Just received a SOFREP article today on the Balikatan Exercise in the PI. Thought about it for a second, and it's been 20 years since I was deployed there. We were supposed to do 3-month rotations, but they didn't have anybody to replace me after the first one. Or the second one. I ended up going there in Jan 2002, and didn't leave until Aug 2002, eight months of fun and sunshine. By the time August rolled around, I told them I was burned out and it was time for me to go. They sent me back to Lewis, no questions asked. The ASG was dwindled down from their claimed 1,000 strong to 100 weak, running and hiding. Abu Sabayya (ASG leader) was dead, supposedly for real this time. Gracia Burnham was back, no longer a hostage. I lit up a USMC CPT pretty bad, and ripped into some little E3 fukkin' Air Force kid in Hawaii, over some erroneous reporting they were doing (no situational awareness, because they WEREN'T fukking THERE...). Some Air Force 1LT thought he'd show how big his balls were, and tried to light up my Army SFC ass - then THAT clown got an earfull. It went up the chain until my Group CSM got involved, and shut everyone up. He solved that fast, and had my back. He knew I wasn't going to back down, either - I was ready to fight the whole Air Force in Hawaii.
If I can recover an old computer, I've got some badass pics to post. That place was a hoot.