Veteran’s Day at Applebee’s

I never thought I’d write this because who thanks a chain restaurant but, “Thanks Applebee’s!”.  I admit that I was a little skeptical when I saw a commercial announcing that they were allowing a free meal to all military veterans on Veteran’s Day yesterday.  If anything I thought it was just going to be a tiny appetizer or something.

When my class got canceled last night, I decided to go check it out with a few old friends who were also in the Army at one time or another.

We arrived to a PACKED restaurant.  Most of the vets who came with a hat or shirt announcing their unit and term of service.  Armored Divisions from WWII.  Infantry Company from Vietnam.  Many came with (what appeared to be) half their unit too.  The Army had literally invaded Applebee’s!  And a few gentleman came quietly by themselves and ate their free meal while observing their fellow veterans enthusiastically talking about their service with each other.

It was a mixture of young and old merging together on the one day that we all have something unique in common with each other:  service to our country.

And the funny thing is that the trick to getting us to come together was a simple free meal to enjoy and reminisce about days past.

What a free meal too!  They gave us massive entree’s.  Special menu’s were made for the vets who showed up which offered six different choices including a 6oz sirloin steak, pasta, chicken, salad, they had it all covered.

A wonderful gesture and concept.  Thanks again, Applebee’s.

Pictures taken on KC’s Blackberry at Applebee’s.

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Signed, Sealed, and Preserved

I finally got around to adding my “Overseas Service Stripes”  underneath my “Uniform Service Stripes” to the display pictured below.   Last month was my three year anniversary of landing back in the U.S. from Iraq. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get around to updating my “military wallpaper” but it’s better late than never.  It’s important to preserve these moments in history.

Each diagonal stripe equals 3 years of military service (I served nearly 7).
Each horizontal stripe equals 6 months engaged in an overseas war.  I’m authorized 2.

Other awards listed:

Army Commendation Medal
Army Achievement Medal
National Defense Service Medal
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Iraq Campaign Medal
Overseas Service Ribbon
Army Service Ribbon
Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device
Rifleman Sharpshooter

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Thinking About Days Served

There’s been a big fuss this last month about the post 9/11 GI Bill from veterans across the country.  Many of us jumped on the opportunity the moment it became available which was August 1st.   All veterans have a right to the GI Bill just for having enlisted in the military but a special educational benefit was enacted for those who served in response to the attacks on 9/11.

Long story short, there’s a lot more money available for those who decide to change their educational benefits to the post 9/11 GI Bill.

Many of us who served in response to 9/11 are Reserve or National Guard soldiers so a sliding scale of benefits needed to be calculated based on how long deployments are for those people.  The theory being a person who served for 6 months shouldn’t get the same amount of benefits as someone who served for 24 months.  It makes complete sense to me.

I got my Post 9/11 GI Bill confirmation paperwork from the Department of Veterans Affairs yesterday.  The most important thing about this paperwork is how they calculated the exact amount of benefits I should receive under the new GI Bill law.

And here it is in black and white in the middle of the page:

The reality of how much time I had given in response to the 9/11 attacks hasn’t ever been so blunt to me before. Of course I knew the dates of my deployment and still have the memory of the time I was away from home but never had I really looked at that total number of days.

Five hundred and twenty one days.

Away from home.  Away from family.  Away from the comforts that we take for granted.  Simply away.

30 days plus another 30 days plus another 30 days plus another 30 days …. on and on and on up to 521 days.

But something that’s more shocking is that my total service only qualifies for 60% of the post 9/11 GI Bill benefits.  That means that there are people out there who had to do almost TWICE as much time as I did to qualify for 100% of the benefits.

Madness.

I honestly don’t think any other country has the burden of sending their young citizens overseas on deployments for as long or as often as the United States.  It’s a burden not only to the soldiers  but also the families and friends who must endure such massive amounts of time away from their loved ones.  Such is the life of Americans.

P.S.  I was only one month away from the 70% threshold of benefits.  bummer.

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A Boot Camp Test: In Retrospect

This week I began studying for most of the web program and designing software I should have started learning years ago.  It’s been… what’s the word?…  fulfilling, to say the least.   I guess discovering your way at 30 is better than not discovering it at all, right?

The thing is, there’s always been something about school that makes me reflect on my past military experiences.  I think I simply end up bored most of the time in the classroom and my mind ends up wandering back back back….

