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Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 7:04 am
by Kellogg
Today, in the US it's Veteran's day.

(I believe it used to be Armistace Day after the end of WWI.)

History lessons aside: Thank you to all the Veterans out there.
Mako for one, AirborneFox for another. I'm pretty sure CPOK
is in there too, and probably a bunch of others for whom the
subject hasn't come up.

Thanks,

Scott

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 7:19 am
by ZOMBIE USER 6611
Kellogg wrote:Today, in the US it's Veteran's day.
History lessons aside: Thank you to all the Veterans out there.
Mako for one, AirborneFox for another. I'm pretty sure CPOK
is in there too, and probably a bunch of others for whom the
subject hasn't come up.
I will add my own thanks to this.

Whether or not it is "politically correct", it is right.

Thank you.

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:33 am
by Mako
LevelHead wrote:
Kellogg wrote:Today, in the US it's Veteran's day.
History lessons aside: Thank you to all the Veterans out there.
Mako for one, AirborneFox for another. I'm pretty sure CPOK
is in there too, and probably a bunch of others for whom the
subject hasn't come up.
I will add my own thanks to this.

Whether or not it is "politically correct", it is right.

Thank you.
Thanks Gents, much appreciated.

My best especially to the guys 'n gals on active duty, and a double appreciation to those guys in-theater, both Military and to the civilians in support roles (having done both myself). Those are the folks putting it on the line for us right now.

I got Email last night from a motorhead Marine that visited my web page. He's currently at sea somewhere on the planet right now (ain't that something!) on what he termed "a float". He's from the San Jose area and was asking about where the street rodders are hanging out. Cool stuff :D

Thanks!
Mako

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 4:53 pm
by Batty den
Kellogg wrote:Today, in the US it's Veteran's day.

(I believe it used to be Armistace Day after the end of WWI.)
Yep. Here in Aus we remember the Services, war veterans and the dead on April 25, but even today (yesterday for me, actually) we still hold that minute of silence at 11am.
History lessons aside: Thank you to all the Veterans out there.
Mako for one, AirborneFox for another. I'm pretty sure CPOK
is in there too, and probably a bunch of others for whom the
subject hasn't come up.
Yes! Thanks to everyone in the Services. Thank you.

batty den

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 5:32 pm
by ZOMBIE USER 6611
Kellogg wrote:Today, in the US it's Veteran's day.
I added a bit to my comment here:
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml ... 44558&nc=3

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 6:43 pm
by HugoFuchs
Mako wrote: I got Email last night from a motorhead Marine that visited my web page. He's currently at sea somewhere on the planet right now (ain't that something!) on what he termed "a float". He's from the San Jose area and was asking about where the street rodders are hanging out. Cool stuff :D

Thanks!
Mako
You can tell it's veteran's day because most of the veteran's are working. :roll:

In regards to the Marine, you might get a guess of where he's at <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... dc_2">from this story</a>.

Re: Off Topic: Veteran's Day

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 8:05 pm
by Mako
HugoFuchs wrote: You can tell it's veteran's day because most of the veteran's are working. :roll:
Indeed, 'tis true....
In regards to the Marine, you might get a guess of where he's at <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... dc_2">from this story</a>.
Ya I read that a couple of days ago. During the Iran hostage crises (you all remember that. Well maybe you don't :) I was on the boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean hunting Soviet submarines for a living.

We pulled into Diego Garcia the day after Christmas, it was the longest time I've ever been at sea - we punched holes in the ocean for 89 days straight and were down to pancakes 4 meals a day made from dehydrated milk and sugar for syrup as we had pretty much run out of chow. We still had coffee and toilet paper left though, so no one really minded ;-)

DG is bascially a large U shape, with a monster lagoon in the middle and 3 small islands at the opening. From the air it looks like a foot print with 3 toes. If you ever see a T-shirt with the tounge well placed in cheek Diego Garcia Yacht Club logo on it, you'll see an outline of the island.

Anyways when we pulled in there were a *bunch* of MSC supply ships moored in the lagoon. I've never seen so many before or since.

My Marine correspondent hasn't mentioned any details about what ship he's on nor where they are located, and I certainly won't ask for obvious reasons. He's been at sea going on 60 days though and I think he's due for rotation off the ship he's on. That could and likely will happen at the drop of a hat depending on Iraq &ct.

Sea stories, I got a million of 'em :)

CYa!
Mako the Salty Bubblehead

OMG! Do a Google for Diego Garcia Yacht Club and be amazed! :)) They've actually pulled that old joke into the real deal! Photo's of DG and everything, cool!!! Wonder what they did with the all hammer head sharks though.... Hmmm...

Sailing, sailing .....

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 8:32 pm
by HugoFuchs
I was out there in the persian excursion before the gulf war, just a few months after the STARK got hit. Shot up lots of water. And made alot of fuel and cargo runs. I was on the IOWA and it may have had alot of fighting capability, but we performed as more of an armored refueler than anything else. Shot alot of fish too.

Diego Garcia was around 98 degrees and 98% humidity. You can walk around the island in a day. If you fly into it, you'll think you're ditching in the ocean because only the pilots can see the island until you're just about landed.

I know better than to ask where they are heading or are currently, but I figure to let you in on that piece of news in case you missed it.

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:10 pm
by ZOMBIE USER 11490
I never like saying anything about Veteran's Day, because anything I say sounds, to me, like a hollow token at best. Just "thanks" doesn't seem like enough, and I'm lousy at expanding on it. So, here's the best way I can find to put it:

Thanks.

