Thanks Rapaire, you've gone much farther than anything I'd asked for, and that's terrific and very generous of you. That's exactly the sort of information I thought others might enjoy sharing too.

I didn't initiate the thread to get into this with anybody, it was simply a public service to the forum sort of idea, when I realized last night reading through the Veterans Day threads (someone always seems to end up by giving a wee blurb on where they served and when in those threads it seems), that I'd never seen a thread for just this sot of thing (that Rapaire has done). I checked the archive, and didn't find anything there either. So I started this thread.

Again, the reason I thought it would be kinda cool to start this thread was that there isn't one that gives those who served and feel like sharing the information here (like they do information about their pets, their families, their age, their jobs, etc) a chance to do so like this:

"I (Rapaire) served in the US Naional Guard from his 18th birthday in 1963 until being deactivated in Augst 1969. Was sent to Korea on active duty w/the 7th Infantry Division after being released from riot duty in Chicago."

Rapaire, I hope you don't mind my using your info as an example. Really folks, I just thought that with all the other "tell us about yourself" sorts of threads we've seen at Mudcat, that this sort of thread about people wasn't there, and I was surprised by that given the number of folks I seem to think are military veterans here. Thing is, my feeble mind can't remember who most of them are, when and where they served, that sort of thing.

You know, I just thought it would be interesting to have a thread where people who have served in the military, to tell what their service record was. I apologize for not saying in my opening post that I came of age in the US during the Vietnam War era, did not receive a college or any other deferment, but was never drafted.

That is as much information as I am willing to share. That includes my choice to remain anonymous. I am dismissing no one's objections to my choice to remain anonymous SRS, I'm just not going to answer them. I choose to remain anonymous, and that's the end of it for me. If other posters wish to complain in this thread about my choice, that's just fine. But it won't change my mind.

If others want to use this thread to share the information on their military service record, that's great. If they don't, that's great too. If someone wants to start another thread for doing what I've tried to do, that's great. If folks want to let this thread die, that's great too.

It was just an idea. You don't have to play along. You are all free to stay and play, or to take your ball and go home.