Did You Serve?

[Marcie Jensen]

6 hours ago, KathyLauren said:

Wow, all these intelligence and counter-intelligence agents!  Spies.  Kewl.  Thank you all for your service.

Hey, Kathy Lauren, for what it's worth, we never got the James Bond guitar riff or the Walther PPK. (Dang!) And mostly, it was pretty boring stuff.

BTW, spies are the bad guys. We were referred to as "officers," or "operators." We controlled "agents" and "assets." Spies were always the other guys. What's really weird is that everybody--regardless of nationality or agency--used and still uses the same terminology. 

[Colleen Henderson]

15 minutes ago, Marcie Jensen said:

Spies were always the other guys. What's really weird is that everybody--regardless of nationality or agency--used and still uses the same terminology. 

 And, contrary to what you may have heard, "counterspies" are not store security.

[Marcie Jensen]

1 hour ago, Colleen Henderson said:

 And, contrary to what you may have heard, "counterspies" are not store security.

AMEN!!!

[Marcie Jensen]

@Colleen Hendersonyou will appreciate this. When I was with the 513th MI Bde at Ft Monmouth, we had a counterintelligence agent who's last name was "Guyy." He went by his initials--we never learned his first and middle names--which were C.I.  So his Badge and Credentials identified him as "C.I. Guyy." He was good at his job, but had no sense of humor; he never got the joke in his Bs&Cs.

[Colleen Henderson]

1 hour ago, Marcie Jensen said:

@Colleen Hendersonyou will appreciate this. When I was with the 513th MI Bde at Ft Monmouth, we had a counterintelligence agent who's last name was "Guyy." He went by his initials--we never learned his first and middle names--which were C.I.  So his Badge and Credentials identified him as "C.I. Guyy." He was good at his job, but had no sense of humor; he never got the joke in his Bs&Cs.

 

Funny!  Thanks for sharing that.

[Coelacanth]

Yes,  Royal Air Force Avionics Technician  1989-1996

[AshleighRoxx]

Served 1984-1992

surface warfare officer and naval aviator (A-6E)

[Jani]

Thanks for your service Ashleigh.  The A-6 is a neat jet.  

 

Jani

[Lydia_R]

I'm celebrating 30 years since I joined the US Navy this fall. 1992-2000 as a jazz musician. I played a large gig for Hillary Clinton in 1994 and played a smaller gig for Bill Clinton in a hanger in 1999. The highlight of that decade was playing a gig backing up Ray Charles with a local big band. Bad memories of getting drunk and vomitting though. Good memories of mountain biking. Surf biking with the dolphins!!

 

I related to stories in this thread about thinking I was gay and then figuring out that I wasn't. And then just spending decades being confused.

[Ivy]

6 hours ago, Lydia_R said:

thinking I was gay and then figuring out that I wasn't. And then just spending decades being confused.

It was kinda confusing for me too.

[Marcie Jensen]

1 hour ago, Ivy said:

It was kinda confusing for me too.

I'd say it was confusing for us all.

[Desi]

Army 23 Years. Retired in 2017.

[Marcie Jensen]

Welcome @Desi. Always good to see another grunt here. Hoo-ah!

[Ivy]

Welcome Desi 

[Jani]

Welcome aboard Desi!

[Karen Carey]

RAF aviator for 32 years.  Loved 31 years of it. The other was working in MOD London! 

[Jani]

Very nice!! Thank you for your service @Karen Carey.

 

Jani

[Desi]

10 hours ago, Jani said:

Welcome aboard Desi!

Thank you @Jani

[Desi]

@Hannah Renee.  That is so awesome. I too will always stand by my oath. 

 

 

[Jani]

Amen to that ladies!!

[Marcie Jensen]

On 1/5/2023 at 4:52 AM, Hannah Renee said:

5 January 1973, 50 years ago today, Hannah Renee first promised to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. It's a promise I stand by to this day.

Amen, sis! 

[April Marie]

I served 26 years on active duty in the Army as a commissioned officer. Split my time between Field Artillery and Military Intelligence and learned Arabic along the way. Retired as a colonel.

[Marcie Jensen]

1 hour ago, April Marie said:

I served 26 years on active duty in the Army as a commissioned officer. Split my time between Field Artillery and Military Intelligence and learned Arabic along the way. Retired as a colonel.

Welcome April Marie! Nice to see another Arabic speaker in the group. I began my 24 years as a parachute infantryman and later went into Intelligence where I served for 20 years. At one point I spoke, in addition to Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Greek and Hebrew. Nowadays, I sorta ge4t by in English. Mostly I did clandestine HUMINT collection. Glad to have you as part of the group.

[Marcie Jensen]

On 7/30/2022 at 7:29 AM, KathyLauren said:

Wow, all these intelligence and counter-intelligence agents!  Spies.  Kewl.  Thank you all for your service.

Actually, we aren't spies. Those are the bad guys.  Also, we never got the cool guitar riff, Walther PPK or Bond girl. Mostly, it's pretty boring stuff.  LOL.

[KathyLauren]

LOL!

"Clandestine HUMINT collection" = good guys.

"Spies" = bad guys.

Same job description.

Got it!  😄