How many Vererans do we have?

[Paul B]

I know there must be a bunch of Veterans here.
Have any interesting stories? Not combat related being this is a fish site.
Being a Nam Vet, I don't know much about the Gulf war or the living conditions. I know a bunch of you guys and girls have been there. What did you eat, where did you live, what did you do most of the time?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Paul

 

[mcoomer]

I'm a Navy vet. Served from 86-92 in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Floated around on a frigate with a couple hundred other guys and saw bars and beaches around the world. Good times!

Mike

 

[DonW]

I did my time with the 1st SFOD-D crawinling around Panama and Granada along with many other parts of the world. Not a life for a guy with a family but it was a big part of my life that I miss.

Don

 

[Paul B]

I know there are a bunch of us here that were in the service, even you staterside guys must have some stories.

I was a smart A__ 19 year old kid tough guy from New York and I thought I was the coolest thing.
I got out of that in a few minutes.
The tough guys don't look tough with no hair and your big ears sticking out, especially when you all are wearing the same outfit that does not fit very well.
My first day of basic we were all loaded on a cattle truck made for about 20 cows, there were about 100 of us in there, my feet didn't even touch the floor. When we stopped and they threw us out, there were a dozen drill instructors in very good shape screaming in our faces so loud I thought they were going to eat us.
Don't forget, you don't know anyone and you are just out of high school.
They ran us all over the place and if someone dropped, we had to drag them.
After a while we stopped and lined up for more screaming. I started laughing a little because I thought this was rediculous and the drill Sargeant saw me and draggged me out in front of everyone to ask me what was so funny. He said you must be one of those NY tough guys. Then he said "what do you tough guys in NY do? Climb walls?
I said" In NY we have elevators." That was the wrong answer and I had to run around the barracks all night. The rest of the guys got up at 4:00 am, I was still dragging myself around the barracks from the night before. I learned not to be a smart A__ after that.
A lot of guys say, I wouldnt take that. Yes you would because the drill Sgt's would beat the hell out of you and I don't care how big you are. They were all right back from Nam and not all warm and fuzzy. After they beat the hell out of you, you go to jail and peel potatoes and clean greese traps 19 hours a day. Jail time does not count as Army time and it extends your time in the service.
In basic we were never allowed to walk except Sunday morning. If you had to go ten feet, you had to run.
Every day was a class, either hand to hand combat, shooting, bayonettes, chamoflage etc.
You had to run to these places for the classes. The classes were placed farer away each day so by the last week in basic the rifle range was 22 miles away, guess how you got there, and back with a full pack, a rifle and boots?

Breakfast every day consisted of getting thrown out of bed at about 4:00 am, then fall out for inspection at 4:10. You had to make your bed, shower and shave in that time.
After inspection which you almost always invariable failed, you low crawled to breakfast through a 100' mud pit. It was just as it sounds, a stream of mud. The drill Sgts would run alongside and push your head down in the mud with their foot. If you did not have enough mud on your face, you did it again. Then you went through the parallel bars, push ups, jumping jacks and screaming. You then stood at attention until you ate. You had 3 minutes exactly to eat then it was time for exercize. After exercize you ran through a shower and started your day of training, what ever that was.
If after 8 weeks, you did not pass basic, you went to the Doon Platoon.
Those guys just ran all day carrying telephone polls. 4 guys to a poll. They did that until they lost enough weight to take Basic over again. Some guys did die and some got out on medical discharges.
I don't know how basic is now but I would like to.



__________________

 

[eddiecorrea]

I'm a veteran. I did my job and now I'm out.

 

[luisse25]

I'm a Navy vet. Served from 86-92 in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Floated around on a frigate with a couple hundred other guys and saw bars and beaches around the world. Good times!

Mike

my dad is a navy too...and he served 20 years...he retired by the year 1988...i will ask him what he did back then...yes he look like he did have great timeshe have pics in different countries,and have pics with different girls too...

 

[mcoomer]

I don't know anything about girls in every port. That's a vicious rumor started by Marines that couldn't get any!

Mike

 

[user 26995]

I was Navy. Commissioned a ship here in seattle at Lockheed ship yard back in 81. Trained to operate cranes at Lockheed. Ship was then based out of Balast Point Sub base in San Diego. I kind of enjoyed being out to sea. I served durring peace time. Thank goodness for that. Did my 6 years and got out.

