Can't win-em all...Just goes to show that I can walk on water, but I do sink slowly...

Hi

It's not your fault, Bushmaster! You've mentioned that you were in the Navy.

To recognise the M2, you probably would've had to spend some time in the MILITARY....

<--- ex-Army guy. But I DID go to a Navy school (NavScholEOD, at Indian Head, MD.) and earned my Charles County Crab, along with a Navy 201 file which perplexed Army clerks for quite some time thereafter.

I served on a ship where you or most sane people wouldn't want to be. We sailed into mine fields deliberately. For the sole purpose to sweep said mines and once cut and at the surface shoot them mines using a BMG in .50 cal (I still have some of the steel belted ammunition). "Wooden ships and Iron men" It's just been too long ago. Say...You want to go mine sweepin'??? In the past 42 years I've been places and done things that would curl your tonsils...22 years in the "at sea" Navy on small ships and I'm still working for the Navy in oil spill recovery and salvage. Exxon Valdes and the Emi Maru ring a bell??? Which were you? A ground pounder? A sea going Bell Hop? A fly boy? A shallow water sailor?

I do hope all know that this is all in fun...NO??? Ah shucks...Too bad...

Hi

Sorry. Hair, toes, toenails and tonsils are all pretty well pre-curled.

I'll see your sweeping mines and raise you 18 months in Vietnam as an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician (that's that NavScholEOD I mentioned). They only called us, "the Army Bomb Squad," because, "the Army Explosive Device Squad," didn't sound as cool.

Mine sweeping? Done that. We had two ocean-going tugs, some rusty old barges, two Navy divers with bolt cutters (you Navy boys is real handy as long as you don't have to come above the waterline), and my sniper-mod M14. Lol - we ALL got wet on that one. The fishing was good afterwards, though. We just reached down and scooped 'em up. After we were done with the barges, we took 'em out to deep water and sunk THEM, too.

It was a good week for fish stew and blowing stuff up.

I spent three days on a mine sweeper, too! The damn thing would NOT hold still! Not even for a MOMENT!! It'd shinny up one tiny little wave and slide down the other side so frequently and regularly that the Army contingent all figured that the ship's crew were doing it on PURPOSE!

But - you can get used to ANYTHING... once you figure out what, "Gun'el," means.

I can honestly say, in the best tradition of inter-service rivalry, that you Navy guys are good eggs, as eggs run.

Just... nobody much likes runny eggs.

P.S. My eyes are getting old, too, and the other day I suddenly realized that I couldn't remember the nomenclature or render-safe procedures for a bomb nose-fuse I saw on the news - the most common dropped munition nose-fuse in Vietnam, and one I'd dealt with about 2.75 Godzillion times.

<<sigh>> Funny what passing time does to you.

The closest I got to Nam was the South China Sea. We did shore bombardment and what was called "Market Time". I was part of a prize crew and went aboard junks and cleared it of explosive booby traps such as hand gernades rigged to valve wheels in the engine room. I volenteered twice for Nam. Once in "65 and once more in '67. They didn't want me because my brother was in country. The second time they had enough Enginemen in country. Did some neat things in the South Pacific though...Island survailance. Shot a bunch of monkeys on that operation. (Meat eating kind) using a .45 ACP. Observer for submarine missile launches (Polaris and Prisiden). Spying on the Russians on their down range target in the Pacific near the Equator (ICBMs). Tried to see how close we could get with a Destroyer Escort to a Baltic Sea Russian port (I think it was Valstad. Can't remember) to see what they would send out for us. Harbor patrol craft. "You are under arrest. We will escort you to port." Yeah...Right. All in all an interesting 22 years 6 months...

Old??? Who's old?? You old??? I'm not. At least not yet...Yes...I know...The Army does age you. All that dirt you eat...

EOD school ?? Hey me was there too at Indian Head , actually Pax River as I recall , Fort Benning jump school and Key West Dive school .. Lucked out with two years at White Sands , where all branches was there .. Uniform of the Day was Golf regalia , cept for me , I hate golf .. is a waste of good pasture land ..
EOD is a good racket nowadays , we started training dolphins just as I was getting out ( 20 years tomorrow was the end for me ) , January 3 of '86 , but who is counting ??
Was a fun 12 years , went places you only dream of and drunk stuff , you still wonder about ..
Jack

Hi

Yeah - the EOD school had a big, deep indoor dive tank, and Navy divers from all over came for training there. While I was there, wishing I'd been allowed to get into that tank for a while, there were SEALs, Navy heavy-suit divers, UDTs and a few guys no one talked about.

...and, brother, when they TALK about SEALs and UDT, I got NO idea who it is that they DON'T talk about.

That tank made me wish I could have gotten over my aversion to the idea of being blown to tiny bits in the ocean as opposed to being blown to tiny bits with my feet on solid ground.

Well only diff is it dont take very much explosives to be blown to bits underwater , and if ya did survive it you would be lucky , very lucky .. And have a lot of other physical problems to deal with .. On the ground you have a much better survival chance .. Not much , but better ,,
Jack

Bushmaster wrote:

Can't win-em all...Just goes to show that I can walk on water, but I do sink slowly...

Ah, Bushy, you don't need to walk on water.....from what I have read you have nothing to prove.

Sounds like we have a good old fashioned reunion happening here. Never went to Nam, didn't enlist until '77. Spent a bit of time in "unpleasant" places though in my 26 yrs in the aussie infantry. Discharged in Dec 2002, damn but I miss it though. Have a lot of mates from all three services (Army, Navy Air Force), all damn fine men.

Cheers, Vince

You have a point there Vince...I really don't miss the sea or the duty. I do miss the people that I served served with. I had both bad and good officers and men. It was a 22 years well spent. Got to see a lot of the world and meet a lot of people not to mention.....Did I mention the women??? I came within 10 miles of Australia in 1966 but we were not allowed to enter port. As we were getting ready to go in we were redeployed to sea for special ops...

I miss some of the duty I was a crew chief in the US Army on the ch-47 chinook helicopter man we use to mess with troops we were hauling. We use to carry alot of the airborne pathfinders doing para drops. I would set 3 or 4 crushed beer cans in the cockpit and about 5 min's into the flight the pilot would throw one of the cans back the look on there faces then in 5 mins do it again those guy's didn't no what to think.
Joe

L O L...Yup...I know those ch-46 and 47s. Had to refuel them when I was aboard an Ammunition Ship (The USS Pyro). Had to hot fuel them. Have you ever tried to hook up the twist-lock nozzle on a running helo? Them damned things hop all over the deck...Like hittin' a moving "target" with a wet noodle. I think wine bottles would have been better...

Bushmaster wrote:

Have you ever tried to hook up the twist-lock nozzle on a running helo? Them damned things hop all over the deck...Like hittin' a moving "target" with a wet noodle. I think wine bottles would have been better...

I never had to, the fuel handlers had to but your right there a little figity and the forward roter blades can drop to 4'2" when running . We were hot refueling one time on the Iraqi / Turkey border and the fuel handler was unrolling the fuel line walking backwards heading right for the front blades I had to make a low mad dash and tackle him he was getting pretty close by the time I got to him.
Joe

Yup...Know all about them rotors...My flight deck on an ammunition ship is as wide as the ship and as long as the ship is wide. I was fueling Captain. I had to do the initial hookup...

Too much Gun? Oxymoron.