Stop Microsoft
Miscellaneous => The Lounge => Topic started by: Hector Headgear on 18 March 2002, 07:19
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the DOS days were the glory days. Bill Gates was still *trying* to take over the world, and he hadn't yet succeeded. DOS was an operating system that was based on logical commands and direct access to files for manipulation. Games were simple yet fun, and you could do just about anything with your computer you wanted to. WHich is why I am building a DOS machine.
Windows 95 was a push from DOS 6.2 (the best DOS). Windows, for once, had become a stand-alone operating system, and that signaled the end of the great DOS era. Idiots could use computers, and look where it has taken us;
--Internet porn
--Online books of how to kill, bomb, or destroy
--Idiots allowed access to that information
--Support for those who have no right to own/operate a computer.
When windows 95 was introduced, the entire Infotech industry was doomed. Just because of a simple little program that replaced command.com.
Then came 98, which further eliminated DOS. And now..oh, dear lord, now...we have XP, basically AOL for an operating system. Microsoft has officially died. Logical procedures went out the window in favor of idiots double-clicking.
Yes, DOS was the days, and I hope you all don't hate those days, because they were the days when the computer was most useful. Information was exchanged via BBS's, and the internet was limited to that. But that was what made it great. And again, I hope you all realize that DOS was the reason the computer ever made it out of steve jobbs's drug-trafficking garage.
The beauty of DOS has long drawn me to older computers, and, as such, I have stuck with windows 95 for years. But even 95 takes too much away from the brilliance of DOS and Bill Gates's theft skills.
I encourage all savvy computer users to return to the command prompt--this is your call to arms. DOS awaits...opportunity knocks...don't leave it waiting.
--hector
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you lucky bastard, i have found just the thing for you.
They call it..... "Linux"
it can be used from command prompt with ultimate access to anything you need or desire.
And as far as old BBS, ya gotta get yourself a Commodore 64 (or a 128) with a plugin modem, (fits right in the back of your keyboard).
I love my commodore 64, its too bad its currently "offline" due to a lose switch in the disk drive (needs some very careful souldering)
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While I admit DOS is pretty cool. M$ did steal that too.
However, I think your a bit arogant to think you can dictate who and who shouldent be able to use a computer. If I recal corectly there was alot of inter-garbage circualting on the BBS's as well.
Whatever
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I don't know what drugs you are on, Hector, but you are obviously in desperate need of a good lashing. Did you seriously like the days of DOS, having to spend hours setting up simple things like a modem, things that takes seconds to do in any modern OS these days, including Linux? Did you enjoy it how every program had to have its own separate set of drivers to work?
quote:
Yes, DOS was the days, and I hope you all don't hate those days, because they were the days when the computer was most useful.
Your testes must be impaled on a spike. You couldn't multitask worth a crap in DOS, and its prehistoric design would never allow such useful programs like Photoshop, Flash, Excel, AutoCAD, Maya, etc. to exist. If you want to use a command line, use *NIX. It is far more powerful and intuitive than DOS ever was, is a 32-bit envrionment, and gives you the freedom to switch to a complete text interface or (if you are feeling like an idiot) a GUI interface.
You have no right to say who should use a computer, and your head is so far up your ass that I say you have no business on one. Just because something is intuitive or easy to use does not mean it is for idiots.
You are nothing more than one of those retarded pissheads who go around saying "Real Men use DOS!!" If you enjoy torturing yourself on a sissy command prompt then fine, go about your archaic foolishness and let all of us "idiots" actually use our computers.
[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: Garden GNOME ]
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in fact, i believe that the commodore 64 (or 128) is far more useful than DOS.
Think about it:
- No drivers needed
- word processing and spreadsheet programs
- plug in your "extra" hardware in you keyboard(easy)
- literaly thousands of games for it (tho they are on disks)
Downsides:
- slow, 30 min. to finish a huge company spreadsheet, today it takes a minute.
- all programs on disk
- lower quality gaming
[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: Druaga ]
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Well as far as the command line thing goes DOS was a pale imitation of Unix. Get your self a copy of Linux, install KSH93 with vi as command line editor of choice and you are set. DOS is a crappy 16bit OS with no TCP/IP stack....I mean why would you use that.
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Hey,
I have to agree with Hector to a degree. Dos was awesome.
