-Number 6
Posted on 10/19/2007 1:45:32 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
While I worked, he came out to talk with me and keep me company, and somehow we ended up on the subject of sharks. John informed me that he used to work as a customs official at Port Lavaca, Texas and that he loved to fish in Matagorda Bay. There was one particular place that he loved, because you could wade out several hundred yards and the water was only up to the bottom of his rib cage.
One evening, he was out fishing and he had his catch on a stringer that was on a float that was tied to his waist, when a shark that was "a couple of feet wide, about seven or eight feet between the dorsal and tail, and solid black" came tearing in, snagged the stringer, ripped it and the float off John's belt, and then turned back towards him.
John wasn't sure if the shark was targeting him, or if it was simply heading back out to open waters, but he wasn't going to hang around to find out. Once he saw that fin turn and start back towards him, he commenced a running on the water and managed to get back to shore safely.
That was the last time that John ever set foot in Matagorda Bay. Not that I blame him.
-Number 6
Down in St. Augustine I used to see people drag 14-foot lemon sharks out of the water.
No way I would have fished in chest-deep water with a stringer of fish anywhere near me.
-Number 2
They were out on maneuvers that required them to be dropped into the water a mile off the beach, make their way ashore, and then secure an objective a few miles inland.
Unfortunately for them, the yahoos who thought up this plan didn't realize that the section of ocean they were jumping into was the seasonal breeding grounds for the Giant Hammerhead, and it was breeding season.
Fortunately for the soldiers, the sharks were more interested in making little sharks than they were in getting a free meal. One guy suffered a minor bite to the calf and two others had some hide torn off when the sharks rubbed up against them, but they managed to get them up on the rafts before the blood in the water started a feeding frenzy.
Once they got ashore, several of the NCO's had to physically restrain their company commander from going after the idiot who was supposed to check with the local authorities about any hazards like the one they'd just jumped into.
I was kind of skeptical about this tale, but Josh brought in a copy of one of the local newspapers that had an article about the incident, so I guess this is one fish story that is true.
“the idiot who was supposed to check with the local authorities about any hazards like the one they’d just jumped into.”
SNAFU is the name of the game.
You got to go there to appreciate it.
"Nonsense. S-2 reported that machine gun silenced hours ago. Stop wiggling your fingers at me."
Ah, Bill Mauldin. There was another good one.
We could sure use an honest journalist today.
But I think one of his best drawings is titled "Lincoln Weeps", which was drawn following President Kennedy's assassination.
Here are some other Mauldin greats.
"Now that you mention it, it does sound like th' patter of rain on a tin roof."
"... forever, Amen. Hit the dirt."
If Mauldin had talked with some of the friends of the US and Cuban soldiers that Kennedy got killed at the Bay of Pigs, and reflected on how Kruschev bitch-slapped him during the Missile Crisis, and about how Kennedy always called blacks “niggers” in private, he might not have pictured Lincoln as weeping.
Been there, Done that, Got The T-shirt to prove it as well...
Got the sunburn; and the photos as well.
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