I just recently found out a friend of mine from College is now serving in Iraq. On a whim I typed in a search under Yahoo and found he has been interviewed by the media several times.
I would like very much to send him a letter or email, but I have no way of knowing where to send it. I tried calling the local recruiter for some help, but they had no idea where to begin.
I was hoping some of the many resourceful people here might have some ideas.
My friend is Captain Scott Dyer, USMC, Executive Officer, Company A, 8th Tank Battalion.
Also, this site gave me 4 positive hits on the name Scott Dyer, but registration is required to view the details. It looks like registration to the site is both free and available to non-military personnel but I'm not positive.
I tried that phone number and it is disconnected. I'll see if I can find anything in an online directory.
The website gave me 4 hits, the pay-grades were e-1, e-4 e-5 and e-7. I presume E stands for 'Enlisted' so I don't think any of them are my Scott, who is an officer. Unless I misinterpret the pay grades.
I did confirm Scotts middle innnitial is A. However, his graduation date is listed as 94 in my college alumni directory. I met Scott in 88. Now I am beginning to wonder if it is the same guy... (CSU Chico) The odds are it is and he just had an extended college career, but...
Well, you found me (or rather, I found this old post)!
Yep, I had an extended college career (87-94) ...of course Chico is the place to do that! Part of that was due to my constant 'sabbaticals' to go serve in the USMC (enlisted), and part because I just took my time getting my degree.
I got my commission in '95, after bumming around the US and Europe for a year. Left active duty in '01.
My service in Iraq in '03 was another of those sabbaticals. Ironic that despite my years on active duty, my only combat tour came while serving in the Reserves.
What an absolute treat! I've sent you a PM catching up a bit and with some contact info. I'll also introduce you to my friends here;
Scott -- Everyone
Everyone - Scott...
If you haven't guessed this is a place for people who think $2500 for a HDTV is a raging good deal but still an incomplete purchase... Many - like me - also feel that 52" screens are just too small to be practical. (mine is 120")
I have found over the years that the folks here are also a broadly diverse generous and intelligent group. If there is something you want to know you are quite likely to find someone here who knows it; It was here where I learned how to build my first PC with generous amounts of help and direction from the members. Member here range from retirees to college kids - Cashiers to NASA engineers.
Anyhow - I hope to hear from you soon - and I'm sure that some of the others here would be interested in hearing what you're willing to share about your time serving. The only rule - nothing that could be considered too political - It is about the only way to avoid partisan flame-fests.
(looked for the PM - but nothing in the USER CP... Perhaps because I'm new, the mods have still got me delay filtered...)
Ironically, I will need some advice wrt my DirecTV HDDVR & HDTV connections (HDMI connectivity problem - which I can't (read: haven't taken the time to) figure out whether the problem is in my Samsung DLP or with the DVR. I keep getting the "not supported mode" blankscreen pop-up on certain channels. I'll look around for the proper forum and ask the question there when I've gathered enough info to ask an intelligent question.
Glad to hear this is a well moderated board. Anything I write about Iraq will comport with the rules. (Marine officers are generally non-partisan as a rule)
Anyway, I'll keep my eye peeled for the PM and post more when I get a chance.
Don't worry about the screen size. In spite of the "home theater" name, there are some of us here with 30" sets and sound coming right out of the TVs. It's a fun place to discuss current shows and movies, new DVD releases, and just about anything in this section of the forum.
This is one of those Home Theater Forum success stories that just makes you feel warm all over. What would we do without the internet and great sites like this one?
Also, when you post about your DirectTV you should indicate the channels you're having trouble with, particularly mention if they are local, free, or pay channels. My gut tells me it is not an HDMI issue but a settings issue.
I'm just curious, how on earth did you 'find' this post four years later? I mean, I wouldn't be looking in random forums for posts from old friends looking for me. Did someone who knows you spot it and tell you about it?
Kind of an odd story there. I am currently an attorney practicing in Louisville (I defend people and businesses that have been sued). I searched the web for a plaintiff's counsel's website to do some research on the competition, and became frustrated that I could not find his firm's website. Turns out there are about twenty marketing websites that capture information about lawyers, which makes it virutually impossible to find the actual firm's web page. So I became curious to see if they'd done that with me as well, and googled my own name.
Seems there's about a million "Scott Dyer's" out there ( URL Not allowed) one of whom tragically lost his life while serving in Afghanistan - ironically, he was the same age as I am (we both graduated highschool in 1987)). I found 'Scott Dyer' writers, musicians, photographers, doctors and microbiologists, but not me. So I added things I knew were in my bio (Captain, USMC, Lawyer, etc.) to refine the search and found this thread.
Anyway, Eric and I met in the dorms at Chico State (at the time, the number one party school in America) and our floor was called "The Ghetto" in reference to how it looked after the many parties we held there. I had just graduated from Marine Boot Camp, and the contrast between the most disciplined place in America and living on the number one party floor in the co-ed dorms of the number one party school made for some interesting times. Through a combination of partying, and taking frequent 'sabbatacles' to go serve in the Marines, my total time to graduate took 7 years (5 years of actual classes). Chico is (was) about the best place for a young man to spend his late teens and early 20's. It was the very picture of what most people think of, when they think of a great college "experience."
My military career took me all over the United States and the world. I was activated in support of Desert Storm (but never left CONUS) while in the Reserves at Chico, and later as an Infantry Officer on Active Duty, I served in Bosnia & Croatia (peacekeeping), and worked with our European and North African allies in deployments to the Mediterranean. I left active duty in '01 (wnt back into the Reserves) to attend law school (by then I had found my wife and decided I liked her better than the Marines, but still wanted to serve...). Half-way through law school, I was activated (again) as part of Alpha Company 8th Tanks (by then I was a Tank Officer, and the Executive Officer of the company) to serve in Iraq.
Our company (of some of the best young Americans you could hope to meet) was part of Task Force Tarawa, and fought in the Battle of An Nasiriyah (the place PFC Lynch's company was ambushed). My company rescued everyone in that Army convoy who was not captured or killed, and fought the next 18 hours of intense combined-arms urban combat alongside the infantry Marines of 1 / 2. It took us about a week of intermittent fighting to finally 'secure' Nasiriyah. At the end, I sent three of my tanks in support of the mission that recovered PFC Lynch and the fallen soldiers located at the Sadaam Hospital, and the next day we began an exodus around southern Iraq. At the time, many of the locals really seemed to appreciate our efforts to liberate them (despite what you may have seen on the news, every town we went to after Nasiriyah (with the exception of Kut) we passed hundreds of smiling, waving Iraqis - who brought us gifts (food, cigarrettes, etc.), and whom we treated well.*
If you're interested, I was one of about 55 Marines interviewed for a book on our battle, called, (URL Not Allowed) "Ambush Alley" by Tim Pritchard. There's other books out there about the battle, but I think Tim did the best job of capturing the 'feel' of the battle. (It's a pretty raw account, so be forewarned, if you choose to read it...).
*I really do not want to get into a debate about the merits of the war, itself. I just want to share my experience to the fact that despite a pretty tough battle that consisted of 18 hours of intense combat, followed by several subsequent clashes over a week to ten-day period, my overall experience during the seven-month deployment was positive, and I feel we did some good.
