Veterans - When, where and what? (also in MMQB)

[mjchog]

US Navy
1995-2000
Aviation Systems Warfare Operator
Naval Aircrewman

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)
Gulf Deployments: 1998, 2000

[H&D]

US Air Force
2000-2006
Security Forces
Eglin AFB, FL

Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia
Operation Southern Watch, 2001

Baghdad International Airport, Iraq
Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003

[AR_dustoff]

US ARMY, CPT
UH-72/UH-60/OH-58 Pilot
OIF 06-08
KFOR 13- presently

[CurDog64]

USAR, SSG
CHEM Operations
2004-Present
Balad, Iraq 07-08

[SteveInArk]

The MMQB thread is thriving... nice to see it out in the biggest forum on this Vet's Day.  Be sure to post there too.  Thanks for starting it up, mjchog!

[countryhog]

USMC
1968 - 1971
Camp Lejuene
An Hoa
Hill 10
Hill 55
2/11
Welcome home viet vets. also all others who've deployed. thanks to all who've served. happy veterans day. last but not least - Happy Birthday Marines. oorah!

[SpareRib]

HM3- USN ... The gator navy.  1960-63

USS Rockbridge APA-228 Attack Transport,  USS Desoto County LST-1171,  USS Liddle Attack Transport Fast APD-60, Fleet Marine Force (TAD) 2nd Marine Division

Here's a funny note posted by a crew member of the Liddle.

Murray Blank sent this along....

This brings back a lot of memories. "Heave out and trice up."
HOW TO SIMULATE BEING A SAILOR:

   1. Buy a steel dumpster, paint it gray inside and out, and live in it for six months.
   2. Run all the pipes and wires in your house exposed on the walls.
   3. Repaint your entire house every month.
   4. Renovate your bathroom. Build a wall across the middle of the bathtub and move the shower head to chest level. When you take showers, make sure you turn off the water while you soap down.
   5. Put lube oil in your humidifier and set it on high.
   6. Once a week, blow compressed air up your chimney, making sure the wind carries the soot onto your neighbor's house. Ignore his complaints.
   7. Once a month, take all major appliances apart and then reassemble them.
   8. Raise the thresholds and lower the headers of your front and back doors, so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through them.
   9. Disassemble and inspect your lawnmower every week.
  10. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, turn your water heater temperature up to 200 degrees. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, turn the water heater off. On Saturdays and Sundays tell your family they use too much water during the week, so no bathing will be allowed.
  11. Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling, so you can't turn over without getting out and then getting back in.
  12. Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have your spouse whip open the curtain about 3 hours after you go to sleep, shine a flashlight in your eyes, and say "Sorry, wrong rack."
  13. Make your family qualify to operate each appliance in your house
  14. -dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc.
  15. Have your neighbor come over each day at 5 am, blow a whistle so loud Helen Keller could hear it, and shout "Reveille, reveille, all hands heave out and trice up."
  16. Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in your back yard at 6 am while she reads it to you.
  17. Submit a request chit to your father-in-law requesting permission to leave your house before 3 PM.
  18. Empty all the garbage bins in your house and sweep the driveway three times a day, whether it needs it or not. (Now sweepers, sweepers, man your brooms, give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft, empty all trashcans over the fantail.)
  19. Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item before delivering it to you.
  20. Watch no TV except for movies played in the middle of the night.
  21. Have your family vote on which movie to watch, then show a different one.
  22. When your children are in bed, run into their room with a megaphone shouting that your home is under attack and ordering them to their battle stations. (Now general quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations.)
  23. Make your family menu a week ahead of time without consulting the pantry or refrigerator.
  24. Post a menu on the kitchen door informing your family that they are having steak for dinner. Then make them wait in line for an hour. When they finally get to the kitchen, tell them you are out of steak, but they can have dried ham or hot dogs. Repeat daily until they ignore the menu and just ask for hot dogs.
  25. Bake a cake. Prop up one side of the pan so the cake bakes unevenly. Spread icing real thick to level it off.
  26. Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread. (midrats)
  27. Set your alarm clock to go off at random during the night. At the alarm, jump up and dress as fast as you can, making sure to button your top shirt button and tuck your pants into your socks. Run out into the backyard and uncoil the garden hose.
  28. Every week or so, throw your cat or dog in the pool and shout "Man overboard port side!" Rate your family members on how fast they respond.
  29. Put the headphones from your stereo on your head, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck on a string. Stand in front of the stove, and speak into the paper cup "Stove manned and ready."
  30. After an hour or so, speak into the cup again 'Stove secured." Roll up the headphones and paper cup and stow them in a shoebox.
  31. Place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have your family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4 hour intervals. This is best done when the weather is worst. January is a good time.
  32. When there is a thunderstorm in your area, get a wobbly rocking chair, sit in it and rock as hard as you can until you become nauseous. Make sure to have a supply of stale crackers in your shirt pocket.
  33. For former engineers: bring your lawn mower into the living room, and run it all day long.
  34. Make coffee using eighteen scoops of budget priced coffee grounds per pot, and allow the pot to simmer for 5 hours before drinking.
  35. Have someone under the age of ten give you a haircut with sheep shears.
  36. Sew the back pockets of your jeans on the front.
  37. Every couple of weeks, dress up in your best clothes and go to the scummiest part of town. Find the most run down, trashiest bar, and drink beer until you are hammered. Then walk all the way home.
  38. Lock yourself and your family in the house for six weeks. Tell them that at the end of the 6th week you are going to take them to Disney World for "liberty." At the end of the 6th week, inform them the trip to Disney World has been canceled because they need to get ready for an inspection, and it will be another week before they can leave the house.

