What was the first deployment like?

Anyways, to answer OP's question:

It was scary in a "this is fucking it" kind of way. It let's you down in many ways. You become numb and complacent no matter how hard you try not to be. You see some people get smoked right out the gate and wonder "why didn't that happen to me." Then you see others get smoked after multiple tours and you think "fuck, I wish that was me."

War fucks with you. It's like your first love. You love to hate it, but hate to love it all at the same time. You want to keep coming back but you know it's not good for you.

>I know a lot of 'gun guys' who like all things militaria but the idea of actually joining... not for them.
You know you can enjoy guns as a hobby, right?

2 tours. USMC ground side weapons tech/armorer

First tour was on a boat so that was chill and not much happened. I went on the 31st MEU and there was no real mission for us other than training and drinking at port. Did some hiking in japan and all the other basic Marine shit that you do on a MEU.

2nd Tour was Iraq with a small vacation to Qatar after 3 months. More action there, but most of the time was spent pulling security and doing routine mounted patrols. The IED scare is just something you live with while you are there. Stopping every 15 mins was common, everything on the road that wasn't clean pavement got inspected. Random structures on the side of highways would be cleared and berms were scouted if you couldn't see over them from the turret. Homesickness wasn't too much of an issue, we were busy most of the time. We also got internet access pretty regularly and in qatar we had wifi the whole time. Going back to Iraq after the vacation in Qatar had everyone more excited because we had already been there, done that, and had no casualties. Only a couple small skirmishes, but most of it was just us popping shots at the direction of the sound of gunfire.

I got lucky and my deployments weren't like the ones they make movies out of. They were just us in a desert trying to keep the peace.

pic kinda related, i was a range coach for a year after my second deployment then I EAS'd.

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>You know
youtube.com/watch?v=M_2-ERxUFSE

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Calls being stuck on a boat a "tour"...

Army deployments were minimum a year. Marines got them nice shorty rotations although I guess some were extended to 7 months.

>derail for $600 alex

He talks about people who like militaria but wouldnt have joined the military because of reasons.

Meh, just including it because MEUs are a common "deployment" for Marines to go on. MEU's are really just an exorcise for unit logistics to be honest.

>Calls being stuck on a boat a "tour"...
Yeah the three people I went to high school that joined the Navy and Air force(2- & 1 respectively) all have 100% PTSD. While I picked up my friends body parts and brains and put them in quart sized bags and the VA tells me I have none somehow. IDK.

Never left a ship or the U.S to clarify on the chairforce and navy thing

Yes thank you I can read.

Not even that user.

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Yeah, a couple of my friends were close to joining with me. One actually did and we are best friends to this day. The others who joined the other services, definitely respect what my friend and I signed up for (Infantry in 2005) and they aren't milking the system.

These people kind of disgust me. The reasons they claim are excuses because they are pussies and believe they are special and above serving our country.

Hey. I didn't join because I was a millenial shithead.

Now I just finished my degree and I'm considering it...at 29.

You're allowed to like militaria stuff without risking your life

what in the actual fuck? That means you could have gotten to Iraq or Afghanistan in 2008. You would have seen tail end of Iraq surge and the beginning of Afghanistan surge.

It's cool man. I was just venting. I, I would give anything, just to go back to a sandbox. I just can't relate to anything or anyone.

>you're not allowed to find an important part of human history interesting unless you join peacetime military
cool

And I'm allowed to call you a pussy. It goes both ways. I'm not saying that everyone who has an interest in the military should join, but if it's something you are passionate about and you didn't join because "asthma", you're a faggot.

>Qatar
Cut your fucking wrist you fucking Squid.

Find a sport man. Find something you can obsess over. Not being able to relate isn't good. Go to your local VetCenter and sign up in an OEF/OIF group. You're not alone.

Yeah, but I thought we (Germany) were just being accomplices to American imperialism. Once I had changed my mind, I mostly didn't want to make my grandparents sad by dropping out of uni. Now that's taken care of and I'm free of both leftism and career obligations - but old.

I've tried man. I posted the third reply. All I have is the range I go to and I'm twitchy and autistic.

Well, better late than never. Honestly, if you're looking for adventure, I'd recommend the French Foreign Legion over the US military right now. You're still serving a decent country and you will get deployed. Learn French too.

Yo I didn't control where I got sent. It was 2 weeks.

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>range
Even that is just "going through the motions" it isn't really enjoyable.

Escape bag.

Look into meds from the VA. I have had luck with buproprion/wellbutrin in 300mgs. At some point, you have to accept that being a normie is the only way to live your life. Yes, you saw the extremes of humanity, but there is still good in the world that can give you satisfaction. I play my childhood sport (hockey) and even though I'm a nice guy now, on the ice, I'm a gladiator. I don't care what you think about me. I follow the code and that's it.

I joined my local militia. I train fudds how to not be so fudd-like. They listen.

Went out expecting to go out on the ground, landed and wound up getting attached to a police unit and doikg internal security, because of a high insider threat and chance of infiltration, similar to the 2012 raid on Bastion.