Re: Sailing, sailing .....

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2002 9:20 pm
by Mako
HugoFuchs wrote:I was out there in the persian excursion before the gulf war, just a few months after the STARK got hit. Shot up lots of water. And made alot of fuel and cargo runs. I was on the IOWA and it may have had alot of fighting capability, but we performed as more of an armored refueler than anything else. Shot alot of fish too.
Turns out we never did find any Soviet subs out there - they had a grand total of 1 type I nuke boat out there and it was tied up broke at a pier in Bangladesh. The Soviet Navy steered well clear of the IO during that confrontation, made me wonder what the politocos were doing to make that happen.
Diego Garcia was around 98 degrees and 98% humidity. You can walk around the island in a day. If you fly into it, you'll think you're ditching in the ocean because only the pilots can see the island until you're just about landed.
After three months at 400' feet, it's freaking paradise baby :)

We bummed a jeep from somewhere and drove over to that old French copra plantation on the opposite side of the island from the runway for a mini break. Saw a bunch of the old donkey's the French left behind when they left, they were pretty tame and had a taste for Bud ;)

I C5'd out of there back to the PI and then to San Diego for C school after we did some annual PM's on the spherical array (the tender guys did all the grunt work for me that time, thanks guys!).

Funny story:

We were all hoping they would order us into DG xmas eve. They decided to keep us out so the tender guys could have the holiday, so we ended up punching holes for 48 hours longer than anticipated.

The Subron 1 Commodore was able to pull strings and got our mail choppered out to us from the USS Mars, a USN supply ship. Now how come I remember the ship's name after 20 years you ask?

Simple: The Mars crew stuffed a couple of cases of Mars Bars into our mail sacks for us :D Thanks again to the crew if your out there...

Mail and a candy bar for xmas, what more could a squid need? ;)
I know better than to ask where they are heading or are currently, but I figure to let you in on that piece of news in case you missed it.
Ya I figured as much.

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 9:07 am
by AirbornFox
TY for the tribute Scott. :) as for all Vetrans working, lucky me got the day off. :) good thing too, these next few weeks r gonna be hectic as some of you could imagine. :wink:

Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 10:33 am
by ZOMBIE USER 7666
12 years in the submarine service and I still can't tell you where or what I was doing. :(

Good Gaud the memories you brought back Mako when you started talking about the spherical array. Probably the BQQ-5 system if I remember correctly the last time you mentioned it over in the "Freefall" Forum.

Re: Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 11:23 am
by Mako
whitepony wrote:12 years in the submarine service and I still can't tell you where or what I was doing. :(

Good Gaud the memories you brought back Mako when you started talking about the spherical array. Probably the BQQ-5 system if I remember correctly the last time you mentioned it over in the "Freefall" Forum.
You welcome :) It's debateable as to whethere I'd fit through the hatch in to the array anymore :) Fortunately I won't have to find out any time soon ;P

I've been out of the Navy since '85, my boat has been cut up into razor blades and the Evil Empire itself even has collapsed, but I still just say I hunted Soviet subs for a living.

And yep, it was a Q5 system (an ancient single AN/UYK example), I was the Supertech on the boat for the system.

CYa!
Mako

Re: Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 12:29 pm
by ZOMBIE USER 7666
Mako wrote:
whitepony wrote:12 years in the submarine service and I still can't tell you where or what I was doing. :(

Good Gaud the memories you brought back Mako when you started talking about the spherical array. Probably the BQQ-5 system if I remember correctly the last time you mentioned it over in the "Freefall" Forum.
You welcome :) It's debateable as to whethere I'd fit through the hatch in to the array anymore :) Fortunately I won't have to find out any time soon ;P

And yep, it was a Q5 system (an ancient single AN/UYK example), I was the Supertech on the boat for the system.

CYa!
Mako
I was only inside the sphere once. And I can still fit through the hatchway--not that I want too. :)

Spent my time at Mare Island to become one of those Data Systems SuperTechs too. Spent my first couple of years aboard the USS Gato with a couple of quick tours aboard the USS Dace and USS Tinosa using the BQQ-5 Sonar System.

Advanced up to the BQQ-6 Sonar System, Defensive Weapons System, Ship Control System and the Command & Control System aboard the USS Alabama. Heck, I was even trained to assist in the Torpedo Room.

And that doesn't even include all the qualifications I had to learn just to become qualified as a submariner. Took me a full year to earn my "Dolphins" aboard my first sub.

Re: Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 2:44 pm
by Kellogg
whitepony wrote:12 years in the submarine service and I still can't tell you where or what I was doing. :(
Why am I reminded of an old Calvin & Hobbes exchange:
Calvin: "Tigers are secretive? What secrets do you have?"
Hobbes: "Big Secrets! Secret Secrets! MM-MM! Boy if you only knew!"

One gets the impression that Unicorns are even more secretive than
Tigers... :o

Re: Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 3:05 pm
by ZOMBIE USER 7666
Kellogg wrote:
whitepony wrote:12 years in the submarine service and I still can't tell you where or what I was doing. :(
Why am I reminded of an old Calvin & Hobbes exchange:
Calvin: "Tigers are secretive? What secrets do you have?"
Hobbes: "Big Secrets! Secret Secrets! MM-MM! Boy if you only knew!"

One gets the impression that Unicorns are even more secretive than
Tigers... :o
The little unicorn just smiles. :)

Re: Submarine Service

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2002 3:18 pm
by Kellogg
whitepony wrote:The little unicorn just smiles. :)
LOL! :lol:

Scott