As many of you know, I’m a former Marine. Normally that would strike fear in the hearts of many, but in my case there is no need. I was an aviation electrician. I fixed F/A-18 Hornets, UH-1N Hueys (not to be confused with VH1’s Behind the Music with Huey Lewis) and AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters.
While I was a reservist, I spent ~3 of the 8 years I was enlisted on active duty. During this time, several conflicts erupted in which the unit I was attached to had some sort of presence in. Each time, my status precluded me from being deployed (usually because I was in training). Towards the end of my enlistment, they shut down my base and I had to transfer to a unit where my skills couldn’t be put into use, and I ended up being a secretary for a few months. This was not my cup of tea, so I let my enlistment expire and went my separate way.
To this day I regret that decision.
I never saw combat. I sometimes feel that while I served, I didn’t really do anything to help protect this country I love so much. Don’t get me wrong, without people like me, those aircraft wouldn’t have been able to make it to the combat zones where they are so effective. Support personnel are critical to the mission. But I feel humbled when I talk to those who have been there on the front lines, putting their own lives at stake on a daily basis, hour by hour so that the rest of us can enjoy freedom.
Yeah, I was almost killed a few times in accidents. 440 volts from faulty wiring and a spinning rotor that pitched and came literally within inches of my head, but those are the same kind of dangers many people experience from day to day in civilian life (and I mean on-the-job type dangers, not that most people have helicopter blades to deal with).
So, while technically I am part of today’s celebration of veterans, let me just say that this former Marine is grateful to his fellow soldiers and the jobs they do to protect not only us here in America, but all freedom loving peoples of the world. I and my family wholeheartedly say “Thanks!”
Semper Fi,
Robb
rolled out on
Friday, November 11, 2005 1:41 PM