What is the scariest or most couragous experience you've ever had?

I was a Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Operator (AW) and flew as a Naval Aircrewman "SENSO" on the carrier based S3 Viking. Never seemed courageous or scary, it was peace time. Looking back it did present a few tense moments, occasionally.

Maybe getting to that place, the training, the testing, to get the NAC wings qualified? SERE school was kinda scary.
The Navy did a good job of preparing people to handle stressful situations.

I am much more afraid to fly commercial. One, I knew the other men in the S3 and my squadron had my back. And two, I had no training on that passenger jet, it didn't have a ejection seat, and some drunk idiot's intentions were unknown.

So, maybe flying on a commercial jet cross country qualifies as my most courageous and scary.
 
Another thing I was terribly frightened of was when my late husband was building this 2000 sq.
ft. lodge in Colorado. We were on the top floor
it was Winter and snow was falling lightly. He wanted to get the roof on as soon as possible.
He had two 12 foot step ladders upstairs and told me to take the end of the ridge board and climb to the top of the ladder. I did and the ladder was wet from the snow. He said, "Hold it up as high as you can and slip it into the cross beam." This was behind me and I couldn't see it. He said, "You're not high enough, Get on the top of the ladder!"
Not the top rung! The top of the ladder that says, "Do not stand here!"
I did, and was terrified! I still couldn't see behind me and was swinging the board (16 ft.) I(I think it was a 2 by 8)
all around.
Then I had to get down without using my hands.
I know this seems silly to you guys but I'm just a gurl!
I don't know how he built that lodge out of 12 by 12 inch logs, all by himself! Half of it he built with no electricity! It still blows me away when I think of it!
 

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oldpeculier said:
I was a Aviation Antisubmarine Warfare Operator (AW) and flew as a Naval Aircrewman "SENSO" on the carrier based S3 Viking. Never seemed courageous or scary, it was peace time. Looking back it did present a few tense moments, occasionally.

Maybe getting to that place, the training, the testing, to get the NAC wings qualified? SERE school was kinda scary.
The Navy did a good job of preparing people to handle stressful situations.

I am much more afraid to fly commercial. One, I knew the other men in the S3 and my squadron had my back. And two, I had no training on that passenger jet, it didn't have a ejection seat, and some drunk idiot's intentions were unknown.

So, maybe flying on a commercial jet cross country qualifies as my most courageous and scary.
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My son was an AW on the USS Kennedy. He was also a rescue swimmer and was involved in two rescues: one in the Caribbean in daylight and good weather, and once in the Eastern Med at night in heavy weather. At lot of what you guys did was very scary.
 
When did your son serve on the USS Kennedy? I was attached to VS-32 and did a cruise to the Med. on the Kennedy in 1980-81.
 
oldpeculier said:
When did your son serve on the USS Kennedy? I was attached to VS-32 and did a cruise to the Med. on the Kennedy in 1980-81.
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He was on it a couple of years later. I could ask him for the exact dates, but I remember that I was stationed in Pearl Harbor from 81 to 85 and I think he made that deployment in 83 or 84.

I was on the staff of CINCPACFLT and was tasked to go down to Florida and give a briefing to one of the flags. I dropped by to visit my son in Jacksonville and while he was showing me around, the skipper of that unit went bonkers over the fact that I was there. It took some real effort to get him to calm down. I was an LDO LCDR at the time, and to me it wasn't a big deal, but when he found out that I was on the staff of a four-star admiral, he just went bananas. My son's buddies thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen,

There are lots of ex-enlisted officers in the military with enlisted children serving at the same time.
 
I would have laughed at that too. My Dad served in WWII in the Army Air Force. He passed in 2015 and I miss him.

In the S3, being the lone enlisted, I was comfortable with the officers. I respected them and they respected me. Can honestly say I never encountered a bad officer in our squadron. I wasn't a good enough swimmer to go SAR, and that was ok. . I wanted that Viking seat, finished first at Millington and chose that billet.
 
oldpeculier said:
I would have laughed at that too. My Dad served in WWII in the Army Air Force. He passed in 2015 and I miss him.

In the S3, being the lone enlisted, I was comfortable with the officers. I respected them and they respected me. Can honestly say I never encountered a bad officer in our squadron. I wasn't a good enough swimmer to go SAR, and that was ok. . I wanted that Viking seat, finished first at Millington and chose that billet.
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I was in from July 1960 until Nov 1991 and visited my son several times. When I went to see him in boot camp his company commander just freaked out about not being told I was coming.
He asked me if I wanted to inspect the company: NO
Inspect the barracks: No
Speak to the company: No

I never understood why it was so difficult for him to understand that I just wanted to see my son graduate and to be left alone. It doesn't seem like a difficult concept. But my son caught hell from that guy after I left. I was determined that my son not come into the same rating (CTM) that I had been when I was enlisted. I knew three other officers whose children did, and it comes with a lot of issues, especially if one has been a skipper themself along the way. It is the same when the parent is a Senior Chief or Master Chief and they get stationed together.
 
Reading this again brought another memory to about another time I was scared. When I was pregnant with my second child I went to new Doctors. As soon as my husband's boss's wife found out who I was seeing and called me and said "Don't go to them, they have a lawsuit against them because a woman died during giving birth." . of course I didn't listen and continued to go to them. When it was time for me to give birth, they gave me an epidural. A few minutes later I couldn't hear or see. They sent my husband out of the room. I was soo afraid not only that I might die, but something would happen to my baby. Thankfully both the baby and me were OK. But during that time I was panicking.
 
