PDA

View Full Version : War stories......... let's hear'em



44minimum
09-08-2009, 10:28 PM
If you are military or ex military or interested in military stuff or know of a funny, interesting, scary or whatever story that is vaguely connected to the military or weapons and you feel like sharing them, please do so. I threatened to do this last week but I'm finally getting around to it. Some of these should be good................. Hell, you can even post stories that are true.

Leadforbrains
09-08-2009, 10:35 PM
I was a door gunner on the Space shuttle back in the Corps. I got a medical discharge after I was hit in the head with space debris.
I ain't been right ever since.

AJ Peacock
09-08-2009, 10:56 PM
My dad was a boom operator on a KC97 (airborne refueler). A fighter was getting ready to get refueled, he was REALLY low on fuel. It happened to be October 31st. The pilot radio'd over "trick or treat" and my dad started pulling the boom back and radio'd back 'trick'. I guess the guy was slobberin all over himself begging for the boom.

AJ

bruce drake
09-08-2009, 10:58 PM
There I was in Iraq surrounding by Irate Iraqis that wanted my blood and my head as an infidel in their land. I looked to my left and there were Iraqis. I looked to my right and there were Iraqis. I looked behind me and there were Iraqis. I looked in front of me and there were Iraqis. I realized I only had enough bullets for half of them. Yep, I died.

War Stories. not told by those who have actually gone there.

Bruce

madcaster
09-08-2009, 11:21 PM
When I was on the SAC base at Minot,ND I remember a good friend saying he had called the Alert Room Command Post to report that there was a big flight of something coming in on the radar screen and that he was worried!
The Command Post replied anxiously that they had picked the blip up on Radar as well.
Jeff Worthington(my friend,who I still think about to this day-if you are out there give me a holler!) says I am transmitting you a message containing the identity of the radar blip-to the Command Post....
Command Post replied "very Well,transmit message..."
Jeff replied on the alert phone,"be sure to write this down,as we must do with all messages".
Jeff trasmitted the message...
The Major at the Command Post wrote it down,
B-1_R-D-S
Good thing it was CHRISTmas,because the Major let him go with a good laugh!:kidding::kidding::kidding:

AZ-Stew
09-09-2009, 12:33 AM
Reminds me of the time I took a bunch of SeaBee reservists to the range for pistol qualification. We were shooting 1911s, and after most of the quals were done, a couple of officers came up behind me, one with his own .45, with an Ace .22 conversion on it.

"Would you like to try it, Chief?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. That might be fun", I replied.

I fired a round, but the next round didn't feed. I jacked the slide and fired another round. The third round didn't feed, either. Same with the fourth.

I turned and asked him, "Where did you buy the pump action conversion for your pistol, sir?"

I got a strong glare from him and the other officer damned near died laughing. I'm sure he never heard the end of it.

Regards,

Stew

SierraWhiskeyMC
09-09-2009, 01:08 AM
A retired Marine colonel friend of mine told me this little encounter he had as a 1st Lieutenant in Vietnam.

Very early one morning he was walking around the camp, and came upon a 2nd Lieutenant standing behind a wooden field latrine (outhouse), bent over the half-barrel he'd pulled from underneath the seat. As he approached in the dim light, he could make out that the other LT appeared to be stirring around in the half-barrel with a bamboo stick.

"What are you doing, Lieutenant?" he asked. The 2nd Lt gave him that deer-in-the-headlights look.

After some hemming and hawing, the story came out that the 2nd Lt had decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet of the pre-dawn, and take his morning constitutional. Being as they were in a combat zone, the Lt had dutifully brought his sidearm, an M1911A1, cocked & locked, in a holster hanging on his cartridge belt.

As he sat down on the latrine seat to relax, he suddenly discovered that he'd forgotten to fasten the flap of the holster as his cocked & locked M1911A1 made a quick exit, right into the hole - and then he also discovered he'd forgotten to attach the lanyard to the ring on the pistol's butt. His pistol was in deep ... ahhh .... "doo-doo", and so was the Lt if he didn't get his pistol back.

So he was fishing around with a bamboo pole trying to retrieve his pistol before the private on "doo-doo" burning detail came by with a jerry can of diesel fuel to burn off the contents of the half-barrel.

The bamboo stick didn't work, and the half-barrel was rather full, and fully ripe. The hapless Lt finally had to fish out his pistol by hand. What fun it must've been to clean it.

Bret4207
09-09-2009, 07:17 AM
I got a million of them, war stories I mean. I tell ya I've killed more, bombed more, loved more and lost more than any other human being ever has. I can tell you stories about me shooting various dictators, thugs, Politburo members, even a few Kings and Queens. I can tell you about my parachuting into enemy territory and taking out thousands of troops inn hand to hand battle with nothing but my KaBar and an attitude. Yeah, I could tell you stories that would curl your hair and cause your kids to grow 2 feet overnight I have so much manly testosterone flowing through my blood.

Too bad I'm sworn to secrecy. I shouldn't even mention what I have, and that's no BS.........














:roll::roll::roll::roll::bigsmyl2:

Bret4207
09-09-2009, 07:31 AM
Okay, enough fun, here's a real one. Boot Camp, Paris Island SC 1979. Drill Instructor tells us, "Someday you'll be in a bar someplace and some guy with a high and tight haircut and a half dozen Marine Corps tattoos will be standing beside you and you'll strike up a conversation about The Corps. After a while he'll have you buying him booze as he tells you how much he loves The Corps and how great it is. After a while you'll ask if he went to PI or San Diego and that's when he'll say, " Ahh, they wouldn't let me in cause I got this rare blood disease, but I saw "The Boys in Company C" 37 TIMES!!!!!"

Sure enough, 20 some years later I'm in a bar talking to this guy with a high and tight haircut and at least a dozen USMC type tats. I buy 3-4 rounds and ask if he went to PI or 'Dago. He says, "Ahh. they wouldn't let me in 'cuz I got this rare brain disease that they can't fix, but I saw "Full Metal Jacket" 59 TIMES!!!!".

Rocky Raab
09-09-2009, 10:18 AM
Bret, there doesn't seem to be a barstool in America where you won't find an ex-Seal on one side of you and an ex-CIA guy on the other - unless one of them is an ex-astronaut. Strange and wondrous is it not?

So far, I've written a half-million published words of war stories, but don't have a two-paragraph one for here.

1Shirt
09-09-2009, 10:25 AM
Bret, Same story from Chief Drill Instructor, Gunny Gagnon on PI in 1957. You must be a youngster! And yes, have run into a couple of wannabees over the years. And Leadforbrains, you picked the wrong position! There is no trouble regarding getting hit from space debris if you were in my position, I was the tail gunner on the shuttle! Did get a bit warm however!
1Shirt!:coffee:

Hardcast416taylor
09-09-2009, 11:08 AM
Sea-Bees built us a bunch of huts in `Nam. First time charlie lit us we bailed out of our racks and out the only door. Later on Purple hearts were being bestowed for wounds recieved. Due to the large amount for my company the Capt. began asking if the wounds were from shrapnel or going thru the screen doors on the huts the sea-Bees built that swung IN NOT OUT!Robert

Geraldo
09-09-2009, 11:14 AM
I'm sure some of you know the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale, but for those that don't:

A fairy tale starts out, "Once upon a time..."

A sea story starts out, "Now this is no $#$@..."

pmeisel
09-09-2009, 10:39 PM
Mine are tame, but my dad had some dandy ones.....

DLCTEX
09-09-2009, 11:13 PM
Our Company went for bayonet training one day. The Sargent demonstrated to lean the rifle across your body to the left, draw the bayonet with your right, snap it onto the bayonet stud, and bump it with the heel of your hand to make sure it is frimly attached. He then gave the order to fix bayonets. I heard a loud, shaky intake of breath and looked to the left to see the guy next to me had bumped his rifle out of his grasp and in trying to catch it had impaled his right hand to the hilt. I called the Sargent, who called for the Medic. Just as the Medic ran up the poor impaled soldier slid his hand up and off the bayonet, loosing a stream of blood. The Medic took a look and passed out cold. The Sargent laughed and said" Oh gee, real blood". Later, as I sweated through the blistering heat and dust of Ft. Hood, I began to wonder if it really was an accident? Nahh! He didn't guts for it.... did he?

lylejb
09-09-2009, 11:34 PM
there doesn't seem to be a barstool in America where you won't find an ex-Seal on one side of you and an ex-CIA guy on the other - unless one of them is an ex-astronaut


OH come on, you forgot all about SPECIAL FORCES[smilie=l:

MT Gianni
09-09-2009, 11:57 PM
Out west you can add "My Grandpa was a genuine US Calvary tracker and he taught me everything he knew".

crazy mark
09-10-2009, 12:50 AM
How about an idiot flying a kite out at sea and a gooney bird gets tangled in the string. The old man sends out one of the small boats to save the gooney bird because they are protected. They guy flying the kite gets to go out in the small boat. The steering fails in the small boat. We shoot them a line as they are in 15' seas. One of the guys in the small boat gets his leg tangled in the tow line. Tow line released and the guy goes overboard. The idiot who started the whole mess jumps overboard and cuts the line off the other guys leg. Guess who gets a medal and goes to Washington DC for the award ceremony. Of course the guy who was flying the kite. This happened on Ocean station between Hawaii and Japan in the early 70's aboard a Coast Guard weather cutter. Just one of many stories during my 3 years, 8 months and 4 days aboard the USCGC Minnetonka. WHEC-67

Nora
09-10-2009, 01:27 AM
I can tell you about my parachuting into enemy territory and taking out thousands of troops inn hand to hand battle with nothing but my KaBar and an attitude.