When Windows 3.1 was a big thing a friend of mine and I decided to run a test. We chose 4 specific jobs (1. creating a directory and copying files over to it, 2. connecting to a bbs and downloading a file, 3. writing a letter and printing it, 4. adding up a group of nubers and returning a total) and we both did them on the same 20mhz 386 w/1 meg of ram. I did everything in dos while he did it in windows 3.1. We wanted to see how windows compared to dos. Dos won. If I remember correctly it took me 12 minutes to do all these tasks separately in Dos. It took 14 or 15 minutes to do them in Windows 3.1 but he was doing everything at once. Today that test would no longer work because multi-tasking is much better now than it used to be.
IMHO Dos 5.0 was the best dos but all dos versions were great.
However Hector you have no right to decide who may or may not use a computer. Today OS's are more user friendly true but that does not mean that people are idiots today. It just means things are getting easier.
quote:
Garden Gnome said
Did you seriously like the days of DOS, having to spend hours setting up simple things like a modem, things that takes seconds to do in any modern OS these days, including Linux? Did you enjoy it how every program had to have its own separate set of drivers to work?
WTF who ever heard of taking hours to set up a modem? It was very simple. Read the doc that came with the modem (5 mins), set the dip switches on the modem (1 min), install the modem (5 min), copy a driver to your hard disk (1 min), add a line or 2 to your config.sys and or autoexec.bat (2 min). Yes that would take about 15 minutes but no way would it take hours. The same is true for a printer or whatever else you wanted to install. I suppose though for people who could not comprehend what they read or those who did not read the docs it could take longer but that was very rare. Most people have the common sense to read the docs.
As for drivers for programs, most good programs had their own drivers included or used the dos drivers that were set up on the system. Word Perfect is a good example of this, with WP5.0 you could use the included drivers for your printer or you could have WP search your environment and pick up your installed printer.
About the only real problem with drivers was video drivers at the time. Most programs used video modes like MCGA. If you ever did any programming you would know it was easy.
mov al,13h
mov ah,0
int 10h
Then define the screen address as A000h and your in business on any vga compatible monitor. Make an array the size of the screen to point to the screen address load your images to the array and flip them to the screen. Nothing to it. Or you could go direct to the screen without using an array.
The one I show above is the very simple MCGA mode. 320X200 256 color resolution, single page. There was also ModeX 320X200 256 color 4 pages , ModeY 320X240 256 color 3 pages, etc.
So you did not have a highres 16,24 or 32 bit depth graphics. But you could do things with graphics then that you can't imagine doing now like a 4 way fade to black and back to the image. Some truly awesome stuff. Hell you could make it appear you were doing a hundred way fade if you wanted just by what pages you were displaying at what part of the screen. Simple but fancy stuff that is impossible to do today.
All in all though Dos kicked ass.
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I used to run a two node BBS using PC-Board under DOS, multitasking with DesqView. DesqView was pretty cool at the time. It was the second largest BBS in the state at the time. This was pre Win 3.0. I handled MetroLink and Fido news feeds, which was similar to news groups on the Internet today. I remember ditching my C64 for a Tandy 1000 with DOS 3.2 and I was in heaven. (http://smile.gif) Of course this was shortly before I got turned on to UNIX and the Internet (which is nothing like it is today). DOS was good to me, it's when I started getting heavily into programming using Turbo Pascal and Borland C. But when I moved to UNIX I was like a kid in a candy store, and still am 12 years later.
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
I used to run a two node BBS using PC-Board under DOS, multitasking with DesqView. DesqView was pretty cool at the time. It was the second largest BBS in the state at the time. This was pre Win 3.0. I handled MetroLink and Fido news feeds, which was similar to news groups on the Internet today. I remember ditching my C64 for a Tandy 1000 with DOS 3.2 and I was in heaven. (http://smile.gif) Of course this was shortly before I got turned on to UNIX and the Internet (which is nothing like it is today). DOS was good to me, it's when I started getting heavily into programming using Turbo Pascal and Borland C. But when I moved to UNIX I was like a kid in a candy store, and still am 12 years later.
DesqView was nice. I still wonder why it never went anywhere.
