The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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We all have a purpose. Mine as a mad pharmacist/ unknown artist/ ninja/ idjit
just isn't hasn't completely jelled as yet. But one day I will bloom,
oh yes, I will bloom... (...fades into daydream...)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwD3qM-2E3g[/youtube]

Last edited by Chuck on 09 Dec 2007, 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

often the wells drilled in sub divisions lower the water table and sink holes appear from the drop in the land. Google Earth shows the depressions in Chuck's side yard very well
and oh, yeah! please lable such stuff with spew alerts. Drinking coffee and reading small print caused me to clean my computer screen ( which probably needed it !)

Merle

Last edited by sinsboldly on 09 Dec 2007, 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AH AH!! !! I knew Richie wasn't nearly as innocent and harmless as he appears!! That makes him far more dangerous than the rest.

" He knows too much! We've gotta' take care of him! We've got to WACK him!!"
- the weasel from "Barnyard"

Last edited by blessedmom on 09 Dec 2007, 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Chuck, dear, how much Christmas beer do you have left?

Yep. Smelema and Lau will definitely need the assistance of Merle, Lauri, Richie and Postie. Oh! This is going to be good!! (I will have to go along to film the whole undertaking...)

All but the first sip...

richie did it. Merle helped.

Have a fabulous day everyone!! I'm off to work.

Oh, you did it! And you took Richie and poor Merle with you. A little birdie told me so!!

I met Lau, the Brilliant Mad Scientist!
...and live to tell the tale...
...which is very harrowing, actually...
...would you care to hear it...
...or would you rather fill out...
...your rather boring tax forms...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KQxzcBYwNc[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa7PbTY7clw[/youtube]

(caution: the above videos contain fake blood and fake mad scientists).

This is the best horoscope I've ever received in my e-mail

Here is your AstroSlam
for Sunday, December 9:

Your family needs to you to start a water balloon fight, and wrestle with the kids on the floor -- simple things that the other, less playful signs are incapable of doing. Rush in and save the day. Piss off the real adults!


I agree!! !

most annoying. military records people are MOST annoying. first they told me uncle sgt. major did not exist. when i insisted that he did, they sent me uncle sgt. majors' records from 1949-1969. and a cover sheet that said he was marine corps reserves 1942-1947 and regular marines 1947 - 1969.

i asked them where the records from 1947-49 were, and that i believed he was on active duty during WWII (especially given some of the medals he'd won). and that they'd not sent the 1942-1947 records, either. and where they'd be kept, if not in their repository?

their response was that he "might have been in the reserves" and "might have been activated during WWII." and that i have all the info available under the FOI.

they did not indicate they had no records. they indicated i'd hit the FOI wall. even if he'd been a spook or something (which I highly doubt) there'd have to be SOME record of him - enlisting, if nothing else.

which leaves me from 1942-1949 missing. five years as a "reservist" and two as a regular marine. he did reenlist and get a signing bonus in 1949 for having a specialty they needed (not sure which one). that's the first record they sent.

anybody who knows the records, would his "reserve" records be someplace other than the st. louis repository? all the stuff i find online says they'd be there. which is getting me nowhere.

most annoying.

I know that you are frustrated! Sorry that the records are incomplete; without your uncle's own explanation, they will contain inaccuracies, omissions - even outright lies. You probably do have all the records that exist on your uncle, Nan. All that they will give you, or can find, or that was transferred to microfiche, and later to computers. It is entirely possible that he was in the reserves for a time, "activated" (assigned to duty with the "regulars"), where he did participate in campaigns with regulars, and where he did earn medals - as an activated reservist. When "activated", in the Marine Corps, there is no real difference between a "reservist" and a "regular". They have both received the same training. At the same places.

The records from that time were typed with manual typewriters on pieces of paper that had many copies. Errors were made. Some copies are illegible. Typists who were tired, and who had to put in the info for a whole company, just left stuff out, or abbreviated it, or typed it in wrong. Tom Foolery was added if the clerk was your friend and wanted to mess around. Items are erased "as a favor". Officially, of course, errors do not happen.

On top of that, other things that "are not supposed to happen" do happen.