Are you sure that wasn't "hand to gland" combat in the shower? I can see why you'd want to keep that a secret as well. :kidding:



Nora

57thahc
09-10-2009, 08:41 AM
Six months into my nam tour 67-68, we finally got wooden barracks. The GP Lrg's were getting full of sharpenal holes and pretty ratty(real rats) Our 1st sargent,who wasn,t the top he could have been,decided we should have REAL stateside Inspections, Kontum-1967-68 a real peaceful R&R area. As he came in our barracks,all starched up;yes U guessed right,the mortars came in! We as good soldiers we obeyed gen. orders and went to the bunkers,not a mob,but with a single purpose, FAST. We were fast,the 1st sarg. was slow.We overcame his slowness,by knocking him down, stepping on him many times(twenty or so people),problaly harder then we should have?Our platoon sarg. didn't did receive this treatment!!Later the "Top" complained to the CO and was overheard HE was going fix them ********, The CO who had been an enlisted man,said"top you ain't going to do nothing,but cut out stateside **** and do PT to run faster"No more 1st sarg. inspections and we all did more PT(the co xo and top+EM) I think even our pilots did some!!

462
09-10-2009, 10:51 AM
Phan Rang Air Base RVN, June '68/'69.

One day, in the very early morning hours, an aircraft crew chief caught a rat that rummaging through one of the trash cans that were stationed along the flightline. It just so happened that this coincided with the time that the aircraft were having their LOX (liquid oxygen) tanks refilled. The crew chief called the LOX guy over. In quick order, the rat was frozen solid, thrown against a reventment wall, and instantly shattered into a bazillion pieces.

Larry Gibson
09-10-2009, 11:05 AM
Well, there we were on the north fork of the humongous river, up to our ass in brass and up to our knee's in grenade pins. The combat was fierce, mostly hand to hand. The odds were terrible, about 150 to 2. And wouldn't you know it.......one of them two ******** damn near got away!

Larry Gibson

Dollar Bill
09-10-2009, 11:14 AM
I was watching a show on the Military channel. They were interviewing a British ace about his experiences in WW2. He told of one mission where he was sure he would be shot down. He stated that "there were Fockers to the left, Fockers to the right, and a Focker behind him". The interviewer asked him how well his Spitfire performed against the FW190. The old ace told him "I don't know. All them Fockers were flying Messerschmitts!".

Larry Gibson
09-10-2009, 11:36 AM
Okay, a true war story. We were up around Song Be securing the area so the SF camp could be rebuilt. Our posiition was in some scrub jungle not to thick but enough to make things interesting. We were in 3 man positions about 10-15 meters apart. It was actually pretty boring except for one incident.

Every evening just as it was getting dark one of us from each position would low crawl out and set up our Claymores, one per position, if one had been brought in of needed to be moved. Of course we set them in different positions each morning or night. About 2 postions down the line was one occupied by Sgt Willie Williams. Each morning, for 3 mornings, at daylight when he would also low crawl out to retrieve or move the Claymore. He would find it turned around and pointed back at his position. A long and colorful verbal vindictive one sided conversation would then ensue. It was comical enough just listening to the continual stream of utterences and threats Willie cold make at one time! Anyways on the 4th night, just at dark, Willie crawled out to set up his Claymore. Darkness fell completely and Willie had not come back in. After some time we really got concerned because Willie would have told us if he was going to stay out there to get that sapper so we wouldn't blow our Claymores or shoot him if we heard or saw something.

We had passed the word back to the LT and PSG that Willie was still out. The PSG had just come to the position when Willie whispered the running password "rawhide" and slid back into the position. The PSG, SFC Cook, asked Willie what took so long. All Willie said was "I got that MFer now". Willie then laid back on his ruck, pulled the clacker out of his cargo pocket, plugged it in, flipped the safety off and held it in both hands on his chest with a real "stealy eyed" look in his eyes. Anyways as best as I could see in the dark it was a "stealy eyed" look!. I went back to my position.

About 0200 or so without any warning Willie blew the Claymore. Of course that imediately put everyone at stand to for the rest of the night. At daylight I slid over to Willies position and got there just as the PSG and the LT got there. Willie was still laying against his ruck sack but was sound asleep with a sh*t eating grin on his face. SFC Cook, being pretty pissed because no info had been passed to the CP, kicked his foot and asked what the hell had happened.

Willie calmly said he knew the sapper would have to make a noise. Cook asked how the hell he knew that. Willie said; "We been eating Cs for a couple weeks now and I ain't sh*t in several days. So last night I stayed out until I had to sh*t. I layed the biggest world class C-rat turd across that Claymore! So I knew, when that sapper reached up to move my Claymore and grabbed a handfull of C-rat turd, that he would say something. He did and I hit the clacker! Sure enough there was a bloody mess of once had been a proud sapper with a sense of humor. Turned out the joke was on him!

Something to be said for GI ingenuity;-)

Larry Gibson

montana_charlie
09-10-2009, 01:12 PM
I loved 'booby traps'. I made two.

We had a particular claymore position (outside of the communications site on Nui Ba Den mountain) that would get turned around at night, on a fairly reliable schedule. I knew Air Force radios, but Army gear was strange to me. One day we got in a load of new batteries for the PRC-25 radios, so we were changing out the batteries in all of them. That was my first look at that power source, and I was surprised to learn you could get a range of different voltages out...depending on how you hooked up. One tap was something like 50 volts (if I remember).

I rigged the 'turn-around-claymore' with a second fuse (there are two holes in the top) but the wires for that one were thinner than the normal stuff, and taped flat to the back of the mine with duct tape of a color similar to that of the mine. One wire led to a C-ration can buried under the mine which was configured like a switch, and the other led straight to the battery...hidden nearby. In darkness, it looked like a standard rig, and the only safe way to handle it was to disconnect the battery, first.

Next time the mine was lifted to turn it around, it detonated.

To reach our mines, it was necessary to get past a number of trip flares rigged with trip wires across the passable approaches. These were frequently found cut.

I rigged a trip flare mount which had a weight that pulled the pin if released. The weight was supported by the trip wire. If somebody kicked the wire, the flare would light...but it would also light if the wire was cut.

More that one visitor met his fate when suddenly illuminated, on his knees, wire cutters in hand, staring at a brightly burning trip flare that was not supposed to be...burning brightly.

CM

1874Sharps
09-10-2009, 02:25 PM
Larry,

You say, "Something to be said for GI ingenuity." In this case do you mean gastronintestinal for GI?!!! (heeheeeheeee)

mtnman31
09-10-2009, 03:43 PM
2004, I hadn't been in Iraq too long, I was relaxing one evening reading a book and heard a new sound, looked up to see a rocket fly right over head and explode on the other side of some HESCO barriers. The next day, I ran into a friend and was telling him about my experience the day prior, explained to him the sound. As he spoke the words "What did it sound like?" - a rocket buzzed right over our heads (exploded about 100 yards away), my eyes got big and we both ran for some cover. We hunkered down next to some sandbags and shared a good laugh.

That is my Iraq story I don't mind telling. The rest are best shared between those who were there with me. Not that I was involved in any movie-worthy stories; just that my own war experiences are pale in comparison to the experiences of others.

BTW - My second tour in Iraq is when I discovered this site. I lurked for quite a while before I made an account.

Tom308
09-10-2009, 05:14 PM
My only war story is a guest haus ran out of beer. We did have some not so bright officers and some VERY intelligent ones. One of the officers told a bunch of young men we would be wiped out as a unit in less than a week. The next week the Russians and their allies would mop up any survivors. Not something to say to a bunch of young soldiers. They were afraid the Russians would try something while America was preoccupied with VN. They did do me a GREAT favor. They refused to transfer me to VN. Even though Germany was COLD, it was better than VN. I think God that's the closest I cane come to a war story either military or law enforcement. Little fights don't count. Do they?
Tom

fishhawk
09-10-2009, 05:38 PM
Marines and army
like i said i wasn't a marine but i was army. the rivalary between the 2 in my opinion was always friendly rivalery. if you were in a bar or some place and marine or army boot got into a fight it was like brothers fighting but let some civlian start a fight with either marine or army boot and they had to fight both. we fought each other like brothers and fought for each other. when i enlisted i was at the AFES station on a friday and was sitting there waiting for the contracts being typed and there were 3 other guys enlisting in the marines sitting there. well one of the girls typeing said "i don't know why we always have so many Marines enlisting on friday" well me being a young smart mouth kid at the time piped right up and said "cause Marines arn't smart enough to get up on mondays!" well the place broke up and i had 3 POd Marine enlistes to handle. steve k.

Larry Gibson
09-10-2009, 08:51 PM
Larry,

You say, "Something to be said for GI ingenuity." In this case do you mean gastronintestinal for GI?!!! (heeheeeheeee)

Dang, that was too quick! Ididn't think anyone would really catch the "punch line";-)

Larry Gibson

462
09-10-2009, 10:14 PM
I was a weapons mechanic (cannon cocker or muzzle f#%@er) on the F-100 Super Sabre. It had four 20 mm cannons, and each was fed from its own 200-round ammo can. We'd fly about 24 to 28 sorties a day.

After almost every mission, when I would remove the gun bay doors, I'd see that the guns had been fired. I'd think, "All right, scratch some more Charlies." I'd get right to work, loading the bombs and guns for the bird's next mission.