Needless to say, nothing happened and I spent months helping MP's with shit jobs and guard duty. At least it was an easy tour and I was on night shifts the whole time, ao avoided the heat.

you're an unsung hero. your story is more common among vets than most people think, yet they only seem to be drawn to "Chris Kyle" types who tell them what they want to hear.

At the end of the day, you did your duty and that is respectable. Thank you.

>FFL.
Nah thanks. A career in the Bundeswehr seems good enough, provided I can get at least half the pay I'd make in the civilian economy right now.

Cheers mate, I'm glad I did it still. It was the final year of Afghanistan before the major drawdown and there's been no operational deployments since

>this entire thread

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I'm not homesick. I miss war. I feel like I am doing nothing now. I'm just another bland face in a crowd. I miss being somewhere where no one else was doing things no one else was doing. Fuck being a civilian.

>What was the first deployment like?
mostly getting drunk and raping Okinawan peasant girls

BASED

>oh no, he figured out were POGs who demand respect and free shit on top of drawing welfare
>shitpost damage control
>shitppst damage control

I didn't know there were other black people on Jow Forums.

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Sounded kinnda buthurt, sorry.
Do you have to twist my words? Sound like an edgy sjw to me. I dont mind people who do that, but the OP that I answered sounded kinnda hurtin.

>I couldn't join the military cause I'd have to punch the drill instructor in the face for yelling at me

>overpaid
ohohohoh

Soju

There is a way to shit on rock polishers without sounding implicitly bitter and insecure about not being one.
You aren't pulling it off.

Shit was pretty fucking gay honestly. Ended up growing a mustache, shaving my eyebrows off, and smoking 2 packs of pine lights a day. I wrote my wife a lot of letters. Didn't have to deal with IED paranoia because we got blown up all the time so we just kind of became resigned to the fact that we were going to get blown up. Especially considering our base was constantly being rocketed and our patrols got mortared to fuck. Shit was blowing up every fucking day so it's kind of just your turn.

Then you get back to the states, drink a whole bottle of Jack Daniels and yell at the dog for not standing at parade rest.

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No be nice to doggos

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any casualties ? did you witness torn bodies ? if so how did you process the gore ?

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It was shit.

I was a fobbit but was part of a forward surgical team during the great summer of EFP's in Baghdad.

It was shit.

It was shit.

I was a fobbit, but was part of a forward surgical team during the summer haji figured out how to make EFP's real well.

Got a shower and hot meal every day. That was nice. Had to completely DX all my uniforms once a month because the laundry service couldn't get the blood out. The Col eventually just said bloody pants were fine when we were on shift. I helped hose out the medevac choppers. You just sort of numb up to it.

Stay safe out there, bulletcatchers.

Found the MEPS washout

Biggest mass casualty event we had involved an anti tank rocket impacting in the middle of a group of guys downloading rucks. They'd just gotten there like 15 minutes ago. Rocket took out like 10-15 guys all with big holes in them. Their doc took a golf ball sized piece of rock in the ass cheek but he evaced everyone to an adjacent hardened structure and plugged all the holes. Because they'd literally just arrived we didn't get their status immediately. When the rest of us got there the ground looked like a blood slip n slide. Lot of guys had a lot of holes in them but only a few of them had injuries that sent them home. Lot of fucking blood though it looked like a fucking demonic sacrifice happened in that hut.

Worst vehicle injuries were pretty tame. They involved a guy getting his face rearranged by a CROW screen, a fractured leg, and one guy ended up with a spinal injury where he can't use his dick anymore. Guess there's like a dick nerve and his got splatted so now he dribbles piss all over the place and has to induce prostate orgasms.

>homesickness
Never got homesick, but then again I had bounced around a bunch of shitty apartments before enlisting (and was deployed within a month of hitting my first station) so hadn't really had a "home" in a lot of years.
>nervousness
First 3 days there, before I'd even left the COP, I had 4 separate mortars impact within 50 feet of me. I was completely untouched. Felt pretty bulletproof after that, never really got nervous.
>IED paranoia
I was up in the Afghan mountains where there weren't many roads and we didn't ever really use them, so we had very few IEDs. They were pretty much only a concern when breaching, and then only in the bigger villages.

We had a base dog that the enlisted guys in our company tried to save. She was a really good girl who would go on patrol with us and run ahead to bark at strangers. Made her a bed out of some cammo nets and fed her a shit load of beef jerky.

We all had to spend the last half of November out in the mountains to secure some supply route for a convoy coming and going. During that time the PA who ran our FOB aid station captured that dog in a trap and euthanized her. Can't love anything in Afghanistan because it will all eventually get taken from you.

all the things you have seen overseas expanded your comfort zone, are there any things (decisions, persuing goals etc...) left in the civillians life that scare you/ make you feel uncomfortable ? By that i mean basicly is it easier for you to just do something/follow your guts in essentially every aspect of life? Also thank you for sharing all that, appreciate it user

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Exciting as fuck, then depression.

