For All Who Serve

[Laird_M]

2 1/2 years in British Army.

Had two VERY close calls, but survived both to meet my beautiful wife.

Spent most of my time delivering training so although I travelled, didn't get to see much of the places I went to.

[Jerry]

I was a radar Electronics Technician aboard a US Navy Tin Can in the late 1960s.

[sailortats]

Former Navy radioman (RM3) after boot camp and radio school, both at Bainbridge Maryland, was sent to NSS (Naval Communications station Washington D.C.) for a year, thence to the best Navy ship afloat, at the time, USS HISSEM DER400. We were part of the DewLine Defense Force and spent 30-40 days at a time bobbing around the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to the Azores. Wouldn't have traded the experience for all the gold in the world.

[Sir William]

Air Force dependent - 18 years (my dad and younger brother both retired from the Air Force)
US Marines - 3 years
US Marine Reserves - 3 years
US Navy - 5 years
US Marines - 3 years
US Marine Reserves 14 years
Army Civilian - 10 years
Air Force Civilian - 3 years
Defense Intelligence Agency civilian - 7 years

[Neil Clark]

6 years 2nd Battalion Scots Guards 1980 - 86, then Strathclyde Police 1986 to date. Presently working on making piping and tour guiding my main employment.
Oh, I was an Air cadet too. And Pipe Major (adult) for 4 cadet pipe bands.
Must be a uniform fetishist...

[Santa Kona]

US Army 1969 ~ 1977

[Peter Crowe]

I have been a secondary school History teacher primarily serving underprivileged urban schools and also spent some time in Special Education (Social Emotional) for about seven years. When I was a younger man I wanted to have a career as an attested Police Constable in Scotland. Strathclyde Police was my first choice and although unsuccessful in that endeavour I briefly worked part-time as a civilian crime prevention field-worker with the then Community Involvement department of Lothian and Borders Police at Hawick. I also tried to enlist in the TA (52nd Lowland Volunteers, KOSB Coy.) with a view to officer candidacy but discovered I was medically unfit for police/military service with scoliosis and being significantly underweight for my height, the cause of which I only discovered in 2010 . For those reasons I only checked the Education box. Most of the men from my father's family were in either the British Army or the British Merchant Navy.

In my adolescence I was a Cadet with the Air Training Corps in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. I was also active in Scouting from the ages of eight to sixteen when our family moved to the Borders.

I discovered in 2010 that I was born with a hereditary connective tissue disorder (marfan syndrome) probably (we speculate) inherited from my late mother which makes military/police/fire service and contact sports dangerous for a sudden aortic dissection and also causes poor weight to height ratio and scoliosis. I had to have aortic repair surgery in May 2010 as I already at 43 (due to life's wear and tear) had an aortic aneurysm that was in imminent danger of dissection.

[Black Watch]

4 years (German) Army 1976-80
Sergeant/ tank platoon leader

Sooo long ago when war still was "cold".

Mike

[Riverkilt]

Thank God for 'multiple choice'. Another aging cold warrior who moved on to law enforcement and fire dept crisis wagons.

[kiltedwolfman]

I spent half my career as an infanteer, then finished out with the armoured corps. At the same time when I could find the time I volunteered as a fire-fighter/paramedic.