Military Anecdotes, Anything Goes.

Trade

Trade

Well-known Member
Anything you feel like sharing about your personal experiances in the Military. This could include the experiances of not only Veterans but Veterans Family members or friends.

I'll start with this:

I took my oath of enlistment on 20 Feb. 1970 at the Jacksonville Florida Armed Forces Induction Center. The Air Force put us up in this cheap old Hotel that night and the next morning we got up at the crack of dawn to get on the bus that was going to take us to the Jacksonville airport. The Army and Marine guys had to ride their buses all the way to Fort Benning or Paris Island but us Air Force Guys got to fly out to San Antonio. I will never forget the Bus Driver. He was a dead ringer for Reverend Jim from the TV show taxi.

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He had a major case of bed head and was wearing this wrinkled up red, white and black flannel shirt over what looked to be thermal underwear. Right away some of the guys started making jokes about how the Air Force paid him to drive us by buying him a bottle of wine. Soon after that someone started singing the song "Bottle of Wine" and by the time we got to the airport most of the guys on the bus had joined in.

 

I'll play..............
At the end of November of 1970, it was time for me to rotate home. I was plucked from a fire base some where near Loc Ninh (fresh off a 10 day patrol), and was flown by chopper to Cam Ranh Bay. Still smelly and in my jungle fatigues I boarded a civilian airline.
(forget which one but really enjoyed seeing those stewardess's wearing mini skirts) šŸ˜® :)
Flew to Oakland Ca. and as soon as I got there, I hopped a taxi to San Francisco airport. Flew to NYC where it was early morning and raining. woke up my buddy there (kinda scared him as it looked like I'd just stepped out of the jungle) and we went to fetch my car out of storage. Some Southern Comfort (for warmth) and off we headed for Vermont. Slushy, crappy weather, but we got there and about 10 miles from my girlfriends house, I lost control of the car, skid some 570 feet, slammed into a bridge, and flipped down into a field and landed next to a barn. Needless to say, we spent some time in the hospital.

While in the hospital, I got a call from the Army and they were looking for me. Seems nobody had told me that once I landed in Oakland, I was supposed to be de-briefed there and given a more presentable class A uniform. Nothing bad ever came of it and I did get some nice clean fatigues and some new sgt stripe pins. (y)

Have to say however that I was surprised by how much the country, (and for that matter me) had changed in such a short period of time. It was a hard thing to adapt to being looked on with disdain.


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My brother was in the Navy in the 60s. He was on a sub in the later part. When he was briefly stationed in Long Beach California, they had a family weekend. So, parents and I drove cross country for it. We got a tour of his sub. For 12 year old me, I loved it. My mom, not so much, once she saw that the missiles were stowed under their bunks!! LOL. Conserving space is vital on a sub, I guess. This pic is his graduation from boot camp

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squatting dog said:
I'll play..............
At the end of November of 1970, it was time for me to rotate home. I was plucked from a fire base some where near Loc Ninh (fresh off a 10 day patrol), and was flown by chopper to Cam Ranh Bay. Still smelly and in my jungle fatigues I boarded a civilian airline.
(forget which one but really enjoyed seeing those stewardess's wearing mini skirts) šŸ˜® :)
Flew to Oakland Ca. and as soon as I got there, I hopped a taxi to San Francisco airport. Flew to NYC where it was early morning and raining. woke up my buddy there (kinda scared him as it looked like I'd just stepped out of the jungle) and we went to fetch my car out of storage. Some Southern Comfort (for warmth) and off we headed for Vermont. Slushy, crappy weather, but we got there and about 10 miles from my girlfriends house, I lost control of the car, skid some 570 feet, slammed into a bridge, and flipped down into a field and landed next to a barn. Needless to say, we spent some time in the hospital.

While in the hospital, I got a call from the Army and they were looking for me. Seems nobody had told me that once I landed in Oakland, I was supposed to be de-briefed there and given a more presentable class A uniform. Nothing bad ever came of it and I did get some nice clean fatigues and some new sgt stripe pins. (y)

Have to say however that I was surprised by how much the country, (and for that matter me) had changed in such a short period of time. It was a hard thing to adapt to being looked on with disdain.


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I was awakened a day earlier than my DEROS and told that there was a deuce and a half waiting for me. I asked the platoon sergeant what day it was, and got a really strange look. I told him I couldn't go yet I needed to stay one more day. I had extended my tour so that I would have less than 5 months remaining on my service obligation, which would get me an immediate discharge. He told me not to worry I would still get my discharge, and I was really worried that they were putting one over on me.

