Medals and ribbons

[OneSevenDeuce]

Well, when the Army actually spends time in the combat zones, dodging mortars and ducking from rockets with the rest instead of partying in the E-Club, then I MIGHT consider what the Army does an actual deployment. Until then, it is a 15-16 month paid VACATION. I would gladly take all that money to sit around in the E-Club and do nothing at all for 15 months. Hell, let's make it 20 months.

Haha, might as well make it 20 months with all those sailors running around with your ex.

[CRM2004]

Haha, might as well make it 20 months with all those sailors running around with your ex.

Haha ain't that the truth.

[OneSevenDeuce]

Haha ain't that the truth.

Is this the point at which we get tanked, start punching each other, and then both end up laughing at the Coast Guard?

[CRM2004]

Hah we're all brothers and sisters fighting the same cause. I prefer to go after the Air Force - The Coast Guard are too good of swimmers for me, and living right next to the ocean, they are the last ones I wanna piss off. I can't swim for crap. I might need their help some time.

[rero360]

Hah we're all brothers and sisters fighting the same cause. I prefer to go after the Air Force - The Coast Guard are too good of swimmers for me, and living right next to the ocean, they are the last ones I wanna piss off. I can't swim for crap. I might need their help some time.

Heck yeah, plus the Air Force chow halls always have the best food (minus the Embassy in the IZ). It was a shock the first time going into one over in Iraq and being handed real plates and silverware, opposed to the plastic stuff we were given at all the army chow halls I visited in country.

My old CO from when I was a MP was a former Coastie, total MILF, quite the hard charger too, she arranged some pretty good training over the years.

[CRM2004]

Heck yeah, plus the Air Force chow halls always have the best food (minus the Embassy in the IZ). It was a shock the first time going into one over in Iraq and being handed real plates and silverware, opposed to the plastic stuff we were given at all the army chow halls I visited in country.

The chow halls are all hit or miss though. TQ had the nicest chow hall that I saw while deployed. The two chow halls at Fallujah are alright too, if you ignore the ugly 90 year old toothless Asian women that serve your food to you... Hell, they even served steak and lobster at the Fallujah ones. Not sure if any other ones served it - I spent most of my time at the small outlying camps that people have never heard of... Not trying to brag or be a Rambo - The camps were never heard of for a reason. They sucked, and no one wanted to be there. Then, when they left, they never wanted to talk about the place ever again.

[tacticalcity]

Hah we're all brothers and sisters fighting the same cause. I prefer to go after the Air Force - The Coast Guard are too good of swimmers for me, and living right next to the ocean, they are the last ones I wanna piss off. I can't swim for crap. I might need their help some time.

I see how it is. Need a ride home and we're you're best damn friend. The rest of the time we're a punchline.

Not everyone in the Air Force flies a desk and is made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Combat controllers and pararescue are extreme examples of serious bad arses wearing ABUs these days. There are others as well. We have all kinds of weird specialties that most people have never heard of that seem more like something the Army or Marines would do based on the stereotype.

As for food, best bacon cheeseburger in the world is at the bowling alley at Lajes Air Field in the Azores. Then again that might have had something to do with my just having lived off MREs for months on end. Back in my day if you were headed to or from the Middle East, you stayed at least one night at Lajes. Not sure why they did that, but they did. The hot meal, hot shower, and warm bed were always a welcome sight...particular on the return trip. I occasionally get a craving for that cheeseburger, and that amazing ocean view. Pretty boring place after the first day or so, but it is also pretty cool because of how small the island is, and how the base is setup.

My biggest gripe about deploying with the Army, even more than their pushy Sergeant Majors, is that they would always raid our MREs and not only steel the only half-way decent meals, but take every single package of M&Ms. MREs were a lot nastier in my day, and we pretty much lived for the M&Ms. That one really got under our skin. Marines had too much dignity to mess with another man's food. The Army guys just seemed to have a chip on their shoulder towards us. Of all the services we deployed with, I respected the Marines the most. The Army and Navy guys would sit around and watch when their was work to be done, while the Marines were itching for any excuse to stay busy...to the point that you started to feel bad for letting them lend a hand...like you were taking advantage or something. They were usually a lot quicker to make friends as well, which surprised me, since the stereotype was that they would be rude and abrasive. More often than not I found the Marines were really great guys. They told the best jokes, laughed the loudest, and never sat around and watched while others were working. I did my best to learn from their example. Made me a better airman.