[countryhog]

sparerib - pretty funny. with minor mods it could be used for the marines too. so i guess you'd know what a scuttlebut is?

[SpareRib]

sparerib - pretty funny. with minor mods it could be used for the marines too. so i guess you'd know what a scuttlebut is?

The water cooler, or the rumor mill? 

[old hog]

 LMAO. About choked on a cold one over that.
Our sub pulled into Rota, Spain one summer afternoon off deployment. And to our joy, we were the only Naval ship in port. Man, we just knew that shore leave was gonna be great. Next morning woke up to the the sight of the whole d**n Med amphib fleet in port. Some 15 or 20 ships. They had been headed home when some middle east crap  started up and they got redeployed back to the Med. Pulled into Rota to resupply. Never seen so many Marines in one place. Sad to say shore leave was quite dicey, that night.
 

[SpareRib]

LMAO. About choked on a cold one over that.
Our sub pulled into Rota, Spain one summer afternoon off deployment. And to our joy, we were the only Naval ship in port. Man, we just knew that shore leave was gonna be great. Next morning woke up to the the sight of the whole d**n Med amphib fleet in port. Some 15 or 20 ships. They had been headed home when some middle east crap  started up and they got redeployed back to the Med. Pulled into Rota to resupply. Never seen so many Marines in one place. Sad to say shore leave was quite dicey, that night.
 

I got in a mess of trouble in Spain.  One day out of Gibraltar headed for Little Creek, the captain held his administrative proceedings.  I received a captain's commendation for some work I did in Greece, then thirty minutes later was back in front of him at captain's mast for tearing up a bar in Barcelona.

He listened, shook his head, and confined me to shipboard for five days.  (That was how long it took us to make port.)

[SpareRib]

LMAO. About choked on a cold one over that.
Our sub pulled into Rota, Spain one summer afternoon off deployment. And to our joy, we were the only Naval ship in port. Man, we just knew that shore leave was gonna be great. Next morning woke up to the the sight of the whole d**n Med amphib fleet in port. Some 15 or 20 ships. They had been headed home when some middle east crap  started up and they got redeployed back to the Med. Pulled into Rota to resupply. Never seen so many Marines in one place. Sad to say shore leave was quite dicey, that night.
 

Hilarious.  Death of a vision!     Too many hunters for the ducks.

[old hog]

Spent time in Cadiz and Seville (town where Columbus was held in prison, still use it). Never made it to Barcelona. Spain was pretty cool, although couldn't help but laugh at the funny hats worn by the "La Guadia Seville" (I think they were called). Bad dudes, but had them ugly hats.

[SpareRib]

For all my Marine Corps buddies.  Here are a few that struck me from -

Murphys Law of Combat Operations   http://www.military-quotes.com/murphy.htm

1. Friendly fire - isn't.
5. A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
13. If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
23. Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
28. Incoming fire has the right of way.
34. Things that must work together, can't be carried to the field that way.
39. Tracers work both ways
46. If you can't remember, the Claymore is pointed towards you.
51. Mines are equal opportunity weapons.
54. Killing for peace is like screwing for virginity.
72. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
100. Density of fire increases proportionally to the curiosity of the target.
130. If at first you don't succeed, then bomb disposal probably isn't for you.
131. Any ship can be a minesweeper . . . . once.
139  Uncrating and assembly instructions are always inside the crate.

Semper Fi

[SpareRib]

Like this?  The Spanish Civil Guard.

[SteveInArk]

I was stationed at Rota from Sep 86 to Sep 88 .... great place.  Boys were in 8th-9th and 9th-10th grades, so that was "fun" to contend with ...  Our MAC Det was only about 6 guys PCS, and another 30 or so aircraft MX guys rotating in/out TDY for 3 months from McGuire or Charleston.

Great tour and I learned a lot about the USN and USMC ... wouldn't trade that tour for anything! 

[old hog]

Like this?  The Spanish Civil Guard.

Similar, but not quite. Same material, but the back flap curved up and buttoned on top. Franco was still in power and this was like his personal secret police. We were told to strictly leave them alone, that they had NO sense of humor.  But like a lot of things in the military back then, fact was usually a little different than reality. They seem quite friendly and helpful in any dealings I had with them.
  The Spaniards were actually a very friendly people, with a few exceptions. Usually the ones who dealt with Americans a lot.  I do remember seeing young couples out on dates, walking the streets and ten foot behind them a small group of little old ladies. Come to find out, this was their moms, aunts, grandmas following them on their date. Thought their afternoon siestas was a good idea. Everything was closed up for a couple of hours in the afternoon, while the people rested. The old inner city of Cadiz was pretty cool. Took a horse drawn buggy tour of that part of Cadiz. Found a lot of good food and good local wines.
  Quite a beautiful country, and had a lot of good times there.

[SteveInArk]

... The old inner city of Cadiz was pretty cool. Took a horse drawn buggy tour of that part of Cadiz. Found a lot of good food and good local wines.
  Quite a beautiful country, and had a lot of good times there.

We used to go over to Cadiz some... especially when their Carnival was going on (one of the best around).  The Army MTMC offices were there and their small staff lived at Rota and our groups hung out together...  And with Jerez being the sherry capital of the world, lots to offer.  The Cadiz lighthouse was directly south of our house on base, across the bay.

[PIGINAPOKE]

Uss Coral Sea CV 43 ...........75-79