Posted on 12/23/2015 5:14:31 PM PST by SandRat
Have a Look and Feal Old. http://www.nbc-links.com/oldsoldiers2.html
P 38 still have mine
Wife and others still cannot believe you can heat the stuff over a wad of burning C-4.
OK, so you do have to avoid the fumes and keep turning the can, but WTF?
Oops. I was *not* a 13B. I was a 12B.
Big difference. We went much lighter than 13Bs (see 12Bs, fire positions, bugs) and didn’t enjoy palatial accommodations.
Maybe I am getting old. ;-)
Wow.. impressive resume on your page, never looked before :^O
Any info on Skunkworks? :D
The link is blocked by the web Nazis here, somebody please post the list!
It is over 200 individual items long. Here are the first 75
1. You know what GDP means and still remember where yours was and how long it took to occupy.
2. You remember when we had tactical nukes and really planned to use them.
3. You remember spending hours in MOPP4 and doing M256 kits.
4. You remember when the M8 Claymore and M72 LAW were part of CTT.
5. You remember when ARTEPs were 36 hours and you had fun.
6. You remember when Carl Vouno was CG (8th ID(M)) and Max Thurman was head of recruiting command.
7. You know what a Gamma Goat and Goer were and could fix an M151A2 to run off one prop shaft.
8. You remember when the Israelis were bad-asses and we all wanted to be like them.
9. You remember when Saddam Hussein was our loyal ally.
10. You remember when Airland Battle was a new concept, and everyone religiously read FM 100-5.
11. You know what the ‘Cap Wineberger’ Doctrine was.
12. You remember when the M16 was a plastic carbine, and you hoped for an M14.
13. You can remember going to the Club at Graf, drinking, and watching Margaret.
14. You personally know Margaret.
15. You know what is a “smokey” at Hohenfels.
16. You know the difference between the VRC46, VRC47, PRC77 and VRC160 and the requisite installation kits.
17. You know what a CEOI is and you can encrypt grids.
18. You remember when NTC was a new and cool concept.
19. You remember when it was real cool to go to SAMs or be an OC at NTC.
20. You remember when as a new LT/CPT you could go out and train your soldiers and not have an OC tell you how screwed up you were.
21. You remember BN Cdrs and 1SG’s who were Vietnam Vets.
22. You remember Bn Cdrs who drank, swore and mentored.
23. You remember Bn Cdrs who were ruthless about tactics, but didn’t give a crap about admin BS.
24. You remember when 2LTs and CPLs demanded respect from PFCs and got it.
25. You can navigate at night without a GPS.
26. You can remember OPDs about Clausewitz (aka dead Karl) which usually ended with beer drinking at the O’ club.
27. You can remember when lanes training was a neat concept.
28. You can remember when FM 25-101 was a new concept.
29. You can remember when the defense budget was 7% of the GNP.
30. You can remember when the main battle area was the only fight.
31. You can remember when every ones career track was 10 years in Germany with 1st Armored Division at Ansbach.
32. You remember when the Soviet Union was a major super power instead (albeit the Russian Republic) of being a basket case for the IMF.
33. You could remember studying German concepts like mission tactics, and commander’s intent and it was cool.
34. You could remember reading military history and it was in vogue, and going on staff rides because the Chief of Staff of the Army did it.
35. You could become a S3, XO, BN Cdr, or Bde Cdr without being Resident CGSC graduate.
36. You could remember BN and BDE cdr’s who were proud of being “non-resident” CGSC guys.
37. You could receive a couple of “2-blocks” and it would not force you to look for employment on the outside.
38. You did not worry about OERs as a lieutenant.
39. You remember when privates bragged about the challenge they got in basic training, and how tough their drill sergeants were.
40. You remember when Sensitivity training was something your wife did.
41. You remember when Values Cards meant credit cards.
42. You remember when officers did not need values cards because they practiced values everyday.
43. You remember when going to the Pentagon was not cool and did not help your career.
44. You remember when PowerPoint was what a private did on butcher paper taped-up on a board with “hundred-mile-an-hour” tape.
45. You remember when you could say hooah, because the Chief of Staff of the Army said it.
46. You remember when women in combat was just a bad idea that would soon fade away.
47. You remember when being hardcore and a warrior was cherished.
48. You remember that going to ranger school was cool and not for career progression.
49. You remember that more than one company command was what studs did.
50. You could remember that going to Korea was like going to the field for twelve straight months, and only the hard-core guys extended.
