Anybody here still work out?

[TexasMetallic5.0]

Yeah tendinitis is a bitch especially in the elbows. Makes it hard to do certain lifts especially when doing triceps.

Definitely. It started flaring up once I started curling my body weight. My small joints weren’t designed for all that. I can’t seem to shake it no matter what I do.

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[RPDBlueMoon]

Definitely. It started flaring up once I started curling my body weight. My small joints weren’t designed for all that. I can’t seem to shake it no matter what I do.

Yeah same, I know what you mean lol. When in Afghanistan I was crazy strong and was doing skull crushers with 45lbs on each side. Lol I cant do crazy weight like that anymore without pain in my elbows. I try to work around it by doing burnouts or supersets with lighter weight until muscle failure so that I still get the intensity.

 

[TexasMetallic5.0]

Yeah same, when in Afghanistan I was crazy strong and was doing skull crushers with 45lbs on each side. Lol I cant do crazy weight like that anymore without pain in my elbows. I try to work around it by doing burnouts or supersets with lighter weight until muscle failure so that I still get the intensity.

I miss the gyms overseas, and all the free protein you could handle from the DFAC. Before I blew a disc out 2 years ago I had finally gotten up to 215lbs from 175. For my size I was pretty strong, like finishing weighted dips with a 145 on the chain belt. Now I’m a year and a half out from having a L5/S1 fusion done. Feel like I could get back into it, other than this elbow. I need to just go and see how everything plays out, try some anti-inflammatories and avoid the temptation to go heavy on everything.

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

I miss the gyms overseas, and all the free protein you could handle from the DFAC. Before I blew a disc out 2 years ago I had finally gotten up to 215lbs from 175. For my size I was pretty strong, like finishing weighted dips with a 145 on the chain belt. Now I’m a year and a half out from having a L5/S1 fusion done. Feel like I could get back into it, other than this elbow. I need to just go and see how everything plays out, try some anti-inflammatories and avoid the temptation to go heavy on everything.

Damn, we didn't have any of that, the only way of getting re-supplied was by airdrop and mail came only a few times so we always were low on food and could never get supplements. The only thing I miss about our gym was that I could workout without my shirt on and I always checked myself out in the mirror

That is pretty big, I only got up to 190lbs, and I was about 175lbs. That's good weight, I remember I could do pull ups and dips for days. Nothing to do besides to workout so going to the gym everyday you just naturally get strong as hell even if you aren't taking supplements. Injuries suck, it was never bad that I needed surgery but it's bad enough that it causes discomfort so I know what you mean. My discs haven't gone out by they are bulging.

Only a few years ago I realized my form wasn't good and I wasn't working out correctly. The brute force method on top of Army stuff did it's damage. I don't care about going super heavy anymore, I just want to be able to lift without being in pain lol. I guess I had imbalances and was overcompensating with my back, which makes sense as I am tall and pretty skinny. Funny how the dudes in my squad who weight the least all carried machine guns

 

[FreePenguin]

Damn, we didn't have any of that, the only way of getting re-supplied was by airdrop and mail came only a few times so we always were low on food and could never get supplements. The only thing I miss about our gym was that I could workout without my shirt on and I always checked myself out in the mirror

That is pretty big, I only got up to 190lbs, and I was about 175lbs. That's good weight, I remember I could do pull ups and dips for days. Nothing to do besides to workout so going to the gym everyday you just naturally get strong as hell even if you aren't taking supplements. Injuries suck, it was never bad that I needed surgery but it's bad enough that it causes discomfort so I know what you mean. My discs haven't gone out by they are bulging.

Only a few years ago I realized my form wasn't good and I wasn't working out correctly. The brute force method on top of Army stuff did it's damage. I don't care about going super heavy anymore, I just want to be able to lift without being in pain lol. I guess I had imbalances and was overcompensating with my back, which makes sense as I am tall and pretty skinny. Funny how the dudes in my squad who weight the least all carried machine guns

That guy was me, 150-160 carrying 150+ lbs gear. switching between m4 and M249 my shit was heavy, carrying 800-1k rounds ammo and then if not a saw, would be hauling mortar rounds in backpack for the little m60 mortar. blah for weeks at time in mountains at a time looking for Bowe bergdahl. Blah. 1-501st airborne infantry here. It did it’s damage to my body without question.

