What odd things did you learn from your time in the service?

Fascinating thread!
I know a Vietnam Vet who buys C-rats on line, because he learned to like them.
They are very expensive on line if from Vietnam War. I think he buys the reproductions.


My daughter , veteran, USAF Intel, ate MREs on a bivouac years ago , and she said they were delicious.
Some in her squadron had never slept outside under the stars ,at night ,before.
 
Manatee said:
I went on active duty as a petty officer 3c. While waiting for assignment to a ship, I was assigned to fetch a prisoner from the Binghamton NY jail and bring him to the brig at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, on a public bus. It took from 7am until 11pm. The lesson was that when you put on that uniform-they own you. The brig was cleaner than a surgical operating room, but it was not a place you wanted to be.
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After graduating from college and draft eligible I enlisted for 3 years in the Navy. After three years of sweating in the engine rooms of an aircraft carrier, day and night, I was offered 2 more years shore duty in the Med, so I took it.

During my last six months of those two years I was put in charge of a sixth fleet brig. Our prisoners included men who assaulted officers, an accused murderer of a tourist girl, and assorted bad actors. I found a brig which was showing the latest cinema scope movies, free laundry (the Marine guards and I had to pay for it), and any prisoners who didn’t feel like marching a couple of hundred yards to a chow hall had it delivered to them.

This was like a vacation compared to a life at sea. First thing, I gave the cinema scope lens to the base movie theater and showed only training films, and restricted service of food in the brig to those with a doctor’s note — the rest got to jog in formation to the chow hall.

Not a place you wanted to be? Of course, but life at sea was No picnic either.
 

My daughter was trained to use the M-16 in USAF BT but her weapon jammed at first.

She asked me, while home on leave, years ago 'didnt dad have that problem too, while in the USMC?'

I said "yeah, maybe you were issued the same M-16 he used".

This AM very early on Fox was a retired Lt Col ( USMC ), who has written a book on how our Military is not gaining good recruitment stats ( except for USMC) and he gave some profound reasons why-one reason he did not mention, the interview was brief, was the Afghanistan Tragedy-to me, the WORSE Military decision every made by the USA, but one reason he gave was that our military is still using very old equipment and materiale, and of course the wokeism, and DEI stuff......

Adult children of veterans, can certainly realize that today's military is not what their parent (s) served in. Yet many serve because their parents did.

He gave some staggering stats - that over 70% of today's youth cannot join the Military, due to things like past drug usage, and obesity, which were two of many other reasons he gave. He didn't mention AHDH.

A friend of mine's son tried to enlist in the Army a few years ago and one of the very first questions he was asked, is if he had ADHD, which he did have and also they said he was too old.

I believe we have the Greatest Military in the world and that young men and women will still enlist!

But the stats he gave on enlistment are very concerning. I hope they repeat the interview-I didn't catch his name or the name of the book. Maybe it will be on Fox online.
 
The amount of sailors that never had a drivers license. First time I heard that was in boot camp. Next was at my 1st. duty station in Argentia Newfoundland. Since I had a license, getting a Navy drivers license was a matter of paper work. Included after proving the ability to operate various motorized units. I had a license drive or operate everything from a NC-5 power unit to a 47 passenger bus.

Not a common knowledge thing this represents an NC-5

U.S. Navy NC-5A Mobile Power Unit Model
 
Trade said:
I learned that K.P. stands for Kitchen Police. And that the worst job when you are on Kitchen Police detail is Pots and Pans.
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Back 1962-1965, USAF had us pull KP one full week a year. Easier and more preferable than 1SG trying to manage a monthly duty roster for KP. Pots and Pans back then was done with a steam cleaning hose blasting off encrusted foods. Other than being hot and wet, not a bad detail. Following a through steam cleaning, pots and pans were then sent through the 'clipper' (think a conveyer belted horizontal dish washer) for final clean and rinse before returning to the kitchen for use next meal.

Hardest part of that week long stand of duty was mopping the tile floor in the mess hall after every meal. Mess Sergeant would dump 55gal garbage cans of hot soapy water on the floor. We'd slip and slide and mop laughing all the time. Then came the rinse water barrels. Same thing all over again with the 'two-mop' challenge of who could best swing two mops at a time instead of only one. Hard work but great fun.
 
As a seaman recruit at Great Lakes, Ill., I had watch from 2-4AM. They were building an auditorium, and there were huge 6 foot high, 80 foot long steel beams. You needed two cranes to move them. I was ordered to guard them, in case somebody slipped them in his back pocket and walked out with them. I fought off all those attempts to steal them.
 
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Knight said:
The amount of sailors that never had a drivers license. First time I heard that was in boot camp. Next was at my 1st. duty station in Argentia Newfoundland. Since I had a license, getting a Navy drivers license was a matter of paper work. Included after proving the ability to operate various motorized units. I had a license drive or operate everything from a NC-5 power unit to a 47 passenger bus.