Since I was a shy and bashful 20-year-old punk, I was never comfortable about approaching the pilot and asking what or who he had dropped his bombs or napalm on, or fired his guns and rockets at.

After I'd been in-country a few months, I became more aware of the way in which the air war was being waged. Soon, I started to become cocky about my job -- Heck, without me, all the birds and pilots are useless.

Finally, one day, after seeing that a pilot had fired his guns (and jamming one) I got up the gumption to ask him what he'd fired at.
"Water buffalo"
"Did you get 'em?"
"Yep."

That exchange caused me to reassess what my job was all about. Here I am, busting my butt, 12-hours-a-day, everyday, in triple digit temperatures and humidity levels, and some cowboy pilot is either shooting holes in the sky or water buffalo, rather than Charlie and his fellow comrads.

At the time, that caused me to become a bit disillusioned, however, it didn't last too long. Today, I feel very strongly that every bomb and round I loaded was for a good cause. Hopefully, our squadron's combat support mission saved many soldier's and Marine's lives.

I once read one of Col. David Hackworth's books. He mentioned a fire-fight that took place during the time that I was in-country. In short order, the situation got a bit too hot, and he had to call in air support. He said that, soon, two F-100s arrived on station and saved the day. I e-mailed him and said that I'd like to believe that I had loaded and armed them.

I don't regret any one of those days...

Coastie
09-11-2009, 10:13 PM
I have read Col. Hackworth's books and have nothing to compare with his troops or with some of my friends stories. The only tale that I was a part of that made the internet was while I was a MM2 and one of the rescue boat engineers on board the Winnebago. The internet story is: Hawiian Baptism by Franklin A. Warren. Should come up with Hawiian Baptism or www.jacksjoint.com/baptism . We were very well trained and after getting used to it - very proud of it. Until I read Franklin's story I didn't know anything about the Navy plane - I thought that the reason we got recalled and picked up was because: after we picked up the "survivors" and took the pulling boats in tow we headed for Waikki Beach and had begun to draw a crowd on the sand in front of the Royal Hawaiin Hotel, our target landing point.
A Great Crew! We took a lot of "flak" for Semper Paratus, but there were a bunch of folks who were glad we showed up.
Proud Member of Mad Mac's Raiders

beagle
09-11-2009, 10:31 PM
Come on guys.....not a real war story here. Not a one started with "now this is no sh_t" or "there I was" like true war stories have to start with.

Seriously, some good stories here and I'll throw my $.02 in later./beagle

SciFiJim
09-11-2009, 10:41 PM
OK, I'll have to relate mine. I was in the Navy on an FFG in the 80's. Making an independent transit from Singapore to PI. We had the chance to make a quick trip to the equator to "Cross the Line". During shellback initiation we came upon a fishing vessel in distress (think it was a dead engine).
The first thing they saw was an American warship flying the Jolly Roger. We brought the fishermen on board and took their boat in tow. They stood as far back on the fantail as possible and their eyes were HUGE watching the initiation. I guess they thought they were either picked up by a mutinied American warship turned pirate or that ALL Americans were really, really strange.

beagle
09-11-2009, 10:55 PM
Now, this is "no sh_t" story. I was 1SG of a unit deployed to Honduras during operation Ahuas Tara II (Big Pine II) in 1983.

We set up tent city in a cow pasture in the vicinity of Palmerola AFB for a six moths stay and were doing quite well, thank you. About a week after we arrived, we got a congressional inquiry down on one of my troops. For those of you who have been in leadership positions, you know what a panic this causes in the chain of command. The Bn Cdr was outraged.

I was in the dark and had to report with the young man to the Cdr along with my commander and the Sergeant Major.

This lady was sueing the kid for $7,000 and gotten her congressman involved to speed things along.

The soldier was aware of it and had his lawyer working on it so he wasn't too sympathetic to the congressman's and Bn Commander's attempts to expedite the matter and told the Colonel so. Talking about sandpapering a wildcat's ass. He threw us all out.

Me and the commander got the soldier aside to find out the problem as we still didn't know what was going on. He'd sold a registered dog to this lady for $7,000 and had told her up front that the dog had some kind of disease before and might not be good for breeding but she was insistent and had his contract to prove it. She'd sued him prior to leaving the states so he'd hired a lawyer to represent him and wasn't talking to her. That's when she decided to sic the congressman on us as she was sure the Army was stonewalling her as he'd left the country.

Anyhow, after he cooled down, my commander talked to the Battalion Commander and told him the whole situation and produced paperwork and he saw why he wasn't willing to give any ground on the matter so he became sympathetic and replied to the inquiry that he had talked with the soldier and he had legal representation and was within his rights and no further action was required by the Army. A further phone call to the Brigade Commander back in the states smoothed things out and we never heard any more.

As things will, news spread and this became known as the $7,000 dog incident all over the compound and the soldier was greeted for several weeks by other soldiers as they met him by a loud "Woooof!!!!/beagle

bruce drake
09-11-2009, 11:57 PM
Is that another reason why your handle is "beagle" :)

I got a congressional on a new Soldier the same day he signed into the company. Seemed he called his congressman while he was in Division Receiving Company on the conditions there. Division G1 saw he had been assigned down to my company when the Congressional Fax came in and dutifully assigned me with the task to reply to the Congrint.

I replied that the Soldier had been the happiest Soldier in the Army for exactly 45 minutes from the time I first saw him and when the Congrint came to me and that any events that happened prior to that time have been rectified with his arrival in my company.

BN Commander came in from a range that evening, laughed at my reply and forwarded it back up the chain.

Never got a call back from G1 on the one sentence reply to the Congrint. Found out later the Div HHC Commander got relieved for a host of events concerning the Receiving company.

SierraWhiskeyMC
09-12-2009, 12:54 AM
A temporary camp was being closed down, and some sanitary structures (aka "latrines") needed to be "taken care of" in order to ensure that the area was left clean and germ-free.

The order came down that the structures were to be placed in a pit and burned to ensure sanitary disposal.

The OIC requested that combat engineers dig a hole using a backhoe, and push the structures in, which they did. Then the OIC ordered some junior enlisted men to set fire to the structures in the pit using diesel fuel and a source of ignition.

The junior enlisted men took a 5-gallon Jerry can to the motor pool to get diesel fuel, but the motor pool had only limited supplies of it. However, they had LOTS of Mogas (gasoline for motor vehicles), so they filled the can with Mogas instead.

The junior enlisteds got back to the latrine-filled pit, and commenced to pouring Mogas all over what remained of the structures. Then they discovered that neither of them had a source of ignition - not even a match.

It took awhile for them to find someone who had matches.

Grateful to have found the matches, they took the box back to the pit, lit one of the matches, and tossed it in the pit to start the latrines on fire.

However, it had taken a good bit of time between when they dumped the five gallons of Mogas in the pit until when they returned with an ignition source. Meanwhile, the gasoline was mixing with oxygen in the pit, and laying low to await a source of ignition.

[[[[{{{{{***KAWHOOM!!!***}}}}}]]]]

The match flipped into the pit caused the Mogas/oxygen mix to blow up like dynamite, and the latrines flew hundreds of feet into the air before they returned to earth. Nobody was killed or injured, but one hapless junior enlisted lost his eyebrows.

Beware of flying latrines.

Idaho Sharpshooter
09-12-2009, 10:50 AM
T'was late summer of 1971 and our Ranger Company attached to the world famous 23rd Infantry Division (aka the Americal) had (in two months) doubled in field numbers. The Marines in Danang had been sent home and the 101st took over the area from the Hai Van Pass area to the DMZ. They sent the 196th LIB up to take over the 101st and 1st Marine Recon Battalion's are from about LyTin 21 to the HVP. So, our company was split in half and half of us went to Danang as Co2/CoG, 75th Inf Abn. We get quarters just down from the top of Hill 28. Right across the bay from that beautiful 300ft tall statue of Buddha they were building. The Marine's Mess Hall is just up the hill 50 meters from us. Good old 'Corps ingenuity, the two 4-hole sh---ers were about 10 meters below the dumpster behind this mess hall. I was on my third tour and thought I was pretty hot stuff. So, one of the new guys we called "Doofus" (every one gets a nickname for radio use)and I get called in the office by Top. Seems the rat population lives under these two 4-holers and is causing a problem. I got keys to the Conex and Top tells me to take Doofus down and get some Clackers and caps and deal with the situation. I do, and I rewire these used clackers with caps. We get some steak bits from the mess hall and I show Doof how to wrap a bit of meat around the cap and wrap it with a bit of wire so the rat has to grab the meat between his teeth to move it. When he does, I snap the Clacker; and (small) Kaboom!! Rat is decapitated. Doof thinks this is great, so I leave him to enjoy his afternoon. About an hour later, I hear the mother of all explosions, and look up just in time to see the one 4-holer achieve liftoff and dis-sssembly at the same time. Doof had a brain storm and went back down to the conex for a little C-4. Which, I had left unlocked. Bad choice. He figures that if he molds a ball of C-4 on the cap and then wraps a large piece of meat around it the Father of All Rats will grab it and run back down the hole. He can then clack them all to rat heaven with one smooth move. A quarter-pound of C-4 WILL lift and fragmentize a 4-holer, especially if you have 4 half 55 gallon drums with about 10 gallons of diesel in them. It rained poop and toothpicks for about ten minutes. It was the dangdest thing you ever saw!

