I spent a little over twenty years playing army. Not quite six years in the Nebraska National Guard and over fourteen in the Army Reserve. I was deployed only once, serving on active duty for 18 months with 13 of those overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I do not go out of my way to draw attention to my service. In fact I don’t really enjoy talking about myself with people I don’t know (I even have trouble writing here even though no one knows this blog exists). I have met several people though that have no problem drawing attention to themselves regardless of their service.
I donate plasma (selling plasma is more accurate) and I would see the same guy every week. He had a high and tight hair cut and was always wearing a t-shirt, sweats, or something with ARMY all over it. He would talk loudly to anyone around how he was getting back into the reserves after getting out of active duty. Generally he implied a long and storied active duty stint.
One day we were both seated waiting for our turn to get stuck when he, as always, was talking to someone about serving on active duty. He mentioned that he had been assigned to the 4th ID. Coincidently our first mission when we hit the ground was moving the 4th ID from the port to the staging camps (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania if you remember them from early in the war) then from the staging camps to areas in and around Baghdad. We were also there long enough to help move them back to Kuwait so they could rotate home but that is another story. This statement made me do something way out of character for me, I talked to someone that I didn’t know. I told him that when I deployed we moved the 4th ID and asked him when he was in and if he was deployed. His reaction to my question told me all I needed to know. He kind of hemmed and hawed for a little bit then he manned up and told me, and the guys he was telling war stories to, that he was only in the army for about four months then took a medical discharge. The guy that lived for the attention and accolades of military service took a medical shortly after basic and AIT.
I am proud of my service in the army. I am proud that I spent time in harms way for my country. I am proud to be a member of the Retired Reserve. I do not like people who did none of that taking credit for my service.
