Funny Things I Did in the Navy

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by Mule

I had no idea what all would happen,

Is that so?
Didn't you say "This unrep was one of many I had done, far more than I could or can remember."?
Or what about: "I looked at the crew, and said, "You get that guys". I saw smiles and a lot of nods."?

You slipped a steel cable under tension, carrying a couple thousand pounds of hose and fuel - and you claim you didn't know what would happen. You're damn lucky you didn't kill someone.

I NEVER Did NOR WOULD I DISOBEY A DIRECT ORDER FROM AN OFFICER!I do what I am told. I followed orders.

Perhaps you've heard of My Lai?, or Nazi war crimes? How many soldiers have said exactly what you have to justify their unlawful acts?
The point is you're not required to follow an unlawful order. You were in charge of the evolution - not the supernumerary safety O. The BS you're spinning is a bald-faced cop-out and you know it.
And I know how the guys in the skimmers are treated, and I agree it ain't right, but it isn't an excuse either.

Cosmosmariner - ditto.

[sctpc]

Lodesman you have said your peace now just enjoy the rest of the thread its a good read and I don't want it closed.

[cosmosmariner]

One duty station was NAVCOMSTA GUAM. Six of us were taking a commercial flight from Guam to CA with one stopover but not a plane change in Honolulu. We were flying 'international' so drinks were $.50 USD and we started drinking Mai Tais as soon as the wheels were up. By the time we got to Hono we were pretty loose. The layover was an hour and they weren't serving while on the ground so we left the plane and headed for the piano bar in the terminal. We of course ordered Mai Tais. Eventually someone asked us if we had a plane to catch and we hustled back to the gate. There was no jetway and the plane was sitting about 50 yds from the gate. The boarding stairs were still positioned at the door of the plane. The gate attendent said we were 30 minutes late and the plane couldn't take off without us. The July sun was really bright as we ran to the plane and the head stew was doing a Tonto with her left hand and waving us on to hurry up with her right. She glared at us and said in a very stern and even tone, 'Get...on...board!' We took our seats and the plane took off. The head stew came around and told us that they had a minor fueling hitch so we only held the plane up about 10 minutes. We breathed a little easier and ordered more Mai Tais.

[David M]

Originally Posted by sctpc

Lodesman you have said your peace now just enjoy the rest of the thread its a good read and I don't want it closed.

You are exactly right sctpc. Please gentlemen, play nice.

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha Cosmos,
You probably noticed a : )
Welcome aboard and thanks very much for serving!
Chiefs, Officers and senior Petty Officers sometimes had incredible pressures put on them by seniors and especially while either in wartime or qualification times. I hope you can understand that sometimes it is the a--ho-- that comes out under pressure in some cases.
In my point of view, and I was in 30 years with 12 of that being Chief or senior there was never an occasion for me to be an a--ho-- except when there was a junior who would absolutely not act when directed to do so. That really got me going. I truly hope that in my time in that I helped more careers than hindered.
Regards,
Again, thanks for your service.
JohnL

[SkiprJohn]

Funny? Getting aboard Tiger Airlines aircraft with half the passengers carrying M-16s and the other half holstered .45s at their sides headed for Anchorage, Alaska having liftoff after spending 13 months in Vietnam. The funny part?
Flight crew announcing free drinks.
The other funny part, landing in Anchorage in shortsleeves after spending a year in the tropics.

Good times.

Regards,

JohnL

[cosmosmariner]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Aloha Cosmos,
You probably noticed a : )
Welcome aboard and thanks very much for serving!
Chiefs, Officers and senior Petty Officers sometimes had incredible pressures put on them by seniors and especially while either in wartime or qualification times. I hope you can understand that sometimes it is the a--ho-- that comes out under pressure in some cases.
In my point of view, and I was in 30 years with 12 of that being Chief or senior there was never an occasion for me to be an a--ho-- except when there was a junior who would absolutely not act when directed to do so. That really got me going. I truly hope that in my time in that I helped more careers than hindered.
Regards,
Again, thanks for your service.
JohnL

Thank you and welcome home! With your attitude I'm sure you were a positive force. Civvie or service it's always just a few that cause the problems. Sometimes they provide good stories though! In my 'coffee incident' when word got around some of the chiefs came to me individually and said that if there was a medal for it that I should get it. They thought he was a turd too!

[cosmosmariner]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Funny? Getting aboard Tiger Airlines aircraft with half the passengers carrying M-16s and the other half holstered .45s at their sides headed for Anchorage, Alaska having liftoff after spending 13 months in Vietnam. The funny part?
Flight crew announcing free drinks.
The other funny part, landing in Anchorage in shortsleeves after spending a year in the tropics.

Good times.