Finally he produced a set of orders proving I would get my discharge upon processing at Ft Lewis WA. I still had some doubts but I went with it. Turns out they were right and my orders proved good.
 
I have no personal experience to share, but have many stories from my Father's WWII "adventures". May I share one...

My Dad was a Tank Commander (Sgt) with the 44th armored division, attached to the 1st Calvary. He saw combat in New Guinea and the Philippines, and ended up occupying Japan for six months after the War. There were some horrible stories I overheard, but there was one that brought a laugh to everyone.

In going from the Philippines to Japan, Dad's group was crammed into an LST (landing ship tank). He and his crew remained topside during the voyage, which was a perk considering the smell and crowded conditions below deck.

One afternoon Dad had to relieve himself, but the thought of going below deck to the latrines - with the crowds and smells - was something he didn't want to endure. So he went to the railing, and urinated "a days worth".

About five minutes later he heard some very loud yelling mid ships. It turns out his urine was blown back to the ship, and caught a couple of "not so nice" officers head on.

Dad was never found out, but he never peed off the side of the ship again.
 
In 1970 Air Force basic was not psysically hard. But they did play mind games with you.

One that I remember well was "Laundry Tags". We didn't have to wash and iron our uniforms like I've heard some of the other services did. We took them to the base laundry. It cost 70 cents per uniform, pants and shirt. And they would come back stiff as a board with starch. That's where I learned what the term "break starch" meant. You literally had to break them open before you could put them on. But I digress. The people at the laudry would but these little squares of cardboard in various pockets in your uniform. They were about 1/2 the size of a movie ticket and about the same thickness.

So when you got your uniforms back from the cleaners you would go through them and remove any tags you found beause if the TI's found even one during a locker inspection they would scream bloody murder at you and treaten you with all kinds of punishment. The worst threat was "I'm going to set you back to the first day" which meant if you were halfway through your six weeks they would send tou back to a flight (A flight in Air Force basic was equivalent to a platoon in the Army) that was just beginning and you would have a whole 6 weeks ahead of you.

So one day we had a locker inspection right after we had gotten back from something, I don't remember and when Tech Sergeant McDougal (I hate him to this day) got to my locker he pulled out one of my uniforms and reached into one of the pockets and pulled out not one, but a whole handfull of laundry tags. There must have been a couple of hundred of them. And he threw them up in the air and it was like confetti at a parade.

Then he started screaming at me about how I was going back to day one while he started pulling stuff out of my locker and throwing it on the floor. Then he ripped up the bedding off of my bunk and threw that on the floor and then tipped over my bunk and dumped the mattress and box spring on the floor.

Now I know there was no way I missed a hundred frickin laundry tags. The SOB had come in there while we were out and planted them there. But there was no way I was going to say that. In the end I had to clean up all the mess he made and put it all back in order but at least he didn't set me back.

Like I said, mind games. To see how you react.
 
911 said:
In the Marines, we called our M60 "The Hog."

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Based on the German WW2 MG42 design. In 7.62 mm.

The Canadian Forces still uses a 7.62 mm machine gun (the C6 ) for it's more powerful knock down impact as well as a 5.56 mm light M.G. ( the C9 ) as the section ( 10 man unit ) fire support weapon. The C6 is usually mounted on the LAV 3 light armored vehicle, as the top MG, along with the 25 MM cannon in the Lav's turret. The C9 is the section MG. with 2 per ten man section in infantry Battalions.

Standard load for a C9 gunner is 500 rounds of 5.56mm in 250 round belts, or carrier boxes, carried by the gunner and his mate. The C7 rifle is the standard CF issue, the C8 is the sliding stock version both fire the 5.56 mm round, but the C8 has a 3 round burst fire selector, and both C7 and C8 mount a 4 power optical sight, with infra red night vision ability.

Selected Canadian Forces scouts and snipers will carry the new SAKO C21 rifle, made by a Finnish arms company. It is capable of firing either the 7.62 x51mm round, or the .338 Lapua Magnum round. It has a folding stock, and comes with 2 different barrels and bolts. It has an effective range out to 2500 meters, and that includes night vision capability. The initial order is for 1200 rifles to be delivered in 2023, with a further 1000 on back order. All of the above information comes from open sources. Jimb.
 