I used to read\post to Fido all the time. Particularly the pascal feed. (http://smile.gif)
WOOOHOOO a Tandy 1000 I have not even thought about those in years. I never actually owned a Tandy but several friends had them. My first system was an 8088 w/640k of ram and a CGA monitor. Oh yeah and back then 1200bps on a modem was screaming. (http://smile.gif)
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Yeah, if I remember correctly the Tandy 1000TX (the model I had) had 640K of RAM (I believe the other 1000s had 512K. I recall it would run in 4 and 8 Mhz modes (8 was Turbo mode). And I think it was roughly a 286 processor, or was it an 8088? When I started my BBS I was running 1200 baud modems, then upped to 2400 and then upped to 9600 when they came out, then quit shortly after when I moved. I had upgraded to the super large 80MB Seagate hard drive that just hit the market (after running two $500 20MB Tandy hard drives). And installed a Perstore controller board which boosted the capacity of the Seagate to about 150MB. This put me in second place in the state for largest disk capacity of a BBS.
Somewhere along the line the 386 machines came out and I built my own speed demon. It was "lightning fast" and I couldn't imagine computers ever needing to be more powerul than that. Of course Bill Gates blew that theory with the release of Windows 3.x. And on it went. It was amazing how fast programs could run when they weren't bloated with the extra fat.
And I found this link with a picture of the old 1000TX:
http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/trs1000.htm (http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/trs1000.htm)
[ March 18, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
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quote:
the DOS days were the glory days. Bill Gates was still *trying* to take over the world, and he hadn't yet succeeded. DOS was an operating system that was based on logical commands and direct access to files for manipulation. Games were simple yet fun, and you could do just about anything with your computer you wanted to. WHich is why I am building a DOS machine.
I think you are exaggerating.
DOS is a simplified version of UNIX (as far as the interface goes) with confusingly different commands et c.
DOS is much younger than UNIX, so maybe the UNIX days were the glory days.
btw M$ *was* always bad, just sometimes they weren't *as* bad. In the same way that after coming out of a rock concert, a usually noisy street is blissfully quiet, M$' past misdemeanours pale in comparison to their current de rigeur work ethic.
Folks, i can't see the part where he says who should and shouldn't use a computer, so i think you may have been a little harsh here...
that's my 1/50th of a dollar...
ps, mr headgear, you do know that you can set up yr linux shell so it can use dos commands don't you? (or so i gather anyway, never felt like doing it for some reason...) :D
[ March 18, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
Somewhere along the line the 386 machines came out and I built my own speed demon. It was "lightning fast" and I couldn't imagine computers ever needing to be more powerul than that.
LOL I remember feeling the same way when I got my first 386. I simply could not imagine requiring anything more than that. (http://smile.gif)
quote:
[/QB]
And I found this link with a picture of the old 1000TX:
http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/trs1000.htm (http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/trs1000.htm)
[ March 18, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ][/QB]
Nice Pics. (http://smile.gif)
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Well, when I was using DOS I was 8 years old, and it was very daunting trying to get the modem to work. To me it was confusing trying to find out my COM port and set the jumpers correctly and all that. I remember having a heinous time trying to set up a modem game in Descent. I also remember spending forever trying to connect to a bulletin board so I could download Commander Keen. Needless to say, the long distance bills exceeded the cost of the game. (http://redface.gif)
Today, a 3 year old could set up an internet connection in Red Hat 7.2 / Win XP
[ March 19, 2002: Message edited by: Garden GNOME ]
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when i was 6 i think i was using a C64..... before that i used a a vic20,i think i was 0-5.(i had an expansion card for that Vic20, it upgraded it...something like 8k?)
i think i have a pic of the V20 somewhere around here.
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You guys make me sick. I was in high school when "Pong" came out. Spent hours bouncing the little white dot back and forth across the black & white TV screen. (http://smile.gif)
[ March 19, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
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Hey,
I hear you Void. LOL
Of course I was in the military during the vietnam era. I guess I am probably the oldest visitor to this forum at 45 soon to be 46.
You bunch of young whipper snappers. (http://smile.gif)
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i never got to use a computer at that age, since we was too poor :(
but i caught up pretty quick, when i was 5 0r 6 our school got a BBC BASIC computer, not sure if you will have heard of it, but there were a lot around in Scotland's academic establishments for a bit!
My sister's got an original pong machine! it's fantastic, she collected old kit like that for a while, and she's only 20!