For instance, I joined the Marines as a reservist. I was supposed to be locked in under "reservist status" for 6 years. But I switched to the regulars. "Not supposed to happen", but people just turned heads, and wrote what they had to write. When I needed to move to Richmond, Virginia for a time to work for the State Water Control Board of Virginia, I was switched into a reservist artillery unit so that that could happen. When I needed to be off entirely for 6 months so that I could learn certain demolition techniques with the Navy Seals, and engineering techniques with the Seabees - it was "fixed" so that it could happen. I also spent time in Pickle Meadows, California learning mountain warfare demolitions; 29 Palms, California to learn desert warfare demolitions; Camp Pendleton, California to learn landmine and boobytrap warfare... I bounced into and out of a lot of places. When I needed to move to Memphis to attend pharmacy school, they assigned me to a marine military police unit in Millington (that was assigned to a Navy aviation base). I worked as an MP there for only 2 months, when they found out I was "water safety qualified", and I spent the majority of the remainder of my time there teaching members of both the Navy and the Marines both how to swim, and how to survive long distance swims in full gear. But while in Millington, I did a week-long joint maneuver with the Navy Seals - nighttime demolition maneuvers in the Mississippi river near Mud Island. They were very plastic with my switching into and out of the regulars and the reservists, and even between branches of service. They never gave me any problem - essentially let me train and learn wherever I wanted - as long as I frequently checked in and kept everyone informed of where I was and what I was doing - in case they needed me. My buddy Fussell switched from the marines to the Air Force - and back. No mention of it in his records, yet he was gone for 2 years. When my 6 years were up, I was allowed to leave, service completed. But my records ended up missing for over 20 years. When I finally got them back, they were filled with inaccuracies - certain things completely erased. No mention of my meritorious promotions, awards, no mention of General Miller flying in from Washington to award my unit for winning the General Harry Schmidt Trophy in 1977. No mention of the training I received, or bases I have named above. (Yet I have those records in my own copies of what they gave me). My entire time is listed as "reservist" - just as I had signed up for. I'm listed as a "basic combat engineer", and my record states that I play the saxophone as a hobby. When I called and asked about it, I was told by retired marine Fred Tucker that "they've done it as a favor son, just leave it alone". And so I have.

Your uncle probably signed up for specialized training, or was switching in and out of the reserves just as I was. There weren't standard assignment titles for what I did - I probably drove the clerks nuts. They probably didn't know what to put down, said "heck with it" and gave up. Your uncle may have done the same thing - and only he would be able to tell you what actually happened. It may not match up at all with what you read.

Take comfort in this - he's probably smiling on you now that you are trying to make the effort. But if he could talk he may tell you: "Give it up my dear, the records aren't even close!" Your only hope is to find his own personal copies of what he was given - (every now and then they gave me copies of stuff - which I kept) - if he was given anything - and if he kept them. But they contain inaccuracies as well. One whole year in which I received specialized training are simply marked "service satisfactorily completed".

Just remember - your uncle was involved in Marine activity. And the typists were also Marines. That in itself explains everything.

I'm on hold with the National Archives, and have been for 30 minutes. Until someone tells me there are no records, I'm not stopping digging. Even if they're inaccurate, I want what exists. Uncle Sgt. Major's records exist only there, if there, I assume. Persistence has a way of paying off, when ferreting out old documents from the National Archives. This particular department may just take a slightly different angle that I haven't figured out yet.

I know about the typists - ran into a lot of stuff like that with researching army records. Have those back into the late 1800s, when they were handwritten. Hopefully marine typists are better - the handwritten ones of Uncle Sgt. Major are prettier, anyway.


~~

1 hr 15 minutes of being on hold later: AHAH. I got technician "Dave" on the line who asked what years I was missing. He clicked on the computer, there was a great deal of silence. Then more clicking. Then some "hmmm"-ing. Then some more clicking. Then he said "they didn't give you 1942-1949?" I said nope, I only got 1949-1969. So he said he'd have a technician pull and copy those records and get them sent out.

It's a 50-50 bet that I'll get anything, but it was worth the cell phone minutes. I've got those things rolling over all over the place and never spend them because I rarely use the cell phone for more than 30 seconds at a time.

Persistence. In any bureaucracy, to surf it, one needs persistence. If this doesn't work, I'll go through a congressman or something.

Last edited by Nan on 10 Dec 2007, 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.