Off to War

[Guest waxgoblin]

Has anybody seen this show? Its on the discovery times channel. Its a documentary of the Arkansas National Guard. It is very eye opening. These guys dont seem very educated, and they seemed to believe the "one weekend a month, 2 weeks a year" deal and really made it clear.. They dont really have any idea why they're being called up for iraq. Some of them seem to be under the impression that Iraq attacked us on 9/11. These guys dont seem like they've been trained as well as they should have, they pretty much got on a bus, went and shot a gun a few times to see if they could, did a little test battle, and off they went. they got to kuwait, I think, and were given a bunch of old vietnam era trucks/equipment. they all seem really depressed about being there. Anybody else catch this?

[ 13. February 2005, 15:36: Message edited by: waxgoblin ]

[Guest HueyPilot]

I was in the Army National Guard (Louisiana), and we didn't have "Vietnam era" equipment...well, perhaps a few of our deuce-n-halfs were...but a truck is a truck..and some of them ran better than the newer stuff.

But everything else we had, while old, wasn't "Vietnam era".

[Guest waxgoblin]

the "vietnam era equipment" was what they called the stuff they were given when they arrived in kuwait. they were trying to get the big trucks to fire up, and they were cutting up sheet metal and hammering it onto the doors of the trucks.

[HerkDerka]

Wax-

That is standard for people from Arkansas. No offense to any Arkies on the board, but I have never seen more stupid people until I went to Arkansas. The situation you describe sounds just like pretty much every bushwacking hillbilly I met.

HD

[Scooter14]

The always tactful, never caustic HercDriver 24 wrote:

No offense to any Arkies on the board, but I have never seen more stupid people until I went to Arkansas.

Oh, I'm sure no Arkansas natives will take offense to that at all. It's like saying, no offense to the C-130 guys out there, but turboprop pilots are barely one step above the Urinal Cake Dispenser at the airport.

Oh yeah, no offense to the Urinal Cake Dispensers, either :rolleyes:

[Guest TheBurt]

Herkdriver24, I hope you are just kidding right?

[PapaJu]

Wouldn't the funding for equipment fall partly under the state's jurisdiction, and therefore a lack of equipment would be due to what's happening in Little Rock and not in Washington?

(forgot to add this earlier)

I watched part of the second episode (I've seen the whole series) today, and was particularly annoyed at that part with the 4 black guys in the SUV talking about how the black man has it bad and has no choice but to join the Army, rapping about how they don't want to go to Iraq, why they hate GWB, etc. Gimme an F'in break. :rolleyes:

[ 13. February 2005, 21:12: Message edited by: wannaairlift ]

[HerkDerka]

Burt-

Yeah, I was throwing out some laughs for the board. I've got plenty of good buddies from AR, but I also have met some people who wastes of skin.

PAB-

You have experience "working" in men's rooms?Lighten up Francis.

HD

[Guest TheBurt]

That's cool. I always found the Arkansas ladies to be very friendly! Especially on Saturday night at BJ's Star Studded Honky Tonk (now the Electric Cowboy), I spent a few nights sleeping in my truck out in the grass parking lot out back, when they were'nt so friendly.

[Guest Youngnita]

Hmmm, Wanna what's up with your last post?

Meanwhile, we Arkies get such a bad rap...you know with the family tree that has no branches and all. All in good fun.

[Guest HueyPilot]

If you think Arkies are bad, go to Louisiana! Ever heard of a "coon ass"?

[shiznitobam_allstars]

How it was described to me....

When you hear about a coon ass, think of the character "Farmer Fran" in the movie "The Waterboy".

[PapaJu]

Originally posted by Flylady:

Hmmm, Wanna what's up with your last post?

Meanwhile, we Arkies get such a bad rap...you know with the family tree that has no branches and all. All in good fun.

Which part?

[Scooter14]

HD24,

You know me, how could I resist giving you some grief about that ridiculous post.

[ 14. February 2005, 14:58: Message edited by: PAB ]

[Guest waxgoblin]

arkansas family tree:

sorry

[ 14. February 2005, 16:46: Message edited by: waxgoblin ]

[Guest Youngnita]

Oh, that hurt! You're killing me Wax! :eek:

Wanna, your comment with regards to the guys.

Happy Valentine's Day to ya'll.

[Guest falcon13]

Wax and all,

Did you know????

I did see that episode, and I wanted to add that there were/are AD, Guard, and Reserve AF guys/gals doing the same thing. I was part of the first AF component to be IM (Involuntary Mobilized) to work for the Army as truck drivers to help with the shortfall of 88Ms. We were deployed last February, went to Kuwait, got trained by retired special ops for 5 days at the firing range, got some old beat up Army trucks with no armor and convoyed up to Balad AB.

My AFSC is 2T151, that is a vehicle operator for all you nonprior. In other words, we had no prior combat experience minus some prior Army/Marines. They threw together around 4-6 Guard guys from a bunch of units, some reserves, and some AD guys, and made us into 4 different Companies. We encompassed Army regs, except we were allowed to keep out AF DCU's. We stayed on the Army side of the bases, and lived the Army lifestyle. Damn, the AF is spoiled.

Enough of the details, the 4 Companies went to different bases and became gun trucks. That is with MK-19s, SAWs, .50 Cal, etc. Most of the training on the crew served weapons was literaly OJT. We escorted Army, Marine and Navy convoys all over Iraq and Kuwait.

I am just confirming that we did get a lot of junk, even though we were AF. We managed. I was very fortunate because during one of my convoys after we picked up 1st AD equip, my truck was hit by an IED. I won't explain the entire engagement, but I suffered shrapnel to the head, nerve damage to my arm, etc. But, neither myself nor my passenger were killed.

Anyways, the deployment was 7 months, I came home early because of my injuries.

Just to add another note, I was selected one week before I shipped out of the US to become a fighter pilot at my base. It was too late to get off orders, but I wouldn't have even tried. I am back now, all recovered, and hopefully finally get my dates this week.

I just can't wait to get up in the air, get back over in that vicinity, and drop some good 'ol lead from above. Talk about getting even. Well, I know things will slightly change by the time I am even qualified to go OCONUS, but hey, just the thought makes me smile.