Regards,

JohnL

NCS Guam was one of the 'intermediate duty stations' for Marines returning from Nam. We had about 80 of them on base. The apparent reason for them being there was that they performed guard duty and perimeter patrols, armed of course. The latent reason for them being there was so they could be monitored as they 'transitioned back' to civilization. These were guys who had seen a lot of action. One night one of the Marines on perimeter patrol emptied a .45 at a ghost. Apparently he had heard the ghost story about the supposed 'White Lady' that haunted the base.

We stood quarters every morning and while waiting we noticed that one of the favorite pastime of these armed Marines was catching Geckos and smacking them in the jaw until they opened their mouths and angrily hissed. At this point they would put the tail of another Gecko into the mouth of the angry one and he would clamp down hard and not let go. This action was repeated until someone won by having the most Geckos by the time quarters was called. The competition ended with a swinging of the Gecko daisy chain and seeing whose chain could go the farthest when let go. These guys then picked up their weapons and fell in. A laugh riot let me tell you?!

[David M]

Originally Posted by cosmosmariner

We stood quarters every morning and while waiting we noticed that one of the favorite pastime of these armed Marines was catching Geckos and smacking them in the jaw until they opened their mouths and angrily hissed. At this point they would put the tail of another Gecko into the mouth of the angry one and he would clamp down hard and not let go. This action was repeated until someone won by having the most Geckos by the time quarters was called. The competition ended with a swinging of the Gecko daisy chain and seeing whose chain could go the farthest when let go. These guys then picked up their weapons and fell in. A laugh riot let me tell you?!

Oh gawd that's funny...I can just see it!

[john540]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Alcohol free beer! Decaf coffee! I know they didn't have such things in Europe or in Asia back in the 70s and 80s. Is it only in America?

What's the point?

How about let's sell some inflammable gasoline?

JohnL

All gasoline is inflammable!

flammable/inflammable

In Iraq, most of the non-alcoholic beer comes from Europe.
I hate alcohol free beer and decaf coffee, might as well drink alcohol free vodka! Now free alcohol on the other hand...

[Mule]

Well now that Loadsman is finished cleaning my clock, he may have a point, I should have handed the Ensign the hammer and said something like, here Sir, you do it because obviously you are in charge and know more than the rest of us put together.

Property damage is one thing, unsafe, immoral or illegal is another. My actions entailed none of the above. "My Lai, Nazi War Crimes" Oh please!, A bit dramatic? The only one that had any chance of getting Killed or hurt was me, my crew was well trained, they got the hell out of the way as did I after the deed.

This Ensign had a air of self importance that had grated the nerves of more than just me. He had been an ass since he reported aboard. he needed humbling, so mission accomplished, though a bit more drasticly than I thought at the spur of the moment. I was 21, and was throughly pissed in the heat of the moment he was 26 and had Academy education and training. Bad judgement on both sides, you bet, small ship and a long deployment ahead, you bet. Cost of the lesson learned by the young officer, a lot. Cost of establishing paramaters for the crew of the whole ship vs this Ensign and other situtations that will surely arrise involving danger in the coming days where lives depended on procedure being followed to the letter for the duration of the deployment....Priceless.

Now to more fun stuff, I was not the Coxin but the deck hand, (Coxin in training) on the Cpt Gig. We had dropped the gig while underweigh after coming into San Diego. The Coxin, after the ship had regained speed after our launch, was surfing the ships wake.

The crew on the fantail was appaluding and hooting and hollering as we (he) did his showoff. It was really coo...until he lost it got sideways and bucketed the wake damn near sinking the gig. We made it in under our own power with the interior of the gig soaked.

So much for weekend liberty, the Skipper went home in the ships ugly car and we (crew of the gig) cleaned the thing from stem to stern, wax and the whole bit. Then went back out for REFTRA Monday. Won the gig race with the gigs of the other Skippers gigs back to our respective ships from Coronado. Lots of ribbing the Boatswain took over that. Cause and effect, actions and consiquences. We were a crew, and we suffered as a crew, completely fair, all forgiven but not forgotten.

[Lodesman]

Mule - apparently the mods and self-appointed mods don't want me to express my opinion, so I'll simply acknowledge your transmission - out.

[mmckee1952]

I really glad that you two have shaken hands and remembered that this blog is to be about items and things that are funny. It's understandable that there times in our youth that we've all done things that in hind site we wouldn't even think about doing today, that's called matruity. I really enjoy reading this blogs, brings back a lot of fond memories, lets keep up the humorious work guys.

Mike
OSCS

[David M]

Well spoken Mike.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by mmckee1952

I really enjoy reading this blogs

Me too Keep 'em coming guys

David
(Cub Scout -1975 for 3 longggg years - no badges awarded )
(Sea Scout - 1978 for 1 evening )