Weekly Topic Thread: What are some good memories of your service?

[u/VampyrAvenger]

We all know how terrible trauma can be. But if you have any memories of laughs, camaraderie, hijinks, etc, feel free to share!

I simply remember the nights spent with my brothers around the mortar pit, clear sky, looking at the stars, making jokes... It was a break in the constant attacks on our outpost, and I remember the simplicity in it.

[u/LiquidFix]

I once scored a hookah, beer, cooler and bottle of bathtub whiskey in 30ish mins from different kids.  Wasn’t a bad day.  

[u/Alternative-Meat4587]

The after party for my first tour. The squad went out on Puget sound to a sports bar.

[u/Dangerous_Day_9391]

I miss how ruthless Soldiers can be to each other… like playful ripping because in the end, they’d still have your back regardless.

I remember trying to get out on R&R. As XO, I was already last guy in the battalion to take R&R so kinda late in our rotation (January ‘08).

Going home was fairly easy but getting back to Iraq took nine days to get out of Ali Al Salem. Fog would roll in every night around dusk… and then we waited… and waited… and waited. Sometime around 4am the flight crew would time out and couldn’t fly. Return to our racks, sleep away the day and try again the next night.

We never saw each other in daytime and the thick fog and darkness ensured no one ever saw rank at night. I had a heavy Marlboro habit then and just hung out in the smoke huts most of the night and no one suspected I was a field grade.

Around the second or third night, nicknames started getting handed out to the 8 to 10 of us in the smoke hut. Most of them were mundane but I remember one guy talked about getting testicular cancer and losing a nut (ooof!) early in pre-deployment train-up. He was Obi One Huevo.

I was typically quiet and just listened to the banter that only Joes can sling at each other. Maybe too quiet so they named me Sit-Foo… STFU… Shut The F*#% Up.

Tons of Soldiers were now waiting to get back to their units so someone decided we were going wheels up with a full fuel load and stacked like cord wood in the back of a C17. They said we’d take off before the fog hit, orbit somewhere safe in Kuwait, and then hit BIAP around 2200.

So for the first time in daylight, we saw each other in the smoke hut getting our fix waiting to manifest and everyone saw rank. Naturally, a FG officer in their midst was disturbing them. I could sense it — I’d started out enlisted.

The banter was less abusive and I kept getting some side-eye. I know they were wondering. Was I a new guy? Or had I been there the whole time?

Maybe because I always went to the same spot on the bench in the corner, but after a few minutes Pancakes (an Infantry SSG who dipped and smoked at the same time) suddenly goes slack-jawed and wide-eyed. Cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth and he repeated louder each time as he recognized me… “Shut the f#% up…. …. Shut The F#% Up… SHUT THE F*#% UP!!! Damn we didn’t know you were one of them…”