Rich

troy_mclure
09-12-2009, 01:16 PM
ive got a few:

at fort Polk la. doing air lift operations with a bunch of Chinook helos, and my jd 350 dozer.
i was just there to drive the dozer around.
we were on the near side of the airfield by the porta johns. as this Chinook lifted off, turbines at full power picking up an 18k lb dozer, one of the port johns flipped over.
out popped this female warrant officer like a blue jack in the box, just soaked with the blue water.

i was on foot patrol in mosul, iraq. i was third in line of 8, i was just passing this narrow alley when a grenade bounces out. not even thinking i kick it. it bounced right back up the alley. as soon as i realized what happened i yelled grenade, and leaped backwards to clear the alley.
the grenade blew up as soon as i landed.
later when asked why i didnt yell grenade i answered that i did, but the guy behind me said i just yelled "EEeekk!" lol

Rocky Raab
09-12-2009, 02:59 PM
Troy, my brother, that last bit rings of pure truth. I'd bet my life savings that there were (and will always be) a billion high-pitched "EEEeeeekks" that are remembered by the eeeker as something more like "I say, chaps, I believe that is a grenade/snake/incoming."

44minimum
09-28-2009, 01:48 PM
I was reading a book not too long ago about the air war in the Pacific in world war two. One American pilot got his airplane all shot up and had to bail out. While he was floating down in his parachute the Japanese pilot was circling and trying to shoot him. The Japanese pilot pulled up beside him to get a look, so the American started banging away at him with his 45. He was a little surprised when the zero started spinning and crashed far below. And he got credit for the kill. Either he had hit the jap pilot or he had pulled back on the stick too far and stalled out. And I'm fairly certain this is a true story.

Ricochet
09-28-2009, 02:57 PM
Yes, I've read that story several times.

Junior1942
09-29-2009, 09:55 AM
True story. Back in the early 1960s my destroyer, DDG-4, launched a surface-to-air test missile at a drone airplane. The missile was about 12 feet long and 1 foot in diameter and had test instruments instead of a warhead, thank God. About a half mile out and a fourth mile up, that sucker turned around and came back at us. It was supposed to self-destruct if it did that, but it didn't. Stunned, we watched our own destruction coming at us at the rate of many mph but in seemingly slow motion. We were too stunned/shocked/petrified with fear to dash below deck. On it came without guidance and leaving a corkscrew-like contrail behind itself. With a huge splash it hit the water about 75 yards off the starboard bow.

bruce drake
09-29-2009, 09:28 PM
Junior, So how many dungarees got dingy that day!

pmeisel
09-29-2009, 09:34 PM
Guess that's why it was a test missile, huh? The danger of training and testing is widely underestimated......

troy_mclure
09-29-2009, 11:13 PM
junior1942, had something similar happen with the AT4 rocket.

the guy fired his rocket and it dropped suddenly, bounced upwards off of a berm, and went straight up! a stiff wind was blowing towards us too!

we just kinda stood there and watched it climb.

we lost it after burn out, probaly 500' high. we were just standing loocking strait up loke a bunch of moron when it landed about 100m in front of the firing line.

Lunk
09-30-2009, 02:46 AM
My father was a pilot in the army, went to Vietnam twice. First as Rotor and second go as Fixed wing. He does not talk about most of what went on over there but he does have some interesting stories about being state side.
The one I loved was when he and a number of other pilots who had all been promoted in infantry companies (I guess the army needed more officers on the books?) were told to qualify in an infantry weapon. These men were all pilots and didn't have much of a need to qualify with infantry weapons (they were issued a .38 as part of there flight gear from what I remember mt father saying) but they could qualify with ANY infantry weapon and as far as the army was concerned they were being good infantry officers.
So they checked out a mortar and some crates of rounds and went out to the range to learn how to blow up a hill. From what he said they qualified too.

Another one was when he was stationed in Germany he became the base commanders adjutant and had trouble finding time to go fly to keep flight status. The only time he could get at one point was the same hour he had to be at the range again. I guess they were less interested in him actually shooting targets and more interested in him just being there like he was supposed to be that they let him pull figure 8's over the range and marked him as present.

Junior1942
09-30-2009, 09:53 AM
Here's another true story. We were at sea doing gunnery exercises with our 5"-54 forward and aft guns. (The 54 means barrel length = 5" diameter x 54 = 270" barrel length.) The target was a wall-sized bullseye on a barge/boat towed via a mile long cable behind a speed boat. Inside the gun mount was a pair of crosshair equiped binoculars bolted to a motorized mount controlled by the gunnery firecontrol computer. The computer sent a signal to the mount and kept the binoculars aimed at the target's present position. The binoculars, etc., were named the "Check Sight." The Check Sight simply prevented the gunners from firing at the wrong target.

Well, the forward guns did their thing and fired several circa 50 lb rounds at the bullseye. It was cool watching the huge splashes when they hit the ocean around and just past the bullseye barge. Well, the aft guns turn to fire arrived. The gunnery officer called out, "Check Sight!"

At that command, a gunners mate inside the gun mount was supposed to look through the Check Sight binoculars and verify that the crosshairs were on the target. He yelled, "Check Sight clear, sir!"

"Fire!" Kawhooooom!

And the round clipped the tow line in two about 6 feet behind the speedboat. I can only imagine the frantic radio call from the guys on the speed boat. The gunnery Fire Control Technicians spent days testing their computer and the Check Sight system in the gun mount and could find nothing wrong. The big gun was aimed at the speedboat instead of the target far behind it. I don't remember for sure, but I imagine the gunners mate at the Check Sight was busted down several pay grades, as he should have been.

madcaster
09-30-2009, 02:51 PM
"Fire!" Kawhooooom!

And the round clipped the tow line in two about 6 feet behind the speedboat. I can only imagine the frantic radio call from the guys on the speed boat. The gunnery Fire Control Technicians spent days testing their computer and the Check Sight system in the gun mount and could find nothing wrong. The big gun was aimed at the speedboat instead of the target far behind it. I don't remember for sure, but I imagine the gunners mate at the Check Sight was busted down several pay grades, as he should have been.[/QUOTE]

Junior,
I bet someone decided that it would be easier to just jump into the ocean to clean their drawers after that one!:holysheep

Harpman
09-30-2009, 06:34 PM
I was in the army back in the 70's...dang near the whole company smoked dope, when we cleaned our pot in the barracks we would drop the seeds out the windows, everyone knew never weed eat near the building...every payday the CO would have a formation, tell us not to get too drunk, do not drink and drive and DO NOT be bringing no dam dope back to the barracks, the whole time for years actually right behind him 10 feet away was our reefer crop growing the whole length of the building, we picked as we needed...dam funny times

troy_mclure
09-30-2009, 07:19 PM
yep, my dad was a tank driver in the 70's. told me a story about him and his crew using part of the fire extinguisher to smoke hash while doing maneuvers.

they got a radio call telling them that their tank was on fire! he said that they were so stoned they couldnt get the fire extinguisher reassembled, and the tank would have burned to the ground if another tank hadn't stopped and put out the fire.

Harpman
09-30-2009, 07:59 PM
what we had going was so outragous, one time I told on us and the LT didnt believe me, she had our section in a formation, I fell in with a foot and half tall reefer plant stuck in the back of my cap sticking straight up, she comes to me and says what in the hell is that ?...I said its reefer Ma'am look and I pointed to the barracks and said its everywhere !.she goes, get that dam weed out of yur hat and shut up....

AZ-Stew
09-30-2009, 11:48 PM
I'm familiar with the two stories Junior told, above. Not those exact incidents, but similar ones.

It was not uncommon for the gun fire control radar to "walk" the cable between the tow boat and the target sled. Unless someone was paying attention (obviously not, in his case) a gun originally sighted on the target sled could, in a few seconds, become aimed at the tow boat. This also happened with aerial towed targets. One had to be careful not to shoot down the towing aircraft.

In the days Junior relates the story about the Tartar missile boomeranging on the firing ship, all the guidance electronics in the missiles used vacuum tubes, rather than transistors. Transistors were in their infancy, considered only good enough for cheap Japanese battery powered AM radios. Certainly not up to the task of running military guidance systems. The Tartar missile was, as Junior describes, 13 inches diameter and about 15 feet long. It used a dual-thrust solid fuel rocket motor, meaning that the single solid fuel propellant structure burned in two progressive steps. The first to boost the missile to flight speed, the second to sustain flight for the remainder of the intercept. There was a "big brother" to the Tartar missile (now called the Standard MR) called the Terrier that was a real two-stage missile, having a booster section about 20 inches in diameter and about 20 feet long, tipped with a missile similar to the Tarter, except that it was configured to mount on the front of the booster and that it had a single-thrust solid fuel motor to sustain speed for a much longer range than the Tartar.

I watched one of them being fired one time from another ship (ours was similar to Juniors, except that it had the single-arm MK-13 launcher, whereas Juniors had the twin-arm MK-11 launcher, both only Tartar capable) over in the Med. The booster did its job, then the Terrier forward section separated and began its flight. I NEVER saw anything move that fast! Had to be near Mach 3. It went out a mile or so, turned left, went another half mile, turned left again, headed for the launching ship. As Junior says, there are situations that will cause self destruct, and I'm sure some of the procedures were followed, but to no avail. The missile was about a mile up, then it turned down at about a 45 degree angle and plunged directly into the sea. About 2-3 seconds later it surfaced, still under full power and climbed to about 1,000 feet, then turned back toward the water, but still in the direction of the launching ship. It submerged again, and after a few seconds it surfaced again, changed direction a bit, then dove for the third and final time.

