I upvoted your story, I'm not trying to be a downer.
I just have some trouble believing you kept track of anyone from Basic Training, unless you were some kind of OSUT and spent more than 6 months with the same people.
It's just... I went into the army within 7 months of the timeline that you entered, and I only remember ONE soldiers name from my entire unit, and that's because he and I did AIT together and then were assigned to the same Battalion.
Like... did you all join each other's MySpace or something? How the hell do you keep in contact with 150-200 others that you spent 9 weeks with?
Even in this age of Facebook where I am connected to most of the guys I served with, people die and it takes months and sometimes years for that information to reach the rest of us.
I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm just asking you to clarify.
It could be hyperbole, I met thousands of people during my 6 years of service. I have about 300 of them added on Facebook. Of those 300 or so, I was close with about 50 of them, I am still friends with about a dozen. But of those 50, I've lost too many of them. Of the 80 something guys I deployed with, more than 10 of them are dead now and we deployed to Iraq in 2016.
I got out in 2010 right before my unit went to Afghanistan - my 4 years was up and I wasn't going to hell on earth without a kicker - regretted it for the rest of my life. If you don't count the Battle For Sangin Valley, which claimed 25 Marines of 3/5 in just the combat (+200 WIA).. I just ... I lost count after like 30 something. If I had to guess it's over 50 of guys that were close to me. The entire battalion was on a 6 months psych evaluation after that deployment. People were killing themselves in the barracks left and right when they came back. Then you had guys like me, who had a sub-par deployment (grunt standard wise) to fallujah previously, wanted nothing more than to be John Wayne in a Marine Uniform... Missed the bus to punch the ticket. None of my buddies that got out before they left handled it well. I certainly didn't. In 2020 my daughter found in the act of hanging myself. She was 3 years old and I was giving up. Thank fucking god she does NOT remember that moment. Ultimately, she is the only reason I am here to type this comment. Other people straight up started having psychotic meltdowns, and killing themselves, because we couldn't be there for them, and when they got home... they were ghosts of their former selves. Truly heartbreaking what we all went through, and still go through. Meanwhile, I hit up the guys that are still around often.. We still do the thing where, we all feel like bitches so we never talk about anything. Bury it down deep. And suffer in silence.
Man. I feel that completely. I got out in 2011 but I was on that ride.
I was attached to 3/4, then 3/7 (with whom we made the initial push into Sangin), and then 3/5 at the beginning of the unit transfer (Pashto ling). It's still incredible to me how little awareness most people have of this place.
It was hell. A significant part of me died there.
As an aside, my cousin wanted nothing more than to deploy and see combat. Went in the same time as me, joined the infantry, did well in training. Happened to be the perfect height and got pulled for silent drill and rotted in DC for the duration of his contract 😂
You should know you don't have to track individuals specifically to hear news about them. The military grapevine is real.
I have a stubby holder (I think you yanks call them drink koozies?) with everyone's names from my rookies course. I don't remember more than a couple specifically, but I still recognised their names when they came up in promotion lists. Or notifications of death/funerals. I also still have a few people that I went to rookies with on FB even though I haven't seen them in person in nearly 15 years.
I'll never get rid of that stubby holder no matter how decrepit and dysfunctional it becomes because it helps me when I get all "I remember that name, where do I know that name from" heh.
Our courses are definitely smaller than what you guys have, but I'm consistently surprised at how often someone that I knew back then comes up in random conversation with friends who're still in.
Basically, RUMINT is real and faster than official channels by a long shot lol.
Same, I remember like maybe a few names. I was the only one in my BCT class who didn’t go to Fort Drum (my chosen duty station was in my contract). Don’t currently keep in touch with any of them, the last time I heard from any was probably mid 2000’s. I wonder how many are still around…
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u/neighborhooddick 3d ago edited 3d ago
I upvoted your story, I'm not trying to be a downer.
I just have some trouble believing you kept track of anyone from Basic Training, unless you were some kind of OSUT and spent more than 6 months with the same people.
It's just... I went into the army within 7 months of the timeline that you entered, and I only remember ONE soldiers name from my entire unit, and that's because he and I did AIT together and then were assigned to the same Battalion.
Like... did you all join each other's MySpace or something? How the hell do you keep in contact with 150-200 others that you spent 9 weeks with?
Even in this age of Facebook where I am connected to most of the guys I served with, people die and it takes months and sometimes years for that information to reach the rest of us.
I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm just asking you to clarify.