Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Serve.
Ash Butterflies
Ash Butterflies 1. “Love you, have a good day,” Bulluck said to his daughter as she shut the door to their Ford Escape. She did not say anything in return, but that was the standard for her. She did smile back to her father, then turned and crossed over the old crumbling sidewalk onto the tar-covered parking lot of her school. A gentle rain was falling from the drab gray sky, just another 4th grader’s school day in West Seattle.
By jason rummer5 years ago in Serve
RAF Days Part 5
More teenage memories of my days in the RAF from my biography 'Do or Do Not'. 1971 only had 8 weeks to go as I settled in and I was to experience my first Christmas away from home, which really hurt, but I must admit the mess did a good job on Christmas dinner, which must have been bittersweet for them as they no doubt wanted to be home too. As 1972 came in I discovered the RAF St. Mawgan radio station that was piped into every billet and selectable on a speaker above the door in every room. I didn’t have much of a private life so I decided to check it out and was doing regular radio shows pretty soon. The station controller was a guy called Keith Oliver who had a strong love of American radio stations and used to get as many radio jingles as he could from them. I had a ball as musically there was so much good stuff coming out and we used to get a lot of the latest music provided into the radio library. My musical tastes have always been a huge mixture from Classical through Soul through pop to hard rock, and this year saw some of the best music around. Argent, The Sweet, The Detroit Spinners, Carole King, The Strawbs, T Rex, Electric Light Orchestra, The O’Jays, The Osmonds, The Jackson Five, Alice Cooper, the list just goes on, and even to this day the music of the time brings back totally sharp memories of every event. I can still see the layout of the radio station with its antequated turntables and slipmats, old fashioned mixer and typical RAF Microphone and headphones, but I loved it. I even opted to do the breakfast show one day at 6am, and thought “If they wanted to be woken up this should do it” and promptly opened with ‘Schools Out’ by Alice Cooper. People left the radio switched on if they wanted it to be used as an alarm so I guess a few people got a rude awakening that day.
By Len Davies5 years ago in Serve
I owe my life to Tootsie Rolls
As a little girl, one of my Daddy's pet names for me was Tootsie Roll. He loved Tootsie Rolls and it was always the candy he chose when he had a choice. It was not until many years later that I learned the significance of these little candies to him and his fellow Marines who fought in the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir.
By Kathleen Hoffmann5 years ago in Serve
The First Day Of US Army Basic Training
Article #6 First Day of Basic Training At Fort Knox, Kentucky The summer of 2006 was when I went to Basic Training to join the United States Army and transition from civilian to becoming a soldier. My first day of basic training was having all my issued uniform and fitting all of it in my two duffle bags. So I had one duffle bag on my back and one in the front. It wasn't like any other while waiting for training to start. Everyone was anxious, it didn't matter if you had experience, young, old, we were all considered recruits, and were treated the same by the Drill Sergeants.
By Veteran / LEO Served5 years ago in Serve
Son
"You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning." I look up from the grave which sat right underneath a big beautiful willow tree, seeing my sister walking toward me and stopping not even three feet away. She looks at me and then down at the grave.
By Sunshine rayray5 years ago in Serve
RAF Days part 2
My adventures at RAF Cosford in early 1970 continue with anoither excerpt from my biography 'Do or do not". 404 entry were a smaller group, and seemed to be a lot more amicable which suited me as 217 had a few unsavoury characters. Military life is designed to be uncomfortable in order to mould you in the image they want you to be, and that includes marching you up and down a parade ground many hours a week, insisting that your boots and brasses are shiny, uniform razor sharply pressed and your hair short and neat with NO whiskers showing through. At least once a week you’d be on your hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom, corridors and polishing the wooden floors of the billet. Every morning you had to make your bedding into a specific exhibition that the billet corporal would inspect, and you would be personally checked on parade by Sgt Geraghty who enjoyed such little comments as “Did you use a mirror when you shaved this morning lad?”, “Yes Sergeant”, “Well next time use a razor it’s sharper”, and the classic from behind “Is your hair hurting you Davies?” “No sergeant”, “Well it should be I’m bloody standing on it”. Being honest these guys were chicken feed compared to the US Boot Camp Drill Sergeants, but my 16 year old mind didn’t enjoy it so much as I wanted to concentrate on the subjects.
By Len Davies5 years ago in Serve
The Moon's Permission
All things considered, Gael did not feel like a lawyer. He felt like a fraud. These weren’t feelings he could listen to when Jack was present. If he lost Jack’s respect, he’d have lost everything. Sitting there in that cab on the way to the jail to meet his first serious criminal, nay, capital case, he wished very much for a flask of whiskey that Jack hadn’t done away with already. Damn choirboy.
By Duointherain5 years ago in Serve
RAF Days
I had decided from a very early age that I wanted to join the Royal Air Force, and from the age of 13 I served with 30F squadron of the Air Training Corps in Ely, Cardiff (my home town). While my parents were away on summer holiday in 1969 I signed up and left school at Christmas that year. Here's a segment about the first days from my biography "Do or do not".
By Len Davies5 years ago in Serve
The soldier's heart
My adopted father served in the 29th Brigade, 47th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Military Forces, in World War II, and never spoke much about his six years in the army. Since his passing, I have done much research at the Australian War Memorial, to get a better understanding of his history and his service. There is a memorial plaque, at the AWM, for the 29th Brigade, and I wept when I saw it. My adopted father had actually told me quite a lot about his war; I didn't realise it until I saw that memorial plaque, and the Brigade motto:
By Lee-Anne Ford5 years ago in Serve
