Drip Drop

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:49 am

Read a few Terry Pratchett books, uses all the time.

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:35 am

Sharuuk wrote:
Tbolt wrote:hee, hee, Now you have something to put in the cockpit of your P-40 D. What corrupted movie reference is this?
3 movies come to mind, one I was in...Tora, Tora, Tora.(this one).....1941.......Adventures of the Sky Captain.

All three had P-40's in them.

S'aaruuk

Hang on... am I reading this right? You were in a movie?

Sharuuk, no matter how much I talk to ya, you've still got 20 more stories and interesting facts left to talk about. And many of 'em about yerself.

Not that it's a bad thing; they have treatments for oversized egos...

Sharuuk · Post by **Sharuuk** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:26 am

StrangeWulf13 wrote:Hang on... am I reading this right? You were in a movie? Sharuuk, no matter how much I talk to ya, you've still got 20 more stories and interesting facts left to talk about. And many of 'em about yerself.

Not that it's a bad thing; they have treatments for oversized egos...

T'aint ego when it's a fact...

And yes, you read that right. I was stationed at Wheeler AFB on top of Oahu when the filming of "T-T-T" was underway. One of the scenes was of Zero's coming across the mountains and blowing the hell outta the flightline as others were down attacking Pearl Harbor.

There were a bunch of full size P-40 mockups on the line, some filled with FX charges to blow when "strafed" by the Japs.

The director sent out word that he'd like a bunch of us real G.I.s' in the shots if it was OK. We were stoked on that idea needless to say!!!

We didn't get any lines and most of us got blown up for our efforts.....LOTSA FUN!!!! I got to be blown off the wing of an exploding P-40, and since there weren't any real close-ups, got to get killed about 4 more times. At one point I got to use a small trampoline to look like I'd been blown thru the air.......it was a hoot.

We all got paid about $250 each, essentially got a couple of days off duty and got to have a part in the making of a really good movie.

20th Century Fox was so appreciative of our help that they gave the base one of the undamaged P-40s mockups which to this day, to the best of my knowledge still stands at the front gate of Wheeler AFB.

Myself and several other dudes actually got to sit and have lunch with Martin Balsam, Joseph Cotton and Jason Robards. And these screen legends were the nicest and most gracious people I'd met. Here they were, packin' face with a bunch of young, scruffy GI's that were getting beat all too hell for a movie they were the stars in, and they were actually treating us as equals........it was a wonderful experience.

I hope it doesn't come across as ego, but I've had a lot of really cool experiences that truely only come once in a lifetime and I've managed to be in just the right place at just the right time to nail it.

S'aaruuk

Yuoofox · Post by **Yuoofox** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 11:40 am

Wow, that's pretty neat!

The JAM · Post by **The JAM** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 3:53 pm

Madmoonie · Post by **Madmoonie** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 5:18 pm

(chokes up) Wow.

Sharuuk · Post by **Sharuuk** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:43 pm

[quote="The JAM"]

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 11:48 am

Sharuuk... you and me have got to make a dinner date sometime.

I would love to hear all the stories you've got to share. I've only heard a couple so far and I just know you've got better ones in store.

Speaking of which... call me sometime and tell me about Jackie Chan... I hear that's a good one...

Sharuuk · Post by **Sharuuk** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:35 pm

StrangeWulf13 wrote:Sharuuk... you and me have got to make a dinner date sometime. I would love to hear all the stories you've got to share. I've only heard a couple so far and I just know you've got better ones in store.

Speaking of which... call me sometime and tell me about Jackie Chan... I hear that's a good one...

Actually, it was Bruce Lee, shortly before his untimely death....and this too happened in Hawaii while I was stationed there.

S'aaruuk

NydaLynn · Post by **NydaLynn** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 2:47 pm

Hmm... so... join the military and get statoned in Hawaii?

StrangeWulf13 · Post by **StrangeWulf13** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:18 pm

Sharuuk wrote:Actually, it was Bruce Lee, shortly before his untimely death....and this too happened in Hawaii while I was stationed there.

S'aaruuk

Yeah, sorry. Guess I mixed up my Asian action film stars.

