I'm writing this in response to another comment post from yesterday. Hopefully, the users who were interested end up seeing this.
I’ll preface this by saying that there are thousands of veterans who have sacrificed a lot more than I did. I consider myself lucky that I got out with only a weapons-grade chip on my shoulder. Many people were not so fortunate.
From here on out I’ll do my best to give you the “high-speed, low-drag” version, but no promises.
I was 15 or so when 9/11 happened. I live close to the west coast so I was just waking up when my Dad came to tell me that something was happening, something bad.
My family has always been conservative, of the mostly normie variety by today’s standards, and I was raised to be a patriot and to love my country. When the towers fell, I couldn't stand to see my father so worried, to see my mother cry, and I wanted to do something about it. Like many people, I decided to join the military as soon as I was old enough.
I enlisted in the Navy halfway through my senior year and shipped out the summer after graduation. Boot camp was fine, job training (A-school) was fine, and I got orders to an aircraft carrier in Norfolk, which was an exciting endeavor for 18 year old me.
I spent five years on that ship and deployed twice. I advanced quickly and performed well for the most part. I didn’t know much about what was happening politically, I figured serving was enough at that time.
When it came time to rotate to shore duty, I accepted orders to go recruiting for no other reason than they were guaranteeing that I could recruit from my hometown. Seemed like a good idea, and a great career bullet for newly frocked First-Class (E6).
I was wrong.
To try to keep things brief, I was not a good fit. I had excelled in the engineering environment but could not get behind the people or the practices I found in recruiting. It was a night and day difference, and my attitude went downhill fast.
Of the many examples I have, this is what fucked up my attitude the most. There was a points system assigned to processing potential recruits at that time. More points for diversity, gender blah blah. The seeds of the woke-mind virus we know today, but this was more than 10 years ago, so I’m sure it’s only gotten worse by now.
Our monthly goals were built around finding diversity over interest or qualifications, and the points were used as metrics for measuring a recruiting stations success, and as a recruiter your quality of life is effected dramatically by the success or failure of your station. Our monthly goals were built around finding diversity over interest or qualifications.
Anyway, it wasn’t enough to find qualified people to join the Navy, it was about finding the right LOOKING people, and white males like me were at the bottom of the list. Warfighting wasn’t the priority, diversity is what mattered to the Navy and I could not reconcile this fact with my own principles. I was thoroughly disenchanted.
This wasn’t my “awakening” just yet, but it had made me face some hard truths about military service. Hard truths that take years to digest.
I declined to reenlist and separated just shy of nine years in. My view of the Navy had been tarnished significantly, but I cared a lot for the fleet and the friends and mentors I’d spent so much time with, and I still do. I was proud of what I had done prior to the recruiting gig. I still held on to the belief that joining was the right thing, and that our efforts in the middle east were about protecting America. This was early 2015 or so . As any veteran knows, the transition to civilian life is not easy. I was frustrated about so many things. I felt betrayed by the Navy, apprehensive about starting a new career, and doubt over the war and our military’s role had started to creep in.
I started paying more attention to politics around this time and the 2016 general election was right around the corner. I used reddit a lot back then (cringe) and one day came across r/the_donald. I had heard about Trump only through media osmosis and had assumed he was just a clown, not a serious candidate. I think I was tacitly supporting Ted Cruz at that point.
But r/the_donald changed all that. The memes, the centipede videos, all of it was BRILLIANT. It was funny and informative, and as a result, the sub was exploding in popularity. It completely changed my opinion on Trump, and gave me hope that real change was a possibility.
However, the most interesting part was the left’s reaction to subreddit. Saying they hated it is a understatement. It was becoming so popular it was frequently showing up on the front page of the site and ruining their lefty echo-chamber. My first taste of liberal tears, ahh the memories.
They lied about r/the_donald constantly, saying it was racist, hateful, all the labels we’re so familiar with now. The sub was quarantined, suppressed and eventually banned outright. Nothing shocking by today’s standards, but it represented my first real taste of censorship.
Again, not my “awakening” but I was starting to see the matrix so to speak.
Then Donald Trump won the Presidential Election in 2016. If I had thought reddit’s response to r/the_donald was bad, now the entire media/government was collectively shitting its pants. The shock the day after he won was palpable, you could see it on all of their stupid faces. Something much bigger than I imagined was afoot, and that something just got kicked in the balls by the looks of it.