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quote:
Originally posted by Centurian:
Hey,
I hear you Void. LOL
Of course I was in the military during the vietnam era. I guess I am probably the oldest visitor to this forum at 45 soon to be 46.
You bunch of young whipper snappers. (http://smile.gif)
Sorry, Dude, I got you sussed! I'm 55 w/ 4 grandchildren. My first box was an Atari 800XL; I still have it, and it stll works, even the cassette recorder so "You can save the programs you write to a standard audio cassette". Jesus, was THAT a pain in the ass!!
BTW: ex Seabee, enlisted in '65.
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by creedon:
Sorry, Dude, I got you sussed! I'm 55 w/ 4 grandchildren. My first box was an Atari 800XL; I still have it, and it stll works, even the cassette recorder so "You can save the programs you write to a standard audio cassette". Jesus, was THAT a pain in the ass!!
BTW: ex Seabee, enlisted in '65.
Cool now I don't feel so OLD. (http://smile.gif)
Yeah you definitely got me there. I have kids ranging from 21 down to 6 but no grandkids yet.
I was Naval Aviation, enlisted '73.
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quote:
Originally posted by Centurian:
Hey,
Cool now I don't feel so OLD. (http://smile.gif)
Yeah you definitely got me there. I have kids ranging from 21 down to 6 but no grandkids yet.
I was Naval Aviation, enlisted '73.
WOOHOO!! Another Navy vet!! Let's get drunk and take over the forum!!!
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by creedon:
WOOHOO!! Another Navy vet!! Let's get drunk and take over the forum!!!
HEHEHE I remember those days well. We used to go into town after a few months at sea looking for women and trouble. Invariably we found both. I have quite a few missing teeth and some broken bones to attest to that fact. I loved uzo particularly. Now were talking a serious kick in the head or at least that is the way it felt the next morning.
:D
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quote:
WOOOHOOO a Tandy 1000 I have not even thought about those in years.
When I read that, I realized that we (my parents and I) used to own one of those. I'd completely forgotten about it. In fact, that was the only computer we owned until about 5 years ago. It didn't even have Internet access. When I go home over Easter, I think I'm going to dust it off (we still have it sitting in the basement) and see what remnants of my childhood I can find lying around inside of it . . . not that my childhood was all that long ago. It just seems to have slipped away so quickly. And the present seem so be going by even faster than the past did. (To all you "wiser" folks out there . . .) Does that ever stop? Or does the rate at which time passes increase with age? What a scary thought . . .
-Gonusto
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: Gonusto ]
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Oh my god. I'm going to get slammed by all you old fart swabies. (http://smile.gif) I was a lowly Air Force guy, 15 years. Spent 10 years as a crew chief on fighters and then got some senses and retrained into computer programming. Computers had an advantage of needing a climate controlled environment. Jets like extreme cold, hot, windy, rainy, dry, sandy type environments. And they like you to spend a lot of time with 'em. My body didn't care much for that environment (yeah I'm a wimp). At least it's nice to know I'm not the oldest one here. There are at least TWO of you older than me. (http://smile.gif) Guess I gotta change my profile. I do have a couple of retired Navy buddies though. And one buddy is a retired Air Force full bird who served in WWII, Vietnam, and Korea (he just turned 81). He was a pilot and has an unlimited supply of great stories.
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
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quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
Oh my god. I'm going to get slammed by all you old fart swabies. (http://smile.gif) I was a lowly Air Force guy, 15 years. Spent 10 years as a crew chief on fighters and then got some senses and retrained into computer programming. Computers had an advantage of needing a climate controlled environment. Jets like extreme cold, hot, windy, rainy, dry, sandy type environments. And they like you to spend a lot of time with 'em. My body didn't care much for that environment (yeah I'm a wimp). At least it's nice to know I'm not the oldest one here. There are at least TWO of you older than me. (http://smile.gif) Guess I gotta change my profile. I do have a couple of retired Navy buddies though. And one buddy is a retired Air Force full bird who served in WWII, Vietnam, and Korea (he just turned 81). He was a pilot and has an unlimited supply of great stories.
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
My section chief was one of the ORIGINAL Seabees. Y' should have seen him in dress uniform- he had so much gold braid and fuit salad, you couldn't see any blue.
BTW; I was in Spain for 2-1/2 years building a NATO airfield; I used to work with a lot of Air Force guys; they were pretty nice guys, but they couldn't drink for beans.