51. You could remember when you could maneuver anywhere you wanted in Korea and it was not a big deal.
52. You could remember when “maneuver damage” was paid lip-service.
53. You could remember when you could “Major” in ROTC.
54. You remember eating C-rations in the field.
55. You wore the “banana suit” to PT.
56. You wore the “pickle suit” to formation.
57. You remember taking the five-event APFT.
58. You remember when a PFC/SPC made presentations using a Leroy set instead of CPTs/MAJs using PowerPoint.
59. You remember when camouflage nets were made of cloth.
60. You remember when the Army’s vehicles ran on gas.
61. You remember when cigarettes were in C-rations.
62. You remember on Thursdays was Donut Dolly day.
63. You remember how to report for pay and what a pay line was.
64. You remember beer machines in the barracks/dayroom.
65. You remember when Clothing Sales was run by Army soldiers.
66. You remember when there used to be enlisted, NCO and Officer Clubs.
67. You remember the Women’s Army Corps (WACs).
68. You remember when stripes were worn on the sleeve.
69. When you ran PT in boots, white T-shirt and fatigue pants.
70. When Jungle boots were green.
71. When Jump boots cost $16.50 a pair and you shined the whole boot instead of just the toe and heel.
72. When cigarettes where $2.00 a carton.
73. What an alert was.
74. When Sergeants ran the Army.
Courtesy of M.A. Sweeney
I guess more of the contributors were in the Army than the Air Force.
I can score 58/74 on that list!
I’m not as old as some of the geezers here, but I can still make dust come out when I fart.
I didn’t see steel pots mentioned in the list?
What do you expect from those who bitched about 12 hour shifts during alerts? lmao
Our battalion provided short range AD at Hahn, Spangdahlem, and Bitburg. At Hahn, we were 45 miles from battalion hq, and I loved it. During alerts, I was the Army Liasion Officer down in the Wing CP. As I was one of only two officers in my battery with the security clearance (my boss was the other one, and he had to run the unit), I was down in the hole for four days. I'd catch cat naps during the night, and I was in my mid-20s, so it wasn't all that bad.
On my first trip down there, I endeared myself to the Wing Cdr during an NBC input, so I was his go to guy for the remainder of his command.
At AF mess halls, omelettes were made to order.
AF enlisted men didn't think they had to salute Army officers.
AF facilities were the best, hands down.
I was lucky enough to get two trips to Crete. Ate my fill of calamari in Chania.
Second trip I packed my own TP. The stuff they had at Namfi was medium grade sandpaper.
Our gun units went twice a year to Todendorf. "Spring" ASP...lol, I've never been so cold in my life, bullets bounced off the frozen Baltic.
Summer ASP was great. Nearby Lutjenburg had the greatest concentration of newly divorced women that I have ever encountered.
O/T, but I was an S-4 as a 1st LT. One of the best jobs I ever had. I was supremely prepared for it: Public Accounting degree and six months as Property Book Officer (normally a warrant's job, but I was pressed into it).
Group HQ hated me. I ran circles around them during inspections and annual budgets. LOL - I was so good, I was even able to divert an aircraft in flight. We had a missile system coming back from Crete with a busted radiator. By sheer luck and persistence, I found the right place after being on the phone for 5 hours. Plane was diverted to Bitburg 10 minutes before it was to land at Rhein Main.
Had it landed at Rhein Main, just try and imagine the difficulties of getting a 30 ton tracked vehicle towed 120 miles on a Friday afternoon.
Damn I’m old.
5.56mm
Ditto for jump school.
No problem imagining, the answer would have been. It is sitting right here until Monday morning.
“They were patient teachers.”
My son and his Army buddies put on a range week every year at this time. All of them are former Army SpecOps. Yesterday was get to know your new gun day for novices. The patience and professionalism they display while teaching noobs gun safety, operation and handling always brings a tear to my eye.
They didn’t know that one of the noobs yesterday was a 20 year old young lady that is a rape victim and still skittish about Alpha males in close proximity to herself. Only I knew of her situation. It was amazing to watch these men automatically sense her discomfort with the closeness that usually goes with weapons training. They instantly adapted and switched to tactics that made her comfortable. Amazing result of years in the Military. She is now fair with a gun and wants more training in the new year!
And the NCO club allowed butterbars like me to drink there with my NCOs. Damn zoomie pilots were insufferable, plus there were more women at the NCO club. I dated a lovely and professional E-6 while at Hahn. We enjoyed each other's company, but we both knew it would never work. She was committed to her career, and had orders to the States within a year after we met.
We were the "curiosities" at Hahn, the only Army unit on base. It was a great experience.
You remember three of your four squad leaders being "acting jacks".
Of the three platoons I led, that was by far the most rewarding platoon. We had the most inexperienced platoon by far, yet ours was the only platoon to pass during a battery-level ARTEP. I loved those men, they made me look good. The other platoon leaders were either West Point or Airborne Rangers. I think they fed off the chip on my shoulder towards the ring knockers, and the other platoons with predominantly E-6 squad leaders.
One of your NCO’s came in the Army at a judge’s insistence, in order to avoid murder charges for killing his cheating wife. (True story!)
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