Hillary Clinton was supposed to win, Trump could not be president. The sheer magnitude of their outrage and the year’s long witch hunt that followed is what woke me up. Obama’s administration spying on Trump as a candidate and later president-elect was what shook me from sleep. That wasn’t the America I fought for, and as we all know now, that was only the beginning.
What followed for me was the rabbit-hole of research that has lead so many of us here. Rejecting the legacy media and looking for answers everywhere else. This led me to Q and the thousands of hours of reading and researching what was discussed. The process was painful, realizing that 9/11 was a lie hurt me deeply. Realizing that my country had been co-opted decades ago and that the core mechanics of representation were an illusion hurt even more. Like thousands of others, my military service was predicated on lies, my good faith, my patriotism, was exploited to kill millions of people in pursuit of greed and agendas that were at odds with me and the best interest of my nation. That’s what hurt the most.
I'm grateful for the truth though, living in ignorance isn't living.
Covid happening before the general election in 2020 wasn’t a wake-up call to me, it was further confirmation of the war that’s being fought. I think many of us knew something was coming before that election. Because whatever Trump is doing broke them, and I intend to help in any way that I can.
I don’t recognize my country because I’ve never seen its true face. The only way to fix it is with truth and justice to those who have stolen so much from us.
Welp, that was way longer than I intended and sitting here I feel like I left out a lot and barely scratched the surface, and I still ended up with a wall of text.
I would love to hear from other vets here, or anyone for that matter than feels compelled to share their story. I hope this ends up being helpful.
Well, alrighty then. Y'all are apparently youngsters. So I'll give you the viewpoint of an oldster.
My "awakening" came about when I got my library card, age 6. During the Korean War. I asked "Why"; the answer was "you'll understand when you're older." By HS graduation, I was entirely convinced that the clowns in America were pretty much running the show. The only reprieve was Ike. After JFK was wrongly elected (yes, there was election fixing going on then too), I had a pretty tight feeling that Vietnam would claim part of my life. Upon the assassination, I knew we'd get involved because UN, same as Korea. And I knew we wouldn't be allowed to win it. Knew I'd get drafted at some point, figured I'd get the best out of it, so joined the navy in 1965. Turds had given me assurance that I'd get the school/rate I chose, but not the case, obviously: they do what they want, as every vet knows. Anyway, went airdale as AX (ASW tech), and volunteered for flight duty, fixed wing first, then switched to helo. First cruise began 1966, Dec, and I found out our MOS switched from ASW (dipping sonar operator) to Combat Search And Rescue. First CSAR mission was a search for a crashed H-3 (USAF) in SVN. We found it; I was second crew, and it was my job to check it out. The AF crew had been skinned and strapped in, and right there was my change in attitude. I bagged them, loaded them, and set charges to blow the bird and we left. By that time, there was no doubt that the Nam war was a diversion, started by LBJ to distract attention from the 'great society' that ruined many black communities and the inner cities went completely to pot. In 67, the navy requested volunteers for a new squadron being formed to be entirely CSAR; previous rescues etc were the deciding factor, and I volunteered. Got transferred in Sept 67 TAD to HC5 for training in those things I would 'need', such as open ocean rescue, jungle rescue, hand to hand combat, field medic and so forth, and finished end of Nov and went on 30 days leave. 7 Dec, got a telegram calling me back due to "a crisis situation in North Korea", and was told when I arrived at Ream Field that the Pueblo had been hijacked. Yes, what you read on the web is bullshit. We (myself and three other crewmen) were flown to Atsugi, where we were to train others, but instead took a COD to the Enterprise when she was within flight distance, and subsequently a few weeks off the coast of North Korea. Left there (HC-7 Det 111) to join Det 110 in the Tonkin Gulf, arriving a couple days before Tet 68. People still don't believe what we saw then, and the msm shitheads had everyone convinced we were killers (and we were, but not babies) and cowards who couldn't fight. When I got back, I had an erstwhile girlfriend, crappy parents and so on, so I left home and spent the rest of Dec 68 on base. The rest of my time was easy. But the common crap was stopping the 'domino effect' of communism, and I knew then it was total bullshit. After living on the streets for a few months with zip point shit help from anyone, including the govt, being told by WWII/Korean War vets they 'didn't want the likes of you' in their organizations and so on, finally got a decent (sort of) job and drug myself out of the gutter. The GI bill helped with getting my degree, I'll say that, and engineering (electronics, control systems) was a good field. And now I'll say something that will likely piss people off. Seems most people respect Reagan as a patriot. He wasn't. He had a good line and a nice voice. He was Bohemian Grove. He shut down mental institutions. He privatized the grid and all generation facilities, taking them out of voter control. That's one reason you pay through the nose for your power. Further, he had nothing to do with the fall of the Soviet Union. There's more, but that's all I'll say now.