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by Gonusto:
And the present seem so be going by even faster than the past did. (To all you "wiser" folks out there . . .) Does that ever stop? Or does the rate at which time passes increase with age? What a scary thought . . .
-Gonusto
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: Gonusto ]
It goes faster with every year that passes. Get used to it.
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quote:
Originally posted by creedon:
BTW; I was in Spain for 2-1/2 years building a NATO airfield; I used to work with a lot of Air Force guys; they were pretty nice guys, but they couldn't drink for beans.
I spent 3 years in Germany from which I made many trips to Spain for a total of about 9 months (Zaragosa, and of course I made a stop at Torrejon on the way to Saudi Arabia). Don't know if I got the spelling right as it's been quite a while since I was there. But 3 years of good German "Bier" I think I could have kept up with ya. Bitte ein Bit! (http://smile.gif)
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
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Hey,
HEHEHE Air Farce huh. (http://smile.gif) I worked with alot of air force people after when our ship split its hull during a hurricane. We ended up in Greece for repairs. Being in Aviation we were transfered to the Air Force base so our pilots could get their flight time in.
The first week there the air force guys harrassed us alot. We ended up getting in a fight in the enlisted mens club after that we all got along pretty well together.
Actually one of them got me started drinking Ouzo. Now that was one boy that could drink even if he was Air Force. (http://smile.gif)
Creedon,
I hear that we had a Senior Chief with almost 30 years in. He had been in since '45 and was the same way. He was kinda hard to look at in the sunlight when he was wearing his dress blues. (http://smile.gif)
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
But 3 years of good German "Bier" I think I could have kept up with ya. Bitte ein Bit! (http://smile.gif)
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
HEHEH At the rate this converstaion is going all these folks from other countries will think US service personnel have a national pass time of drinking. Not saying we don't of course.
;)
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I had a 3 litre Bitburger Bier stein that I emptied at least once every night for three years. When I got back to the states I gave up drinking beer completely because compared to what I had in Germany the American beer was little more than water with a bad skunk smell. The imported beer in the States is *nothing* like the bier in Germany under the same label. The taste is at least 180 degrees off. And the wine is much better over there too. Goes down like grape juice. But the best part of it was all of the German fests. Good food good bier and if you have enough of them you might even start digging the groove of the oompah bands. (http://smile.gif)
It's amazing the jets ever got off the ground. I spent a lot of time curled up next to the wheel dozing. And the pilots were worse yet. I've had guys come out to fly my airplane and blow chunks before they climbed into the cockpit (I had them trained like that as they knew if they would do that *in* my cockpit they would later be digging my boot out of their ass). Then once they get strapped in they about break your ear drums on the headset because they're up there sucking down 100% oxygen like it's going out of style.
And I remember the Ouzo, where you end up in Disney Land if you had enough of it. And what was that wine called. We used to drink it out of boda bags. And my favorite part about Spain were the beaches at Sitges (sp?) near Barcelona. We always had to go there on at least one weekend during the trip. I think that's where the phrase "ugly Americans" was coined. (http://smile.gif) I remember the first time we went there were 3 or 4 of us walking down the beach in single file. The first guy stopped to ponder and the other 3 piled right in to the back of him because their eyes were "not on the road" so to speak. It was like a scene right out of "The Three Stooges".
[ March 21, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]
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quote:
It goes faster with every year that passes. Get used to it.
Darn, I had hoped it was just my imagination.
quote:
I've had guys come out to fly my airplane and blow chunks before they climbed into the cockpit
Speaking of blowing chunks, I think my roommates is currently in the bathroom doing just that. What lovely noises he makes . . .
Those years you all spent abroad sound like they were a lot of fun. They sound so fun that it *almost* makes me wish I had joined the Service instead of going to college . . . though I'm sure it wasn't all just fun and games. Do any of you regret the time you spent in the Armed Forces? Just curious . . .
-Gonusto
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quote:
Originally posted by Gonusto:
Those years you all spent abroad sound like they were a lot of fun. They sound so fun that it *almost* makes me wish I had joined the Service instead of going to college . . . though I'm sure it wasn't all just fun and games. Do any of you regret the time you spent in the Armed Forces? Just curious . . .
