doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Happy 250th Birthday to the US Army & Flag Day

250 years ago the US Army was formed. and the Infantry branch was the first branch established on 14 June 1775.
And flag day too.
To my fellow mud rollers, grunts, 11 Bravos, 11 B's, 11 Bullet Stoppers, whatever you want to refer to yourselves as,
if you served as an Infantryman, Happy Birthday.

Brian
11B, 11A

I went down to see the parade at the Mall in DC, arriving about 1430 hrs, Security was extremely tight. I had to walk two miles from the area near the IMF down to the Washington Monument. But it was worth every minute.

The crowd was exceedingly friendly; water stations were everywhere, people were well dressed for a summer afternoon and it seemed everyone cleaned up after themselves.

The parade was impressive and the soldiers looked like they thoroughly enjoyed every bit of. Tank commanders were pumping their fists. The reenactment troops in Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI, and WWII garb were great. The Sherman's and old jeeps brought a smile.

I was wearing a VN vet hat with CIB, Special Forces, Macvsog, paratrooper wing pins and was treated very well. I wound up being interviewed by Australian TV.

This parade was worth every penny - part of the year-long 250 year celebrations of our independence begun in April with Lexington and Concord. In a way I feel sorry for those who chose to make the day political and to "protest" something or another.. They missed out on a true citizen army receiving true accolades from the citizenry on an auspicious occasion. It was a real celebration ceremony.that should have brought us all together.

All I see in the news is "No Kings Day" protests. That's a shame; they missed one of the genuine feel good stories of the year.

Gene Willisms - 05B4S; 11B4S.

In American diplomatic posts around the globe, the birthday of the Marine Corps is celebrated in a big way. And rightfully so, with the first person you're likely to meet if you enter a US embassy or consulate is a Marine guard. Good to see flag day and the birthday of the Army receiving more attention.

Gene;

Did you interface in Vietnam with Capt Bill Glasgow of MACV-SOG, retired as Col?

I don't recall that name. Col. Smith was C/O of FOB-2 IN 1968. He had a tendency to imbibe too much and a habit of going out to the old White armored car parked in the middle of Highway 14, closed each evening, and firing off some rounds from the .50. These would impact a 4th Infantry firebase 4 clicks to the south. One night the 4th infantry called up and said if it continued, they'd respond with 175's. The colonel gave orders to physically stop him if he did it again. Next night, same story but no-one dared touch him. Flares started going off at the firebase. I went to bed.


The "C/O" of the RT element was a Capt. Ernesto Gayola, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs battalion. Years later I found out he wasn't really Army. . .he was "undercover" doing an intelligence job in the central highlands.


The thing about MACV-S0G, indeed the whole Vietnam m/o of replacing troops is that you never really got to know anyone. For instance, John. Kedenburg was killed in early June 1968 in Laos, target area "Xray-3" right on top of the Highway 96, the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. He won the CMH. I never knew him or that he was KIA until I read the target folders for X-3 a week later. My team RT Delaware was the first team back into that area after his death. That may be why now Army replaces whole units abroad.

To make this relevant, shotguns were available in Special Forces and MACV-SOG though rarely carried. Pictured is one below; my twin brother carried one on at least one patrol out of Dak Pek. Some cut the stock and barrel off an M-79 and loaded a canister round shotgun like but that seemed pretty bush-league to me.

Gene; send me a PM with your email address, please.

Stephen Howell

Mossberg 500, Afghanistan 2012.
the US Army in their infinite wisdom would only issue me a Beretta M9 pistol. (Ft Benning CRTC policy for field grad officers)
I was not going to be advising Afghans with just a 9MM.
finally I was able to get a 249 SAW. I was probably the only LTC in Afghanistan going on [patrol with a SAW
then finally an M4.


One Afghan soldier was very proud of his double and wanted to pose with me. Lets just say it was a little off face and the bores had a "few" pits.

There at the same time. 5-12 to 5-13. Where’d the last 13 years go?



Shouldn’t have been too hard to find a PFC to swap with you. One of my troops loves to show off the scar from his SAW rubbing his skin “down to the bone” as he likes to remind us every time we get together. Fancy M-4 eh? We went over with A-1’s. People would look at us like WTF is that? Might as well been a musket. They scrapped them at Hood when we got back. What FOB is that? Looking pretty lush and flat. Sincerely…


____________________________________
PFC L. Rhodes USA (ret)

p.s. They run out of helmet covers?

Well, Lonny, you did have that crummy job at UPS. Maybe you spent 13 years trying to forget about that?

I was thinking you were USMC, not Army.

Best,
Ted

___________________________________________________________________________________________
Oorah.

Nov 12- Nov 13
that was on an Afghan FOB up in Kunduz with the unit I was advising.
, RC North