Not a common knowledge thing this represents an NC-5

U.S. Navy NC-5A Mobile Power Unit Model
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I was a Navy Corpsman. One day, a buddy , who worked in Personnel, called and asked if I had a driver's license. I said, "yeah'. Next thing I know I have a Navy license, so then I could drive ambulances. The problem was when I was at other bases, they wanted me to drive stuff, like trucks, and at that time, I didn't even know how to drive a stick.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I was a Navy Corpsman. One day, a buddy , who worked in Personnel, called and asked if I had a driver's license. I said, "yeah'. Next thing I know I have a Navy license, so then I could drive ambulances. The problem was when I was at other bases, they wanted me to drive stuff, like trucks, and at that time, I didn't even know how to drive a stick.
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Story time
That license paid off.
1. As an E-3 I chose Jet engine school in Memphis. Duty watch every 4 days with rotating 4 hour shifts of 8pm to 12pm 12pm to 4a/m 4a/m to 8 a/m. My duty was to deliver the other trainees to watch locations. They stood watch by standing outside assigned buildings. Rain, cold no matter the weather they stood outside. Meanwhile I sat in the duty office drinking coffee & playing cards with the duty officer. Once an hour we would drive to the assigned buildings to check on the trainees.

2. Upon graduating from jet engine school I was sent to the air force base in Charleston S. C. for air transportation to a utility squadron in Puerto Rico. Still E-3 because I had a Navy license my duty assignment was to pick up a Navy lieutenant at the gate, drive him to the docks. I could fish sleep, play cards while waiting to drive him back to the gate. I could use the vehicle to go into town whenever I wanted to. Those that didn't drive, other E-3s all the way up to E-7s spent their time tending to the grass on the golf course or packing grocery's at the base commissary.

3. In Puerto Rico every squadron had to supply help for 3 months to the base galley. Get up at 4 a/m do what ever the cooks needed done including serving food on the chow line. End of day was after the evening meal & the galley was spick & span clean. That was for others!! My job was to load a delivery truck to deliver prepped food to the mess hall on the other side of the base. I could sit & do nothing until the food was ready. Once delivered I could go back to the barracks until the next prepped meals were ready. After the last run I didn't have to stay & clean the mess hall.

4. Next duty station Lakehurst N. J. Made E-5 by this time. For others duty was every 4 DAYS. Not me!! my license paid off again. Once every 4 WEEKS on a Sunday my duty was to drive people that wanted to tour the base. That is where my 47 passenger bus insert on my license paid off.

I consider myself lucky to have the kind of duty that was wayyyyyyy better than what others experienced.
 
I learned how to open a bottle of beer with a cap, not a twist off cap, but a regular bottle cap with a key.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
As a seaman recruit at Great Lakes, Ill., I had watch from 2-4AM. They were building an auditorium, and there were huge 6 foot high, 80 foot long steel beams. You needed two cranes to move them. I was ordered to guard them, in case somebody slipped them in his back pocket and walked out with them. I fought off all those attempts to steal them.
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When I was a Navy recruit wending my way through Newport OCS, the threat hanging over our heads should we flunk out was a seat on a train headed to Great Lakes. Fortunately I avoided that dreaded fate. (-8
 
Here's and odd thing I learned, "Don't mess with the automatic wire stripper."

First a bit of a backstory to set the scene. During my USAF service, 1961-1965, I received basic and advance electronics training as a Guidance System Mechanic. Assigned to GEMS (Guidance Equipment Maintenance Section) on a tactical guided missile of the time. Most of our time was spent de-soldering and re-soldering failed connections. Principle to that was use of the automatic wire stripper. A sort of pliers device with a sliding grip on one jaw to hold the wire and a guillotine-type set of that stripped the insulation off the copper wire on the other jaw. What follows actually happened. Believe it or not.

"Ow, Ow, Ow" cried out Paul from his workbench. "Help, Help" came the cry. We all set aside our work and rushed to his aid. There, hanging from his little pinky was the automatic wire stripper. "It hurts. Help. It hurts" tears streaming down Paul's cheeks. His pinky already passed blue in color rapidly becoming purple. So knew it was painful.

How on earth did you manage that? Asked one of us. Paul's reply was almost as funny as the sight of the airman in distress, "Just wanted to see if they would do it. . . " His pinky was much larger than any wire the stripper was designed to work with, so the jaws had gone over-center and locked onto his pinky. Normally, they auto-release once the wire is stripped. Not so this time.

One of the guys brought over a screwdriver and a knife. "Looks like we'll have to amputate" he said adding humor to the situation. None of us could get it to release, with Paul screaming in our ears all the while. Eventually we had to dis-assemble the wire stripper to get it off. Took a couple of days, but Paul's finger eventually went back to its normal color.

Doing soldering in my RC shop the other day, got a hearty laugh out of using it re-thinking this episode. Yep, 'Never put your little finger in a wire stripper.' A little-known skill learned on active duty. Hope you enjoy reading this little episode. Oh, neither Paul nor any of us ever reported that to our superiors.
 


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