack our MRE's in to the shape of 2 1/2 ton trucks, and lean spare tires against the stack, and then put the camo net over top. From a distance it would look like a few 2 1/2 ton trucks parked in the desert.

 

There was another group with us, and they drove trucks out in the desert with trailers that were built with tank treads. We did not have all of our tanks in country, and we were waiting for Saddam to figure it out, and attack early. He never did, but he could have won the war if he did. The tanks did not arrive in force until Dec. These guys drove around simulating tank manuver so that the Iraqi's would think there was a division of tanks!

 

I use to find "ways" to talk to my friends back home. I once called a signal unit, and asked for another signal unit, and then I told that operator that I need to make "health, and morale" call. I got to an Army base in the US, and I asked them to patch me through to Patrick Air Force Base (near my home town), and when Patrick AFB picked up I asked them to make a "health, and morale" call to First Sgt Young at 321 ... .... (my father ((who is retired)). How is that for "reaching out, and touching someone"!! LOL! You should have heard my father when he said "you are calling from WHERE"??

 

 

 

I once was in an empty building in riyadh S. A. The US Army moved out, and the Air Force was going to take over the building. The building was being used as barracks. Us Army guys were not pleased that we were getting the boot back to tents in the field! RRRRRR! We went back in to the building, and I carried a "residential" phone so that we could plug in, and make calls. Only a few select were in on this deal. If you pissed me off somewhere in the past then you did not get my "special" invitation to join.

 

This was the very first scud attack in Riyadh! I heard a thoop, thoop, thoop, and I walked out on to a balcony. Just as I stepped out I heard a very loud, and building shaking boom, boom, boom.

 

I was looking down from the balcony, and I could see a half semi circle of orange glow on the ground below. For those of you not in the know that means the fireball is directly above your head, and you are basically burnt toast. I was alive, and then it sunk in that there could be biological stuff in those missiles, and at any moment my skin was going bleed through every pore, and my skin was going to fall off. You really have to live through one of these moments in life!! You do not know how terrified you can truley be until you have gone through an event like that!!!

 

I ran back inside, and I got everyone in to mop 4 (gas mask, and rubber suit, gloves, and boots). So here we sit in a building where noone knows where we are, and we are waiting for blisters to form on our faces, and then keel over, and die. We never heard an "all clear" signal so that we could get out of our hot, sweaty mop 4 gear.

 

Now what do we do?? YOU GUESSED IT! I called Patrick AFB, and gave them my dad's home number, and he was watching this new fangled thing on TV called CNN news where you are watching a "war" live!!! WOW!

 

I asked my dad, "hey have they sounded an all clear for "my home town" (our code for Riyhad) (my "vacation" home was King Khalid Military City). He said yes they sounded an all clear an hour ago!!

 

Whew! I ripped off that mask, and everyone freaked! They thought it was not a good idea. Ok! I am still breathing, and I am alive. Now everyone starts ripping those masks off their faces. Wow! I did not know how refreshing cool air could be on your face, and down your lungs!!!!

 

Thanks DAD!

 

Now take your hand, and cover your mouth, and then talk through your hand. This is what it sounds like talking through a gas mask!

 

See if you can find me in this photo??

 

http://www.oldspooksandspies.org/methvin/138thd2.jpg

 

This is our hanger at Orlando International Airport. This is where they park the President's Marine Corp Helicopter when "he" is in town. At this time it would have been president Clinton.

 

NOW ON TO THE STORY ABOUT HOW I ALMOST GOT ARRESTED!!!

Edited March 3, 2008 by Guest

[scorpion 0]

Back to the desert, and ten miles from the enemy.

 

At night we would lay out in the desert, and face Iraq, and we would watch these "air burst bombs" going off in the distance. It was very interesting to watch, and I was very grateful that I was not there in person!!

 

I had been away from Riyadh for some time, and I had not talked to friends, and family back in the states for some time.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riyadh

 

One day I was going down the one, and only road from King Khalid Military City to the border of Iraq.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Khalid_Military_City

 

I noticed that there was military two conductor wire strapped to every light pole going down the road!! Hey! Como Wire!! Whoo Hoo!

 

I stop my vehicle, and I jump out, and I take my Gerber knife, ( the one that I bought in the USA as a last act of defiance should the el toro poo poo hit the reciprocating blades if you know what I mean), and I peel back some of the insulation, and I hook my military field phone, and I give it one hell of a crank. I get a really weird answer like this guy has got a corn cob up his you know what. It must be one of those chair borne ranger wanna be's!!

