To be sure, military service during the 1980s was a lot simpler. We knew where America stood on the world stage and we knew who our enemies were.
I joined the USAR in 1985 and transitioned to the Regular Army after graduating from High School in 1986, eventually serving in the 3rd Infantry Division from 88-90. How many other Cold Warriors do we have out there?
Started basic training January ’80, joined my regiment May 81….still working for HM Queen and sons…
I was stationed in Mainz, FRG with 3-8 IN from 89-91. GDP mission was not something we looked forward to.
Served on active duty Oct ’82-to-Nov ’02
Spent ’83-to-’90 in the 82d
AATW from another former dirt dart (or mud dart, depending on the weather).
Well, I served in Baumholder FRG from 1983-1984, and from 1985-1989. Served from 1982-1992. Yes, I remember those cold war days…..too bad there were not too many of us who lived through history.
Joined in ’87, spent a lot of time doing sagger drills in the 5th ID for 16 months, then preparing for the DMZ to be overran ’89-’90, and Tripple A-D defense practice in the 82nd!!! Cold War was absolutely awesome….but the gear wasn’t!!! I learned to drive a stick on a Ford M-151 MUTT, saw the Gamma Goat leave service, and welcomed in the HUMMER. Arms rooms were large vaults with nothing more than racks on the floor with M16 variants, a M60s and SAWs and a few pistols and bayonets. Nothing like the cramped rooms units have today (I had three variants of thermals in my company in Italy)!
AATW! My unit had some of the last Gamma Goats in division because the HMMWV shelter carriers came in a little after the regular version.
RA 86-89 VII Corp 14th MP BDE 385th MP BN 212th MP CO 1,2 and 3rd PLT Wurzburg and Wertheim FRG.
Joined up right after finishing high school, had to wait a few months for an 11B slot in the 82nd to open up and then officially started in Dec. ’82. After Basic, AIT and Jump School I spent the rest of my 4 year enlistment in the 2/504 PIR, 82nd Abn. Div.
We still had M16A1s, PRC-77 radios, MOPP suits, T-10s and MC1-1B parachutes, and had only just recently got the PASGT “Fritz” helmets. We were also the first battalion in the Army to get the M249 SAW allegedly – first outing with them was an exercise in southern Turkey in September 1985.
My first AD stint was from 89-92, went to basic training and AIT at Ft. Benning, GA where I was trained to be a Dragon gunner (the forbear of the Javelin). Afterwards, I was posted to Ft. Ord, CA 7th ID, 2nd Bde., 3/27th Inf. Wolfhounds. Our AOR was Central & South America, but we still conducted war gaming as if we’d go against Crazy Ivan someday, instead we went to Honduras for OP Golden Pheasant and Panama for OP Just Cause & OP Restore Democracy. After that, we were heavily rotated by SOUTHCOM throughout the AOR fighting the narcos in Central/South America. Good times!
In uniform from ’81-’05.
Things were not really “simpler” during the Cold War except in the areas of personal equipment and PC. The complexity in those two areas has exploded.
The Soviet’s stood front and center for many during the Cold War but I remember quite a bit of focus on all those darn insurgencies “communists” were promoting. (Many of those “communists” were just using an ideology to achieve power.)
In fact one of the largest expansions in the Army was the fielding of multiple light infantry divisions and the expansion of the Rangers. Those are forces hardly designed to take on the Soviet armor threat. We also spent an awful lot of resources on dealing with insurgencies and being culturally sensitive even back then. (I remember quite a bit of prep around contingencies to take on Nicaragua.)
The reality is we were fighting an ideology back then. It was championed by a nuclear equipped conventional force. A lot of insurgencies leveraged that same ideology to resource their efforts at overthrowing governments but in their heart of hearts they weren’t communists. It’s a little different with the rise of radical Islam but insurgencies are insurgencies and we still have some real conventional type threats out there.
War is timeless. We just invent new labels for old concepts.
Good to see you here. Hope all is well. Haven’t been there in a while, still on the ‘REP?