I'm sure the guys on the launching ship experienced maximum pucker factor for several seconds. On our ship, we were all standing watching it with our mouths hanging open.

Regards,

Stew

AZ-Stew
10-01-2009, 12:14 AM
Then there was the time in Gitmo when we were on REFTRA (refresher training) and were conducting a 5"-54 live-fire exercise.

5" ammo comes in two pieces:

1.) The projectile.

2.) The powder cartridge and primer assembly.

The Navy calls this "semi-fixed" ammo, as opposed to "fixed" (small arms and guns up to 3"; projectile, cartridge, powder and primer are all in one piece) and "bag-type" (projectile, powder in silk bags, and a primer inserted into the gun's breech block).

Semi-fixed ammo traditionally has a cork plug in the end of the powder cartridge to contain the powder and to cushion the assembly as it is pushed up through the conveyor from the magazine to the gun, with the projectile (75 pounds) sitting atop the cork plug. Some bean-counter in the pentagon decided that the cork could be replaced with polyurethane foam to save money and cork trees. The problem was that it didn't have the shear strength of cork. When the ammo was run through the conveyor (up about three decks in a couple of seconds), the inertia of the projectile occasionally caused the polyurethane plug to cock sideways in the mouth of the powder cartridge. If this happened, the cartridge wouldn't ram into the chamber completely and the breech block wouldn't close.

Our resourceful Gunner's Mates had a solution! One man would climb up on top of the gun with his back toward the muzzle and drive the stuck case home using a leather mallet swung between his legs, which were straddling the guns' breech. When it was fully seated in the chamber, the breech would close and the gun could be fired. This worked well until one of the Gitmo instructors walked out to the gun mount, opened the door and saw the guy on top of the gun whacking away at the cartridge base with a hammer. He shut the mount door, hurried up to the bridge and stopped the exercise. We immediately returned to port at Gitmo, meetings were held, radio messages were sent back to the States and within hours we were on our way home, several weeks ahead of schedule. We went up to Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and swapped out the powder for "good stuff". That was the last I saw of the polyurethane foam plugs.

Regards,

Stew

SciFiJim
10-01-2009, 12:45 AM
Having gone through REFTRA in San Diego, I can sympathize with you having gone through it at Gitmo. We heard horror stories about the Reftra inspectors having:takinWiz:ing contests there, to see who could be the toughest. Reftra in San Diego is the only time I have spent 72 hours on my feet without a break. Watch, to Sea & Anchor detail, to training, to Sea & Anchor detail, to watch and repeat for 3 days without a break. Hard stuff, but we learned what could be done in a pinch.

Idaho Sharpshooter
10-01-2009, 02:34 AM
I was on OP George September 13th, 1971

Rich
G/Co, 75th Inf Abn
the Ranger Companies RVN 1969-1971

troy_mclure
10-01-2009, 04:28 AM
doing air assault training missions at fort Campbell mid December.

my squad was riding in a black hawk to the training area where our hmmwv was waiting.

the black hawk was doing false insertions, land, take off, land, take off, etc.. done to prevent the enemy from finding our real insertion point.

we were supposed to be dropped off with 3 infantry squads(each on their own chopper) 1km north of our vehicles.

the crew chief gave us the 2min warning, we flared, landed and the crew chief said "go go go!".

as soon as we landed the chopper took off, and we headed south 1km.

no vehicles, no infantry, nothing!

we break out the map only to find we are not even on it!!

the chopper had dropped us off at the wrong spot!

all we had was our assault packs, with some snivel gear and 1 mre each.

we didnt even have a radio.

we hiked up to the nearest point to see what we could see. nothing!

having no idea where we were, how far from post we were, and limited supplies(read none!) we decided to return to where we were dropped off.

we camped there for 3days 2 nites, finaly a black hawk passing above saw our fire and circled till we waved him in.

we told them what happened and they gave us a ride back to post.

nobody had even noticed we were missing!

we got 2 days off and were sent right back out to get our hmmwv and rejoin our unit.

flhroy
10-04-2009, 02:27 PM
didn't start out all that well.
First thing to happen was an A-7 Corsair taxiing up to the cats had the starboard TER (triple ejection rack) fell off that had 3 MK-82's (500 lb general purpose bombs) with contact fuses on it. YYYEEEIIIKKKKS!!!! *** No explosion, no hole in the flight deck. I think the arming wires might have still been in place but some one told me later that they weren't and the fuses were spinning till an ordy stopped thenm with some safety wire. Well any way the fuses were removed bombs were detached from the TER and put back on carts and flight ops continued. Remember now this is happening on a pitching flight deck and round objects like to roll down hill. A runaway 500 lb bomb doesn't have to explode to make a mess of things. It’s a testament to the ordy's that they were able to recover those bombs without further incident.
Next thing happened while recovering an F-8 Crusader, which was known at the time as the last of the Gun Fighters. Anyway for those who haven't seen an arrested landing on a Carrier it's a very violent event. More so for an F-8 because of its relatively high air speed of around 150 mph.
Well the Crusader stopped but the AIM-9 Sidewinder on the starboard side missile rack didn't. YYYEEEIIIKKKS!!! Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, splash went the sidewinder. *** was that. Thank God for angle decks!
We secured from flight ops that day without further incident BUT the day aint over yet. That evening was beautiful. Bright moon the wind had died down and the water was flat as glass. Picture perfect like you see in the movies. Couldn't ask for better weather for an UNREP (underway replenishment). We approached the USS Nitro, gota love that name, for fuel and munitions. I was on the flight deck watching the approach on the Nitro with my friend Rodney. Rodney kept saying we're going in to fast, we're getting too close, we're going to collide. now remember bright moon, glassy seas, and no wind perfect weather. So I kept saying BS these guys are professionals ain't no way that's going to happen. Well I was wrong. We collided. On our starboard side no less. Not only that we locked up. Thank God for those calm waters now. Had there been any swell at all we would of tore each other apart big time not little time like we did. Now there we are drifting around in the Gulf of Tonkin lock up like two cars with locked bumpers. So how the hell are they going to get these two ships separated? Easy! Transfer ballast to port and let the ships roll a few degrees and let them drift apart. Who ever figured that one out was brilliant. I don’t know maybe that’s the first thing teach in Damage Control 101 but I kind of doubt it.
I don’t care how much you train, you can’t train for every scenario that’s going to happen. And when **** goes to hell in a hand basket some just rise up to the occasion. And that’s why I feel we have the best Military that there is. PERIOD.
That’s how the first day, of the first line period went for the Oriskanys’ ’72, ’73 WESTPAC Cruise.

462
10-04-2009, 09:50 PM
fhroy,

I was an Air Force weapons mechanic for 4 years, and loaded mega-tons of dumb bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, 2.75" rockets, and several bazillion rounds of 20 mm ammo, etc. The only way for the arming wire to pull through either the nose or tail fuze (proper weapons spelling) is if the bomb were to become detached from its bomb rack. A TER falling off the wing won't cause that to happen.

You are right in your thinking...the arming wires were in place. Someone embellished the incident to make it more than what it was.

I was stationed in Phan Rang, RVN in '68/'69. There was a guy in our squadron who was a real f*&#-up. Nobody wanted him on their load crew or anything to do with him. One day, I picked up a nose fuze, removed the factory installed safety wire, spun the propeller for a bit and tossed the fuze toward the guy. He taught it. That was his last day in our squadron. I was never approached about the incident.

I don't know how many revolutions a fuze's propeller needs to spin before the gears align the striker, thereby arming the fuze, but it's a heck of a lot more than the few I imparted.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heat-seeking missile. It's more than a bit eerie when doing a function check on one and you see the "eye" tracking you as you move about.

Echo
10-04-2009, 11:03 PM
Yeah, well let me tell you about some really rough times. I was on the second airplane to land at U-Tapao RTAFB, Thailand, in '66.. The runway ended about 1/4 mile from the beach, and we could swim there within base confines. MAN! It was SCARY, out there in the water, when a BUFF took off! They were loaded with 108 bombs, and probably only 100 ft altitude when they passed over, 8 J-57 steam engine's straining for all they were worth. LOUD, I guess! Quite frightening...

:kidding:

madcaster
10-04-2009, 11:44 PM
There is sure a lot of intresting stories here,thank you folks for sharing them!Great thread!:coffee:

troy_mclure
10-05-2009, 01:22 AM
talking about stoopid people, we gat sent on a mission to go blow up an explosives cache that some arty guys had found.

when we pull up we see a couple of guys playing foot ball with a rusty 60mm mortar!

after some yelling they tried to say it was rusty, and not even fused.

but it was fused! they just werent familiar with russian mortar rounds.

if one had missed the catch, or caught by the tip, it could have went BOOM! hell as old as it was it could have blown just from being shuffled around.

Linstrum
10-05-2009, 02:02 AM
Good Grief! Some folks sure have mud for brains, playing with a Rooshin mortar round like that!

