War stories......... let's hear'em

[44minimum]

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]

Yes, I've read that story several times.

[Junior1942]

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]

Junior, So how many dungarees got dingy that day!

[pmeisel]

Guess that's why it was a test missile, huh? The danger of training and testing is widely underestimated......

[troy_mclure]

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]

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]

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]

"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!

[Harpman]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

I was on OP George September 13th, 1971

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

[troy_mclure]

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]

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]

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]

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...