With regards to the OP, about ribbons and medals. The USAF wears only one (ribbons or medals and not both at once) and only on the left side above your heart. Any badges or wings go above your ribbon board. Only your name tag goes on the right. We don't do the both sides of the uniform thing like other branches do...not that I am aware of at least. I never bothered getting the medal version for a lot of my awards. It was a lot more common to be handed a ribbon, even when it also came in medal form, than to be handed a medal. They usually only did the medal thing when it was something big. At least in the squadrons to which I was assigned. I think I only went through one actual medal ceremony. The most prestigious award I have was just handed to me as ribbon. No speach, no nothing. Medals meant money out of pocket, and you only got to wear them if you were getting married or something. You never saw people wearing them.

[CRM2004]

I see how it is. Need a ride home and we're you're best damn friend. The rest of the time we're a punchline.

All the Airmen I met in Iraq were too scared to go outside. I had to be airlifted via Marine helicopters if I wanted to go anywhere in a hurry. Then, to LEAVE the Mid East, I took a civilian plane each and every time! Sooo, I didn't even need you guys for the ride home! Haha.

I know of the Combat Controllers and ParaRescue. If the Air Force didn't at least have SOMETHING good come out of there, they wouldn't exist, and would be merged back into the Army

In all seriousness, though. I have quite a few friends that were in the Air Force, and my sister is currently in as well. She just got back from the Mid East, too. She had a great time. I think she is trying to reenlist, too... Lucky brat. I have nothing against any branch of the Armed Forces, and when it comes down to it I doubt anyone really honestly does. We poke and prod and have our fun making jokes, but we all need each other to complete the missions at hand. I'm proud to have served, and I call each and every service member my Brother and Sister.

[Prowler]

All the Airmen I met in Iraq were too scared to go outside. I had to be airlifted via Marine helicopters if I wanted to go anywhere in a hurry. Then, to LEAVE the Mid East, I took a civilian plane each and every time! Sooo, I didn't even need you guys for the ride home! Haha.

I know of the Combat Controllers and ParaRescue. If the Air Force didn't at least have SOMETHING good come out of there, they wouldn't exist, and would be merged back into the Army

In all seriousness, though. I have quite a few friends that were in the Air Force, and my sister is currently in as well. She just got back from the Mid East, too. She had a great time. I think she is trying to reenlist, too... Lucky brat. I have nothing against any branch of the Armed Forces, and when it comes down to it I doubt anyone really honestly does. We poke and prod and have our fun making jokes, but we all need each other to complete the missions at hand. I'm proud to have served, and I call each and every service member my Brother and Sister.

So true!

[OneSevenDeuce]

Yes, I too think that we should all love one another... Except for the marines. They get enough lovin' from the Sailors as it is, haha!

But really, I had a discussion with some non combat f<>ck trying to school me on "tactics" elsewhere so, yeah, it's good to be among friends... Even the Marines.

[rero360]

The chow halls are all hit or miss though. TQ had the nicest chow hall that I saw while deployed. The two chow halls at Fallujah are alright too, if you ignore the ugly 90 year old toothless Asian women that serve your food to you... Hell, they even served steak and lobster at the Fallujah ones. Not sure if any other ones served it - I spent most of my time at the small outlying camps that people have never heard of... Not trying to brag or be a Rambo - The camps were never heard of for a reason. They sucked, and no one wanted to be there. Then, when they left, they never wanted to talk about the place ever again.

I know exactly what you mean about small camps that most people never heard of, I remember being sent up to Anaconda for two weeks for CROWS training (remote control turret) got chatting with this guy stationed there, he was complaining on how it was there and how he had almost no down time at all. I offered to swap with him, explained how I normally went on 8 to 10 hour patrols, 5 days a week with one day to recover/fix the trucks and another day where I would spend 4 hours of it up in a tower. He said hell yeah, thats a sweet gig, where at, I told him where and he told me to go to hell and walked away lol. FOB Rustamiyah, SE side of Baghdad, but we also manned a number of COBs throughout the city and the outskirts.

[steelrain82]

on my last deployment when we went to tq to fly home, they actualy were complaining about having steak and lobster every sunday. my buddy said "oh you're sick of it huh?" then he proceeded to take the guys chow. we all had a good laugh at the AF guy who lost his chow. we never had anything like that at fallujah. but when i think about it i think i only ate there10-12 times throughout ththe deployment and that was mainly when we were going home. the rest of the time was good ole mre's or the hum rats we were suppossed to give out.