to all the Veteran’s out there…..those still with us… and those who have made their last formation
let’s see your pic’s ….. here’s one of mine
Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 11/11/2008 9:08 am ET by MikeSmith
Replies
they just deleted my tribute ..........maybe they will leave it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xJv6pxYCJ8
hoooo boy.... lot's memories wrapped up in that one...Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
here's some more veterans
my brother ,Jim......Captain, US Army
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kneeling down... my brother, Jan... Torpedoman, USN and the one to the right rear of Helen...
Christopher... Sgt, US Army
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Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 11/11/2008 9:44 am ET by MikeSmith
Edited 11/11/2008 9:45 am ET by MikeSmith
4 more veterans
Gabrielle.....Navy brat..... Robin....Navy wife
me... Captain, US Army
my nephew, Garrett..... Lt., USN
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Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 11/11/2008 10:00 am ET by MikeSmith
here's two from 1966 at Ft Sill...
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and then.... today at 11 o'clock... i went down to say hi to the vets...
we have two big official events, Veteran's Day..... and Memorial Day Paeade
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i'll tell you a story later about the speaker at the ceremony....
gotta go to a Lions Club Meeting now
Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 11/11/2008 5:37 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 11/11/2008 5:37 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 11/11/2008 5:38 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 11/11/2008 5:39 pm ET by MikeSmith
Edited 11/11/2008 5:40 pm ET by MikeSmith
Not getting shot at, mind you, but I spent a little time in uniform. Those were good days...
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Wainwright Alberta, 1989- That's me with the belt-fed gun on the far right.
Amateurs talk strategy, Generals talk logistics.
Edited 11/11/2008 9:14 pm by PaulC
Edited 11/11/2008 9:15 pm by PaulC
Edited 11/11/2008 9:15 pm by PaulC
hoo...rah!Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Man, you were scrawny back then! LOL
We have a Veteran's Day memorial service every year at my church. This year, during the service, one of the church members who served in Vietnam told how he earned his Purple Heart.
Very moving!
I don't have any photos handy, but wanted to show you guys the Google Logo today if you haven't seen - I like it.
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Jamie
(24th Infantry Division in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait, 1990-1991...I hope to never set foot in a desert again.)
I cry every time I hear that.
Thank-You, Good Buddy, I was moved to tears.
Yeah man..me too....got it off our website a few years ago and post it every year somewhere since. Not in here much anymore so take care........We were just kids
wild and brave
who among us thought
we'd end up in a grave?My Blog
My two brothers are now gone, one Air Force and one Navy, but I remember them still.
Thanks to all the veterans.
to all you veterans out there past, present and future , we might not always agree but thank you for the privilege to disagree
My Dad, Army, WWII, passed in Jan of '03.
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In the photo above he's on the left.
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In the photo above he's second from the left, the one lighting up.
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Me (USAF) and my daughter after my last flight, she's now a freshman in college. How time flies.
damn... those are great photos ...
ok... whose got some more ?Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike, I gather from his marker that your Dad was a career man, and from the other photos it rubbed off on his kids. Pretty impressive.Looks like we're a small club this year.
Amazing pictures, thanks! What were you flying?"We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last" Barack Obama Oct.2008
The photo with my daughter is from when I was flying A-10s.The two photos of my Dad and his buddies, those were both wallet-sized photos that were found after he died. I spent almost 3 years trying to ID the other guys in the photos. No luck.
The Intrepid just came back to the Hudson Piers, IIRC there was an A-10 on deck there. Haven't been since it's restoration, but took my daughter a couple of times in the past."We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last" Barack Obama Oct.2008
Edited 11/13/2008 1:30 pm ET by TGNY
Maybe 6 or 7 years ago we flew into Phoenix, then drove up to the Grand Canyon for a few days, did a bit of hiking, then drove down to Tucson for a few days there. Went to the Pima Air Museum, the A-10 they had there was my old jet!Had my name still painted on the canopy rail, my kids (ages 11 and 9) just about freaked, I just about cried, my wife was wondering what the big deal was?Made me feel real old real fast, "my" jet being in a freaking museum!
Wow! That is too cool. I've been to Pima, it was about 10 years ago now. I would have seen your jet too if it was there then.
I also went to AMARC graveyard at Davis Monthan.I was not in the forces, but really wanted to fly, if I could do it all over again I would have joined up. Where were you stationed?"We don't throw the first punch, but we'll throw the last" Barack Obama Oct.2008
Flew A-10s out of Myrtle Beach SC, Suwon AB (Korea), and Davis-Monthan in Tucson.The boneyard out at DM is pretty impressive.
I now seem to recall you telling me in a thread awhile back about you and your buddies strafing a Triumph out at DM. Some days I feel like strafing mine. Off topic, not sure what corner of CT you are in, but how's the construction industry fairing there?
