Calling all veterans. Tell me your experience in war plz. I want to teach people how harsh war is. Plz no lyie
547794
I WAS TREATED LIKE A DOG, THEN AND NOW AS A VETERAN.\nTHE SO CALLED FREE MEDICAL HELP IS A LIE.\nSERVICE CONNECTED DISABILITY COMPENSATION, A LIE.\nI WAS DISCHARGED WITH 60% SERVICE CONNECTED DISABILITY IN 1965, IT'S NOW 2006, HAVE NOT RECEIVED ONE DIME OF DISABILITY. IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW I WOULD HAVE MOVED TO AUSTRALIA AND SAID TO HELL WITH THE US GOVERNMENT.
1009314
my guy came back alive and for that i am thankful.  he is set to redeploy again.  they planted trees on his base for the fallen soldiers from their platoon and it was sad to see the kids out there not wanting to leave those trees because they wanted to be with their parents.  my guy cried like a baby.  yes it is time to pull out and bring them home, for moral reasons not for political.
490736
to start with my heart goes out to all that have lost love ones in Iraq.\nmy husband is in the Australian navy and has gone to Iraq,\nthe sleepless night that i had while he was away was not worth it at all.\ni want the truth at why we are there also,\ni feel that this is a war for power from the USA government\n(GET OVER IT) none of your children, grandchildren are sent to fight so why should we send ours to fight your war of madness,\n\nwhat will you really have if you win????, \nwill it ever be over ??????\nhow many more of our husband, fathers, children, grandchildren must die for your power trip??????
908423
I want to thank all the men & women serving in the Armed Forces wheather they are oversea's or on our home land. Especialy  my son-in-law Pat who is in Iraq on his 2nd tour. His wife (my daughter) and their 2 children miss him very much and wishes him a safe return soon!!) We love you!! Hurry Home!!
674993
i think it is good to honor all those that have been in battle and it does not matter what the war was...i do not like war.. but i am glad for all those who made it home...but in what condition did some of them make it home...how much damage does being involed in a war do to a person... i do not think i could sleep nights myself...i have never been in was but just abusive husbands has done great damage to me...
433436
Support the Troops, but not the war? Why don't you tell them "Hey! You guys are great, but what you're doing absolutely sucks"! Get a grip on reality. War is not easy, nor is it predictable. Many unforeseen things happen. Let me ask you this - how many terrorist attacks have been perpetrated on US soil since we've been in Iraq? Wouldn't you rather be fighting these fleabags over there? And do you realize that our forces, all volunteers by the way, overwhelmingly support the mission that they are fighting? Stop giving comfort to our enemies, and show an undivided front and unwavering support for our people and the mission that they are fighting. If you are not happy with the war, keep your trap shut and cast your vote at election time. This irresponsible BS is what caused the failure of the Vietnamese War. It's a war, and Generals, not journalists and anti-war demonstrators, should be fighting it and deciding its outcome!