If you are interested I would *highly* recommend it. If I had it to do over again, and if I had the opportunity I would have gone to school *before* joining the Air Force. I really wanted to be a pilot since I was a child but as we discussed in a post in one of the other forums that requires a degree (I did take my private pilot lessons while in though). It's much more difficult to go to school and put 10-12 hours a day in, not to mention taking off every few months for temporary duty somewhere. But I don't regret even that. Sure you work hard, but you play hard too. Sure you may be called to do an important job but there's nothing like the satisfaction you get from doing it well. And you make lifelong friends (even if you don't see them you always think of them and of the experiences you've shared).
Nope, I don't regret any of it. I think I'll always look back at it being the best 15 years of my life and the most meaningful. The opportunities that you have are truly amazing (if you take advantage of them). You will come out with experience that you just can't get anywhere else. I know for a fact I wouldn't be half as well off today if it wasn't for my service time. And it gave me a true appreciation for how well we have things (I certainly mean no offense to anyone not from the U.S.). Damn, I should do a commercial!
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by Gonusto:
Those years you all spent abroad sound like they were a lot of fun. They sound so fun that it *almost* makes me wish I had joined the Service instead of going to college . . . though I'm sure it wasn't all just fun and games. Do any of you regret the time you spent in the Armed Forces? Just curious . . .
-Gonusto
Oh yes it was a great deal of fun. It was also a great deal of hard work. We worked hard and we played hard. For example I remember doing 75 hours of straight flight ops. There was alot of difficult times. Spending many months away from loved ones was no picnic either. Also I never really fit in with the military. I never took orders well and my rank went up and down like a yoyo because of it. Funny part was when I finally got out everyone in my squadron tried to get me to re-enlist.
Do I regret it? NO WAY! I learned many things about myself during that time. I also made good friends most of whom I don't see but I still remember. Also there are life long benefits to being in the military.
Having the knowledge I have now would I go back in time (retaining the present knowledge) and join the military? NO WAY!
Would I recommend it to others? YES! Whether or not you are a "happy" service person you will gain knowledge and experience that can never be gotten any other way.
So to close I hated the military but it gave me perspective that I could never have gained otherwise. I would not be the same person without the time I spent in the military.
It "was worth" the time.
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
I had a 3 litre Bitburger Bier stein that I emptied at least once every night for three years.
HEHEH Sounds like you did your fair share of drinking too.
quote:
(I had them trained like that as they knew if they would do that *in* my cockpit they would later be digging my boot out of their ass).
Now your starting to sound like me. Trust me that could get you busted. (http://smile.gif)
quote:
And I remember the Ouzo, where you end up in Disney Land if you had enough of it.
For 3 months I drank Ouzo every night. Got towhere I could drink a pint or more without getting drunk. The bad part was when we went back to sea it took 2 weeks for me to get it out of my system. Man was I hooked on Ouzo.
quote:
And my favorite part about Spain were the beaches at Sitges (sp?) near Barcelona. We always had to go there on at least one weekend during the trip. I think that's where the phrase "ugly Americans" was coined. (http://smile.gif) I remember the first time we went there were 3 or 4 of us walking down the beach in single file. The first guy stopped to ponder and the other 3 piled right in to the back of him because their eyes were "not on the road" so to speak. It was like a scene right out of "The Three Stooges".
I was there once and your right the scenery was quite nice. :D Gliffada beach in Athens was the same way. (http://tongue.gif)
HEHEH I like the 3 stooges thing. (http://smile.gif)
Probably my favorite experience was sitting quietly in the gardens in Athens. With the Acropolis looming above my head. I used to spend hours there.
Another one I liked alot was Naples. Most people hated it because they said it was dirty and nasty. I liked it though myself. It had a rustic feel to the place. Everything about it was very old world. There is alot to be said for sitting on a hill side, drinking wine and eating bread while watching beautiful Italian girls go about their daily chores. The quiet beauty of the place was truly awesome.
Meanwhile back at the ranch.......
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quote:
Originally posted by Centurian:
Hey,
It goes faster with every year that passes. Get used to it.
Like a runaway freight train to the grave.
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Hey,
quote:
Originally posted by psyjax:
Like a runaway freight train to the grave.
HEHEH LOL you got it. (http://smile.gif)
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To be perfectly honest, I didn't really like my time in the military. I was a Seabee, and I ended up in Spain building an airfield. When I was there, Spain was still a Facist country, and not too long after I got there, the US lost 2 H-bombs off the coast. Needless to say, we weren't popular over there.