I visit but writing for others. Merry Christmas!
Was AD army 81-95 and we knew the enemy but was the damn wait that was the hardest part. When is this going to happen?
Was in from ’84-’92. Didn’t even see an M16A2 or PASGT helmet until I got to Ft. Carson in ’88. Managed to spend time at Ft. Sill (Basic and AIT), Ft. Knox, APG, Ft. Carson, and finally at Ferris Bks with the 1st AD and then the 3rd ID.
Air Force, ’81 through ’94. Flew F-4s, AT-38s, and F-15Es. Good times.
Matt
Still here. Started in 82 with my Regt. Ich Dien.
Went to basic training in January 1987, was Army Aviation. After AIT, went to West Germany with the 1st Armored Division (divisional AVIM: 61st AMC, that changed designations and became I Company, 1st Aviation Regt.). Did a lot of time at Grafenwöhr, Hohenfels and Vilseck. In 1989, I went to Fort Lewis, WA with the 9th ID (1/9 Avn Regt). Got sent to over to 2/9 Aviation (transitioned to Blackhawks), then during the Gulf War, got sent to Honduras (with TF Reliable Bravo, as part of JTF Bravo). Joined 4/228th aviation and flew around a lot of places. Got out in 1991. Rejoined military after 9/11. Good times.
March 86 – June 93. Air Force, Combat Comm. Spent my first 6 years with Army units out of Benning and Bragg.
Entered active duty the day Reagan was shot (oath was interrupted by the announcement). Spent most of the 80s breathing recycled farts on US submarines–boomers and 637s. Shore duty was working issues for getting convoys across the GIUK gap to supply forces in Europe.
Now my question is how would have NATO performed against the Warsaw Pact in a conventional ground war in Europe during the 1980s? I have read all the Harold Coyle and Tom Clancy novels, took part in a Reforger in 1985, and attended the Army Command and General Staff Colege in the mid 1990s where even after the fall of the Berlin Wall and collapse of the Soviet Union they were teaching how to defeat the second echelon of the first attacking division in the Fulda Gap. So for those on the ground in Germany and Europe in the 1980s how do you think your units would have performed and do you think our strategy and logistics would have worked against a Russian thrust throgh the central plains of Europe?
Having worked with officers from some of the former Warsaw Pact countries, my opinion is that the Russians would have had real problems with their so called allies.
I was in B Btry 2/57 ADA 79-81, & A Btry 1/1 ( later redesignated 3/52 ) 84-87. aBoth units were in 69th Bde\Gp, 32nd AADCOM.
Schweinfurt 1984-1988. 3d ID. Rock of the Marne!
Late ’83 into early ’86 in Neckarsulm, FRG.
Active duty Army 1980 – 85. Joined the reserves in May 2003, 17 years 360 days after I got out the first time. Tour in Iraq 04 – 05!
I’m one of those who aren’t quite a Cold warrior nor part of the post 9/11 military, I got in after Desert Storm and got out before 9/11. I did my time in the Marine Corps Reserves as DASCateer from’93 – ’99 and was officially discharged in 2000.
Active duty 1982-1987 on USS Curts, USS Bainbridge, USS George Philip & USS Racine. Spent my time living the hunt for Red October 🙂
Served Active Duty 1976-1979 as an Army medic at Ft. Carson, 1/77 Armor Bn. and then 25th Medical Bn. Joined Colorado National Guard, 19th SF from 1979-1981 and then got out, finished! GI Bill helped with school and so in 1988 joined Colorado National Guard as a MEdical Service Corps officer until 1987 and then commissioned Captain in 1987 in Medical Corps. Served until 1991 when joined Public Health Service doing government research at NIH. Finally out in 1993. So looking back: scary to be taught NBC using old and outdated American gear and taught about Warsaw Pact gear. Arms room contained M16-A1 for enlisted and .45 for officers and .45 cal. Grease guns & pistols for tankers. AD Army interesting but real fun was on MedRETEs to central and South America in support of Southcom. Saw neat stuff medically and worked with great AD units in Honduras, Bolivia, and Costa Rica. Today’s military? Warrior trained and equipped. I feel like I missed out compared to my time in.
