6 years. 2 tours. Baghdad 2003, Northern Afghan/Tajik in 06. 19D, 31C which changed, 75B and cook. I had line scores and PFT to go SF, but I am incredibly color blind, enough to disqual. So i took Cav Scout/Radio.
Pops was an active duty SGM when I initially enlisted September 11th, 2001, merely a coincidence....maybe. Pops died the day we took it Iraq.part deux, March 19, 2003.
Pop was also in Nam in the Navy. After his passing, an aquaintance, revealed his name was part of something something,,agent orange, somethung something, Nam.....what in fact what was told to me, is classified still and I was "illegally" told. This is rumored to something called Project SHAD or Project 112.
My pops died from a rare form of t cell leukemia in 2003. This type cause a cytokinine storm which has been reported recently in Covid. When this occurs your fucked. Your normal white blood cell count goes to 200k and fucks shit up. T cell lymphatic leukemia caused by a virus, originating in two forms, Kenya and Japan.
Also, when finally locating some info on what Project Shad was or is, blah blah, found out that a bunch of that information was potentially destroyed in attack on the Penatagon, archives were located in some of the inner ring Navy offices.
I wish I could make a story like this. Personally its been a living hell. I still get profiled and have weird shit happen. This could be much longer, lol..
Bottomline, I loved my service and my soldiers. Huah!