Walking point. :(

As you slowly approached the terrain in front of you, you would examine the area for trip wires, NVA bunkers, broken branches, blood trails, a matted down path, bunkers, obvious openings in tree lines where a booby trap could be planted. Spider holes, a gum wrapper, a tin can, a pile of leaves or a pile of brush, a change in the color of the ground foliage where it turned a bit yellow, wilted leaves or dead branches. These could indicate a booby trap.
 
In the Navy, Thursday night was barracks clean up night in boot camp-ready for Friday inspection. My buddy, Decker ( never knew his first name), got a pass to meet his parents. Decker was a short fat guy, and "his parents" were the local bar, it was all a con to get outof clean up night.
Our buffer broke down, we could get one from our "sister" company, when they were finished at about 11PM. We're waiting for the buffer, when Decker crawls into the barracks, drunk as a skunk, and passes out on the floor. He was dead weight. I picked up one fat leg and somebody got his other fat leg and we dragged him to his bed. That's when we notice that Decker left a nice shiny trail. And we knew the parents thing was BS, and all day long Decker was bragging he was getting out of field day, so..... Decker made a good buffer, so we kind of dragged him around, shining up the floor. His tee shirt was black. Then we threw him in bed.
Next day, he had no idea what happened, he didn't say anything and neither did we.
BTW, we all got weekend passes for passing inspection.
..
 
Completed Navy boot camp in 1959 at Great Lakes training center Illinois.
My choices for a 1st. assigned base were Rota, Spain. Subic Bay in the Pkillipines. Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. My assignment came back Argentia, Newfoundland. Well I did want to see the world, that was as good a start as any. I just had no clue where Argetia Newfoundland was. Going from the cold & nasty November weather of northern Illinois would be a welcome relief.

Imagine my surprise to land at the tiny base covered in snow about 3 feet deep. While there I enjoyed duty of one 24 hour day on & two off. For a 6 pack of beer I could buy someone to stand a duty day giving me 5 days off. It didn't take long to find a friend with a car & female connections in Carbonear Nfld. So many good times partying at the age of 19.

It wasn't until after I left there that I realized that was the beginning of a lot of lucky breaks in duty assignments. Almost all because I had a valid drivers license from PA. Automatic issuance of a Navy drivers license. Began listing as valid to operate all kinds of Navy equipment & vehicles.
 
"One thing about combat, is that you don't have a chance to learn how it works, you hope you just live through it. And also, you don't have a choice when you come home, to learn new ways. (again, you just live through it). You're different. You've changed.
One of the tragedies of Vietnam, is that even today, there are a lot of veterans that fought over there, who don't fully comprehend that it's hard to come back out of it

It was just too big."

You bury your feelings deep in your soul, but, When itā€™s dark and your guard is down it will eat your soul.

God... I miss Shalimar.
 
The Jock strap incident.

As I have said before Air Force Basic in 1970 was not hard physically but they did play mind games with us. One of them that I still remember was the Jock Strap Incident.

When we first got to basic we had all of our civilian clothes and other items taken away and we were issued Air Force clothing. This included Boxer shorts that we were required to wear instead of the tighty whiteys that I had always worn.

We had the wear them as underwear at all times except when we went out for PT. Then we were required to wear Jock Straps. I had never worn them before, nor have I since.

Now we did take our outer uniforms to the base laundry, but our other clothing items, underwear, socks, PT clothes, etc we had to wash and dry ourselves.

We had to leave them in the dryer while we did something else and one time a few weeks into our training when I came back to get my clothes out of the dryer I noticed my Jock Strap was missing. Oh shit! Someone else must have lose theirs and stolen mine! I had to hope that they gave us a chance to go to the BX before the next PT session so I could buy another one!

Unfortunately that didnā€™t happen so when they took us out for PT I went without my jock strap and just hoped that they didnā€™t check.

But as soon as we formed it up out on the PT field one of the TIā€™s came over and said ā€œOK, Do any of you not have your jock straps on? Raise your hand. Be honest now.ā€ Shit!

I know that if I raise my hand I am going to be in ā€œA world of shitā€ as the TIā€™s liked to call it. On the other hand, if I donā€™t raise my hand and they check anyway, I am going to be in an even bigger world of shit. So I raised my hand. And as I looked around, about a dozen other guys out of the 50 in our flight have also raised their hands.

So the TI starts to chew out butts out and he asks us why we arenā€™t wearing our jock straps and I relayed to him that when I went to get my laundry out of the dryer it was gone. And the TI screamed at me ā€œAre you trying to tell me that someone stole your stinking Jock Strap!