I spent the 80’s in Division. I remember making SSG and jump pay going from $55 to $110 for everyone on the same pay day!!! Hey, lest we forget, the 80’s weren’t just about the Warsaw Pact but, there was also lots of interest in central and South America back then. The high speed guys were in Honduras and El Salvador. Let’s not forget about the Sandinistas and Daniel Ortega. Of course, the decade was finished out with Panama.
Joined in ’85 and my first unit after basic and ABN school was the 107 LRSD. I had never heard of “LRS” at the time. Was a great unit.
Enlisted US Army 11-B JAN 1976-1980, USAR/ROTC, shinny new 2Lt 82, IOBC, IOAC, CAS3,CGSC , 5 OIF/OEF deployments, retired JUN 2012. 36yrs 4 months combined AC/RC service. Miss being in the game, we still have a fight going on.
Joined in April of 79, Basic at Ft. Dix, AIT Ft. Belvoir Defense Mapping School, 30 days Recruiter duty in Dover NJ, then FT. Hood 64th Eng Det, then 2nd Armored Div. ETS April ’82. Russians invaded Afghanistan, The Brits got angry over the Falklands, I watched Soviet stuff in Eastern Europe, and Reagan gave us all a nice pay raise. The Cold War certainly was a different animal.
88 through 92 US Army 82nd Abn Div. As an FO with 1/319AFAR attached to 2/505 PIR. I had memorized ALL Soviet vehicles and aircraft – then the “Wall” came down…
1979-82. 82nd Abn Div.. The bad experiment. when the entire div. had MC1-1 Parachute… they went back to the T-10 after killing a few guys in post exit entanglements…
I served from 78-99. My first nine years with the 82nd ABN DIV, with a year break to play in Korea with UNCSG-JSA at Pam Mun Jom (sp?) The last 12 years or so I was with 7th SFG including two years that I was loaned to DIA and stationed in Guatemala. Fun times.
Crazy Eight, Baby! 3rd of the 12th Infantry, 8th Infantry Division, Baumholder, Federal Republic of Germany 1991-94. The thought of stopping T-64s,T-72s and BMPs with a Ma Deuce on a M113 was not a happy one. We were very happy to get the Bradley.
Then a bunch of other stuff, 1st AD, 82nd Airborne Div, MNC-I, etc.
’77 – ’02 all told. ROK ’83 (crazy year there), W. Germany ’84-’87; border duty, Reforgers, loads of Graf and Hohenfels rotations; Knox, Leavenworth; Germany for four more; Bosnia. NTC, JRTC, BCTP, CMTC rotations aplenty; AMU (MTU #1 Ft. Meade); Jump School, Air Assault School, Basic, Advanced, CAS3, JFCC, CGSC, JFSC. 2ID, 1ID, 194th Ar Bde, 1AD, CMTC, et. al. M48A5, M60A1, M60A3, M1, IPM1, M1A1, M1A1 Hvy. Best jobs I ever had….
’85-’92
Basic at Fort Knox, AIT at Fort Gordon, jump school, then HHB 319th AFAR for the rest of my AD time. I was in the Army Reserve starting in ’89 (6 months before Just Cause), first with the 356th MI Co., then 317th MP Co. in Florida. I sat out Desert Storm waiting to go on the next wave that never went.
US Navy, Active Duty ’82 – ’86. Amphibious Warfare, home ported at Little Creek. Central America: Not Easy.
USAF AD 89-93, then AGR 93-99. Combat Arms and Security Police/Forces.
Ranger School in ’78 and retired in ’95. We studied the Warsaw Pact vehicle flash cards in Recon 1-325 82d in the early ’80s!
Spied on Russians, Chinese and Radical Islam 6/77-6/81. ELINT/ECM on SR71 & U-2. Never quit hating those Evil Empires!