I don't have my own story, but long ago I had a very close friend who had some tales to tell, but unfortunately he is now departed. I originally met him through Ham Radio and we spent a lot of time "rag chewing" all night long and more than a few times we saw the sun rise before we were done talking things over for the night. He joined the Air Force in 1959, the day of his high school graduation his father informed him he was no longer welcome back at the house and drove him to the AFEES Building in San Francisco and that night he was on a Greyhound Bus on his way to boot camp. His training was as a radar scope dope and sending code, and his first assignment was near Cut Bank, Montana, at the Air Force Station DEW Line radar installation right at the Canadian border. That winter they were snowed in for months and the cook went nuts, climbing up on top of the mess hall with a Thompson and when the ammunition was gone some guys tackled him and he was taken to Great Falls and never heard from again. In 1993 I was through Cut Bank and located the radar installation. I talked to the rancher who farmed there and he remembered my buddy from 33 years earlier because he worked for him on his days off. I climbed up in what was left of the radar dish tower and found bullet holes in the walls that the cook had made. After Cut Bank, my buddy was sent to Vietnam in late 1960 as an advisor, doing radio DFing of Communist radio communications along the Ho Chi Min Trail so the Marines could go out and do their search and destroy missions. All the Air Force personnel slept under the 6x6 radio trucks but when the Marines came they set up tents all laid out in neat rows. The tent city lasted just one day, the VC mortared it that night and the next night the Air Force guys had company under their trucks. The Air Force personnel learned real quick not to wear any insignia of rank since officers got shot at by snipers. They all wore T-shirts but because all the Air Force guys knew each other they knew who was what rank. The Marines didn't know the Air Force officers and out of self-defense ALL the Air Force personnel were saluted and called "sir" by the Marines. My buddy was a lowly corporal but because he was a big tall guy with missing teeth he looked older and even the Marine officers saluted him and called him Sir! They had perimeter spot lights set up that could be turned on in case of an intruder getting in the camp. One night the guard on duty opened up with the twin .50 mounted on a truck when he heard noise from the tin cans they kept hanging on wires set along the camp perimeter and when they turned on the lights they found a 300-pound Bengal tiger that looked like a Swiss cheese from getting shot to pieces. My buddy said tigers did cause problems once in awhile but that was the only one he saw there. Computers were just starting to be used a lot by the military back in the early 60s and my buddy was a math wiz, so he became a Stateside computer science instructor for the Air Force from 1962 until his six year enlistment was up in 1965 and he never went back to 'Nam. For what it is worth, my buddy's name was Albert F. Bischoff and he died of lung cancer on Lincoln's Birthday in 1994. He figured he got cancer from working with chromium oxide powder when he was employed as a physicist by IBM, he developed the magnetic substrate used for computer floppy discs. He didn't get it from Agent Orange since he was in country before that stuff was used.


rl648

Ivantherussian03
10-05-2009, 11:15 AM
We went to the bayonet course at Ft. Leanardwood. It was the end of the day. The range cadre came out and gave us this speech; "I want you young men to tear these bayonet dummies up. We have nothing to do but fix these things. I want you to get tough and get mad......", this was the speech more or less. I remember getting very upset about being there, asking myself why I signed up for this. I remember the sweat stains in our fatigue pants, and brown t-shirts, as Leanardwood is ungodly hot. We hit the range. Every man had his own bayonet dummy and we commenced are attack skills. Myself, I knocked the bayonet dummy's weapon aside and began hit ting the dummy's neck pin and head, with the butt of the rifle. The neck pin was some thick ass steel pin. I don't remember how many times I hit it. The pin broke and the head fell off. I just went nuts......screaming and raising the rifle over my head, howling in triumph. Sgt. had this who is screaming on my range look ; he looked mad, then with disbelief, then finally said go do it to another one!

waksupi
10-05-2009, 11:20 AM
I wasn't in the service myself, but recall some stories of my grand dad in WW1.
He joined the Army while he was only 16, lying about his age to get in. Once he was on the front lines in the trenches, he realized it wasn't what he expected, and wrote his mother telling her he wished he hadn't done it.
As it was, he came home before his tour was up. During a raid, he was machine gunned, and lay in a low area with poison gas until found. He carried the slugs with him, and ill health affects from the gas until he died at 74.

Ricochet
10-05-2009, 11:43 AM
He joined the Army while he was only 16, lying about his age to get in. Once he was on the front lines in the trenches, he realized it wasn't what he expected, and wrote his mother telling her he wished he hadn't done it.
Don't you bet many a volunteer's had that moment of revelation?

troy_mclure
10-05-2009, 01:09 PM
my grandfather went to ww2 at 17, he got shot in the butt! lol

he also had 6 dents in his scalp from a long range machine gun burst into his helmet. came home with a bronze star, and 3 purple hearts.

when he was in his 60's his war stories started becoming the stories from war movies like the longest day, big red one, etc... lol.

Ivantherussian03
10-05-2009, 11:08 PM
Here, I thought was funny at the time...

I was in Walter Reed and alot old WWII vets were still around. One old man asked me did I ever get up to Frankfurt? I answered yes, and told him what I did there. He replied " last time I was in Frankfurt it was on fire!

I still remember that.

Ivantherussian03
10-05-2009, 11:11 PM
My grandfather was in jeep somewhere in France, when they hit a land mine.....it killed everyone in the jeep, except him.

Lead Fred
10-06-2009, 12:28 AM
I messed with hairy college girls, smoked dope, and went to Canada

So Homeland has nothing to worry from me, as long as they have some smoke in the camps.

462
10-06-2009, 10:26 AM
Craig, a fellow load crew member was from Dubuque, Iowa. One day, news spread about the flightline that an Iowan senator was touring the base (Phan Rang, RVN) and was somehwere on the flightline. Craig asked permisson to see him, it was granted, and he took off, in search of his senator.

It wasn't long before Craig re-joined us, looking more than a bit po'd. When I asked him what happened, he said that he hadn't been allowed to approach his senator, greet him and shake his hand.

Because Craig was dressed in our daily work attire -- shirtless and sweaty, with gun grease stained fatigue pants, torso, arms, hands, and face -- it was deemed that his appearance was not presentable and that the senator, if he shook Craig's hand, would get his hand dirty.

No doubt, the senator was one of the politicians who thought he, along with Robert McNamara, could do a better job of waging war than the generals.

James Wisner
10-06-2009, 11:20 AM
Well I dot not have any war stories BUT.

My wifes Grandfather on her moms side was on the USS California when it was in Pearl Harbor, that Day.

Her Grandfather on her dad's side was in North Africa putting planes back together, so they could be flown back to England.

I have know tw other persons that was also in Pearl Harbor that day.

As well as several more that was in France, and the South Pacific.

My Father had a first cousin that was in the Batan Death March, that made it home. It took him decades before he would talk about it.

Sorry to say did hear a lot of stories but did not write them down, and they all have gone on to a better resting place.

One guy locally spent two tours in Nam, and loved being a tunnel rat, his weapon of choice was a M37, when he was not underground.

I have a Cousin who was also over there in Nam, was a dog handler and lost two dogs in fire fights. Has some real interesting stories about the Gurka's and another about confirmed Pink Elephants.

Another cousin just retired from the Navy last year, SeaBees, he was over in the mideast twice.

Have another cousin, Marine, just retired last June after his second trip over to Irag, he has his 20 in now.

Another cousin just got back from Irag two months ago, from his second tour, WA. Nat Guard, Heavy Mec Mechanic.

Some times I think it is so bad the our Elected Orfices in DC will not learn a dang thing about how History will repeat itself.

But I do remember the Men and Women who has shed Blood for our Country.

Jim Wisner

Echo
10-06-2009, 12:37 PM
Well, speaking of grandfathers, mine must have held the record.

Grampa thought he should have a commission in WWI, since he had a semester of business college under his belt. He tried, and tried, to obtain a commission form the various outfits that were being formed to go to France. After many months of effort, he was finally granted a commission, and was told to go to the train station (in Matador, TX) on a certain day, and a ticket would be waiting for him, taking him to wherever the Army wanted him. He did, and boarded the train.

The train was flagged down in Floydada, and Grampa was told he could get off the train. The Armistice had been declared, and the Army didn't need him any more. He had spent about an hour in the service of his country, and qualified as a veteran. Never accepted any veteran's benefits, of course.

felix
10-06-2009, 02:03 PM
A. My dad stepped upon some coral and cut his foot when the landing took place during the Saipan operation. They offered him a final trip home, plus some kind of medal, which were both refused. My mother bitched about him not taking the permanent vacation for years after he came home in '45. He was a 1st Louie during the whole time when overseas.

B. My dad was a good friend with a war correspondent assigned to his outfit. This person was an accomplished reporter before the war and worked for US News & Report. He got his job back after he was decommissioned from the military. He began a story about who, what, when and where about the beginnings of the US involvement in that war. He got run over by a vehicle after the first part of the article was published, just like Patton was for his knowledge of the same facts and also his possible desire to compete in the presidential elections after the war. Check it out. Article issued around May 2, 1952. The end of the article stated "to be continued". Naturally, no further issues contained anything about this whole affair, and not with the slightest hint that a preceding segment existed.

C. A bunch of folks were fighting it out around the coastal areas in Nam. They were loosing it big time, and called for air force help to hit an area 100 yards away by what ever means. The air force never called back in time, before the navy answered with possible support. Coordinates were given, asking for a spotting round for assurance. The navy said no deal, all or nothing. The ground folks were already cut in half, and could not last any longer, so they asked for the full effect. They got it, and everyone, including the bad guys, were blown to pieces, except for a handfull of good guys. I worked with one of the good guys after he was returned home for good. He was a civil engineer in charge of developing copter landing spots.

D. Before the above happened, he was clearing land in another location. A sniper appeared out of nowhere one day, and for several weeks re-appeared off and on. The sniper missed mostly, so nobody cared much and did nothing about it. One day the sniper got much closer and that was the last straw. The "engineers" became fighting men and took their equipment into all areas where the sniper was assumed to be. About a half dozen Cats, D6-D12. They actually ran over the so-called sniper.