559386
Hi, I spray Agents Orange, White, and Blue in Nam. And yeah, it wasn't really known how bad the sh!t was. It was the contaminants in the Orange (PCB) that we were still removing from transformers on electrical poles all the way into the 1990s. \n\nNow about napalm and white phosphorus...that really was rude. And we knew it. We made up rhymes, stupid poems, to deal with the horror of dropping it on women and children: "Napalm Sticks to Kids." \n\nWe also used CS, tons of that tear "gas". I pushed 30 gal drums out of the back of Chinook helicopters, 30 drums per sortee. We turned the jungle white with that.\n\nAll of that was chemical weapons. My  MOS (military occupational specialty) was 54E - chem. staff specialist. There was all sorts of military double think about it not being lethal. That was BS when it came to napalm. Agent Orange like I said we did not know until later. People were using Roundup, an herbacide, that was d@mned near the same as Orange, all over the US. \n\nWe were frustrated by an "insurgent" action. It was like Iraq. We could not get the locals to play set-piece battles. They hit and hid. We thought we could use science to make it harder. The science turned against us. And yes, there were some who wanted to use nuclear weapons then, too. \n\nDow Chemical and the other big companies made money off the war. 50,000 Americans died. Over half of us died while trying to turn over the reins of government to the locals. Sound familiar?\n\nOver 150,000 Nam vets have since taken their lives with single car accidents, overdoses, and cleaning gun accidents. But I am sure Iraqi/Afghani war vets will get taken care of better. Aren't you? </sarcasm mode off>\n\nI am sick of war. Excuse me.\n\n-- Vietnam Class of 70-71 1st Cav & Americal
216030
I understand the questioning that one would have over the war in Iraq.  However, if you have not been in the military or have family members serving then you are not getting the whole truth.  I personally have served in the Air Force for six years as a Weather Forecaster.  I have never gone to war.  The Air Force has a very different mission than the other branches.  Like you, I have seen many attempts by the media and others who are hoping to expose some evil reason behind our being in Iraq.  All that you have to do is watch the news or take a minute to read the stories of what is actually going on there.  Iraq is covered with terrorists who are killing their own people daily.  We will be attacked again in the future if we are not successful there. I do not mean to go on and on.  I have a brother who will be in Iraq in a few weeks and I am desperately worried.  However, I never question why he is going and I know he is not either.  In fact he scares me with his eagerness to go.  He has wanted "a piece of the action" for a long time now.  I know he will be in harms way but I am so proud of our men and women who are serving.  You said something MC Gunner on another answer about the war that I found interesting.  You said, "if you consider even 10,000 of the AK47 toting bad guys we have killed, and an AK fires at what? about 500 rounds per minute. How many people would you consider a "Mass"?"  That really made me think!  We all have the right to question, just take the time to research before you come to any conclusions.
491825
Its bad very bad! its just play ground stupid antics on a big scale! that's all its comes down too all war is if you don't like what I'm doing lets fight! Very aggressive!!\n\nPeople just can't live together! we are all the same but so different! :-(
323996
I was in Ft Hood for 4 years.  We just moved to Ft Jackson last Nov.  My husband is a Drill Sgt here.  If you have any questions about Hood, feel free to message me!
1006059
It is a shame that people are dying.  But the soldiers are in Iraq to try to better the lives of the Iraqi people as a whole.  I don't agree with war, but I also don't agree with oppression or dictatorships.  So it has me upset in more ways than one.  I do not want anymore people to get hurt, but what about all those that died under Hussein's regime?  One of those soldiers were from close to where I live...he was from Springfield, MA.  It does feel like it is never going to end.  I support the soldiers, for I know that they are doing their job, and it must be hell for them.  So I am a torn soul when it comes to this war.  I hope that the people involved are safe and no more harm comes to them...I can HOPE.
266170
##rant starts here##\nIf you leave your post during a time of war you leave your buddies to die. \n\nSimple. Death by hanging.\n\nIn Starship Troopers, robert heinlen put it well. they hung the young man at his basic training site in front of the other troops. That is something that you would only have to see once in a life time.\n\nIf you don't want to join up, thats great don't.\n\nBut if you put on my green and you want to run. I feel that the rope should be the last stop on their out processing.\n\n##rant ends here##
1071934
Abu Gharib ... ooooh scary, dogs barked at me, someone put underwear on my head, a woman pointed at me and laughed.  Big deal.\n\nGuantanamo ... tell me, what happened there.  FACTS, not the NewsWeek/60 Minutes lies.  Air conditioned rooms, 3 hots and a cot, meals made specially for them.  WOW that's real torture.\n\nHaditha ... you don't know what happened there, I don't know what happened.  All we know is that there has been an investigation, all of the Marines were given thumbs up on a job well done.  No soldier is being charged with anything.\n\nOK now let's look at the guys we are fighting:\n-using women/children as bombs\n-beheadings, kidnappings, REAL torture, rape\n-blowing up anything and everything with IEDs\n-these guys would kill you, your family, and everyone you know if you gave them half a chance\n\nSo before you want to wring your hands and shout THOSE POOR PEOPLE.  Look at the facts before you dump on Pres Bush and our marines and demand we leave.
378843
It never was a war, it is an invasion and an occupation. Like so many other places that have been marched into and the people's lives destroyed. Does no one care? Thinking of the ordinary people, adults and children. The old, the sick, like you and I makes me either want to weep or cry out in rage! Please, oh please never again.