Would I do it again? Without question, because the ones I made dead were trying to kill my people; those we got out likely wouldn't have. Those I treated going to field hospitals and hospital ships lived, for the most part. I would do it again for them, but certainly not because "my country". Now I'll shut up.
Thank you for your comment, very interesting. It rang a few bells for me so here goes: I was never in the military but my dad was a mustang admiral. He was born in 1920 to a very poor single mom. He went to work to support the family at age 6, went thru Depression and kept on working hard. Day after Pearl Harbor he, like many others, went to recruiting office before it opened and joined the Navy. He had very poor eyesight and had had malnutrition as a kid because his family was so poor they couldn't feed the kids. So he wasn't fit to fight and was appointed a war correspondent. He ended up on Admiral Nimitz's personal staff and was in S. Pacific. After the war he stayed in reserves and worked his way up to mustang admiral. He was a very hard worker and started his own public relations firm to promote causes he believed in. Since he was always a staunch Republican, he did some promotion of Republican legislation that he helped to get passed. Due to his work, he developed a huge network and knew just about everyone who was anyone it seemed, especially politically. He worked as a consultant on Nixon's run for president in 1960 and 20 yrs later he was one of Reagan's top advisors. He had been friends with Reagan for about 20 yrs because he had met him in the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick (which is still around) which was a club for men who were Irish so they could network with each other help each other get jobs and get ahead. It was formed in the "No Irish need apply" days which were still going on when my dad worked as a youngster. He and Reagan were good friends and dad had huge respect and high hope for him. He was one of Reagan's top campaign advisors and after Reagan was elected, he was top advisor to Ed Meese and had an office in the White House a few feet away from the Oval Office. My dad had a sterling reputation as an extremely honest and patriotic man. About a year after Reagan was in office, D O J came to him and told him either he quits or they would completely ruin him on the front page of every newspaper in America. Thing is, dad knew just about every editor at every major newspaper, having been a war correspondent. Dad had no choice but to resign, even though he had done not one thing wrong. It was bone crushing for my dad, he really wanted to be part of Reagan's team and help get America back on the right foot. He never heard from Reagan again. That was it for me regarding Reagan. Years later, around 2000 I was at a party with people I knew. Reagan's name came up and one of the people there who I knew but wasn't exactly friends with starting telling me that back in late 60s, when she was young and dumb, she had worked as a greeter at the Church of Satan in San Francisco. She wasn't a Satanist but needed work and had been a hippy at the time. She was a decent person with a good reputation in the group of people I knew so when she told me Reagan had gone to C of Satan numerous times, I believed her and I still do. This was also chronicled in either Thanks For the Memories or Trance-formation of America. Both books are written by former sex slaves of the elite and they were mind-controlled but managed to escape after years of abuse. One of those books also tells about Rea gan using mind-controlled children as sex slaves as well. One other strange thing: Back in about 1971 when Reagan was Gov of Calif, I went with my dad to a reception given to honor Reagan. He was there with his wife Nancy. I remember him coming up to my dad and tapping him on the shoulder behind him. He was alone and remained alone even after he finished talking with my dad and me. I looked around and saw Nancy behind me with a group of very important-looking men, about 9 of them. She was holding forth and they were listening raptly. What was wrong with that picture? Rea gan was governor of Calif at that time and should have been the one surrounded by powerful men. That's how power works. But they completely ignored Reagan. IMO there's far more to this story than we know and I'd love to know the whole story, especially about Nancy. When I was a flight attendant I flew with another flight attendant who had had Ron and Nancy on board. the F/A asked R and N what they wanted to drink and Nancy said nothing, neither answered. Finally after being asked again, Ron told the F/A "My wife doesn't speak to the help." btw, the F/A had been a Reagan fan up until then. IMO they are not nice people.
What an amazing story. Thank you so much for sharing. You share space with an amazing part of history. Damn, though. Sad to think Reagan was not a good guy.