Nah there's no sage wisdom to be had. Only thing that changes is you become totally numb to a lot of the things that normal people find pleasurable or painful and most of the rest is just funny. It can be very alienating and leads to a lot of self destructive behavior and awkward conversations.

Example: Buddy of mine lops two of his fingers off with a power saw and is making jokes with the doctors stitching him up about how he can't wait to go home and give his wife the shocker. That guy legit does not give a fuck that he lost two fingers. Most normal people would probably try to spin that like "oh he's just making the best of it isn't he just a trooper" but in reality having all his fingers is just meaningless to him.

That's what everyone says, wait til you get there kid

nice, thinking like that you got the edge over normalfags. Ever thought about getting into the buisness word ? people that can just play to win regardless of the possibillity of losses/failures can do amazing deals.

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thanks for your input, user.

I turned 22 while overseas felt my only friend from our home unit's arm hit me in the face as he stepped on an IED while being paid less than a McDonald's worker as E-3 then went home to find my parents sold all my shit and i had no clothes.

Deployment was pretty dull.

Went to Afghanistan in 11-12. Most of deployment was looking for taliban caches, POO sites, presence patrols or cordoning off areas so the Rangers and a SEAL team could conduct raids. I personally never fired my weapon which still bothers me to this day. My Infantry company only took fire 2 times during our deployment, and both times I wasn’t there.. for the first time I was on R&R, the second time I happened to be at a UAV cert course in a different province.

Out of my ENTIRE company only 3 people didn’t get a CIB, I was one of them. I feel down just thinking about that

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This sounds like my time in Ghazni. Shit was so boring.

Literally my company took fire twice. Both time on large company missions and I missed both of those. We did have a few IED strikes but I wasn’t onboard the hit Vic.

I felt really bad when we returned home and I was one of the only people at our BN ball without earning a shiny CIB.

Yeah your leadership failed you big time. Just lie on that shit nigga like wtf. Pretty sure my PSG just submitted everyone for it for indirect fire day 1 so he didn’t have to fuck with all the sworn statements and shit later on.

Yes they did. I feel really bad about it. I was only an E-2 and E-3 at the time, so I didn’t think I could speak up about it. I’ve been out for a while now, so I’ve mostly forgotten. But it really hurts my insides when I see threads like this or hear co-workers talk about deployment they were on and it just reminds me that I was worthless.

fuck you.

Dude, you weren't worthless. Tier 1 needed people like you to do this. I respect you for being honest, instead of someone saying they were in the shit when really their FOB got mortared once or twice.

Well it still feels pretty shitty being one of the only people out of a 120+ man infantry company on a 12 month combat deployment to not earn a CIB. It felt very emasculating

Nah dude you don't want to be in that situation. If you stay with that unit all the new guys rotating in are going to think you're either a shit bag, coward, or new guy yourself. If you go to a new unit they're going to assume you just sat on some mega FOB or were a TOCroach.

This. After we got back to the states and started cycling in new privates, some would ask me what I did on deployment since I didn’t have a CIB.

You’re a brother to me, CIB or not. I know you would have fought valiantly and been a good troop. Don’t dwell in the past. You’re alive and have all your limbs. You can’t control who shoots at you.

Thanks infantrybro

Badges don’t make men. You did your duty. You’re story is yours and you’re alive to tell it. I have a CIB but I got it for getting hit by mortar fire and my section returning fire. I was wounded. The only time I ever shot a weapon (240B) was next to a vehicle to stop it.

I spent two years in Iraq and never shot my M4.

At that point, you fight.

Archiving this thread for research inquiry a few years down the line. Please help this thread reach max post limit with anecdotes and testimony, thanks.

By being in the chair force.

I remember the first time leaving the wire, I just said the rosary in my head. Kept me at least looking like I wasn’t scared shitless.

>be me, Tagalog linguist, POG as fuck
>Deployed to Philippines last year
>Supposed to be a boring deployment
>ISIS ends up taking over a city
>Martial law gets declared
>ohshit.jpg
>Think I'll actually get a chance to get my CAR
>Get the word that we're not allowed to fight
>"Strictly advise and assist"
>Spend the deployment translating hostile comms
>Fired no shots
>Got a NAM though

I hate peace time Marine Corps

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Bro, its fucking asia. We can’t intervene middle east style where there is a global power like China in the region. Your expectations should have been way lower.

That is such a different universe of what I went through, but hardcore nonetheless. Thank you.

I thought martial law or the fact that they were ISIS would make a difference. I wanted to believe

Don't look into meds pls.

Better for you not to go nuts

I hope that PA was beaten senseless

Doubtful. Probably promoted. That kind of sociopathy is rewarded.

Nah he spent the rest of the deployment hiding in the aid station. He's still in the Army to this day.

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doggo was too pure, should've lived

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Yep if she had chosen to side with our enemies she'd have lived. But she chose to side with us and we killed her for it.

>Tagalog
aie das is not gud men