Hey, I'm American. You're lucky if I know what the next country over yonder is called. And if I care.

Seems a lot of stuff happened to you in Hawaii... makes me wonder if I should spend a little time in the islands.

The JAM · Post by **The JAM** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:55 pm

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.

[quote="Sharuuk"][quote="The JAM"]

Sharuuk · Post by **Sharuuk** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:25 am

Thank you JAM.....I joined the forum in '04 and didn't know....and if it was explained sometime along that timeline, musta missed it.

And yes NydaLynn....BUT.....you'll get sent wherever the military needs you.....

As for me it was, in this order: New Mexico, Hawaii, VietNam, Thailand, South Carolina, Turkey, Greece, and finally back here to Florida...(Homestead AFB)

These were my permanent duty stations after basic training (Texas) and tech school (Illinois).

I did have some really wild things happen to me while in Hawaii.

Since I was heavy into scuba diving and a bit of oceanography....I attended "Undersea Pacifica '72", a massive expo and underwater studies convention, met and went on a dive trip with Ron and Valerie Taylor, the first people to ever do an up-close-and-personal documentary feature film on the Great White Shark called "Blue Water, White Death". It had some of the most incredible footage of Great Whites ever shot at that time. And they were down there with them sometimes with no shark cage.

Met and talked with Jacques Yves Cousteau and got to try out some of his newest underwater diving systems, including the first underwater P2P voice communincation system. Remember, this was all back in the '70's and this was absolute cutting edge technology......now you can purchace this gear at nearly any well stocked dive shop for about 1/10th of what it cost back then.

I also got to experience what it would be like to breathe water.....that's right, breathe water! Remember the pet rat in the little water tank and the fluid breathing suits in the movie 'The Abyss'? These were all based on the work and research of Dr. Jacques Piccard.....he was a pioneer in fluid breathing research. While the suits in 'Abyss' weren't functional, the rat was actually breathing super-oxygenated saline.

I got to try the same thing after talking with Dr. Piccard for a while. When I expressed my strong desire to try fluid breathing, he gave me a quick psysical, concluded that I was of sound body and mind (fooled him good

) and ultimately wound up in a large plexiglas tank with a tube down my throat that sealed one lung so that in case of an emergency, I would still be able to breath air while they hauled me out of the tank. I assure you all that I was not air-breathing while I was in the tank. MOF, 20min into the demo, I was so comfortable in the experiment that I got the wild idea to prove conclusively to all the people crowded around the display tank that I was actually breathing the water I was in and forcibly removed the air line from my throat.

I spluttered and choked for a second or so as the water filled my left lung, and Picard's team almost hit the emergency drains until I gave a double thumbs up and stood there "breathing" normally thru my mouth. I had to mouth breath simply because water is so much more dense than air and I had to force myself to breath slowly so as not to hyper-inflate my lungs with a large inrush of water. And it was the weirdest sensation I have ever felt in my entire life......but it was soooooooo bloody COOL!!!!!!

Yes, the "water" I was in was a very special laboratory blend and hyper-saturated with oxygen......but fundamentally, it was water that I was able to breathe and survive in (under) withOUT any dive gear. The only thing I was wearing was a pair of trunks and a wet suit.

I was in the tank for the better part of an hour and when they brought me out, I had to flip over onto my head so that I could be pulled out feet first very slowly. This would allow the fluid to drain from my lungs....otherwise the weight of it in my lungs would have been excruciatintly painful as open air gravity pulled down on it.....I would no longer have the counter pressure of the surrounding water to compensate and two lungs full of saltwater would weigh about 4 1/2Lb each. OUCH!!!!

I spent the next couple of hours talking to a roomfull of people about the experience and answering about a gazillion questions. I can never thank Dr. Piccard enough for such an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience........the only thing that could remotely approach this in the "oh wow" catagory would be a ride in the shuttle with an included space walk.

*to self* Now who do I know at NASA that owes me a biiiiiiiig favor......?