this was me in one my pathetic suckfest, and few photos from returning missions/etc. im the one on the right in the trio photo.

we would literally be dropped in middle of nowhere, ruck 16-18 hours a day, sleep for 4-5 hours unconsectuvely taking turns sleeping all food and water was airdropped, and the helicopters would half the time drop the pallets down the mountain, so wed have to go to the bottom and ruck all back to the top. ridiculous. my x'rays show spiderwebs of stress cracks and breaks but healed but different shades of color. just a lot of suck going on in those days.

dont let the pics fool you, these are literally straight up damn mountains. even trees grow funky there. I cant express how brutal rucking in the temperatures, and full kit, and the steepness of these mountains was.

my guys and I, (I am bottom right)

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

That guy was me, 150-160 carrying 150+ lbs gear. M249 my shit was heavy, carrying 800-1k rounds ammo for weeks at time in mountains at a time looking for Bowe bergdahl. Blah. 1-501st airborne infantry here. It did it’s damage to my body without question.

Yeah same it sucked. I know EXACTLY what you mean. Since we were with Navy SEALs the Mk.48 was around. Never carried 7.62 and its a hell of alot more than 5.56. Very first mission I had the Mk.48 and my buddy had the 240L so much extra weight we could barely walk. After that they just rotated the SAW and Mk.48 between me and by buddy. 502nd so just 1 above you lol. My brother was in 508 back in 2008, which is 4th brigade I think? The only thing I was looking forward to was that my chicken legs would get huge. Nope, all of that weight went straight to my back and knees and wreaked havoc on them.

I remember going to sick call before getting out and the doc told me that "yeah, this is pretty typical for infantry guys" lol, I'm like well thanks dude.

 

[FreePenguin]

Yeah same it sucked. I know EXACTLY what you mean. Since we were with Navy SEALs the Mk.48 was around. Never carried 7.62 and its a hell of alot more than 5.56. Very first mission I had the Mk.48 and my buddy had the 240L so much extra weight we could barely walk. After that they just rotated the SAW and Mk.48 between me and by buddy. 502nd so just 1 above you lol. The only thing I was looking forward to was that my legs would get tree trunks for legs. Nope, all of that weight went straight to my back and knees and wreaked havoc on them.

I remember going to sick call before getting out and the doc told me that "yeah, this is pretty typical for infantry guys" lol, I'm like well thanks dude.

dude, we ruined about a dozen mk 48 variants, they gave us a brand batch of experimental saw's to field test in the 7.62 caliber some new revised version weapon.

our base only had 100 people on it (waza kawa or wazi kwah), let me find a map of it, we was on Pakistan border, cant even find a map with our fob on it.

talk about the shittiest living closures. dirt, spiders, bugs, I had mouses and shit. up in my bed nightly because we would run out of fuel when we was at the fob. anyway the armory handed us the new experimental crap, said go fire them see how we like em. we went to the little range we made with sandbag wall behind it, of course. loaded thousands of rounds through them, and the barrels all got welded to the receivers.

ew didn't know, they didn't tell us there was packing grease etc in the guns, never been cleaned etc.. it welded the bitches together firing. LMAO. not our problem, whatever

when I got to go to the main bases to transfer on leave etc it was heavenly, kbr, Pizza Hut, I see all the army and airforce walking around like another day of life, absolutely jacked mofos because all they did was eat healthy and lift at the gym. not actually burning off the calories in the field.

it was jealousy at its finest. but I did smash a chic officer there while I passed through, I was 18 lmao.

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

dude, we ruined about a dozen mk 48 variants, they gave us a brand batch of experimental saw's to field test in the 7.62 caliber some new revised version weapon.

our base only had 100 people on it, let me find a map of it, we was on Pakistan border if ir ecall
talk about the shittiest living closures. dirt, spiders, bugs, I had mouses and shit. up in my bed nightly because we would run out of fuel when we was at the fob. anyway the armory handed us the new experimental crap, said go fire them see how we like em. we went to the little range we made with sandbag wall behind it, of course. loaded thousands of rounds through them, and the barrels all got welded to the receivers.

ew didn't know, they didn't tell us there was packing grease etc in the guns, never been cleaned etc.. it welded the bitches together firing. LMAO. not our problem, whatever

when I got to go to the main bases to transfer on leave etc it was heavenly, kbr, Pizza Hut, I see all the army and airforce walking around like another day of life, absolutely jacked mofos because all they did was eat healthy and lift at the gym. not actually burning off the calories in the field.

it was jealousy at its finest. but I did smash a chic officer there while I passed through, I was 18 lmao.