About this time itā€™s starting to dawn on me that this was all a set up and that the TIā€™s took our Jock Straps and there wasnā€™t a damned thing we could do about it, so I just answered ā€œSir, no Sirā€.

Other than the ass chewing, which of course included the usual threats of being set back to the first day, our whole flight had been promised a couple of hours of squadron liberty which got take away from not just us but the whole flight.
 
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Knight said:
Completed Navy boot camp in 1959 at Great Lakes training center Illinois.
My choices for a 1st. assigned base were Rota, Spain. Subic Bay in the Pkillipines. Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. My assignment came back Argentia, Newfoundland. Well I did want to see the world, that was as good a start as any. I just had no clue where Argetia Newfoundland was. Going from the cold & nasty November weather of northern Illinois would be a welcome relief.

Imagine my surprise to land at the tiny base covered in snow about 3 feet deep. While there I enjoyed duty of one 24 hour day on & two off. For a 6 pack of beer I could buy someone to stand a duty day giving me 5 days off. It didn't take long to find a friend with a car & female connections in Carbonear Nfld. So many good times partying at the age of 19.

It wasn't until after I left there that I realized that was the beginning of a lot of lucky breaks in duty assignments. Almost all because I had a valid drivers license from PA. Automatic issuance of a Navy drivers license. Began listing as valid to operate all kinds of Navy equipment & vehicles.
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The USN base at Argentia Newfoundland was a part of the "Bases for Ships Agreement" that Great Britain and the USA signed in the early years of WW2. The USN got to build bases in various parts of the British Empire, and the Royal Navy got 50 antique WW1 USN destroyers. The USAAF built a couple of air fields in Newfoundland, which at that time was a British Crown Colony. It didn't become a part of Canada until 1949, when the Newfies voted to join Canada as our newest Province.

The civilian population around the USN base at Argentia were invited to apply for non military jobs on the base, and for decades many of the local men worked on the base, being paid in US dollars and being allowed to use the PX and their kids went to the movies on base.

Many USN men who served in Newfoundland came back and married local women, and retired in Newfoundland. When the USN finally closed the base, it took years for them to properly clean up the polluted ground and materials left behind. Canada had to threaten to take the US Government to the World Court in The Hauge, to get them to clean up the mess. They finally did. JIMB.
 
Back in 1953-56 our ship made many stops at Argentia to re-fuel and stock up the "pantry" on our way to and from our 3 week long stays at the various (Alpha, Bravo, Cocoa, Delta) ocean stations along the Europe - U.S. commercial airlines flightline. As Alpha was south of Iceland the time to and from station took close to 6 days. Winters (on station) in the North Atlantic waters were not pleasant. 21 days staying underway in a 10 miles square of ocean.
Back in Argentia, some of the off duty guys would head for the Bluejackets Club and get bombed. LOL

Then off to Boston or New Bedford, MA where we were home-ported.
 
My duties in the Navy required me to spend a lot of time in the ship's computer room (actually electric accounting machines). I spent so much time there that I became unofficially one of the crew in that facility. One afternoon I was engaged in my job there when a rather panicked seaman striker (an unrated sailor who was receiving on the job training to qualify for formal rating) burst into the room yelling "I can't find the officers pay records".

Earlier in the day, the dept had run the ships payroll. In these pre-digital computer days each member of the crew had a separate pay sheet which was updated monthly. This striker had been assigned cleanup of the office and somehow had managed to sweep the officers pay records into a trash can which he then carried down to the pier and threw in a dumpster.

Immediately, the compartment cleared and everyone, including me, headed down to the pier. In horror we saw a San Diego garbage truck was just heading away with our dumpster.

Our fastest runner managed to catch up with the truck before it left the base. We got the ship's car and followed the driver to the San Diego landfill. The driver dumped the load in a open space and wished us good luck.

What a picture we made. Seven sailors in uniform digging through a full load of garbage looking for paper pay records. Luckily our dumpster contribution was the last pickup so we located the records fairly quickly. They were rather worse for wear, I remember the Captain's had a smear of jam running fully across it.

I lost a lot of respect for our Chief Petty Officer because of this event. He went into full panic mode and was threatening everyone with all kinds of dire punishment which of course never came to anything.
 
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"The Soldier Received His Mounted Helmet, Which Took A 7.62 Round At 20 Feet While Wearing It. He Wouldn't Have Survived That Impact Had He Not Been Wearing That Helmet"

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