He surely did.
Posted on 01/27/2004 8:11:02 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Actually the USS Jimmy Carter is a kind of floating cafeteria.
Kidding aside, a boat bearing that name will have a special mission & be the first man of war to be launched from [the] water, to dry land.
...where it'll serve permanently drydocked.
Better:
Lieutenant Kerry, you've been recalled to active duty. Now get on the Greyhound for Groton.
He surely did.
I can match that. In the late 1980s, an Indiana National Guard SMAJ came to me to share a tale of woe, too juicy not to share, yet delicate enough that not just anyone could be counted on to spill the beans the right way. It seems they'd had a really outstanding recruiting and retention NCO, who'd not only brought a troubled and understrength unit up to 115% of it's regular strength pending a TO&E transformation, but had the highest retention/reenlistment figures in the division, and was even helping out the local regular Army recruiters in town by sending those who couldn't get into the now-filled up local National Guard unit, but were told to go active duty for a one-term enlistment, and he'd have a *try one* one-year slot open for them when they came home- and guys were going for it.
Not surprisingly, they wanted to find out what this guy was doing, bottle it, and send it out to every recruiter and retention NCO in the division. He was sharp in appearance, was thoroughly knowledgable of all the paperwork and admin procedures his job required, but this was clearly a matter of something more than picking the right colour for his freebie *Be All You Can Be* giveaway pencils.
Much to their horror, the staff brasshats found out: seems he had a deal going with a couple of the girls dancing at a local topless joint that anyone joining the unit or reenlisting after their *try one* year got an evening with one of the girls. The bad news was that he not only had to stop his unorthodox but effective practices, but eventually had to take his retirement a few years earlier than he'd intended. The good news was he got hired almost immediately by a Fortune 500 company to handle their own headhunting and management retention problems.
My comments about installing a floor-to-ceiling brass pole in the division commander's office were not particularly appreciated. But when in 1991, members of that Guard unit were among the forces shipped to Kuwait as a part of Operation Desert Shield, those characters he'd recruited were still filling their personnel spaces, and as a result, they were fully staffed and went to Kuwait [and later, Iraq] when many of their sister Guard units were left behind. As in comedy and, um, exotic dancing, the timing involved was everything.
What I'm thinking of used to be called a "honey barge".
No more phone calls.....................we have a winner.
Har! Thanks for that! Despite the damage to my keyboard.
When I was at RTC Orlando, they had a training aid designed like a Navy ship, used for firefighting training. It was dubbed the "USS Neverdock." Maybe the USS Jimmy Carter could carry on this proud tradition of recruit training, for surely no active bubblehead would want to serve aboard her.
I'm pretty sure that Walker was gone from the 24th by the time Creighton Abrams' favourite *good ol' boy CSMAJ showed up to run the 24th's club system- I think it was Linton S, Boatwright running the 24th by then. Boatwright had survived at least two attempts on his life in Vietnam by his own men, officially *VC terorist attacks* and they got him out of the RVN for his own good- a third try was cancelled only because the helo pilot he had flying him that day was a Dustoff pilot and the guys involved weren't inclined to kill him just to get rid of a troublesome MGEN. And the Army wasn't real thrilled about the idea of having a Code Eight fragged.
That was also around the timeframe during which a Czech pilot in a MiG17 landed near Augsburg, in the 24ths alert move-out area, where he landed since he had the best maps and knowledge of that area, the target for his two nukes if the balloon went up. And shortly thereafter, the *Czech Spring* Russian invasion of Czechoslovokia occurred, with Spetznaz leading the way. The story went that the GRU had bought the 24ths alert plans from somebody in Div HQ. Heads rolled at 14th Armored Cav over that one, whose border recon teams say the MiG flyover- he made a return pass wagging his wings- but their HQ refused to kick it higher, so the guys on the 5KM zone started trying all 920 channels on their PRC25 until they got a helo outfit at Graf. And then it REALLY hit the fan- had that pilot been less charitably inclined, you could have written Munich and Bonn off the map in the 20 minutes it took to get his defection reported and interceptors up- the Luftwaffe was still flying F104 *widowmakers* at that time.
They got themselves assigned to Vietnam roughly together and ran the same organized crime operation over there. It included kickbacks from floor shows and just about everything you could imagine.
Including heroin being shipped home in the body cavities of KIAs.
Wooldridge, William O.
DOB 12 August 1922, Shawnee, Oklahoma
Assignments
1940 Enlisted at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in Company F, 23d Infantry, 2d Infantry Division
1941-44 Detached service, British Forces- Iceland
1944-45 1st Infantry Division, Northwest and Central Europe
1945-46 Fort Sam Houston
1946-47 Schofield Barracks, Hawaii
1947-49 Headquarters, Eighth U.S. Army, Seoul, Korea
1949-54 1st Infantry Division, Germany
1954-55 First Sergeant, Company G, 3d Infantry, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.
1955-58 First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas
1958-63 Sergeant Major, 2d Battle Group, 28th Infantry, 24th Infantry Division, Germany
1963-65 Sergeant Major, 24th Infantry Division, Germany
1965-66 Brigade, Division Sergeant Major, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley
1966-68 Sergeant Major of the Army
1968-69 Sergeant Major, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
1969-72 Sergeant Major, Range Command, White Sands Missile Range, White Sands, New Mexico
Significant Accomplishments as SMA
As the first SMA, SMA Wooldridge worked to establish the position of the SMA. SMA Wooldridge had direct access to the Chief of Staff, established invaluable relationships with various staff agencies in the Pentagon, and traveled widely as the "eyes and ears" of the Chief of Staff, spending nearly half of his time as SMA visiting soldiers, including several trips to combat zones in Southeast Asia. To help pass on his experience to soldiers he wrote an article on combat, "So You're Headed for Combat: How to Get Ready and What to Expect," published in the January 1968 Army Digest (the predecessor of SOLDIERS). SMA Wooldridge also initiated the establishment the Major Commands Command Sergeants Major Conference in 1966, which since then has resulted in innumerable proposals that have improved the training, readiness, proficiency, and morale of soldiers.
Why johnny_c what an excellent idea, and one that'd not push the limits (or strain the credibility) of the word "honor" for our former POTUS; while, recognizing his contribution, just the same.
As it is there stands a *monument* to this guy & his administration located in a desert of Iran.
"...for surely no active bubblehead would want to serve aboard her."
While what you say is very true it could be worse, much worse.
Try to imagine if you will an "USS Clinton," for example?
~eh?
It'd sail on its side, be shaped like a boomerang.
...know what I mean? {g}
I always envisioned it as short, with a slight bend to the left ... :)
Sounds more like he didn't listen to his goat locker.
HA!!
...you got it. :o)
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