Posted on 07/27/2006 7:13:43 AM PDT by ErnBatavia
"...so this looks like a good thread for it."
Not really. This deserves its own thread where prayers can be offered for this family.
+
Yes I was 1st Battalion, I even considered stealing That Mud Machine they had to rescue recruits dumb enough to try and attempt an escape.
Don't forget the crabs, they were worse then all the snakes and gators.
And I just remembered my secret shame from while I was at PI, I was a "house mouse".
I'm reading these stories outloud to my (teenage) daughter and so far, this definitely got the most laughs!
I sent home a lot of cards from the Lackland BX. I only remember one, and Mom kept it and gave back to me just before she passed away. It was the one that read, "Dear Mom and Dad, if you run across my recruiter" and on the inside "please do it with a tank".
Oh my. This sounds like my daughter's story. I just read it to her and she didn't make a peep.
Her brother dropped us off at church the morning he left. She bawled her eyes out all thru church.
She was co-captain of the basketball team. The other co-captain had a sister deploy to Kuwait at the same time my daughter's brother left for Parris Island.
These two girls hustled to represent their siblings.
Their team was undefeated champions that year for the first time in 30 years ; )
I loved mine. Thank you. I do have to ask, though, are those the "jello shooters" I have heard and read so much about? Gotta get a recipe and try some of those.
Good evening.
I'm glad you liked it.
Sorry, I have no idea what it is. I assumed it was just a cube that would sit on a desk.
But, I'm sure the jello shooter recipe would be easy to find.
Good luck
Sorry. Do we have any Gold Star moms or a place like that here? I'm not usually on any military threads - I'm just a Navy WWII brat and in love with Rummy. I'm pretty useless except for baking cookies for the troops.
Please help with this, could you? Thanks.
Try putting a tray of SOS on the washer, turn it on, now try to eat.
Sort of gives you an idea of being on a DD. LOL
Don't be sorry. Like one said here, it's good to be alive.
There are Gold Stars on FR, individually to my knowledge. It could surely be posted in the News / Activism Announcements sidebar.
LOL!
My best friend in high school was a couple years older than me. He went Army. My oldest sister was married to a 'Nam Wild-Weasel pilot who was a Colonel at Randolph AFB when I enlisted. From both of them and from my two older brothers who were Army enlisted, and from many others, all I heard was horror stories about how tough Basic would be. So, I was ready. I could run 5 miles in 35 minutes. I could do 50 regular push-ups in a minute and 150 without stopping. I could do 50 "Airborne" push-ups without stopping. I could do 75 sit-ups in a minute and as many as you wanted me to do in one sitting.
Physically, USAF basic training was a joke to me. I never saw a sit-up. One guy in my flight had to do 5 push-ups for getting caught sleeping under his bunk when we were supposed to be studying. Those were the only push-ups I saw. The most we ever ran was 1 1/2 miles. We did that twice... in formation... at the pace of the slowest guy. I came out of basic in worse physical condition than I had been in for 2 years. The Air Force had changed.
This is part of what I meant earlier when I mentioned having my first exposure to political correctness when I was in basic. But that first real experience with mamby-pamby PC was in relation to one of the female training flights.
There was a new flight of girls on the parade field at the same time we were out there one day. Their female TI was instructing them on the wrong way to come to attention. She was telling them to not drag their foot as they snapped to. Her words were something to the effect that she didn't want to hear "anything but 64 heels clicking together and 32 c*nts sucking air." One of the princesses was offended by that and filed a complaint. It cost a very fine NCO her position as a TI. The Air Force had really changed.
Freema...thanks for hittin' your great ping list - fun thread.
Oh, man, make me gag!!!!!!!!!
Indeed...it hit home during my enlistment when I'd run into other fellow "Boots" and compare notes; I'd estimate that around 10, maybe more, of our original training platoon never saw their 21st birthdays....
...Never held a 1967 "copper clad" coin, never got married, had kids, never got home again period.
I think about Garcia, Jones, Little, and all the others at least once a week....maybe it's that 'survivor's guilt' thing - but I'll never forget my brothers.
OK. Thread is here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1673542/posts
Ditto...Sgt. Landers got run up on 'charges' after we graduated; he'd gone a little too hard on a kid who's father died during Boot Camp....when a couple of us who were still stationed together heard his body had been seen in a ditch in Vietnam, we had a little party.....turned out he survived, though.
Speaking of DI's - about a year or so in, I was at Mainside at Camp Pendleton and spotted Sgt. Maes, the "junior" DI - he was smallish and wiry (as most of 'em are) and had that Aztec-Indian hispanic look....he was leaving the PX with his Pacific Islander wife who outweighed him by at least 100 pounds, and topped him by 6 to 8 inches.
I ran back to the barracks and found my fellow boot grad Kramer, who was busy taking a dump.....pounded on the stall and told him to get his ass off the sh*tter, "cause there is something you've GOT to see!".
Kramer swore at me, until I briefed him - he finished his download in record time and made it back to share in the experience with me....when we approached Maes, he looked very embarrassed at being busted by two former maggots - while he was pushing his shopping cart. I think he was also pissed that a couple of two-year-enlistees were already Corporals, and he was still an E5 (just one rank up) with probably well over 10 years seniority.
OK. The firing line story.
Background: I went to basic in San Antonio, TX in August. It takes no imagination to understand that it was hot. So we were allowed to roll our sleeves up while we were on the firing range.
I am right-handed in everything until you hand me a rifle or shotgun. I am left-eye dominant so I naturally pull a long gun to my left shoulder.
The M-16 with a right-side eject kicks the hot brass right into my right cheek. About half way thru our qualification one of the TIs noticed that my face was a bloody mess. They searched around but couldn't find a weapon with a left eject although everyone was sure there were some in the armory. So, they found what they thought was the next best thing. They fitted the weapon I was using with a deflector to kick the brass down instead of back into my face.
I've already telegraphed where this is going. I'm sure a bunch of the guys have already started laughing and cringing. The first position we went to after I was given my newly outfitted weapon was prone. I pulled the trigger and that white-hot piece of brass landed right in the crook of my right elbow. I hollered like I had been shot and flung my right arm away to shake the brass off my blistered skin. That brought everybody with a stripe running and screaming "cease-fire, cease-fire".
Mind you, I maintained muzzle discipline. I kept that rifle pointed downrange. That didn't seem to make much difference at that point. They shut the place down and took my weapon away. I was escorted to the hospital to get a band-aid on my boo-boo and some stuff for my face, then back to the dorm. After I left, they let the rest of the folks return to the firing line and complete their qualification. It didn't matter that I didn't qualify. I was a 702 admin specialist. They even overlooked the requirement for qualifying and awarded me the Honor Graduate ribbon that I had otherwise qualified for.
Now, remember, I was going to spend my AF years flying a high-performance desk so it didn't matter that I didn't qualify. It didn't matter right up until I received my first assignment after tech-training. I was assigned to the 554th RED HORSE Squadron at Osan AB Korea. (Think the AF version of the Seabees -- only we got air conditioned dorms.) RED HORSE squadrons were the only squadrons in the AF that required EVERY member of the squadron to be weapons qualified. Not even in the cop and para-rescue squadrons were the admin types required to qualify. But in RED HORSE we were. But that's a story for another thread.
For anyone interested, that's how to shut down an Air Force firing line. Just kick a piece of hot brass into the crook of your elbow. Guaranteed to make you holler every time.
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