Hearted Youtube comments on Ryan McBeth (@RyanMcBethProgramming) channel.

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  13. 3rd Brigade, 101st was a special place to serve, especially 3/187. I reported in early 2002, when the Brigade was one of the first in Afghanistan. I missed that deployment, but six months after they returned, we were all in Kuwait staging for the Invasion. I left 3/187 in 2004, but I will say that there was a high level of pride and esprit de corps during my time there. We were expected to know the unit's history, including that 3/187 was the highest decorated Airborne-designated unit in the Army. When I reported as an E-1, we wore five awards of the Presidential Unit Citation-Army (PUC), a Valorous Unit Award (VUA), two Meritorious Unit Commendations (MUC), and an Army Superior Unit Award (ASUA) as temporary decorations. The battalion also had a Navy PUC, Philippine PUC, and Korean PUC. In 2003, we added another PUC and a MUC, and over the years since I left there were a number of other unit awards added. One thing I was always told was that there are a handful of battalions in the Army that officers pre-selected for service in 75th Ranger Regiment are sent to, 3/187 being one of them. Of course, officers in 75th RGR need previous leadership time, and sure enough, a lot of our Lieutenants left for 75th Ranger after we returned from Iraq. One was a freakish runner (something like a 9-minute 2-mile-run time), and when I was on recruiting duty years later, sure enough, that former 2LT I knew was a MAJ in 75th RGR and was pictured in the desk calendars we handed out. I've had 1SGs call 3/187 a "Baby Ranger Battalion", and when CSM Hardy, a career Ranger, spent a couple of years in the 101st waiting for a position to open in Regiment, he served as an OPs SGM for a few months before taking over as CSM for the Iron Rakkasans. Another seemingly close relationship between units and personnel assignments is between the Rakkasans and the 3rd US Infantry Regiment "The Old Guard" (TOG). COL Joe Buche had been a CPT in 3/187 during the Gulf War before taking over a company in TOG. He assumed command of 3/187 in 2003, then took over as the TOG Regimental Commander (RCO) in 2007. Also, Joseph B. Conmy (the building where most DA Retirements take place on Fort Myer is named after him) commanded 3rd BDE, 101st during the Battle of Dong Ap Bia (Hamburger Hill), and had also been a TOG RCO. The 101st is truly unique in its capabilities. I used to urge Soldiers to attend Air Assault School if they had the chance to go to one school. During my first TOG tour, Air Assault and Airborne were fairly easy to get, but I'd tell the Soldiers that AASLT is the more useful, UNLESS they were planning to go to an Airborne unit. Air movement operational planning, sling load operations, and even the rappelling phase are all useful, and the physical requirements are a bit more stringent, with the obstacle course and ruck marches. I never went back to the 101st. I loved my time there, but as a Rakkasan I'd have wanted to go back to 3/187. Considering the Army Regimental System was essentially done away with, I might have ended up in another brigade entirely. Everyone knows about Regimental affiliation, but few know that until the early 2010s there was a regulation behind it. Essentially, a Soldier could go to Fort Campbell in the 1970s and be assigned to 3/187, PCS to Panama and got to 1/187, then return to Campbell with a guarantee of going back to 3/187. The grass is always greener and the best units are the one you're going to and the one you just left. I knew a repeat assignment would be disappointing, and this proved true during my second TOG tour.
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  36. When I was 10, I had to move up to russia from ukraine with my mom in 1999, we were pretty poor, so yepp, I remember the times of going to school without having any meal in the morning, or some tea with cookies and I had no meal with me from home to eat at school, also, we had a buffet at school, but we had no free school food, even though, my mom paid something monthly like everybody did to our "free school", if you didn't, your kid would have a worser grades, teachers would point at this kids, and a lot of other stuff like that, so in the buffet you could by pirozhki, candies, 3 in 1 coffee, tea.., I even remember the times when I had a stomach ache, but I was not sure why I had it, once or twice I went to the medic in school, she said that I am lying about my stomach, because I want to go home and not study in school, ofcourse I would love that ANY DAY like 95% of pupils in class, but I no, I had a stomach ache, so she checked me, said that it feels like I have an empty stomach and she asked me - Did you eat in the morning? I was so scared to say that I didn't, so I replied - Ofcourse I did! I didn't wanted my mom to have problems, cuz my dad at the time was nowhere near and I was with mom, only person I knew in russia. So the medic put me back to class and I had to try not to fall asleep and fight hunger, lol. Since my mom was a ballerina (how stereotypical for the USSR, right?) she worked 2-3 jobs of teaching kids and adults to dance, and she had some concerts sometimes where she took me with her, sometimes it was the military units places where her girls, women danced to soldiers (nothing more) on some official and not concerts. And I remember when I could just go anywhere and explore the military bases, units, hangars with some old soviet tanks, cars and sometimes even weapons, yes, not everytime, few times I had a soldier with me that had to look after me, they showed me how some stuff works, but I remember how most of the time they were just bored to be with me and wanted to go to talk to girls that were not dancing, they just told me to behave and not touch anything of military equipment, of course I almost didn't, haha, so I had like 2 or so hours to walk around, I remember seeing soldiers on duty with AK, I guess they were instructed about some kid like me or so because they never said a thing to me, or they just didn't care that a kid is walking around at base, but since the invasion of Ukraine and all those lack of discipline, those memories started to arise from my memory, because I remember clearly how I asked soldiers about what they were doing here in the army, and they only reply was - marching many times every day, keeping the areas of the base clean, and dismantling weapons, I even asked some older officer the same question once, and he replied something like - they do nothing here, they just play the fool. The best thing I remember from this experience if a military food, naval pasta and tea, but it was good probably because I had nothing the whole day, and it felt like gold on an empty stomach. When I moved back to Ukraine in 2004 when I was 15, and got into cadet military school, it was way better experience than in russia, Nizhny Novgorod (6 hrs from Moscow) we were still poor, but we had food in school, free food everyday, (not sure how was it in an average school), but we had food, extra yummies was to take bread and put it into your side pockets on military pants and eat it later, when it is dry and crusty, our officers hated us doing that because it was "not a good look for a cadet" if some high rank officer would see us or even our parents, lol, but we still did it, we had no sweet stuff at the military kitchen, so to eat some once a week or month was like a heaven when the buffet was open in studying campus. I hated cadet school because we had to train a lot and be disciplined, and I always remembered thinking - damn, I wish we had less stuff to do here as I saw in russian army when I was 10 🤣. Cool story Ryan, thank you, keep the stories coming.
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