Dude the first mission we did when I had to carry the Mk.48 was literally the worst experience of my life. I legitimately wanted to die, sucked so bad having to go up and down the mountains, and I wasn't acclimated to the elevation yet so I had shortness of breath from the elevation. Had no idea wtf was going on, I was like wtf why can't I breathe lol.

Sounds similar to my situation we always were short on supplies. Not sure what the proper name for our base was. It was called officially DSP, whatever that means, it definitely wasn't a FOB. Only had our platoon and a platoon of the SEALs plus a few others so it was about 100 people. Logar Province, Baraki Barak which is right at the mouth of the Tangi Valley Its near the border but not on it. We had beds and a mattress and running water at least but we ran out of water and food all the time. Rats and all sorts of shit was everywhere. This was in 2014 so the mission was to close down bases. The other platoons rotated to other sites. While we stayed out there for just shy of 9 months. We were the first ones to go back to the states in our company because the CO knew we had it the worst.

Shit was so depressing getting back, I remember wanting cold water and ice cream for the longest time and not starve. Finally get back to the FOB and the DFAC closes. They served only breakfast and it was the small cereal boxes you see at the gas station. For lunch it was 2 piece of white bread and ham lol. No dinner. It was like that for 3 days and then it closed completely. MREs only. We went to the FOB once, to pickup a washing machine and like you I saw all of that shit, I was very jealous I hated being hungry at night with nothing to eat lol.

After we handed over our base to the Afghans, within 3 days we saw it taken over by the Taliban, lol.

I'll post some pictures too

 

[FreePenguin]

Sounds similar to my situation we always were short on supplies. Not sure what the proper name for our base was. It was called officially DSP, whatever that means, it definitely wasn't a FOB. Only had our platoon and a platoon of the SEALs plus a few others so it was about 100 people. Logar Province, Baraki Barak which is right at the mouth of the Tangi Valley Its near the border but not on it. We had beds and a mattress and running water at least but we ran out of water and food all the time. Rats and all sorts of shit was everywhere. This was in 2014 so the mission was to close down bases. The other platoons rotated to other sites. While we stayed out there for just shy of 9 months. We were the first ones to go back to the states in our company because the CO knew we had it the worst.

Shit was so depressing getting back, I remember wanting cold water and ice cream for the longest time and not starve. Finally get back to the FOB and the DFAC closes. They served only breakfast and it was the small cereal boxes you see at the gas station. For lunch it was 2 piece of white bread and ham lol. No dinner. It was like that for 3 days and then it closed completely. MREs only. We went to the FOB once, to pickup a washing machine and like you I saw all of that shit, I was very jealous I hated being hungry at night with nothing to eat lol.

After we handed over our base to the Afghans, within 3 days we saw it taken over by the Taliban, lol.

I'll post some pictures too

yep. same story, our base was shut down, the previous unit didn't even leave base for a year, Taliban had bombs right at their front gate because they was so lazy. we came in, cleaned it all up, then next unit came in, shitty unit. shot the interpreters on accident, so they all quit, negligent discharges. lazy lazy lazy, they got pummeled.

edit I found info on my base, its called a COP all the articles I find on google call it a cop. we always called it a fob though, but yeah we didn't even have running water, wood crappers, water was pumped out of little water blimps, etc.

waza mwah has been removed off all the maps, because this is only thing I found it on. is bottom right corner. I do know they shut this firebase down. it was given over to Afghanistan people, lame as hell. I dont know why we dont carpet bomb the bases when we are done instead of leaving built facilities for them of any sort.

"dated back in feb 2006"

 

[FreePenguin]

Just saw your photos. I would of totally traded you terrains! your place didn't have much green though, we surprisingly hit a ton of oasis's and little forest and such. and a TON of this.... I didn't touch it. but a lot of my coworkers put a ton of it in their pockets. there was no piss test lol.

we actually burned a field of it on purpose, it was to hurt $ funding Taliban. man it pissed off a lot of people, got hit under fire a lot during the operations.

