moving0target

You make more than the top 10% of college professors. I don't know if you came up with the business model, but you've certainly executed it. What kind of hours do you put in?

Dad was Army infantry 69-70. I went to a few of his platoon reunions. Especially after he had a couple drinks under his belt, he'd get pretty loquacious about his experiences. When I was a kid, be probably told me stuff I really wasn't ready to hear since he didn't edit the facts. He described enemy troops getting hit by a beehive round.

In spite of hearing these various stories for many years before attending the first reunion, I learned so much more about what he did and what sort of person he was by either talking to his squad or just being a fly on the wall while they reminisced.

One of the most hilarious moments was the first day of one reunion. The hotel lobby/dining room/lounge were one large open space. We were sitting with "Toothless Terry." (He was missing a couple of his front teeth during his tour.) He had all his teeth by the point of the reunion so he was just "Terry" by that point.

Echoing from all the way across the room, "Toothless Terry?!"

Terry jumped up, knocking over his chair, "Sparky?!"

"Sparky" was dubbed such because he carried an M60. Not only did tracers light up the night, but burning powder created showers of sparks along with muzzle flash. "Sparky" hated his assignment because the first time he opened fire, he became the focal point of incoming fire.

Sparky shouted back across the nearly full room, "YOU PISSED ON MY MACHINE GUN!"

That would probably go well in /r/nocontext. I'll explain, though. It was monsoon season and night time was about as absolutely dark as dark can get. Terry got up to take a leak. He stumbled a few paces and let fly...not knowing he was standing over Sparky's position.

Edit: We watched a show one time where to opposing commanders of a particularly bloody battle met up about thirty years later. Mom asked dad if he could ever do that. He just shook his head. I think that would be too many memories.

Edit: Here are some glimpses of a few of the things dad saw and did while he was in Vietnam. More is available if anyone is interested (or wants to look through my topic history.)

It'd be a pretty cool base jump...unless your chute got caught in the blades. Then it would just be a really nasty carnival ride.

If nothing else, you get props for saving Dan's ass whether you roomed with him or not. :)

That's pretty much how I imagine Boba Fett in the later Star Wars novels.