 

I told him that I wanted such, and such signal battalion, and he say "right away sir". SIR?? I WORK FOR A LIVIN! OK, I did not say that, but that is what I was thinking. I get the signal battalion, and I ask for another Signal group, and then I ask for the USA, and then I ask for Patrick Air Force Base, and so on. I waited for ever as usual for each connection to go through, and finally about the time Patrick AFB would connect me through, then what do I see, but a bunch of Humvees screaming down the road right towards me!! I have a humvee mounted 50 cal pointed right at me. All of these MPs jump out locked, and loaded. I get tossed to the ground ever so gently! Ya right! My face felt concave for a week after that!

 

It appears that the one phone line out of a bundle of 50, or more belong to a very high ranking general's tent. It also appears that I sound nothing like the general which tipped off the operator that there must be some infiltration at the border, and I was the enemy bastard to get my balls kicked in, and squashed like a bug.

 

It took some time for them to figure that I was on the up, and up before they let me go, and of course they would only release me to my company commander. OH! OH! Now I am in a real world of sh*t!!

 

You know? I never did get my field phone back!!

[scorpion 0]

Since we are at the border, and there is really nothing to do while waiting for the "war" to start so we tried to find things to do to keep us occupied.

 

We took sand bags, and stacked them up to make a bench, and then we made a stack to the left, and to the right of the "bench". We found a steel fence pole, and we duct taped a sand bag to each side of the pole. Now we have a weight bench!! We took turns strapping on as many sand bags as we could to see who could lift the most! Me being a little guy damn near snapped my wrists in two on the last set. I heard the crack, and I do not know to this day what kept my arms together!!

 

We used to play "combat volley ball". Spikes in one's face was the only goal, and saying rude comment to your opponent such as "In your face, and up your _ _ _!!!

 

One day I got a really good idea before I left the USA, and went to "play war". I brought some tubes of silicone sealant with me. I do not know why I bought them, and then brought them. I guess they were on sale at the time, or something.

 

So here I am in Saudi Arabia with tubes of caulking in a war zone!! What to do, what to do!! I got an idea. I made a "deal" with a friend of mine who worked in the "chow hall" which was a tent here on the border. In exchange for some deal, I got to "borrow" an immersion heater. This is used to put in a quanity of water, and it would bring it to a boil. This can be used for boiling bags of MRE meals. I can get water, I have an immersion heater, and I have caulking! I do not have any trailers in our motor pool. We do how ever share an area with another unit, and they have trailers!!

 

I moved a trailer about 10 feet. I wanted to get it closer to a power hook up. I filled all of the holes in the trailer with the caulking, and I sealed the drop gate to the trailer with the caulking. When it dried I filled the trailer up with water, and I lit the immersion heater. I got some plastic wrap used to wrap pallets, and I wrapped the staves with plastic to block the wind (it was really, really cold). That night a few select "friends" were invited to my sauna!! We had some food, and a radio plugged in to the power, and the sauna steamy hot! Oh man did it feel good!! We did not get much of chance to take showers, and when we did you could only turn on the water for a brief second, then you would soap up, and then you would turn on the water back on to rinse off. There was a tank of water over head, and this is why we could not just let the water run continuosly. If it ran out of water then you might get beat up by the other half of the unit that did not get a shower. One day I was helping the tanker truck that showed up to fill the tank. I almost barfed while I was helping him. The tank was full of dead flying insects, and this is what I am taking a shower in!! Yuck! For those of you who do not know me I am somewhat of a "germ" freak.

 

So here we are having a blast of a party in the middle of a war zone 1000 miles away from home. What a great night!

 

Then someone from the other unit reports a trailer is missing from the motor pool, and they come looking for it. Some high ranking "God's gift to the military" shows up to reem us a new one, and demands "his" trailer back. We are all hiding illegal beer, and alchohol bought from Air force Cargo plane pilots who fly back, and forth bringing the latest war goods to the "front".

 

This guy does not even see the beer, but man does he want his trailer back!! We all jump out of the "sauna" (only because we were outnumbered), and the party comes to a stop!! Waaa!

 

Later on I see this "gods gift to the military" in the trailer enjoying our sauna with his buddies. What do I do? I go and call the M.P.s, and I report a stolen immersion heater. If you knew our first sargent then you would not want to be around when he shows up asking questions!!

 

This guy who does not know our 1st says something really stupid, and really ****y. OH! You want to play this way huh? We go, and find our 1st, and we tell him word, for word what this guy said about our unit, about our 1st, and about his wife! Ok we ad libbed a little to get him going.

He goes down there, and he asks for the heater back. The guy says no. I cannot tell the rest of the story unless there is a statue of limitations in effect. Anyway we got the heater! Interesting! I wonder what he said to the guy?

Edited March 2, 2008 by Guest

[scorpion 0]

I remember one night in December. We are all sitting around in a GP medium tent playing spade (combat spades), or playing chess, reading books, or just chit chating in with a friend, or two.

