The Water Cooler

Just FYI, it's very long, but worth reading

"But the Shooter will discover soon enough that when he leaves after sixteen years in the Navy, his body filled with scar tissue, arthritis, tendonitis, eye damage, and blown disks, here is what he gets from his employer and a grateful nation:

Nothing. No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family."

Ridiculous. Isn't the policy for military retirement benefits 20 years of service? That should perhaps be loosened for people like the members of Seal Team 6, who put their bodies through the wringer day in and day out. For the potato peelers? Sure, 20 years. But for these guys? Come on, Congress. Help them out.

The oldest lie ever told: dulce et decorum est pro patria Mori. Why fight and die for a government that views you as an expendable commodity?

"At Jalalabad, the Shooter saw the CIA analyst pacing. She asked me why I was so calm. I told her, We do this every night. We go to a house, we **** with some people, and we leave. This is just a longer flight. She looked at me and said, "One hundred percent he's on the third floor. So get to there if you can." She was probably 90 percent sure, and her emotion pushed that to 100."

HOOYAH! Brass balls and ice water in their veins, God bless US Navy Seals.

There must be some way for a grateful nation to reward that man.
Hell,he and his fellow Seals saved us $25MM!

"One of the tests is they make you dive to the bottom of a pool and tie five knots," the Shooter says. "One guy got to the fifth knot and blacked out underwater. We pulled him up and he was, like, dead. They made the class face the fence while they tried to resuscitate him. The first words as he spit out water were 'Did I pass? Did I tie the fifth knot?' The instructor told him, 'We didn't want to find out if you could tie the knots, you asshole, we wanted to know how hard you'd push yourself. You killed yourself. You passed.'"

This had me laughing pretty hard

My father was special forces and looking back on it now, it was very difficult for him to transition back to "civilian" life. I think it would have been impossible, but being from a large family there was always something. One time he got a new job (paid well) as a consultant for a large weapons contractor. They just wanted his name on their directory and paraded him around. I think he quit after 2 weeks from boredom and I think he always needed a challenge.
This is a reminder to continue to thank those who serve. At the Atlanta airport, I picked up a round of beers and cokes for some soldiers on their way home. Think the gesture mattered.