I'm in south-central CT, middlesex county.I used to do custom homes, but sold out a few years ago to the guys that worked for me.Custom homes are still doing okay here, but the guys hat do spec homes have applied the brakes.
Isn't that a great museum? We were there about 3 years ago and I have never seen so many planes in my entire life!That's cool. We were working in the yard today and a B-52 flew over on the way to Davis-Monthan. Husband loves planes and he recognized it immediately. Warthogs fly over us almost daily on the way to D-M...
I thought you lived in/near Cleveland? Are you "Pi" or am I thinking of someone else?
Pi here. We moved to Tucson in 2005.
Thank you, Veterans. All of those here, and my dad and father-in-law.
Tracy
Love of country runs deep for Americans, as well it should. It's great to share that emotion on occasions such as this by remembering those who have served the cause of freedom so selflessly. God bless all our veterans.
My father, Lt. John P. Phillips USN, was killed in action while leading his squadron of SBDs at Truk, Feb. 1944.
I watched a short news story tonight about homeless vets. There are now and always have been a lot of servicemen who suffer a great deal of mental and emotional stress after their time in combat. Those who don't have adequate support from family members often can't cope very well.
Many of them find themselves on the street. Estimate given is forty thousand currently, nationwide.
Our President elect has said that he will see that our vets receive better treatment. Perhaps we in the building trades can get involved. I'd be glad to give some time to building housing for those men, every year.
Edited 11/12/2008 4:57 am by Hudson Valley Carpenter
you're a good man....
my Dad was in that same campaign on his first command, a sea going tug... he was 26 then....
went thru a couple typhoons... including Halsy's Typhoon
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Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Edited 11/12/2008 7:12 am ET by MikeSmith
Don't think i'd want to ride out a typhoon in that small of a boat.
Found this in my e-mail this morning from a group of Nam helicopter pilots that call me friend (among other things).
http://www.cpmsglife.org/pres/vday.html
Wife's Grandfather flew B-29s out of China. He's got great stories with a lot of detail still, at least the ones he will retell. MIL has all his pictures now and I need to get them from her so I can do a sit down with him before it's too late.
you're a good man....
my Dad was in that same campaign on his first command
Speaking of good men, I'll give all the credit for any worthwhile character traits I have to those from our fathers' generation who served in WWII.
They've always been my heroes and they remain the best men I've ever met.
About ten years ago I made an effort to find out more about my father's air group. I wanted to meet some of the men who he'd served with, if at all possible.
I discovered that the fighter squadron from AG-6, known as O'Hare's Raiders, was planning a reunion the following year so I wrote to one of the members, telling him who my father had been and that I'd like to meet them all at their reunion.
As they had all served together, based on the same carrier, the Intrepid, they'd known each other well.
Greatest group of men I've ever encountered, without question. Just a different level of humanity than I'm accustomed to.
Their wives were each beautiful, loving beings, quietly yet powerfully supportive of their men. I'm still in awe of what I experienced, being among all of them for those two days.
Great thread. It was a pleasure and a privilege reading about so many of you and your families.
I am a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer.
My son is a First Class PO on board a nuclear submarine. He is currently somewhere in the western Pacific - of course they don't discuss exact locations.
I have a nephew in the 82nd Airborne who has had two tours in Iraq - his daughter was born while he was on his first tour. He and she made the front page on the local paper in Ft Bragg when a photographer took a picture of him holding her for the very first time on his return from Iraq.
My grandfather was wounded in WWI, he spent the last 10 years or so of his life on crutches because of deteriorating condition.
I had an uncle, who I never met, who was KIA while serving on a destroyer that was torpedoed by a U-boat.
My dad served off Korea on board the USS Hornet and later the USS Coral Sea.
My brother was in the Army Corps of Engineers.
We occasionally do have some interesting stories to share at family gatherings....
Edited 11/16/2008 9:45 am ET by Oberon
"We occasionally do have some interesting stories to share at family gatherings...."
Got a question as this just came up last week. We had a few people over the house, one of them had found a few stories about me online that had to do with some flying I did back in the '91 Gulf War.He asked, and I really couldn't talk to them about it. I started answering questions, but I could never quite get through it as they just couldn't understand why I'd do what I did for someone else, and why I did what I did in order to get a few guys out of trouble. I get a sense that when talking to some people there's a disconnect regarding camaraderie, there's a disconnect about how we perceive risk, about the whole thought process of why people do things in certain circumstances.My wife takes on the role of ostrich. She doesn't even want to know what I did. And I'm cool with that. I get christmas cards from some of the guys every year, one of them even sends me a birthday card every year on the day that it happened, he considers that day to be his new birthday. She quietly sorts them away. I do have an uncle who was a POW in WWII, I'm the only one that he's ever been comfortable with talking to about his experiences, and that was only after I'd been in the Gulf.Anyone else have experiences like that?You want to talk, you want to tell, You want that cathartic moment, but you just get the impression that someone who hasn't "been there, done that" will not only just not get it, but more importantly, that they won't have respect for the experiences that you're trying to share with them. I wouldn't be telling a story. I almost feel like I'd be giving away a piece of myself. Some of the stuff I did I consider intensely personal. I wouldn't mind opening up to some. However, I wouldn't want them in turn blabbing my experiences around town to others.I've read through this a couple of times and I'm reluctant to post...but what the heck.