A few days ago I was recalling something that happened during basic training.  This event happened within the first month of the 3 month long introduction to the army.  Those initial 4 weeks were called the “red” phase for some pretty obvious reasons.  We couldn’t blink without getting screamed at or forced to do a ridiculous exercise that both tortured our muscles but also embarrassed us to no end (remember the ‘dead cockroach‘? Try doing that for an hour. Brutal!).  The physical exhaustion naturally led to mental exhaustion which was the ultimate purpose of the “red” phase; break us down to pieces of molding clay.

One day our pliability was tested.

They gathered my unit (about 100 soldiers) into a classroom where we usually learn about uniform maintenance or sanitation practices (riveting stuff, I tell ya!).  The class started as usual with a mind numbing speech on the five food groups or some rediculously boring subject like that when our commanding officer entered the room and walked to the front podium.

We stood to attention when a Drill Sergeant gave the command to stand as is the practice when an officer enters the room.

When the officer began to speak, two soldiers carrying M16’s with magazines locked entered the room.  They positioned themselves in front of each exit door and snapped their rifles to the front with military precision.  Each of the guards were wearing the whitest pair of gloves I’ve ever seen.  I stared at the eyes of the guard closest to me thinking perhaps he could some how explain with a secret blink what in the world was going on.  I couldn’t get a reaction from him and all he did was stare unblinkingly to the front.

Everyone started to focus on the words of our commanding officer now.

He said to us, “Soldiers, intel is just coming in of a massive attack by Kyrzykstan on American civilians and military forces.  We’ve received orders by the executive branch to mobilize all troops including those currently training for service.  We are accelerating your initial training cycle of 3 months and are immediately advancing you into rifle training and graduation in preparation for deployment.”

Now let me jump in here to remind everyone that it was 2 years BEFORE 9/11 when I went through basic training.  The world was in a relatively peaceful state with President Clinton holding onto the reigns.

We had also been in a complete media blackout for at least 4 weeks although some as long as 6 weeks.  No television, radio, newspapers, nothing.  Letters received from home had a delay of at least 2 weeks and 99% of the time none of those letters talked about world news.

The news by the officer caused a massive rippling of sheer panic throughout the room.

The commander left the stage after delivering that gut wrenching news and a Drill Sergeant took his place.

The Drill Sergeant then said, “We know that some of you might not be prepared to serve.  Right now you’re being asked to possibly give your life for your country.  We know it’s a tough position to be in.  So we want to offer an amnesty period.  For the next 10 minutes, I want everyone to keep their eyes forward.  If you feel you can’t commit to the mission that your country is asking you to do, I want you to walk to the back of the classroom.  No questions asked.  You’ll be dismissed from the deployment.”

(Here’s where I should mention that a friend of mine started boot camp several months before me and I was in semi-communication with her when I arrived.  She warned me that something like this might happen.  Needless to say, I wasn’t as distraught as my peers because of this prior knowledge that I had.)

After the Drill Sergeant made his amnesty offer, everyone made whispers and nods as they were all conferring with their buddies on what to do.  I heard several people move themselves to the back but couldn’t see them because of the order to keep our eyes forward.

After 10 minutes, the Drill Sergeant told us all to turn around and look.

In the back of the room were at least 10 people standing in a line shoulder to shoulder.   Each of them had a level of anxiety in their eyes similar to a rabbit being chased by a dog.  All of them were men (or boys, as it were) except one.  It was a girl from my own platoon.  The only one from my platoon who ended up in the back of the room.  But she didn’t just have the doomed rabbit look in her eyes.  She was crying hysterically and….  wait for it….  had literally pissed in her pants.

And that’s when the Drill Sergeant with impeccable timing said, “These 10 people would not answer the call of their country.  These 10 people joined the United States Army for all the wrong reasons.”

Can you imagine being in that position?  Even today the whole event seems like a dream sequence.

At the time, I really didn’t imagine ever having to worry about being deployed to a war.  Like I said, we were living in a peaceful world where Saddam still ruled Iraq and Osama wasn’t a wanted criminal.

I guess that’s where I was wrong.

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Tel Aviv Pride Parade Ninjas

Last weekend was the 2009 Tel Aviv Pride parade.  Most of the pictures I took from last years parade look identical to the ones I took this year.  It seemed like they simply dusted off the same floats and outfits from their storage closest (pun definitely intended) from last year.

But I was intrigued by these ninja dudes on crotch rocket motorcycles at the start of the parade though.  They guys on the back (which, might I say is a strange place for another fellow to be on a crotch rocket) carried M-4 rifles.  The same rifle I carried when deployed to Iraq.

I tried to get him to look at me and smile to no avail.

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