 

[Sivi70980]

Thank you all for your service! Here’s the only pics from Iraq 2009/2010 that I have on my phone. Nothing from Afghanistan but seriously ef that place anyway! Also I’m just a civilian contractor so I was doing less while y’all protected me, can’t thank you all enough.

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

yep. same story, our base was shut down, the previous unit didn't even leave base for a year, Taliban had bombs right at their front gate because they was so lazy. we came in, cleaned it all up, then next unit came in, shitty unit. shot the interpreters on accident, so they all quit, negligent discharges. lazy lazy lazy, they got pummeled.

edit I found info on my base, its called a COP all the articles I find on google call it a cop. we always called it a fob though, but yeah we didn't even have running water, wood crappers, water was pumped out of little water blimps, etc.

waza mwah has been removed off all the maps, because this is only thing I found it on. is bottom right corner. I do know they shut this firebase down. it was given over to Afghanistan people, lame as hell. I dont know why we dont carpet bomb the bases when we are done instead of leaving built facilities for them of any sort.

"dated back in feb 2006"

I see, yeah thats like the middle part, I was just south of Kabul, near whatever PUL-E-LAMI means. Thats crazy, yeah the guys who were there before (10th mountain) sucked ass and fucked up everything. Lmao how do you shoot an interpret by accident, how stupid.

Yeah I don't know what the acronym means really. It was never referred to as a COP, always a DSP. It even says it on paperwork for the awards I got. I just did a google search and saw it referred to as a COP in some articles but thats civilian lingo, so idk. One of those things where you don't bother to ask. I remember I learned quickly to just shut up and don't ask questions. I remember we never referred to the bad guys as Taliban. It was always the Hakuni. Firefights? They were called TICs - Troops in Contact. I deployed during my 2nd year and all of that pre-deployment training was useless. I remember the day we got there they were like yeah, we don't do wedge formations, we just walk in a single line. Its really dumb that the Army trains ass backwards.

In 2016 there was a helicopter that got shut down from our old base. They just watched us the whole time and waited until we left before attacking. Sad, the place is beyond fucked and yeah agree, they literally are just overtaking fortified positions. My friend and I destroyed our hooch as a last fuck you to them. I'm expecting to see my old base to be used as an ISIS or Taliban training camp, kinda like those Bin-Laden Taliban training videos from the 90s.

 

[FreePenguin]

Thank you all for your service! Here’s the only pics from Iraq 2009/2010 that I have on my phone. Nothing from Afghanistan but seriously ef that place anyway! Also I’m just a civilian contractor so I was doing less while y’all protected me, can’t thank you all enough.

Every person matters be proud to go over there and do stuff that people look at as "never would I ever" kind of job, when I got out I wanted to work for KBR/any security job I could get but I was only 20 years old when I got out, full contract served. got in day I turned 17 with a 45k bonus.

brb flip omelettes for hundreds of thousands a year. but I wasn't eligible no one would even look at me due to my age, and not my experience, but I scored a job with DoD like 10 days after I got out of service and rocked that bad boy for many years as DoD contracting.

we had to do emergency evacuation, we was being laid down on fire, in a gorge, a chinook got in and we rushed into the chinook and as it flew up, an RPG was fired, watched it flying right at us from the tail being down. we got lucky, it was a tad too far, and the rotor wash blew it off course and went right by us.

had that been a little closer, it would of been direct hit and I guarantee everyone of us would of been killed instantly. chinooks are basically instant death. We hit like 40 IED's on our way down to our firebase, it was the first time the route had been down in like 8 years (called route viper), took out 3 entire RCD units, became a brigade wide movement to get us there.

literally got to a point where we hit IED's every 100 meters at points. after an IED went off, we watched Afghanistan cop people drive off into a field and get out of the little ford ranger with looked to be a volleyball. they started playing volleyball while IED's just went off.

they stepped, all of them went booooom. they told us to go get them, we said fuck you. we wasn't walking across a field to pick up afghani contractors who didn't care about us one bit. We did though in mountains get stuck in a area we needed access too.

