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Posted on 09/24/2008 5:59:15 PM PDT by AZamericonnie
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Nice to meet you & thank you for sharing Genyous....times change don’t they my FRiend!:)
I remember all of that stuff - and Deb and Trixie and Goetz von Berlichingen and quidam and the “House afire, heart’s DEE-SI-RAH!!!” guy who would pop off with that line every time the slightest bit of negative Clinton news appeared, and everybody calling everybody else “sweetie”. Those voices are long gone, but I think a lot of today’s remaining veterans joined in 1998.
I saw it mentioned at Newmax I think or one fo he conservative news sites and googled it. think I started readign here right before the 2004 election but took a while to join.
I think it was radio show on George Putnam talk about Freepers driving President Clinton crazy LOL!
Oh my goodness, Bill......so many memories!! Ash alerts, “close your tags”, Eschoir.....on my. Thanks.
Okay, so Here is Sarge’s Report from “Operation Lights Out”, the KYARNG’s relief efforts for Hurricane Ike!
The storm front hit the Bluegrass on Sunday the 13th, while Sarge and The Kids were on Drill status. All training was cancelled, and the trrops advised to get back to their homes as soon as possible. A skeleton staff was on standby for any problems.
Well, the problems began almost immediately. Power, Internet, phones, all gone. Houses destroyed. Roads blocked. And Sarge’s truck dropped its transmission on the highway coming homne during the height of the blow.
The AAA wrecker got me home, but there was only one road going into the area. Thankfully due to some cosmic luck, the Home Detachment never lost power, no took any more damage than branches in the yard. But every house around was either dark, or devastated.
Next morning, Sarge got the call: report to the armory for further orders. The overnight bag went into the remainnig car, and off we went. Orders came down for generator teams to head out for critical areas, while other teams were to support the power crews with local security and traffic control. Sarge drew generator duty, at the State Women’s Prison outside Louisville.
The team spent six days in place, eight-on/eight-off, keeping power going to the prison’s water supply via a 60-KW gen-set. The warden was rumored to have stated on Day Six, that either she got power back on, or she opened the front gates. Power came back on quickly...
During all this, there must have been some mutant mold in the prison water plant, because Sarge and one other NCO caught a doozie of a sinus problem, leaving Sarge hacking up goo and losing his voice eventually.
After a down day for vehicle recovery and personal rest, we headed up into Louisville proper. By this point, the outage had been reduced to about 90,000 homes, with a long way to go. Sarge and a new team were supporting a power company effort to get a neighborhood back online. Our main job was to make sure the linemen weren’t disturbed, so they could concentrate on the task at hand.
OBSERVATION: All the power crews coming into the city from other places all asked us the same question: “How well are you armed?” They needn’t have asked. In all of the crisis, there were almost no reports of break-ins or major crime. These were battle-hardened workers from Katrina and Gustav, where they’d seen the worst of society; not so with Derby City. They saw neighbors, GOOD neighbors, helping one another and pitching in where needed.
SECOND OBSERVATION: Don’t get Sarge started on how the Ryder Cup interfered with the relief efforts. All the local police got pulled to direct traffic for the rich golfers, who never lost power and never failed to get the support that many households never got.
We were camped out at the Air Guard base, cots racked up close with everyone’s arms, legs and halitosis on each other. Sarge did something totally selfish: he wrangled a way to spend the night at the Home Detachment and report in at dawn for the next shift.
Next day, we formed up and rolled out to the power company HQ, and escorted new telephone poles to their sites. At about noon on Tuesday, we got the word: all units were returning to their armories, the missions were complete.
We all convoyed back to the armories, checked in our vehicles and borrowed gear, did up the post-mission paperwork, and bailed for home. Sarge got his failing voice and dragging butt back to the home Detachment in time to enjoy a decent meal with the family at a recently-repowered restaurant, and a great Welcome Home.
And now, Sarge is back in civvies, sans voicebox, but reporting in to y’all!
My brother in law got me addicted to FR.
Woohoo!!!
Can you translate for me Conor?
Been here 4 years on September 21st. It's been SO much fun!
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
The exwife told me about FR
I have withdrawal symptoms when it is not available.
Now that's a big club!!!:) *Hugs*
On the recommendation of Darkwing104, to whom I am forever grateful.
LOL! Yup....his fault if the dishes aren't done! :)
Nice to meet you Fast Moving Angel...we don’t see Darkwing104 as much anymore but we sure appreciate him!
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