Posted: 1/4/2014 4:11:02 PM EDT
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Happy New Year.
Just finished dinner with the in-laws. BIL is wearing a shirt with the Combat Infantrymen Association logo. It came up before in a local newspaper article about USO volunteers about being him a member. I did some research and to be a member, you have to have been awarded the CIB and you are supposed to provide a copy of the orders. So here's the question, Was the CIB awarded for service on the DMZ in Korea in the early 70s? He enlisted about a year after I did (me - 73, him - 74). I enlisted for the Ranger option (11B, Jump School, Ranger School), he enlisted for the 101st Airborne (11B, Jump School, Ft. Campbell). He claims he wasn't allowed to go to Jump School because he couldn't finish a rucksack march at the beginning of Jump School (which I claim is BS, there was np ruck-march for Jump School). He didn't make it to Campbell, but instead went to Korea as an 11B. According to earlier stories, he hurt his knee grab-assing off duty. Got put out on a medical. This is one of the things that gets me, I've know some guys that had some pretty serious knee injuries and remained on active-duty. Wife thinks he aggravated it while working a construction job while using drugs several years later. Fast forward several decades. In-laws have to rescue his drug over-dosed ass and dry him out. He's been going to the local VA for treatment. Now, according to the BS stories he's telling the VA, he was either wounded in a fire-fight in a tunnel under the border or injured his knee after the jeep his was a passenger in ran off the road and crashed after being fired on by a NORK machine gun from the border. He is claiming PTSD and is 100% disabled. Now comes the revelation that he has the CIB. I spent 7 years in the Airborne Infantry (earned an EIB and Master Jump wings) before going to flight school. Retired after 25 years as a CW4 Master Aviator and ended up with 10% disability on my knees. Upped to 30% after a knee replacement. What do I get? 30% of my retired pay is not taxable. What does he get? Well, he makes more then I do. Pisses me off every time he starts talking about what a great deal he's got. MIL thinks he walks on water. I've done some research and can't find any situations where the CIB was awarded in Korea in the 70s. I would love to see his DD214. Did I mention he also claims to be a veteran of the 101st? The only time he wore the patch was in Basic and AIT. What a douch! |
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Here is a qualifiying period for Korea, 4 Jan 69 to 31 Mar 94. Thats if he was assigned to an infantry unit tasked with security on the DMZ. From what I've been told by guys there in that period and stuff I researched the Z was pretty hot at times there. The video we watched on the drive up to the DMZ made that area look bad, especially in the 60's up to the Tree Cutting incident. Lots of sniping, ambushes and the odd mortar round falling.
There have been times I've wanted to call bullshit on what some vets say but every now and then sombody surprises me. |
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Thanks for the replies guys. You're right, I just needed to vent.
I looked up the reg on awards. To me it looks the cut-off date was 69 for Korea. I'm probably wrong, been retired just over 15 years. I patrolled the border in Germany with the 2nd ACR, so I know the kind of weird shit that happens. Got a few personal stories of my own. He learned to play the system over the years. It just pisses me off! |
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I just got out two years ago.. I went in in 1990, just in time for gulf one, got out 4 years later and had a 14 year break in service, went BACK in ( yes, in my late 30s as 13F forward observer) and deployed with 4-4 ID 2-12 INF to Kunar provence Afghanistan. my first civilian encounter coming back was guys my age at the airport thanking me for my service... now it could have been 28 hours of flight and delays or just the fact these guys where all my age, fat and setting on thier asses instead of bucking up and going again, but I lost it right there in the airport and dug up one guys ass and back down the other side ... and felt like a right prick after, ( to the point of even finding the guy and taking him and his family to dinner to apologize) since then I have been able to write off every fake/ exaggerated claim/ PX warrior/ wanna be etc as nothing more than a complement... those people want to be like a combat vet SO bad theyre willing to go to FAR reaches to feel for a minute what they think it should feel like...
theyre never even close.. unfortunately.. |
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The only incidents I know of are these, the axe murder of two US Officers in '76 and a firefight at the JSA between US secrity personnel and KPA over a Soviet defector who ran across the line from the North during a site visit on 23 NOV 1984. One US serviceman was wounded in that firefight. PErsonally, I bet he is FoS and should probably be prosecuted for stealing benefits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Security_Area |