The Subsim Veterans/Active Duty Thread

[Texas Red]

Hi all,

I'm sure that I have stated this in another post somewhere, but my future choice for my career is the Navy. And I have to thank my family members who served in the military for driving my passion for the military. Why do I have to thank my military familymembers for my future career choice? Well, let me explain.

When I was 2, was when I started to really, and I mean really start to show big interest and love for boats. My parents say that 'for some inexplicable reason, you were drawn to boats.' I even told my schooling peers that I wanted to be a sailor. In fact, I remember going to air shows and the like since I was a little kid. And the first ship I was drawn to was the Titanic. Up until I was 8 or 9 (which was when I started to move on to submarines and other ships), my entire world REVOLVED around the Titanic. It was that ship that kickstarted a deeper passion for boats. Reading a document that a therapist wrote for about me when I was in the 1st grade, on the first page alone the word 'Titanic' popped up at least five times or more.
And when I got a little older I started to show more interest in different ships and started to move away from the Titanic to submarines, which was what brought me to the Silent Hunter series and the Subsim genre.

When I was 10 or 11, I really decided what I wanted to do in life, which was to serve in the Navy as an officer on board a submarine. What also made me decide to do that was hearing stories of my great-grandfathers who served in World War II. They are my heroes and I wish I could have met them, and their stories of the war and such have shaped me into who I am today.

And so, I am here to tell you about these people. Feel free to share stories of your own family folks too! Or something about yourself if you are on active duty or you have a part in something military-related. Anyone is welcome here

[Texas Red]

I think the first post here should go to the veteran of my family who inspired me to gain knowledge on WWII.

His name was Gilbert DeVries, born in Indiana in 1913, he grew up near the Kankakee River and went hunting there regularly.
He served in the US Army from 1941-1946(?) as an artilleryman for the 603rd Tank Destroyer Battalion. We (my family and I) do not know a lot about his war service since most of his war items were permanently destroyed by Gilbert's mentally ill son. Recently, my great aunt discovered some of his old war stuff in a wooden box in her attic, some of the items in there gave me a general idea of the unit he served in. Included was a Camp Hood tank destroyer patch, and his 603rd TDB patch. He also had two Marksmanship medals, one Expert Sharpshooter in the Carbine, and another regular Sharpshooter medal. The latter, however, was missing the clasp that would tell us what weapon he was a marksman in.

He also had the rank patch of a Luftwaffe Lieutenant Colonel too, something that surprised me, because I do not know how he got it, nor does my grandpa.

We also have some pictures too.

This one is a picture of Gilbert and his brother fishing together in Belgium. Gilbert is the one on the left.



This one was of him probably from sometime during the war, after he had finished training maybe.



The 603rd TDB's war service also matches the stories of Gilbert from the war. Gilbert said he fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and liberated Buchenwald (which my grandpa remembered, falsely, as Bergen-Belsen), he also had some pretty gnarly stories of war that I could share here if prompted, this thread is about your guy's stories mainly.

Gilbert also had some pictures taken from when he liberated Buchenwald, these were of the hundreds of dead bodies stacked on top of each other. Those, unfortunately, were destroyed by Gil's son.

Gilbert said that they forced the remaining German soldiers who were at the camp to dig graves for the corpses lying around the camp. And every once in a while they would hear the sound of a machine gun firing and a CO yelling,
"Don't shoot the Germans!" That is some pretty grisly stuff.

I have to thank Gilbert for inspiring me to learn about WWII and gain all the knowledge I have on the subject.

[Texas Red]

Reserved

[Platapus]

Rats, I could not get a reservation.

[vienna]

Ya gotta know somebody...




<O>

[derstosstrupp]

Former Marine here, 0313 LAV crewman, 2002 to 2006. Did one tour in Iraq, 2004-2005, participated in the 2nd Battle of Fallujah in November 2004.

Great idea for a thread Red! And I can’t commend you enough for doing this cadet training now, I know you will do great.

[Kaye T. Bai]

Currently in the process of joining the USN as a corpsman (specifically HMDA). Leave for training today.

[3catcircus]

Former submarine reactor operator.

[Torpex77]

1985-2005
USS BOSTON SSN 703
USS SUNFISH SSN 649
USS PASADENA SSN 752

Diving Officer Qualified on all 3
Contact Coordinator on 649 & 752

Punched holes in Every major ocean. As a Torpedoman We were a test platform on Boston, launching over 700 torpedos.

Hard life, damn well worth it. ❤️

[HW3]

Former Air Force, 42370 aircraft electrician, 1969-1976, spent 2 years in the Azores 1972-1974.

[ET2SN]

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it in the past.

[Texas Red]

Originally Posted by derstosstrupp

Former Marine here, 0313 LAV crewman, 2002 to 2006. Did one tour in Iraq, 2004-2005, participated in the 2nd Battle of Fallujah in November 2004.

Great idea for a thread Red! And I can’t commend you enough for doing this cadet training now, I know you will do great.

Awesome, didn't know you were in a battle!
To be honest, I am surprised that no one else had thought of this idea before. I think that it is best for everyone to be remembered and their story told to keep the flame going. Also, about the cadet training, we had a Marine Staff-Sergeant come to do PT with us on Saturday last week. He was a recruiter that the CO's daughter had met while looking at the Marines. He did some tours in Iraq, I think he said.
That PT though was hard but I felt relaxed and happy for the rest of the day. I was reading the POD (Plan of the Day) earlier before I left for the drill and it said:
"1130, secure chow and change into PT gear for our motivational speech with Staff Sergeant (insert name here)"
Normally you don't change into PT gear for a motivational speech..
We did some running and ab workouts to "warm-up", and some people were already exhausted by then. Next thing we had to do was some more intense workouts in a series of 6 workouts. I will explain it here.