... felix

OutHuntn84
10-06-2009, 03:46 PM
Here are some stories as I remember them.
While my grandpa was going through army basic training, might have been infantry training, they had a big shooting tournament. He shot rifle pistol and machine gun and won. So by the end of basic he thought he was hot $h!t and knew that he was going to the sniper devision. Well as they went through telling folks what job the were going to do they got to him and told him he was going to be a machine gunner. My grandpa flipped out that he was the best shot on base and they were going to make him a damn machine gunner. His CO pulled him aside later on and explained it to him like this. Your a great shot right. Yea When you put a bullet down range its on target right. Yea Snipers one shot one kill right. Yea Well now you'll have a machine gun w/ 200 rounds. Grandpa called that Army efficentcy.
He was the gunner on a 30 cal water cooled machine gun crew during the island hoping and was further thrilled that they were the first ones to go on the beach to mow down any possible oposition.
Now from what he told me since he was the one doing the shoot'n he carried the tripod the guy in front of him carried the ammo and the guy behing him the gun so when the SHTF he would flip the tripod off his back to in front of him the gun carrier would sit down the gun and the ammo man would have him loaded and ready to go. So one day there walking through a jungle single file and a jap officer comes running at em with his sword. Cuts his ammo man from his left shoulder and almost through to his right hip. Grandpa says he dropped his tripod grabs his 1911 and empties the gun and shoots right up his button line. After that he sold the sword for a pound of coffee. Said he had guys running all the way back to the beach fro ammo just for a cup.
Later on he traded his 1911 to a tanker for his thompson. and found a way to carry his tripod on his back with out holding it the whole time.
Again one day they were walking through the jungle singlefile again and he said he bassed by a bunch of bushed and just felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up so after he passed it he doubled back and found a jap behind the bushes taking aim at his Lt. as he got closer he stepped on a stick and the jap goes to swing around towards him. Grandpa said he took a shot and it went in between the fixed magazine housing and the bolt jamming the gun somehow the jap tried repeatedly in vain to squeeze off the shot before he was sent to his ancestors.
After this he got seperated from his unif with 2 other guys and was pinned down under a small cliff and spent 3 days tossing grenades back and forth to the japs on top of the cliff. After a few hours of nothing they crawled up to the cliff to find 3 japs had harry caried them selves.

These are a few of the stories my grandpa had about the war I used to love listening to them. He was proud of his service and awarded alot of medals for what he did. I now display them proudly with his flag.

StarMetal
10-06-2009, 04:53 PM
Here's my war story, I hope he doesn't mine:

http://washingtonguard.org/news/archive/fo-gibsonstar.shtml

felix
10-06-2009, 05:31 PM
E. Everyone remembers the DMZ in Nam, right? Know the reason why it's called that? Well, you are going to find out now. A social party was to begin at 8 0'clock one night on Guam. At about the same time, the night before, a B52 crew was told of a target that must be hit the next day somewhere in Cambodia. They were to get the flight plan for this new location at time of takeoff, about daylight on the party day. They took off as ordered but the leading navigator said the winds are not right to make it back in time for the party. So, the pack leader said let's do a short cut to the location of interest and everyone agreed. That flight took them over the DMZ. Low and behold rockets came out of that area and hit one of the planes fairly badly. Upon unanimous consideration, the pack leader turned the sortie back around to where supposedly the rockets were fired from, and then proceeded to order ALL of the bombs to be dropped to take care of any mistake in exact location. Upon observation, circles of red fire were buring all over the place. That had never been seen before, fire of that color in particular. Upon arrival back at Guam, the mission boss had all members of the crew horded into a hanger. Each member was fired on the spot, and then ordered to take the planes to Dickie Goober (Richards-Gebaur in KC). There they were paid for their duties and told to completely disperse forever and never discuss what happened. How do I know about this? ... felix

shooting on a shoestring
10-06-2009, 05:48 PM
Not quite a war story, but my Grandpa in Eastern New Mexico owned the only .45 Colt in the state that did not shoot Billy The Kid.

waksupi
10-06-2009, 07:56 PM
Not quite a war story, but my Grandpa in Eastern New Mexico owned the only .45 Colt in the state that did not shoot Billy The Kid.

No kidding? Does he want to sell it? :p

Big Dangle
10-06-2009, 11:41 PM
I remember this one time in 2006 we went to the chow hall on this FOB in Baghdad well we had followed a patrol of Abram tanks in the gate so pretty much just followed them into the motorpool. I was a PFC at the time and i was a 240 gunner on one of the humvees so my platoon sgt decides that the gunners stay back to watch the gear and someone will bring them food back. I was ok with it so i get out lit a cigarette and layed down on the hood. Well a few seconds later i heard 2 shots from the chow hall i sat up didn't see anything going on kinda worried about it but one of the senior gunners at the time took off to see what it was. So those tankers we followed in were aparently quite tired becouse their LT. went to clear him 9mm
Off safe pulled the slide see the round come out let the slide go pull the trigger BANG CRAP pull the slide watch the round come out clear let go of the slide pull the trigger BANG. Then one of there NCO's yells "SIR DROP THE MAG".

Bad Water Bill
10-07-2009, 08:19 PM
My neighbor was a chief warrant officer. One day their ship tied up in New York. There was a mountain of crates awaiting them. One MILLION hack saw blades. Art got on the phone to the duty supply officer and and explained his problem. I ordered !K but you sent 1 million and they are setting in the rain. The Lt Jg said Chief you are drunk and hung up on Art. Next Art called the Commander in charge of the supply dept and again told his story with the same results.:evil: Now Art was mad so he took out his little black book and made another call. Hello Dan this is Art and I have a problem. Within 15 minutes the full Commander was walking his new duty post around the crates in the rain :violin:with a rifle on his shoulder. NEVER tick off a salty old Chief Warrant Officer who just might be able to call ADMIRAL Dan Gallery on a first name basis.[smilie=w:

felix
10-07-2009, 09:39 PM
F. This occured on the Ho Chi Minh trail. A truck company, similar in name to the Red Ball Express, made trips daily with all kinds of daily rations to the "front". Over the months and years, the bad guys began setting boobie traps in strategic places. The trucks were modified one-by-one into parcel carrying tanks, but still with normal wheels, getting the parts to do so "in trade" from nearby air force and navy repair facilities. They no longer had to get out of the trucks and clear the road because they had enough fire power to do those things while remaining on board their traveling "fortresses" . Just about all hiding places had been cleared. Then the trucks became targets once again with bigger and better "bombs". The trucks changed times of travel back and forth to no avail. It kept getting worse, until one day it was figured out by one of the truck members. The local ***** house down the road was being visited by the bad guys as well as the good guys. The good guys were talking about their daily trips when they were drunk, and the girls were telling the bad guys. The good guys set up a story where the trucks were going to be, and at about what time. They had arranged for the air force (could have been marines or navy) to napalm the area and the ***** house at the same time. The locations of each were close enough to be hit with the "same raid" without suspicion.

oksmle
10-07-2009, 10:43 PM
Felix .... I just love stories with happy endings. Brings a tear to one's eye.

dualsport
10-08-2009, 02:20 AM
In 2006 my son was a Cavalry Scout in Iraq. He told me one time an RPG penetrated the windshield of the Hummer he was driving(They just call them trucks). It didn't detonate due to operator error but smashed the face of the guy in the passenger seat pretty bad. Normally he drove a Bradley, a very tough vehicle, which withstood multiple IED attacks, RPGs, and small arms fire. It could not protect them from two artillery shells detonated directly under the vehicle and ruptured the fuel tank, hosing the crew with burning diesel fuel. The blast blew open a normally stuck forward hatch which allowed him to climb out and pull off his burning gear. His Commander streaked by engulfed, my son ran him down and tried to roll him, but it was too late. With incoming rounds hitting all around him he finally snapped out of it enough to return to the other vehicles and take cover. The Medic put him on IV right away, so my son took an M-16 from a hummer and charged the attacking insurgents with his IV bottle held up with one hand and firing with the other. The Apaches arrived pretty quick and quieted things down. After he got out of the hospital he started working nights taking out insurgents using night vision equipped 50 cal while they dug holes in the road. He says it's amazing how stupid they are. When he was a kid he was hit twice by cars, with all of that I nicknamed him Hitman. He's given me a lot of gray hair.

462
10-08-2009, 09:22 AM
dualsport,
Your son has my utmost respect and admiration.

oksmle,
The loss of a ***** house is no small thing.

dualsport
10-08-2009, 10:30 AM
There's lots more, but you get the idea. We're both slowly getting our sense of humor back! Thanks 462, he has my respect too, I'm a little more careful about telling him what to do these days. It still amazes me how brave our young men and women are, they KNEW they were going to be blown up everytime they were ordered to go down some road, just to see if they got attacked. I'll stop here, don't get me started.

troy_mclure
10-08-2009, 11:26 AM
[QUOTE=dualsport; It still amazes me how brave our young men and women are, they KNEW they were going to be blown up everytime they were ordered to go down some road, just to see if they got attacked. I'll stop here, don't get me started.[/QUOTE]


that was a big part of my job in iraq too!

we were in the new strykers, so we swept the routes at 5mph-30mph 2-3 times a day, and before each convoy. in the beginning we had work lights mounted on the front of the trucks to "help see" the ied's. driving at 5mph thru Mosul at night, yea great idea! lol that lasted till our first rpg attack.

we had a ied that launched a 108mm arty rocket at us. i was t/c in the lead vehicle and kinda hungry(almost breakfast), i told my driver to pick up the pace to 35mph(we had been patrolling this route for months at 30mph). about 3 mins later there is a huge BOOM! and a pumpkin sized fireball flies right behind me, missed me, and the rear "air sentries" by 2' each side. i felt the heat off it it was so close!

it hit a tree on the other side of the road and blew it apart.

dualsport
10-09-2009, 12:06 AM
Troy, I'm very glad you weren't blown up. Thanks for your service, I know it took a lot of cajones to go down that road over and over, just like being bait. Now that you're home try to relax, no ieds here, it's just a pothole, or a car backfiring.

troy_mclure
10-09-2009, 08:54 AM
oh, we got blown up alot, some times 3 times in one day. must have went thru 100+ tires in the year i was there.

luckily i left before they learned how to make shaped charges, 4 or 5 155mm arty shells just blows off some "slat armour" and pops some tires on the stryker.

smokemjoe
10-09-2009, 09:27 AM
Craig, a fellow load crew member was from Dubuque, Iowa. One day, news spread about the flightline that an Iowan senator was touring the base (Phan Rang, RVN) and was somehwere on the flightline. Craig asked permisson to see him, it was granted, and he took off, in search of his senator.

