A Walk In The Park Long Range Surveillance.

Life a

I don't know if my memory, fails me or things were different when I enlisted. I don't remember leaving as a group from MEPs. I remember getting my orders in the mail, and plane tickets. Liz and Sarah both left from MEPs as a group.

Of course that was many a moon ago. Could be I'm not remembering it correctly. So any old Military your thoughts would be helpful. I know the night before I left, my Dad who wouldn't take work off to see me off. Said do as they tell you, remember none of the family didn't make it through this.
They all made it you can.

My Dad never had to worry about the Draft or the Military. He was a Tool & Die Maker. The company he worked for done work for Oakridge in Tennessee, the big atomic processing place for the Bomb. Both his brothers were Air Force, I was the strange one, ever since The Army Air Corps my family was part of it.

So I was different, Army breaking the tradition. I didn't do it because I thought the Army was better, no the good jobs required a college education. I wasn't college material. I knew that, except for history and math I struggled through high school.

Hell math, I only held a C average, only because I was at the point of not caring. They wouldn't explain it enough where I even cared. History I went above and beyond the requirements, because I enjoyed it.

I think the real breaking point, with math. I failed a test on fractions, because I couldn't show the proper method on paper, but my answers were correct. I was accused of cheating.

My Dad showed me how to add fractions, if you have three-quarters of an inch and you need to add three-sixteenths of an inch. Three six-tenths you know that is one eighth plus a six-tenth. You know one eighth more is seven-eights so one-sixteenth is fifteen sixteenths.

So I just adjusted and made the fractions into simple math. Moving numbers in my head, my Dad even went to bat for me. What good that did, he tried to get the teacher to retest me she wanted nothing to do with that.  I think that is where I lost my interest with math and teachers.

At seventeen I talked to an Army recruiter, I was ready then to enlist, I knew my parents wanted no part of that. So I waited till I turned eighteen and enlisted. I left exactly two days after my eighteenth birthday.

To this day, I couldn't tell you the proper way to add or substrate fractions. I do it the way Dad told me or convert them to decimals. So that Math teacher years ago, guess what? I deal with fractions all day long, and do it the way I learned! I have no problems at work.

Ironic my younger sister, went to college and she makes less money than my other sister and two brothers and myself. Yep five kids, and I'm the oldest. I caught the most hell, you are the oldest, you are the example for the rest. Hell I didn't want to be the example for the rest.

All my siblings got by with more, than I did. Then they wondered why I enlisted, and didn't tell them until my dad saw the letter with my orders. I wanted to get away, I loved my family, but needed to get out!

I was tired of being held to a higher standard. Besides no one wanted to enlist at that time. Vietnam seem to make serving your country wrong. Besides we still had the Russians to worry about, and China. Of course, then it was more Russia.

Do you remember, when Japan was the big trade evil. They are stealing our jobs, American Owned American-made. Buy American! Now it's China, I bet you didn't know China ranks third in countries we export goods to, Canada then Mexico are first and second. That just came to mind, funny how things pop into my head. Just thinking about past enemies.

I still look at Russia and China as Evil Empires. Why the Cold War, for those of you too young to know.

Ok I went way off track here. So yes I joined because, the lack of anything better, and serving my country just seemed right.