Edited to fix HTML
Edited 11/17/2008 10:41 am ET by Mongo
I believe there are things a person experiences that are so personal and devastating that he don't even want to talk to himself about it...........You sound like you did something you are proud of ...that may be your greatest reward.My Blog
Thanks for the reply.That's sort of my problem. I am proud of the things I did, and I'm grateful that not only was I able to help a few guys out of a pickle, but I got to meet with them later. Meeting the guys later is what made it all real, and that interjected a lot of emotion in what, maybe even to me, might have just been a couple of "really cool missions."But I don't want accolades. I actually reject them. I just feel like I'm stuck at times when asked about these things.
You want to talk, you want to tell, You want that cathartic moment, but you just get the impression that someone who hasn't "been there, done that" will not only just not get it, but more importantly, that they won't have respect for the experiences that you're trying to share with them?
I've arrived at the conclusion that certain things I've done for others, life saving moments in particular, are gifts from those in spirit who wish me to have a great life.
So, after going over those events in my memory numerous times, I've decided that I should let go of any attachment I have to them as a role player.
That frees me to just be grateful to the unseen powers that put me in those situations, allowing me to experience how great it feels to intercede on behalf of a brother or sister in trouble.
I don't believe that it's possible to share that kind of experience with anyone except a real kindred spirit, someone who has not only been in the same situation but who has the same spiritual perception of the experience.
BTW, my greatest inspiration has always been the sacrifice my father made for our country and for freedom. His courage has made it easy for me to face adversity and to prevail, many times.
That's a well written sentiment.My main problem is that I'm not comfortable deflecting the subject or explaining it, I prefer the whole thing just remain what I feel it should be, what you wrote...something between myself and the other people who were involved. Because some accounts are available online, it gets brought up by others in conversation.I do want this to get back on topic, though, so my apologies for taking the thread off on a tangent.
I wouldn't be concerned about taking the thread in this direction. Anything that effects those who serve is appropriate here.
What you're talking about is something that I'm sure must happen to many veterans, civilians too, being asked to recall experiences for their potential educational and/or entertainment value to others. We see TV reporters do it every day.
I don't even attempt to answer inappropriately casual questions about subjects with deep personal meaning, in a socially acceptable way. A short, intensely honest rebuke has worked well for me...and for the other person as well.
but you just get the impression that someone who hasn't "been there, done that" will not only just not get it,(quote)They won't . . . Actually I'm gonna save your question for later on my other site. It's a good one. Asked by probably every guy who has ever been smacked in the face with a large dose of reality all at once.My Blog
His courage has made it easy for me to face adversity and to prevail, many times.
A tribute any man would be proud to his children give him.
Well spoken
Thank you all for your service. I will teach my boys of men like you.
Lou C
lou... more like " men like you"i think the thing that always struck me is how young we were....17 - 20i was drafted when i was 20... and i was "the old man "....some of the pilots were 18....or being in charge of 120 men.... and the "old man" was 23Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike,
Thanks for starting this thread. It's been a great contemplation for me. I'm feeling closer to my WWII heroes than any time I can remember. It's a powerful experience, connecting with those in spirit who mean this much to me. Powerful and liberating, just what they wish for us all.
Sincerely and Respectfully, Peter
Mom used to have a few pics of Dad and my Uncle in uniform, but I can't find then.
Dad went into Princes Particia Regiment (Winipeg, Manitoba) in 1943 and went overseas late '44. He was trained in artillery and after years of hard work, finally got a Vet's pension for his hearing loss and advanced arthritis. He went in '02.
Uncle Jack was a journeyman finish carp and went to the RCAF. Since he could fix plywood Mosquitoes, they made him a ..... mechanic.
He went to LA as a teacher in '55 and died in 2004.
They used to tell me of the stupidity they saw in the higher ranks (RSMs and Warrant Officers, but never really spoke about their experiences.Quality repairs for your home.
AaronR ConstructionVancouver, Canada
Question for ya from a Vet:
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=113094.1
jt8
The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept. -- John Gardner