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

911 said:
I was told by an older Vietnam Vet after I was in the Marines for about a year that the one thing you never wanted to forget when you went out into the field or jungle were your cigarettes. They could be used to trade for other things or you could sell them at a good profit. He said he remembers trading 2 packs of Luckys for beer. I thought he was trading with another GI, but he was actually referring to trading with one of the villagers. I thought that was pretty cool. The only thing I ever got from any villagers were grief.
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I always grabbed the menthol cigarettes from our SP packs. Trade them in a village for some dry black market OD green socks.
 

How to mop floors and operate a floor buffer in the Air Force.

Not meaning that as derogatory or demeaning by any account. Everything I learned in both the Air Force and the Army had practical application. Maybe I didn't use it right away or for even years in some cases. But sometime, somewhere, everything I learned in the military came to hand in a useful manner.

Talking the odd things, here. Not combat skills-which don't or at least should not be a skill transferable to the work-a-day, live-a-day world.
 
Knight said:
In Navy boot camp to potentially survive in the ocean removing your bell bottom pants & knotting the bottom would make a life jacket.

Then at my 1st. duty station in Argentia, Newfoundland I watched a Victory at Sea black & white Navy produced movie called Midway is East.

During part of that movie it showed the recovery of the top part of bodies still in their Navy issued life preservers.

This.

It was a feeding frenzy after a Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945 during World War II. Some 900 American sailors were stranded in shark-infested waters, where an estimated 50 men a day were ripped apart by the sharks. It was the largest shark attack in US history.

That movie taught me the odds of survival using my bell bottom pants could be slim to none.
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The USN base at Argentia Newfoundland was considered to be a "overseas assignment " despite being in Canada. Quite a few USN and Marines who were stationed there came back and married women from the island, and settled down to live in Canada's east coast Province. I once knew a woman from that part of Newfoundland whose Father was a USN civilian employee ( a base plumber ) for many years at that base. The family had access to the PX, the kids went to the movies on the base, and the Canadians who worked there were paid in US dollars, and qualified for SS pensions. Eventually the USN closed the base down. It took a further couple of decades to get the toxic materials, that they left behind to be cleaned up. The Canadian Government had to threaten to take the USN to the International Court of Justice in The Hauge, before they actually acted to clean it up. JimB.
 
hawkdon said:
I learned about some of this history while studying, practicing code work
in the U S Navy....very interesting details......
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Do you laugh when in a movie, or a TV program.....Somebody totally screws up the simple task of using a Morse Key ? I do. Proper use requires the use of the thumb and fore fingers on the key, not just ONE finger. Or the really obvious fubar of some one sending " Over and out ". A properly trained op knows you can't be BOTH over, AND out, at the same time. Or some body using a PRC9, to talk to the US, from some far away country. JimB.
 
Was in the USAF during the Viet Nam War 1967 through 1970. Enlisted after taking Navy and USAF tests scoring high, only because otherwise would have soon been drafted and likely ended up as a disposable asset grunt carrying an M16 in mosquito, snake, and leech swamps. Instead spent over half that time in electronics schooling that after a HD, helped leverage getting an entry job in Silicon Valley.

But what about odd things learned? Well as someone that went to upscale California suburban K12 schools, was amazed in boot camp and then in electronics school at the mediocre education and knowledge levels of most A to Z other men from across the USA. Also the vast differences in culture and ethnic mixes with many morally entrenched in a sewer. Although all had high school diplomas, fair numbers had obviously been moved through school grades hardly able to read or perform simple math. Also after being assigned bases, that military career people assigning jobs didn't seem to put much value in one's intelligence or education but rather in how physically large a person is and who they know.
 
After all the years I put in, the 'odd' thing was if I waited long enough,
like the weather, priorities would change.

What was important one day might not be as pressing or needed the next.
The answer was always ' The Big Picture'.

Not as smart as some on the forum, but every once in a while, they could have asked for my opinion...;)
 
One of the little things I learned was.....If you are going to polish your brass, buy a "button stick ". And during new entry class we all had to learn to sew our names inside all of our issue uniform parts. The parts that could not be sewn would be stenciled with black ink. Pebble grain leather boots needed to be "spooned " with a hot old spoon, to smooth out the leather's surface. It was a devious way to keep us young bucks busy well into the night. Panty hose was a prized item, to put the final gloss coat on the toe caps. Baby diapers were also sought after as buffers. JimB.
 
Knight said:
In Navy boot camp to potentially survive in the ocean removing your bell bottom pants & knotting the bottom would make a life jacket.

Then at my 1st. duty station in Argentia, Newfoundland I watched a Victory at Sea black & white Navy produced movie called Midway is East.

During part of that movie it showed the recovery of the top part of bodies still in their Navy issued life preservers.

This.

It was a feeding frenzy after a Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945 during World War II. Some 900 American sailors were stranded in shark-infested waters, where an estimated 50 men a day were ripped apart by the sharks. It was the largest shark attack in US history.

That movie taught me the odds of survival using my bell bottom pants could be slim to none.
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My Dad was a US Navy WWII destroyer sailor. He knew if the ship went down, "lost at sea" meant being eaten.
 
ArnoldC said:
How to mop floors and operate a floor buffer in the Air Force.

Not meaning that as derogatory or demeaning by any account. Everything I learned in both the Air Force and the Army had practical application. Maybe I didn't use it right away or for even years in some cases. But sometime, somewhere, everything I learned in the military came to hand in a useful manner.

Talking the odd things, here. Not combat skills-which don't or at least should not be a skill transferable to the work-a-day, live-a-day world.
Click to expand...
In Navy boot camp we spent way too much time folding our clothes just right way-the Navy way. I figured if the Russians attacked, and they saw how well our shirts were folded, they have no choice, but to surrender.
 
I was surprised at how gutted I felt after being rejected by 2 branches of the service. So crushed, I didn't even try the 3rd branch. (they probly had me in a database, anyway; idk, it was 1973)
 
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