What is your favorite memory of all time while serving in the military?

I was a chaplain's assistant at Fort Knox, and was TDY'd as the radio man for a group of college ROTC students who were doing their required summer weeks . They were being led by regular drill sergeants. The fun part for me was watching the drills fumble all over themselves as they screamed at the kids; technically, ROTC students were still civilians, so the drills could scream at them, but they couldn't swear at them, and they found that REALLY tough. No f-bombs. ;-)

Ooh. That's tough. Two strong candidates:

1. I'm in Baghdad, shortly after it fell. My platoon CP is a villa in a Baath Party resort. I've bartered MOGAS with the A Team across the street to get their attached Air Force electrician (with some plumbing expertise) to install a window unit and the toilet, sink, and bidet (hey, it was a set) that we confiscated from the nearby Baath Party conference center. Playing spades with my sergeants while nibbling on the platoon-sized MREs of McRibs.

2. I've just taken the new USARPAC Commander on his first visit to Japan: Tokyo, Western Army HQs, and the Southwest Islands. We're back in Kyushu, on a bus taking us from the military side of an airfield to the civilian PAX terminal so he can jet off to DC for Congressional testimony. He turns in his seat and says to my boss "if all my trips are like this, this is going to be a great command." BASED. I did all that shit, including making sure raw horse wasn't on the menu.

It was a wild fucking ride!

Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Being physically able to hobble onto that Flying Tiger 707 (freedom bird), with all my "junk" still attached at DEROS, going home, 01/05/1970. Chuck didn't allow me to make my extension date to ETS, Oh well! Rejoicing to just be there, 3rd. Brig. 1st. Infantry Division,

I was stationed at NavCommSta, Sidi Yahia, Morocco (I was a Cryptologic Technician CT - U.S.Navy) when the Moroccan Air Force tried to shoot down the King's Plane. The government of Morocco didn't know if the U.S. Government was involved and we were surrounded by the Moroccan Army with Tanks and Infantry. Our base was 40 miles away from any City in the Desert and all we had was a Marine Guard Company for what we thought was for our protection. We were all called into the Secure Spaces for Emergency Destruct if our base was being over run; so that our Crypto Equipment and Codes wouldn't be captured. We told our Chief that it was a good thing we had the Marines protecting us...He laughed..and told us; the Marines were there to make sure we didn't get captured alive like the CT's on the USS Pueblo which had happened about three years before. "What ??? !!!" Sobering moment !!

I worked as an engineer on what the army called "Medium Boats." We did a lot of cross training with Marines and Navy personnel. In our training missions we would spend hours floating on the water waiting fo orders. We would get a radio call..."Landing Craft Mechanized 17, go to NOrth Beach 3 and pick up a bulldozer, or a tank or a platoon or whatever. lTransport to Soutn Beach 2.
Well, for some reason, the command got this strange idea that when we weren't being observed we would go to the bait camps and buy coolers full of beer. Not to drink into oblivion. We had to do something while we were fishing and waiting for instructions.
At any rate, we got a heads up So, I that we were going to be visited by upper echelon NCOs and Officers. So, I decided to go into a store room, and move the cooler into one of the voids (the empty container filled with air that allows metal boats to float.) So, I straightened up a few things and figured no one would show up for a few hours.
I threw the unauthorized cooler onto the deck. And you guessed it, the first Sgt. was standing right there when I stood up. "Pay attention to detail, right?" So, he looks at me and that cooler, and I look at him. Probably a good thing that boots are water proof because I was about to pee in my pants.
For some reason, they were really short on my MOS. Instead of 12 hours on and 12 hours off, We were working 18 hours on and 6 hours off. He looked at me for a long time. I'm sure he was counting how many boat engineers he had.
First Sgt. "If I ask you to open that cooler, there won't be any beer in there, will there?"
Me: NOOO...I know that beer is unauthorized.... I would NEVER...I mean NEVER have an unauthorized case of beer in my engineroom....
Of course he didn't believe me for a second. I mean the guy didn't get to be a First Sgt. by being stupid.
Remind me to write you up before we go back to post. That cooler is unauthorized. Its too big."
Yes First Sgt! For some reason, reminding him to give me disciplinary paperwork completely slipped my mind. At any rate...to the astonishment of the Officers and Sergeants in charge of me, I got out6 months later with an honorable Doscjarge. Shew...that was close.

In 1982, I was leaving Germany (I had been read off from everything I was doing) and was invited to Berlin by a classmate. He arranged for me to be the "Tour Officer" on one of the cars going into East Berlin. The driver took us to all sorts of interesting places in East Berlin, but while we were driving through the Soviet officer housing, I saw a car coming in the opposite direction. The driver snapped his head around to make sure that nobody was watching, then flashed his lights at us. He literally risked his freedom just to acknowledge us. That few seconds just highlighted to me how important what we were doing in Germany was.

Marrying my She.

After 2 Westpac tours and 6 months of atomic testing at Johnston Island, the Gulf of Tonkin BS (Aug 4, 1964), and with 30 days left in the Navy, it was the day I was discharged, and I walked out of the gate at Treasure Island and boarded a plane for home.

Getting my jump wings pinned on on June 6, 1984–the 40th anniversary of DDay

Going to Georgia to pull security for the pre-Olympics