I did one hitch, returned home, and built a house that I still live in and went to school. Navy was good for me in a lot of ways. There's a bronze on the USS Kennedy with these words:

"....any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction; 'I served in the United States Navy'." -John F. Kennedy-
 
Experiencing near drowning as a young child. A cousin jumped in and saved my life.

Lying in a pool of warm blood as I hemorrhaged. I rang for the nurse and there were a couple who came in; doctor followed a few minutes later. I was recovering from a surgery. Mom was staying with me in the patient room and did not see any of this; she was asleep (my poor mom). I hemorrhaged ~ twice, by the way.

Being told I had cancer (more than once).
 
I guess my scariest experience was getting raped at knife-point by two men when I was a teenager. Afterwards (at maybe 6 AM) they were taking me with them but luckily a car came up the road and I ran in front of it, thinking the driver would jump out and save me, but he just swerved around me and kept going. But I guess the men had thought the same thing because they ran across the road towards their car and I turned and ran up the sidewalk to a hotel, then I hid in the bathroom for a long time, afraid they would come after me (I was a particularly clueless teenager I guess). When I came out I was still afraid to go back home so I went in the hotel restaurant and ordered chocolate milk and buckwheat pancakes. When they were served I discovered that after getting punched in the stomach, a person's stomach doesn't let them eat, so I proceeded to slowly shred the pancakes into a large heap of crumbs. The waitress was very nice and offered to bring me something else if I didn't like my food, ha!
I never told my parents. It took me maybe 5 years to get over it emotionally.
Now its about 50 years later and it wasn't even the first thing I thought of when trying to think if anything scary ever happened to me.
The experience that first occurred to me wasn't even all that scary (for me), just a soldier almost pointed a gun at me. I was hitchhiking in the West Bank and got a ride with an electric meter reader who told me that he wasn't going far but there would be a major intersection (which turned out to have a military checkpoint) a little ways farther down the road. So I was dropped off out in the middle of nowhere with no homes or traffic around. I had a suitcase that had wheels, but one wheel was damaged. So I went down the road alone pulling my suitcase and it was making a gosh awful racket as it rolled. The road curved around a huge boulder that blocked any view ahead. When I came around the boulder there was a soldier standing in the middle of the road waiting for the mysterious noisy thing, and although he did not have his rifle pointed at me, it was chillingly obvious he was ready to point and shoot if I'd turned out to be a danger. It was quite startling but he turned out to be a perfectly nice young man probably about the same age as me. I think he had been the real one having a scary experience!
 
HoneyNut said:
I guess my scariest experience was getting raped at knife-point by two men when I was a teenager. Afterwards (at maybe 6 AM) they were taking me with them but luckily a car came up the road and I ran in front of it, thinking the driver would jump out and save me, but he just swerved around me and kept going. But I guess the men had thought the same thing because they ran across the road towards their car and I turned and ran up the sidewalk to a hotel, then I hid in the bathroom for a long time, afraid they would come after me (I was a particularly clueless teenager I guess). When I came out I was still afraid to go back home so I went in the hotel restaurant and ordered chocolate milk and buckwheat pancakes. When they were served I discovered that after getting punched in the stomach, a person's stomach doesn't let them eat, so I proceeded to slowly shred the pancakes into a large heap of crumbs. The waitress was very nice and offered to bring me something else if I didn't like my food, ha!
I never told my parents. It took me maybe 5 years to get over it emotionally.
Now its about 50 years later and it wasn't even the first thing I thought of when trying to think if anything scary ever happened to me.
The experience that first occurred to me wasn't even all that scary (for me), just a soldier almost pointed a gun at me. I was hitchhiking in the West Bank and got a ride with an electric meter reader who told me that he wasn't going far but there would be a major intersection (which turned out to have a military checkpoint) a little ways farther down the road. So I was dropped off out in the middle of nowhere with no homes or traffic around. I had a suitcase that had wheels, but one wheel was damaged. So I went down the road alone pulling my suitcase and it was making a gosh awful racket as it rolled. The road curved around a huge boulder that blocked any view ahead. When I came around the boulder there was a soldier standing in the middle of the road waiting for the mysterious noisy thing, and although he did not have his rifle pointed at me, it was chillingly obvious he was ready to point and shoot if I'd turned out to be a danger. It was quite startling but he turned out to be a perfectly nice young man probably about the same age as me. I think he had been the real one having a scary experience!
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OMG, I wouldn't even pretend to know what to say. So glad you made it through this. ♥️
 
I have 2 children a son and then a daughter. When I had my son it was without any meds just natural childbirth. That Doctor retired . When I found new Doctors I went to them. My Husbands Boss's wife called and told me not to see them. They had 2 lawsuits against them because 2 women had died giving birth.I. went to them anyway. As soon as it was time for the baby to be born they gave me an epidural. All of a sudden I couldn't see or hear. I was panicking but even though I couldn't see or hear I gave birth. Thankfully everything went well and the baby was born healthy. That was the last time I went to them.
 
When I was in my mid teens I was dating a boy from the wrong side of the tracks...I couldn't let my mum know , so instead of him coming to where we lived in the most upmarket district of our city ..I would take 2 buses and always go where he lived...

He would see me off at the bus stop opposite his house when it was time for me to go home..

One winter night it was dark, there was no-one around we were stood in a clinch at the bus stop saying our goodnights , and I saw an older guy approach and come into the bus shelter,.my boyfriend had his back to him so didn't see him enter...

Within seconds, the guy ran out.. and my boyfriend collapsed on me... he'd been stabbed in the back!!!

Thank God the bus stop was directly opposite his home, or I may not have made it in time to get help....

Ultimately I had to be the Eye witness at the trial..and the attacker was imprisoned......for 2years
 

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