1058813
What you can "know" about the war in Iraq is very varied, depending on what you want to know and who you ask.  The political sides taken in debate banter back and forth with as little intelligence as humanly possible, and they've gotten their nonsense from the liberal media, which is as senseless as anything possible on this planet, so what you perceive to be "knowledge" vs. "opinion" will go far in deciding how learned you feel after you do your research.  In my university graduate research classes, we were stressed to value broad but focused questioning.  Too many open-ended questions left too many dead-end answers, no matter their length.  We also learned about statistical reliability and validity and the allowable statistical variances, but that's getting into questionnaires, etc., and that takes FOREVER to develop, administer, score and analyze.  And even then, interpretation was allowed quite a "margin for error" even though it cautioned the reader as to it's statistical acceptance.  If you really want to know about the war in Iraq, I doubt seriously that this is the place to do any serious research.  From my experience here, there's a lot of uninformed opinion and much less intellect in the majority of answers  you'll get.  Blog's on the internet, etc., aren't much better since no one is held "accountable" for their responses.  They can just  rattle on, which some may say I'm doing now.  Talk to someone(s) away from the internet, face to face if possible, and someone who's main source of "knowledge" isn't the network "news" in order to get a more intelligent and statistically acceptable answer.  Even people you respect for their intelligence are suspect, since they have their opinions which find their way into the dialogue, as did my now deceased father who fought the Japanese at Okinawa in WWII and my son who is in Iraq on his second tour of duty as we speak.  They are both as opinionated as I am, and I guess that genetics since we're father, son, and grandson. Ultimately you have to come to your own conclusions, right or wrong, and be open to new possible understandings as your life goes on.   Debates still rage over the Civil War, and I doubt anyone alive has enough knowlege to fill a thimble, much less a blog or debate despite the goings-on and the "resources" they claim to have.  We still debate the Bay of Pigs incident in Cuba in the 1960's under JFK and the Vietnam war under JFK, LBJ, and RMN.  So ultimately, it's YOUR opinion that counts.  Make it a learned on.  It's so much more pleasant to hear an opinion that someone has given some thought to than one that sounds like they got it off the bathroom wall and are going to copy it on the next stall they're in.  God Bless you.
1066850
Exactly...this is another Vietnam...it might not be the same scale casualty wise (at least American casulaties. Iraqi deaths are right up there). It's ridiculous. We never should have been there. I don't think it's the military's fault that there isn't progress...I'm sure they're doing what they can but there is only so much you can do before you realize that things aren't going to get any better. Insurgents are nasty and they'll stop at nothing to kill someone. This war is going to be going on for a long time unless something changes and unfortunately we have to wait a couple more years before those changes can begin. We destroyed a country now we're going to have to pay for it ....probably for the rest of our lives. It's a sad situation with no real end. You still have people out there saying that it was good that we went in...we got Saddam...we didn't go in to get Saddam. We went in to get weapons and the only ones we've found are the ones we sold them years ago to fight Iran. Interesting how that works out isn't it?
892863
We had just stood in formation for 45 minutes during a ceremony to name a permanent regimental commander and command sergeant major.  I had a lot of water before the formation and I really had to go.  \n\nAfter we were dismissed my buddy and I went to the PX to go get some lunch, so we ordered our food, dropped it at a table, and both rushed to the latrine.  There were 3 stalls and 2 urinals.\n\nMy buddy was ahead of me and he went into the far stall.  I went to the urinal, but some really old guy went to the second stall.\n\nWell the old guy had some sort of problem and made some thunderous sounds on the toilet, to which my buddy remarked "Good Lord you have got some cannon fire over there," thinking that it was me next to him in the middle stall.\n\nI didn't know what he was talking about at first, but then I guess the smell got to him and he said "Oh my God, dude, you reak!  I think I am going to be sick."\n\nThe old guy then let loose with some thunder and there was a lot of plopping.  At that point I was laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe, even though I wanted to tell him it wasn't me.\n\nSo he flushed the toilet at about the same time as the old guy and they both exited the stall at the same time.  The regimental commander was the old guy.