S'aaruuk

Yuoofox · Post by **Yuoofox** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:33 am

spent the next couple of hours talking to a roomfull of people about the experience and answering about a gazillion questions. I can never thank Dr. Piccard enough for such an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience........the only thing that could remotely approach this in the "oh wow" catagory would be a ride in the shuttle with an included space walk.

*to self* Now who do I know at NASA that owes me a biiiiiiiig favor......?

Hmmm.... Aurrin, could you pull some strings and arrange a spacewalk for Mr. S'aaruuk?

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:32 am

Sharuuk, we need to get you a book deal, or at least a tv mini series. "The Life and Times of Sharuuk"

SolidusRaccoon · Post by **SolidusRaccoon** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 7:33 am

Yuoofox wrote: Hmmm.... Aurrin, could you pull some strings and arrange a spacewalk for Mr. S'aaruuk?

Bah I just got a job working for Hugo Drax, I will get Sharuuk into space first.

Aurrin · Post by **Aurrin** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 11:26 am

The JAM wrote: Okay guys, I'm going to say this ONE MORE TIME...

Not to be rude, but don't get exasperated when people keep asking if you're going to insist on adding it to every single post you write.

BlasTech · Post by **BlasTech** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 1:15 pm

Yuoofox wrote:
spent the next couple of hours talking to a roomfull of people about the experience and answering about a gazillion questions. I can never thank Dr. Piccard enough for such an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience........the only thing that could remotely approach this in the "oh wow" catagory would be a ride in the shuttle with an included space walk.

*to self* Now who do I know at NASA that owes me a biiiiiiiig favor......?
Hmmm.... Aurrin, could you pull some strings and arrange a spacewalk for Mr. S'aaruuk?

I dont know why, but the way you said that just made me think you were trying to get S'aaruuk rubbed out or something :XD:

:P:P

Aurrin · Post by **Aurrin** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 2:49 pm

Yuoofox wrote:
spent the next couple of hours talking to a roomfull of people about the experience and answering about a gazillion questions. I can never thank Dr. Piccard enough for such an incredible once-in-a-lifetime experience........the only thing that could remotely approach this in the "oh wow" catagory would be a ride in the shuttle with an included space walk.

*to self* Now who do I know at NASA that owes me a biiiiiiiig favor......?
Hmmm.... Aurrin, could you pull some strings and arrange a spacewalk for Mr. S'aaruuk?

Hmmm... how to...?

Oh! I know! I'll tack on a requirement in the middle of the night that qualifying crew members must have a minimum square-footage of ear in order to qualify. ^_^

Sharuuk · Post by **Sharuuk** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 5:08 pm

Thank you much Aurrin....that oughtta work....as long as nobody raises any "small ear discrimination" issues, I'm in!

And Solidus.....thanx for the offer, but I don't trust Drax' breatheing mixtures...I don't do spores. And Jaws wouldn't be any problem....we had a little tete-a'-tete a while back and I showed him what a real mouthfull of metal teeth looked like.......he got the message.

*Side note*

I actually met Richard Kiel at the Omni hotel in downtown Orlando one afternoon entirely by accident. I'd been on a wedding charter and the reception was at the Omni. One of the girls spotted him and he was gracious enought to allow a picture with them......this guy is HUGE! He leaned on one of the columns with his right arm straight out and the girls under the arch it formed with his body and the column......and even in 3in heels his arm was nearly 2ft above their heads!!!

I say 'gracious' because the medic in me kicked in when I saw him move from the table where he sat to the column for the pic. Very slowly, deliberate and not without some pain. One of the more tragic side effects of acromegaly is advanced arthritis. I went up to him and thanked him for his kindness and then asked, "ankles, knees, hips or all of the above"? He looked at me a bit quizzically and I said "I saw how you moved, that wasn't easy and it was very generous of you.....I recognize arthritis when I see it."

He smiled and started to get up, and I stopped him.....much as I would have loved to have seen this man close up at full height, I didn't want him to be in any more pain just to accomodate me......as I said this was a very generous and gracious man. He did invite me to sit with him for a while and we had a wonderful conversation over coffee....he's also extremely intelligent with a wide field of interests and knowledge.....it was a very nice meeting....and once again....pure chance.

S'aaruuk