There was clearly an IED / unexploded ordinance right in middle of our canyon path (goat paths) and we needed through. we had a terp... our leader told him we had magical gloves, anti IED gloves, and if he wears them, he can remove the bomb and clear the path.

dude put them on, basically crawled to it. lifted it, and tossed it off the mountain. it didn't explode. but my goodness. now I would of felt terrible, but damn. it worked

 

[RPDBlueMoon]

Just saw your photos. I would of totally traded you terrains! your place didn't have much green though, we surprisingly hit a ton of oasis's and little forest and such. and a TON of this.... I didn't touch it. but a lot of my coworkers put a ton of it in their pockets. there was no piss test lol.

we actually burned a field of it on purpose, it was to hurt $ funding Taliban. man it pissed off a lot of people, got hit under fire a lot during the operations.

That was high up in the mountains. It was green towards the south and near the base. It was weird, everything to the North was all mountains and barren but everything to the south was green and flat. The terrain was weird. I didn't mind going patrols up in the south but I hated going up north because it was just rocky rolling hills.

We had a small marijuana plant on the base. My friend grabbed it and we smoked it but it didn't get us high. I didn't see any poppy fields or any marijuana plants. Yeah I heard thats how they get their money. I think like 70% of the heroin comes from Afghanistan.

 

[Sivi70980]

Every person matters be proud to go over there and do stuff that people look at as "never would I ever" kind of job, when I got out I wanted to work for KBR/any security job I could get but I was only 20 years old when I got out, full contract served. got in day I turned 17 with a 45k bonus.

brb flip omelettes for hundreds of thousands a year. but I wasn't eligible no one would even look at me due to my age, and not my experience, but I scored a job with DoD like 10 days after I got out of service and rocked that bad boy for many years as DoD contracting.

we had to do emergency evacuation, we was being laid down on fire, in a gorge, a chinook got in and we rushed into the chinook and as it flew up, an RPG was fired, watched it flying right at us from the tail being down. we got lucky, it was a tad too far, and the rotor wash blew it off course and went right by us.

had that been a little closer, it would of been direct hit and I guarantee everyone of us would of been killed instantly. chinooks are basically instant death. We hit like 40 IED's on our way down to our firebase, it was the first time the route had been down in like 8 years (called route viper), took out 3 entire RCD units, became a brigade wide movement to get us there.

literally got to a point where we hit IED's every 100 meters at points. after an IED went off, we watched Afghanistan cop people drive off into a field and get out of the little ford ranger with looked to be a volleyball. they started playing volleyball while IED's just went off.

they stepped, all of them went booooom. they told us to go get them, we said fuck you. we wasn't walking across a field to pick up afghani contractors who didn't care about us one bit. We did though in mountains get stuck in a area we needed access too.

There was clearly an IED / unexploded ordinance right in middle of our canyon path (goat paths) and we needed through. we had a terp... our leader told him we had magical gloves, anti IED gloves, and if he wears them, he can remove the bomb and clear the path.

dude put them on, basically crawled to it. lifted it, and tossed it off the mountain. it didn't explode. but my goodness. now I would of felt terrible, but damn. it worked

Love the stories. I am proud of what I've done for sure. I married a soldier so I know what it's about, still working as a contractor. When I was overseas I was embedded with units but just stayed on the bases. I went to a few FOBs (we call them that too lol) and had some close calls as well in Afghanistan. Iraq was like a paid vacation though. I work with Strykers and used to be part of the team that maintained them when they would come back on base. Currently I issue them out all over the country with BII.

Luckily I never had any close calls on any aircraft. With civilian eyes, Blackhawks and my rides in them are by far my favorite. Chinook was meh. C130 had 1 good flight with combat decent and 2 less good lol. My one C17 ride was great! Pilot or crew member that sat upstairs may have been insanely hot in her flight suit and may have biased the opinion.

I did make friends with the armorer on a FOB in Afghanistan and he set it up so I could shoot a belt fed something or other for a few minutes during a qualifying range day with some soldiers. Came home and started my personal armory after that experience.

A few soldiers and civilians alike are considered family, even closer than family...like "I'll bring the shovel" kind of bonds. Looking back while typing this remembering all the great times...

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