There were 6 cones out in the field behind the drill site, the 6th cone was probably a good 60-80 yards. We were told that our first workout for the first cone would be "low crawling (Army Crawling) and then sprint back to the start" The second workout for the second cone would be high crawling and then we would sprint back from the second cone to the start. The third workout for the third cone would be bear crawling and then sprinting back to the start. The fourth workout for the fourth cone was an inchworm up to about maybe 40 or so yards and then sprint back to the start.
By that point many people were about ready to collapse on the ground (including me, but I still came in second behind the Leading Petty Officer)

The fifth workout for the fifth cone was lunges and then sprint back to the start.

The sixth and final workout was squat jumps, which is basically you doing squats while jumping, it looks like this:


We had to do that for 80 yards and then sprint back to the beginning and wait for other people to finish. I was practically dying by that time, and yet I pushed myself further and further.
If you have ever done a squat before, like multiple of them, then you know how your legs and abs hurt like hell, but imagine doing all of the workouts I did previously and then doing this final workout. The end result was basically me trying not to puke in front of everyone.

And then we had a competition where I got buddy-dragged like this:
for 10 yards or so. That wasn't bad at all. Yet I was still really fatigued and about to fall over.

Finally, I won a Marine lanyard by sprinting the 80 yards and back. I narrowly beat the other guy I was racing, in fact I had to dive to beat him. And the Staff Sergent gave me the lanyard.
After that I did puke.

Later the LPO singled me out saying I was "probably the most physically fit person in here besides the Chief Petty Officer, him, and a few other POs. Yet you still need to work out to improve yourself."

Also a few days ago, I registered for Recruit Training (RT, which is basically like boot camp for cadets) in Florida. And the COTC later approved me, as did my CO, for attending. And so I leave in June for Florida for RT.

Currently in the process of joining the USN as a corpsman (specifically HMDA). Leave for training today.

Good luck! What made you choose to be a dental assistant? I am curious as I haven't met a person who chose a job like that. There are some kids in my unit who are qualified as Corpsmen at like 16. There is some training that I can attend where the subject is "Tac Med" which, from what I have heard, is REALLY demanding physically, mentally, and academically.

Former submarine reactor operator.1985-2005
USS BOSTON SSN 703
USS SUNFISH SSN 649
USS PASADENA SSN 752

Diving Officer Qualified on all 3
Contact Coordinator on 649 & 752

Punched holes in Every major ocean. As a Torpedoman We were a test platform on Boston, launching over 700 torpedos.

Hard life, damn well worth it. ❤️

Reactor Operator? That must be a cool job operating the heart of the submarine, though it must be nerve-wracking knowing that those things can kill you if something goes wrong.
I plan on being a Weapons Officer on a submarine since I LOVE weapons and I shoot shotguns on courses with my grandparents regularly. Plus I think that it would be the job that fits my interests best.

Former Air Force, 42370 aircraft electrician, 1969-1976, spent 2 years in the Azores 1972-1974.

Aircraft electrician? What do you do as an Aircraft Electrician? You probably operate an Aircrafts Electric systems but what else do you do?

Rats, I could not get a reservation.

Since you were the first one to post, you get a free reservation!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it in the past.

Let me guess, submariner?

[HW3]

Aircraft electrician? What do you do as an Aircraft Electrician? You probably operate an Aircrafts Electric systems but what else do you do?

Troubleshoot, maintain, repair, and update assigned aircrafts electrical systems.

[mapuc]

Have removed my input in the discussion, since it is a 100 % American military veteran thread.

Markus

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Kaye T. Bai

Currently in the process of joining the USN as a corpsman (specifically HMDA). Leave for training today.

Originally Posted by El Whacko

Good luck! What made you choose to be a dental assistant? I am curious as I haven't met a person who chose a job like that. There are some kids in my unit who are qualified as Corpsmen at like 16. There is some training that I can attend where the subject is "Tac Med" which, from what I have heard, is REALLY demanding physically, mentally, and academically.

Young Lad: be advised, Rule 1 of modern warfare: "An army (and navy or airforce) travels on it's stomach"! Basically we killed all the buffalo and practised biological warfare (smallpox) and simply out-ate the natives to make good Indians!...On submarines mealtimes are considered major moral boosters. You yourself discovered this when quaranteen'd in your bedroom with Covid and mommy occasionally slipped pizza under the door...but didn't confiscate your computer! A critical function of this military logistical principle is...GOOD TEETH! No one can effectively go "over the top" with an excrutiating abscessed tooth to bayonet the foe in no man's land. Hence, a dental assistant, with pliers and a bag of flossers, is essential equipment on any fighting front. They will not blow ballast for a sailor's toothach on a boomer! Even the Earps had Doc Holliday-dentist with them at the OK Corral!! EDIT: and take that TAKMed training; it's very useful at accidents, heart-attacks in your neighborhood/household etc. You'll be the "go-to man" holding the line until the EMT cavalry arrives; generally 10 min. on a dispatch, but essential to a victim in mortal distress. And it beats standing around gawking uselessly....