When I was supposed to re-up, I found out that my next duty station would have been Camrahn bay. The life expectancy of Seabees was real low in 'Nam; Charlie figured out if you kill the guys that fix the runways before you fuck up the runways, it lasts longer. I guess I never got any of that real "good" duty, but my ass is still attached, and all my original parts still work- that's somethng.
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Hey Creedon,
Sounds like you got out just in time.
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It's true I was in post Vietnam and I heard many horror stories from the guys who were there. I did the Saudi thing which must have been like boy scout camp compared to Vietnam. I believe there were a lot of lessons learned in Vietnam which caused us to have a better chance in Saudi. I went over about 3 weeks after the invasion of Kuwait (20 miles south of the Kuwait/Iraq/Saudi border).
During the buildup stage it was a little nerve racking and the whole time we had this one engine mechanic who spent time in Vietnam telling us how bad it was going to be and how things were going to go down when they overran our base (he had me scared shitless). Luckily things went a little better than that. We had several Scuds shot at us and luckily the Patriots did the trick (most of the time). There definately were tense moments but we definately had things better. And I for one appreciate what you guys had to go through when things didn't go so well. Thank you! We can only hope that history will not repeat itself.
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quote:
Originally posted by VoidMain:
It's true I was in post Vietnam and I heard many horror stories from the guys who were there. I did the Saudi thing which must have been like boy scout camp compared to Vietnam. I believe there were a lot of lessons learned in Vietnam which caused us to have a better chance in Saudi. I went over about 3 weeks after the invasion of Kuwait (20 miles south of the Kuwait/Iraq/Saudi border).
During the buildup stage it was a little nerve racking and the whole time we had this one engine mechanic who spent time in Vietnam telling us how bad it was going to be and how things were going to go down when they overran our base (he had me scared shitless). Luckily things went a little better than that. We had several Scuds shot at us and luckily the Patriots did the trick (most of the time). There definately were tense moments but we definately had things better. And I for one appreciate what you guys had to go through when things didn't go so well. Thank you! We can only hope that history will not repeat itself.
That guy was giving you good info; I had a real good buddy who was an EO (equipment operator). He was repairing a forward airbase that had been mortared, and they started dropping rounds again. One hit the bulldozer he was operating. There wasn't anything to ship home. He was a good guy, and I miss hm.
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I was lucky enough to not lose any close friends but we did lose a couple of pilots that I knew. We also had a patriot take out a SCUD but not detonate the warhead. It came down in our tent city and took out a few of the coalition guys. I almost got taken out one night by a U.S. F-4G. For a time I was working the 6pm-6am shift. Well one morning around 2:00am it was pitch black out and extremely foggy, you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. Well I was on the taxiway working one of our planes when I heard an IFE (in-flight emergency) announcement come over the radio.
An F-4 was coming back from a mission low on fuel, apparently missed his tanker hookup. Well we could hear it coming in but we couldn't see it, then we heard the engines flame out, then no sound, then directly above our heads we see these two flashes of flame from the rocket motors on the ejection seats. Really made the fog glow for a couple of seconds. They couldn't have been more than about 100-200 feet directly above our heads when they punched out. For about one second we thought "wow!" and a nanosecond later I realized that there were going to be canopies and other pieces of debri coming down around us so I began to run for cover. Well I didn't get one step when I heard the thuds from canopies and ejection seats hitting the ground on either side of us, and a little too close for my liking. Shortly followed by the sound of the airplane hitting the ground (couldn't see any of it because of the fog by the way).
Well a couple of seconds later, one of the pilots came down in his chute right on the taxiway next to us. He was obviously shaken up and we walked him to our crew building where we met up with the second pilot. Neither one were hurt. Come to find out they were from my old unit in Germany. I was chatting with them about how things had changed since I was there last (trying to get them thinking about something other than what they just went through). The fog cleared some by time the sun started to rise and that's when I saw where the airplane had ended up. It hit the ground, bounced over the road and between a couple of buildings and stopped in an open patch about 400 yards from where we were standing at the time it came down. Not a soul was hurt, truly amazing. I think I have some pictures of it lying around somewhere. That's one experience that will stick with me for a long time.