 

[jake65]

did my time in the AF from 86-09, been a bunch of places from Alaska...Korea ...Turkey...Saudi...Honduras...Japan...Iraq...Hawaii....etc Can't really say what I did there or I would have to kill everyone here....lol

 

[nomercymike]

I was in the Navy 4 yrs, reserves 2 yrs and 2 yrs army national guard

 

[Paul B]

In Nam I had some rank, I went there as a Sargeant E 5 and there was really no one in charge of me. My superior officer was in some semi rear area and I never even met the guy. Of course we had no cell phones so everything was by radio. I was the Commo Chief of a field artillery battery which means we had these 105 Howitzers that we would build LZs for or Firebases. These were clearings in the jungle that we made with artillery, then pipe bombs to push the vegetation back.
The Grunts or infantry would go out and look for the enemy and when they found them, we would fire artillery for them. We did this 6 or 7 times every day and night depending on how much contact they made.
Everything would come by helocopter because there were very rarely any roads. I think I only saw 3 roads in the entire country, at least where I was.
Once in a great while we would get ice cream. Everything came on a huge canvas looking tarp suspended from a helocopter. When the thing would get near the ground you had to cover your eyes and everything because during the dry season the ground was red dust that would just blow all over the place and you could not breath or see anything. Of course there was no electricity so the ice cream if there was any was melted on the filthy tarp. We would go out there and try to move as much of the dirt away to scoop up some hot ice cream. The dirt would float.
Ice cream was good even like it was because the water came in black rubber blivets which were made out of black tire tube rubber material. The place was very hot so we would put the water in a mortor case or canteen and put it in the shade for a while so you wouldn't burn your mouth when you drank it. They collected it in rivers and put iodine in it to kill whatever was in there.
Typical LZ from the Air, I built and was on 14 of these during my tour. I never saw a roof or wall for the year.

And a little closer

 

[mcoomer]

Ohhhhh...I love camping! Did you eat s'mores and sing Kumbaya???

 

[user 26995]

Wow, Paul, I just cant imagine. Its even hard to imagine how our troops are living and managing today. Glad you came home safe and hope all our troops abroad will all come home soon too.

 

[Paul B]

Ohhhhh...I love camping! Did you eat s'mores and sing Kumbaya???

Yeah, something like that, as a matter of fact It cured me of camping forever.
A year in a jungle with monkeys, C-Rations and rain not to mention no plumbing or electricity doesn't do it for me anymore. Give me a nice hotel room with a roof, TV, real
food and an occasional good looking girl to look at anything. After a while some of those monkeys were starting to look good. Especially the ones with ones with less facial hair.

Once I was supposed to go to this place called Nui Ba Din which was a base on top of a steep mountain. It was an Air Force Base and I was to bring back to the LZ a pick up truck that we wanted to use to bring our garbage to the tree line. (There were no roads) My Luitanent pilot flew me out there in a LOH (light observation helocopter) and I would get the truck and go back on the CH47

Before I went I took money from a few guys to buy beer from the Air Force. They had everything because they had planes, like Duh.
I had to weigh the truck so they knew how many troops we could fit inside the CH47
(large two rotor helocopter used for carrying things)
After I weighed the truck, I took it and loaded it with fifty or so cases of beer and covered it with a tarp.
I couldn't tell the helocopter pilot that I filled the truck with beer or I would have to split it with them.
Now the truck was much heavier but they loaded it under the CH47 on a sling and we took off. As we went past the edge of this high mountain, we started to lose altitude and the two door gunners were trying to cut the truck loose. I yelled at them saying, thats my truck, what are you doing. I didn't realize we were overloaded.
The truck let go and fell away from us but we were to low and the front rotor started to hit the trees and we went down. No one got hurt but we had to walk back up the mountain. Those things crashed all the time.
I called my pilot on the radio and told him we had a problem. Most of the beer was his.
We made three trips there at night with his LOH with no lights to get the beer.
A LOH can't carry to much at a time.
But it all worked out, except for that helocopter.
I guess they recovered it as it was not too damaged. thumbsup1
This is the CH47 or Chnook. Of course we called them S---Hooks

This is the FDC or fire direction control. It was a hole we dug in the ground that we put 6 layers of sandbags on top of on trees.
We had a "computer" in there that was the size of a Volkswagon. it helped aim the guns.
Thats me in the back
Unfortunately, sometimes it was not enough protection.

 

[mcoomer]

We were doing an unrep/vertrep once where we were taking on fuel from a tender and supplies via helo. I don't know if they still fly them but back then they had CH-47 Chinooks for this type of work and the one that was working with us crashed. I didn't see it but apparently it dropped a skid on our flight deck, moved off the side of the ship and just rolled and dropped into the ocean. I heard there were 4 guys on it when it went in but nobody got out. Just one of those accidents that happens sometimes. You don't have to be in a shooting war to die while you're serving.

Mike

 

[bigblue141]

NAVY Basic Training

Well I went to Basic in 1999 in the Navy. There's no getting beat by your Drill Instructors or Recruit Division Commanders (RDC) as we call them.

All in all you land in Chicago, get bused to base, get issued blue sweats and stand at attention forever. Hours later someone with a red rope on their uniform (Your RDC) shows up and starts yelling. You get in some sort of rank and begin marching getting yelled at the entire time. During this time everyone is addressed as a "smurf"

After a week or so passes you go to medical, turn into a pin cushion, get your medical screening, uniforms that don't fit right, and a pair of uncomfortable boots. From that day on there is random push ups, sit ups, running, and any other physical training. They didn't trust us with guns and ammo. They took actual M-16's put lasers on them and you shot "laser" beams at special targets.

