Posted on 03/03/2023 3:06:38 PM PST by rlmorel
That bar story was off the hook, and I would add the phrase - believe you me, to add a bit of provenance to what you speaketh. Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt.
Joining Uncle Sam’s rag-time band was no doubt the most incredible time of my life and from what I can tell... provided you with your own masterpiece novel.
While I say that, your family adventures were pretty epic, and perhaps... a precursor to your future life ahead in the US Navy!
Keep on keeping on!
In spirit and friendship - freepersup.
But...if you want to be safe...:)
Go to a party, or visit your old folks at home? Nope. Safety Officer's gonna have my ass!
Go to the beach with me, Sailor? Nope. Safety Officer's gonna have my ass!
Safety Officer gets my ass!
Heh, I must admit, I like the little smirk on his face at the end!
You have it right, and you should know poconopundit!
I have to point my best friend to this thread...he’ll get a kick out of it, I am sure!
A first-time viewer of the film: The Man from LOX.
That’s from back in the day when a foxhole or bomb shelter WAS your safe space, and triggering words actually triggered something. FIRE! FIRE FOR EFFECT!
High school drivers education had some really gory images and films of human beings that were absolutely burned, charred, maimed, mutilated, and ground up into grotesque balls of human flesh, with hardly recognizable pieces of gristle and bone sticking out, with an occasional eyeball staring back out at the viewer to remind them that they were looking at what was formerly a human being.
Hahahaha...I am guessing “Wheels of Tragedy” or one of the other staples!
Of course now, all you have to do is watch “Russian Dash Cam Videos” and it is all there in high resolution!
I went through a phase watching all the gore that’s available online until I was beaten down emotionally and physically.
First, it was crime scene photographs, and then a beheading here, and a beheading there, then a plethora of jihadi bombings of coalition forces, and finally wrapping it up with a few impalings for good measure.
Yeah, I’m tapped out.
Argh. I avoided those, but I forced myself to watch the Nicholas Berg video.
I did that purposely. Just to make sure I had my mind in the right place about what we were doing, and the people we were fighting against.
I felt compelled to watch it for that reason alone.
I don’t watch that kind of stuff, ever. I made a reference to the Russian Dash Cam Videos...there is not a lot of graphic stuff in those, but if you understand what goes on in a car crash, you don’t need to see it.
I was a A-7 Plane Captain for the first 6 months of my assignment to NATC Patuxent River, MD in 1973. At the time, Pax River, being a test center, had all types of USN aircraft, including the A-7A/B/C & E. I retired I. 1997 as a AMEC. P. C. Ward
Ping
Thanks for your service to this country, Chief!
One of the guys in my squadron went on to be a flight engineer on P-3s at Pax River...I kept in touch with him for a short time after I got out, and he made a career of the Navy.
I went looking for him when the Internet became a thing, and found his number. I was planning on calling him but didn’t get around to it right away.
About ten years ago, I was watching a football game in an Eagles club, and I got a phone call.
It was “Wingnut”! He didn’t know who I was, and I didn’t know who he was, and he asked “Did you just call me?”
I didn’t know, and looked in my call record, and I had accidentally somehow dialed him, of all the thousands of people in my Contacts!
I said “Is that you, Wingnut? He paused and said,”Who IS this? (he apparently hadn’t heard that nickname since he left the squadron!)
When I identified myself, he said that when he answered the call, he heard people screaming and yelling and thought someone was being murdered!
Good old Wingnut! He never did like the nickname assigned to him by Chief Muddy Waters mentioned above (Whose real name was not “Waters” as I thought, it was “Wright”!)
But as you know in the military, you hope you get a good nickname, and if you don’t it is best to accept it and own it rather than bitch about it.
Otherwise, it will REALLY stick to you!
And, by the way...welcome aboard, Chief! We have quite a few ex-Navy on here...:)
Thanks for your reply. Right after I had read your post, I stumbled upon a awesome A-7E Plane Captain patch on Ebay. I. bid on it, but as luck would have it, I wasn’t fast enough, damn it. And naturally, I did a search and can’t find it anywhere else. Chief.
Heh, I don’t do Ebay much-I used it once, many years ago, and was desperate for the part and didn’t want to risk losing it, so I overbid for it. First time I ever used Ebay, and boy, did I ever get lambasted for it!
It was a real eye-opener for me.
I just came across this post, and I think I know which bar that you were talking about in Majorca… I think you’re speaking about “Texas Jacks”… what I remember about that bar, was that people wrote things on the wall, sometimes standing on each other’s shoulders to get higher and higher to do it.
The only reason I still remember that bar is that I have a card from it with the address on it… :-)
I’m pretty sure that it was the Bar Texas, and it was in Barcelona anyway. Long time ago.
Ahh. I thought you were talking about Mallorca-my mistake!
Forgot to mention That I was with VFA-127 in Fallon as a contractor. Top Gun split into VFA-126 “Aggressors” and VFA-127 “Adversary”. 127 was made up of contractors when it was moved to NAS Fallon. I was avionics at that time but cross trained in Hyd contamination, Fuel Contamination and Tire/Wheel maintenance. Spent five years with the Adversary’s before taking a Plane Captain job with CINATRA. Loved the work at NAS, but Fallon sucked at the time for a single guy. Majority of the available women were married!
I did not know it was split out like that! (I did mention my buddy was in VFA-126 I think!) but yeah, I can imagine Fallon was a bit different in that respect...:(
Yeah, the Bar Texas was in Barcelona. I visited Palma too for a few days, but I didn’t happen across Texas Jack’s, unfortunately.
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