reply to post by ThePublicEnemyNo1
Yeah, the recruiters used all those pretty words on me like "write your own ticket", "do what you want, go where you want", etc., but I already
knew they'd put me where they wanted me, doing what they needed done. A recruiter will tell you anything to get that signature on the dotted line,
then you're government property for the duration. All you can really do is have it put into the contract that you'll be given a chance at attending
this school or that, Ranger School, OCS, or what have you. They can wash you out at will if they think they need you elsewhere. They were trying real
hard to talk me into nuke school, so I knew where I'd end up regardless of what I wanted.
I dunno what to tell you about the recent recruiter visits. Could be a combination of factors, or something I never even thought of. I know government
guys in suits still try to track me down every now and then, but I don't know why, and I never get back in contact with 'em - there's nothing I
need to discuss with them. Some of them aren't very good at what they do - one pair contacted my ex wife (after we'd already been divorced 15 years)
a year or two ago trying to find me. it just so happened that I WAS in the same town she was in at the time, but I've not been in contact with her at
all since the divorce. I had fallen off the radar for a little while, and no one really knew where I was - no job, no utilities, no Driver's License,
no paper trail. No way to track me. She told her mom about it, who told my mom about it, who told me about it, wanting to know what was up. I dunno
what it was, and have no interest at all in finding out.
One time, right after we'd got together, I got a letter with no return address, just a cash down payment for a plane ticket to another country, to go
to a "meeting".. She opened it by mistake, and I can tell you that caused a lively discussion! she wasn't any stranger to the strangeness, but to
her credit she never asked too many questions after that first discussion. really, she is a pretty decent sort.
So in your case, I have no idea why they'd be trying to contact you in person. It doesn't seem like recruiters would require a personal visit to
explain a DD-214, or that recruiters would be the proper personnel at all for that, but they might be short-handed, too. Since your dad was Special
Forces, a visitor from Bragg would be more likely. That network has men all over the place, and it would likely fall to one closer to you. I can see
why they might not want to put some stuff in writing, but SF is generally pretty good about looking after their own. I live not too far from Bragg - a
couple hours. Went down to Camp McCall year before last to apply on a training contract for the Robin Sage exercises. They're good people.
I can't really help much with the DD-214. I never had to deal with them. They're DoD forms, and I was never DoD. My dad's DD-214 is laid up
somewhere, but I paid more attention to what he said than what the separation paperwork said. Officially, he was in a "Constabulary Squadron" in the
7th Army, Europe. Sounds nice, like he was a cop or something, eh? Nope. He was a "border guard" who sometimes had stuff to do on the wrong side of
the border, on loan to this or that outfit.
I believe "trainers" or "advisors" draw hazardous duty pay for being in-country during wartime there, which WAS the case in Vietnam, 1960-62, even
though we hadn't sent in the combat troops yet. It was a "war", just not ours at the time, and there's probably a record of the hazardous duty
pay, likely in a coded form.
"Unknown" in re POW status means there's something to be hidden - either the army doesn't want to admit it (for a variety of reasons) OR it
didn't happen, and it was a cover set forth for something else. One possible reason that the army won't admit it is that it's bad juju to have an
advisor taken POW when they're allegedly not in combat at all. The same kinds of things went on in El Salvador in the 80's.
As to his reluctance to talk about some things, in his case there was likely a "non-disclosure order" on him. Some of those last 20 years, some 30
or 50, and the really entertaining ones are on for 70 years or more, on the theory that the actor will be dead before he can talk. He may have said
something one day, then thought better of it and tried to recant the next, trying to play it off as memory loss or confusion.
was highly interested
in me and offered the ASVAB. I took it and had the exact same score you did 96%. She promised me all kinds of opportunities she said things of this
nature: 
either. He was furious and refused to
give me permission as I had not turned 18 yet. I started ignoring the calls from the recuriter. This went on for about a week until one day she and
another recruiter decided to pop up at our house. Boy was that a mistake! My Dad refused to let me speak to them and did everything but kicked their
a$$es to get them to leave. It was not nice and he embarrassed the hell outta me 