One week we work in the mess hall for around 18 hours a day serving food and cleaning. If you smarted off, you got "ASMO'D" or returned to the 1st day of boot camp. We started with divisions of 140 or so, and would finish with around 60-75. Only about 25 of us out of my division made it the entire way through.

Our final test is staying up for 24 hours running around the entire base where different scenairo's are set up. Mostly ship board damage control stuff. There was a segment where we had people "die" and we had to get them to safety. We had to jump in a pool for quite a while, had "sharks" that were Navy seals that would come up from beneath us and try to pull us underwater. If your team did not keep you afloat, you would all "die" On your third death you had to sit out of the rest of the activities and re-do the entire battle stations the following day. This would go on until you passed.

Now-a-days these kids coming in get to wear sneakers, have stress cards (Like that is going to delay and attack, or stop a missile that's inbound) but they get to use them through training. If the card turns black, they get to sit out until their card turns green. There's no more ASMO's and RDC's are no longer supposed to yell at the recruits as it hurts people's feelings.

I know there are a bunch of us here that were in the service, even you staterside guys must have some stories.

I was a smart A__ 19 year old kid tough guy from New York and I thought I was the coolest thing.
I got out of that in a few minutes.
The tough guys don't look tough with no hair and your big ears sticking out, especially when you all are wearing the same outfit that does not fit very well.
My first day of basic we were all loaded on a cattle truck made for about 20 cows, there were about 100 of us in there, my feet didn't even touch the floor. When we stopped and they threw us out, there were a dozen drill instructors in very good shape screaming in our faces so loud I thought they were going to eat us.
Don't forget, you don't know anyone and you are just out of high school.
They ran us all over the place and if someone dropped, we had to drag them.
After a while we stopped and lined up for more screaming. I started laughing a little because I thought this was rediculous and the drill Sargeant saw me and draggged me out in front of everyone to ask me what was so funny. He said you must be one of those NY tough guys. Then he said "what do you tough guys in NY do? Climb walls?
I said" In NY we have elevators." That was the wrong answer and I had to run around the barracks all night. The rest of the guys got up at 4:00 am, I was still dragging myself around the barracks from the night before. I learned not to be a smart A__ after that.
A lot of guys say, I wouldnt take that. Yes you would because the drill Sgt's would beat the hell out of you and I don't care how big you are. They were all right back from Nam and not all warm and fuzzy. After they beat the hell out of you, you go to jail and peel potatoes and clean greese traps 19 hours a day. Jail time does not count as Army time and it extends your time in the service.
In basic we were never allowed to walk except Sunday morning. If you had to go ten feet, you had to run.
Every day was a class, either hand to hand combat, shooting, bayonettes, chamoflage etc.
You had to run to these places for the classes. The classes were placed farer away each day so by the last week in basic the rifle range was 22 miles away, guess how you got there, and back with a full pack, a rifle and boots?

Breakfast every day consisted of getting thrown out of bed at about 4:00 am, then fall out for inspection at 4:10. You had to make your bed, shower and shave in that time.
After inspection which you almost always invariable failed, you low crawled to breakfast through a 100' mud pit. It was just as it sounds, a stream of mud. The drill Sgts would run alongside and push your head down in the mud with their foot. If you did not have enough mud on your face, you did it again. Then you went through the parallel bars, push ups, jumping jacks and screaming. You then stood at attention until you ate. You had 3 minutes exactly to eat then it was time for exercize. After exercize you ran through a shower and started your day of training, what ever that was.
If after 8 weeks, you did not pass basic, you went to the Doon Platoon.
Those guys just ran all day carrying telephone polls. 4 guys to a poll. They did that until they lost enough weight to take Basic over again. Some guys did die and some got out on medical discharges.
I don't know how basic is now but I would like to.



__________________

 

[lvsuckerfish]

yeah basic training is a Joke now I went in in 95 out in 01 just after 911 almost 6 yrs Air Force I loved every minute of ot also. Hard headed kid growing up always getting into trouble but never getting caught Air Force made me grow up along with my daughter. went from loading bombs to an Electrian CE passanger and flyer for a nice 2 hr ride in a F15 e model Jet what a rush. My time was due and had to move on to better my life no more living in poverty for me. I think the miltary is way under paid for risking life and limb for us to live the FREE lifes we do! but I know this is late as my old buddies and I have been on the phone all week thanking each other for keeping the war abroad and not on our home turf.

THANK YOU for the contiued serving members of the armed forces. much love and stay safe!

 

[lvsuckerfish]

and Paul our (Camping) now compaired to then is like Four seasons to living homeless I have nothing but respect for those who served in them days. my dad fought in WWII. still has stories and Scars from Schrap metal.

 

[thatguy559]

i joined the navy in 2004 and just re enlisted for another 6 last year. up for E6 in march gonna be in for the long run. oh yeah i have been around the world 3 times already

 

[Paul B]

still has stories and Scars from Schrap metal.

I also know that feeling.