 

All of a sudden we hear tornado sirens blaring off!! Wait a minute! There are no tornado sirens in Saudi Arabia!! This must be air raid sirens!!

 

Early that day we went through a very severe sand storm! It would sting so bad that you had to cover up with any thing that you could wrap around your head! We buttoned up the tents tight before it got really bad!!

 

When the siren went off we all stopped what we were doing, and we looked at each other in the eyes like deer caught in the headlights!

 

Then it dawns on us that we need to grab our flack jackets, and run to our desinated fox hole. All at once there is a flurry of activity, and everyone is grabing their m16s, and flack jackets, and running for the tent door. Now you have to imagine a tent door that has been sealed shut, and a bunch of guys running at it at full tilt. It was just like a trampoline!! Every guy crashed in to the tent door, and bounced back like a pin ball machine! Oh god that was so funny! I laughed until I had tears in my eyes which hurt like hell because of all of the sand stuck to my face!!

 

We finally get the door undone, and we get out to our fox holes. Thank goodness the sand storm was over! The first thing that I notice is that all of the helicopters many miles away were not taking flight?? None of the C130 were taking off either!! We locked, and loaded every 50 cal, and m16 we could find, and we waited to be mortared. We were so greatful for the ring of concetina wire to keep them at bay for at least a short time!!

 

I knew that it was just a drill after looking around for a few minutes. I did not realize it, but in the commotion I was still carrying my magnetic chess set. I set it up, and starting playing a game with someone. I then jumped out of this deep hole with sandbag walls, and I go, and check with others in their holes to see how they are doing.

 

Sure enough I find out later that we were the only ones not to be warned about the air raid siren testing!!

 

I developed the aura as the dude who keeps his cool under the worst of situations! Everyone had to tell their story about the guy who played chess, and walked around cool as can be during an eminent attack!! LOL!

[Doug 0]

The King or Queen of England has no power, in the unlikely event that Harry becomes King it won't be his decision to send anyone anywhere much less send troops into combat.

 

Doug

 

If, or when Prince Harry becomes King of England, then I would respect him when as "commander in Chief" he has to send soldiers in to combat then he will have a first hand knowledge of what the military is like.

 

I hope he will leave the war up to the "generals", and not the politicians.

[Lolo Wolf 0]

"like a great Commandant once stated; "you can be part of the solution or part of the problem, which are you?" (the commonly paraphrased version of the original quote: "What we're saying today is that you're either part of the solution, or you're part of the problem.." by Eldridge Cleaver 1935-98, founder member and information minister of the Black Panthers, American political activist group, in a speech in 1968). Historically, and on literary record Eldridge Cleaver is given credit for the saying "You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem". In actuality it was his wife Kathleen who came up with it the night before Eldridge spoke it. Resource: The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations.... History break.... I thought I heard that saying before...... I quess the Commandant did too.

[VST_Man 1]

I was also at King Khalid Military City/airport. Only Marine attached to Army SF. We (JCSE) were one of the first on ground. I waited for SF to arrive and when they did we moved forward to setup camp.LP's & OP's. We continues to move forward and before ya know it we were in kuwait. I ened up providing the Embassy in Kuwait with Comm's via a TSC-93 van. I was a few blocks down the road from the embassy and SF's had to swap out groups.one in and out. Since I was attached I was left "hanging" by SF in that when the out going left they pulled all security out with them and until the new group arrived I was left sitting like a duck in downtown kuwait. I made the "command" decision to lock the van and set up a watch across the parking lot. I figured if we got hit it would be better to tell a story than be part of one. nothing happened and comms stayed up and running....

 

I had a wonderful time proving myself amoungst the SF type. it took awhile but they finally accepted me and I received fantastic "training" from them prior to pushing forward.

 

another story, same group; an Officer was checking into the "pit" for duty. I was a SSgt then. He popped his head into our basement hotel and looked around and asked if this was the officers tent? huh? he went on his way. later that night our comms went down hard. alarms went off telling us that the comms was off the air? we had our satellite van/antenna dug in 50 feet from our hotel and I walked over to the antenna only to find this same officer tangled in our camy net & antenna. he was "assigned" to guard duty that night and was walking the permiter and never saw the "hole'. fell into the hole and was the reason for the lost comm. I stood there with my red flashinght and kbar cutting his butt out.

 

tuens out he found this tent with nobody in it, so he moved in. that tent was the SF's CO's tent. CO show up and tossed his butt out and made him walk guard duty. funny as all.

 

and yes Lt., that plug is not intended for your CD player.....which ended up being another comms outage story.........

[scorpion 0]

During the first Gulf War I knew we hit a higher plateau when I saw various units with female soldiers where they were plugging in curling irons, blow dryers, and other personal accessories in to field generators!!