It wasn't long before Craig re-joined us, looking more than a bit po'd. When I asked him what happened, he said that he hadn't been allowed to approach his senator, greet him and shake his hand.

Because Craig was dressed in our daily work attire -- shirtless and sweaty, with gun grease stained fatigue pants, torso, arms, hands, and face -- it was deemed that his appearance was not presentable and that the senator, if he shook Craig's hand, would get his hand dirty.

No doubt, the senator was one of the politicians who thought he, along with Robert McNamara, could do a better job of waging war than the generals. Good to read that- Joe- Dubuque Iowa.

Rocky Raab
10-09-2009, 10:25 AM
Troy, your "off speed" story prompts a similar tale of my own.

Our compound at Ban Me Thuot Vietnam was only 300 meters on a side, located near the end of the civilian airfield. The runway was in bad guy country. It was asphalt, so they couldn't plant mines in it, but they carefully timed our takeoffs and set up trip wires connected to an RPG aimed with the proper "lead" to hit us during our roll.

So every morning, we pulled what we called Polish Minesweeper Detail. One lucky stiff (we took turns) would drive a jeep the length of the runway, being very careful to never be at the same speed as an aircraft would be at any given spot on the runway. Going very slow was best, except that it made you a lingering target for small arms. Most of us used a random fast-slow-fast run, and if there was an invisible trip wire in place, there'd be a bang and a smoke trail either ahead or behind you.

I can assure you that we never suffered from constipation.

Southern Son
10-09-2009, 11:01 AM
We went to the bayonet course at Ft. Leanardwood. It was the end of the day. The range cadre came out and gave us this speech; "I want you young men to tear these bayonet dummies up. We have nothing to do but fix these things. I want you to get tough and get mad......", this was the speech more or less. I remember getting very upset about being there, asking myself why I signed up for this. I remember the sweat stains in our fatigue pants, and brown t-shirts, as Leanardwood is ungodly hot. We hit the range. Every man had his own bayonet dummy and we commenced are attack skills. Myself, I knocked the bayonet dummy's weapon aside and began hit ting the dummy's neck pin and head, with the butt of the rifle. The neck pin was some thick ass steel pin. I don't remember how many times I hit it. The pin broke and the head fell off. I just went nuts......screaming and raising the rifle over my head, howling in triumph. Sgt. had this who is screaming on my range look ; he looked mad, then with disbelief, then finally said go do it to another one!

While I was in the Australian Army Reserves, one day our Company Sgt Major decided that we would be doing some bayonet training. We all lined up, he gave us a quick display of how to approach the "enemy", how to butt swipe, slash and stab. We then all had a go for at it for a while until the CSM tells us to get "angry". He wanted us to yell abuse, threats, whatever. So we did. One by one, we would storm up to the dummy, threatening it, insulting it, abusing it and questioning it's parents marital status. Gradually the abuse got worse and worse. Finally, one bloke storms up to the dummy like he means to do it harm, but just as he gets to the dummy, he slaps it's face, says "Bitch" in his best transvestite/gay voice, and then walks away swinging his hips like some "lady" of the night. It took ages for us to stop laughing. Even the CSM fell over laughing.

Ivantherussian03
10-10-2009, 03:05 AM
One night at Grafenver (Sp?) an armoured training site in Germany we setting up a mine field on huge tank battlefield site. I was driving the apc, sgt was in the turret, and mines were passed out the back. The Lt came and said to sgt something like "drive a a straight toward to the glowlight, and stop; it is critical you stop," to the Sgt. Sgt says to me "ya heard that", and I said Yea. We driving along getting close to the glow light, and remember its combat conditions, no head lights. We get there, and WHAM!! The apc goes from being horizontal to vertical. Sgt is buried in the mines, groaning in pain. I too had the wind knocked out of me. Disoriented for some time. We talked to figured to out what happened. All heard the heard Lt say "was drive to glow light" If the chair was lower or if I was short I would have of had my teeth knocked. We drove right into one of the tank traps! While we waited sgt closed the lid and turned on the personal heater; it is cold in january. lol

We got the apc out pretty easily.

flhroy
10-10-2009, 02:31 PM
My stories pale to these


http://www.mofak.com/tins_tales.htm

http://www.olgoat.com/substuff/abr.htm.

mike in co
10-11-2009, 08:14 PM
lets put life in to perspective......

1970........draft is in affect.

i live on a block with 18 houses....6 guys have gone to 'nam. 4 come back in boxes, the remaining 2 are now sole surviving sons and are taken out of harms way.

my number is up in the draft...i go in the navy by choice.

i was in nuc subs. i cannot talk about where i went nor what i did.


i do have a ribbon..."for armed assult on forgien soil"


mike in co

StarMetal
10-11-2009, 08:28 PM
lets put life in to perspective......

1970........draft is in affect.

i live on a block with 18 houses....6 guys have gone to 'nam. 4 come back in boxes, the remaining 2 are now sole surviving sons and are taken out of harms way.

my number is up in the draft...i go in the navy by choice.

i was in nuc subs. i cannot talk about where i went nor what i did.


i do have a ribbon..."for armed assult on forgien soil"


mike in co

What department were you in and what was your main port..D&S Piers, Norfolk, Va.?

Joe

SciFiJim
10-11-2009, 08:36 PM
mike in co,
If you are a nuc then your motto was either "We Hide with Pride" (Boomers) or "Ain't no Slack in Fast Attack".

There was a sub with swim out chambers mounted on the deck for SEALS to swim out of but I think that was a diesel boat. I saw it when it was semi-permanently moored in PI after a couple of SEALS were killed in the swim out chambers.

mike in co
10-13-2009, 01:17 AM
What department were you in and what was your main port..D&S Piers, Norfolk, Va.?

Joe
i was a nuc machinist mate( e6), but my original command was over staffed aft, so i qualified forward. helmsman/planesman, lookout, sonar op, ad 1( my co used to like putting junior officers up against a "nuc" in attack solutions), quartermaster...

san diego, and hawaii( actually guam)......

mike in co
10-13-2009, 01:21 AM
mike in co,
If you are a nuc then your motto was either "We Hide with Pride" (Boomers) or "Ain't no Slack in Fast Attack".

There was a sub with swim out chambers mounted on the deck for SEALS to swim out of but I think that was a diesel boat. I saw it when it was semi-permanently moored in PI after a couple of SEALS were killed in the swim out chambers.


yes it was on a diesel boat..the quietest thing under water...but it was more than a swim out chamber.

11 yrs in the nuc ss navy never heard those saying untill today....so not likely from the ss.

SciFiJim
10-13-2009, 01:33 AM
11 yrs in the nuc ss navy never heard those saying untill today....so not likely from the ss.

Nope, I was on a guided missile frigate (FFG-19). It was our job to tag along with an aircraft carrier and be the target between them and any threat. What we know of subs was that there was no such thing as a friendly sub, unless it was moored to a sub tender in port.:kidding:

mike in co
10-13-2009, 02:52 AM
Nope, I was on a guided missile frigate (FFG-19). It was our job to tag along with an aircraft carrier and be the target between them and any threat. What we know of subs was that there was no such thing as a friendly sub, unless it was moored to a sub tender in port.:kidding:


ohh from a TARGET................

TWO THINGS IN THIS WORLD, SUBS AND TARGETS.......

( ok, now to the funny side of life.......
the only good marine.....is a submarine.....)

Leadforbrains
10-13-2009, 07:13 AM
( ok, now to the funny side of life.......
the only good marine.....is a submarine.....)

OH man I have a great reply to that one, but it would get me so permabanned from here.:bigsmyl2:[smilie=l:

bruce drake
10-13-2009, 08:12 PM
something about 100 sailors go out on a submarine and 50 couples come back :D

Bruce

oldtoolsniper
10-13-2009, 08:45 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v313/oldtoolsniper/th_06022103.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v313/oldtoolsniper/?action=view&current=06022103.flv)

Leadforbrains
10-13-2009, 09:36 PM
something about 100 sailors go out on a submarine and 50 couples come back :D

Bruce
Nope thats not the one I'm thinkin of, but hey that is a funny one.

mike in co
10-14-2009, 12:04 AM
something about 100 sailors go out on a submarine and 50 couples come back :D

Bruce

sounds like something that a target sailor would come up with...they go to sea with hundreds..sometimes thousands of couples on targets......

as long as it is all in good humor...

mike in co