Charles Stricklin

An ex-shipmate buddy of mine sent me a link this morning to a website called Together We Served. There seems to be only two of the five branches of the armed services represented, the Navy and the Marines, but I’d be surprised if they don’t develop sites for the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard as well. (I didn’t forget you National Guard types, it’s just that you’re considered a subset of the Army.)

I immediately joined and began filling out my profile, and within mere minutes I was able to locate people I’d gone to boot camp with in 1987 (Recruit Training Command, San Diego, California, Company 247), people I’d gone through school with (Combat Systems Technical School Command, Mare Island Naval Station, Vallejo, California, 1988-1989) and former shipmates (U.S.S. Worden, CG-18, 1989-1993). Many had gone on to become Senior Chiefs and Master Chiefs, many were like me and had gotten out as soon as their enlistment was up.

I enjoyed being able to detail my billets and my experiences, including my medals and ribbons, the campaigns I participated in, even noting my Shellback certificate. It was a bummer detailing my reduction in rank toward the very end of my service, but I felt obligated to be honest and honorable, and besides, that was 15 years ago now and I was honorably discharged. If anything, it made me face the fact that although I enjoyed and valued my time in the service, ultimately it wasn’t something I was destined to do with my life.

The full membership I received seems to be temporary, designed in no doubt to entice me to try the service first and join to continue it once I’d become accustomed to it, something I may very well do. I suppose that’ll depend on whether it’s cost-prohibitive.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.