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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 23, 2017 20:35:46 GMT -5
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 23, 2017 21:15:33 GMT -5
Cliff, don't thank me, thank those who came home in a body bag. Every day I think of how lucky I was to come home in one piece. Some of my buddies weren't so lucky.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 23, 2017 21:22:25 GMT -5
Cliff, don't thank me, thank those who came home in a body bag. Every day I think of how lucky I was to come home in one piece. Some of my buddies weren't so lucky. Mine too Forever young.. Last ship DD876 Rogers. There till the end of the fight. Last shots came from our destroyer squadron and the Rogers . Then thank you for all those long Westpac cruises not seeing your baby born, missing out on a lot of life. Remember the happiness when pulling into your home port, dress white manning the rail and all the dependents waiting. Looking through the crowd to spot your young wife and baby.
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 23, 2017 22:05:56 GMT -5
Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill- now that brings back some memories!
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 23, 2017 22:20:59 GMT -5
Cliff, don't thank me, thank those who came home in a body bag. Every day I think of how lucky I was to come home in one piece. Some of my buddies weren't so lucky. Mine too Forever young.. Last ship DD876 Rogers. There till the end of the fight. Last shots came from our destroyer squadron and the Rogers . Then thank you for all those long Westpac cruises not seeing your baby born, missing out on a lot of life. Remember the happiness when pulling into your home port, dress white manning the rail and all the dependents waiting. Looking through the crowd to spot your young wife and baby.
LOL. After Nam there were no more Westpac cruises. Nam was river boats in the delta, then Spain, Scotland, Little Creek VA, back to Spain, Kings Bay GA, Italy, and Philly for mustering out. Then home to California.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 23, 2017 22:37:04 GMT -5
Mine too Forever young.. Last ship DD876 Rogers. There till the end of the fight. Last shots came from our destroyer squadron and the Rogers . Then thank you for all those long Westpac cruises not seeing your baby born, missing out on a lot of life. Remember the happiness when pulling into your home port, dress white manning the rail and all the dependents waiting. Looking through the crowd to spot your young wife and baby.
LOL. After Nam there were no more Westpac cruises. Nam was river boats in the delta, then Spain, Scotland, Little Creek VA, back to Spain, Kings Bay GA, Italy, and Philly for mustering out. Then home to California. 3 of us took a military hop to Rota Spain for the weekend. Couldn't get space for a flight back to the ship or be awol. Paid a couple months meager salary to fly homeport civvy. grin It all made the metal that cuts the sharpest in life. Me .....got great Navy schools, them 9 years of college. Yeah a long time but I really liked the house parties. grin Took every math,science,class could find then ate creative writing, speech communication, art appreciation, lot of history just everything you could imagine, I took and liked. Aced it all. Not fair to let a 22 year old man who was 100 years old by then, loose with 18 year old girls and with the work ethic and military discipline really made easy, quick work of a lot of then, difficult classes. Loved college. Clean underwear and lots of beer. Remember getting rid of the rest of a lot of moose in the luau pit at the geology club picnic. Spring breaks were the main reason I got to know Mexico and central America so well. Good back in the day. Cancun before Cancun was a nice place. Same with Punta Mitla. etc.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 24, 2017 1:25:15 GMT -5
Cliff, don't thank me, thank those who came home in a body bag. Every day I think of how lucky I was to come home in one piece. Some of my buddies weren't so lucky. Back in the day we would transport bodies on destroyers in aluminum coffins stacked in the crews lounge. During heavy seas they would get tossed around. Had a pudgy seaman, yeoman striker, who had messenger watch. His jobs also entailed checking the bodies for being stowed properly. Some got loose and a couple came open. Ole Sugar Bear, nick name, never ever went in that lounge again. Even when we hadn't carried anything in there for a while hehehe Destroyers were the perfect option, close to the fight, pick up in shallow waters and transport back to a port with air capabilities. Bird farms had refers for that but the crews lounge had an air conditioner that ran cold cold so the bodies wouldn't decompose. Remember "greasing" the new guy's butts? Not politically correct in this day an age but was always fun and usually a good fight and strong bonding afterwards. .
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 24, 2017 11:18:48 GMT -5
Cliff, don't thank me, thank those who came home in a body bag. Every day I think of how lucky I was to come home in one piece. Some of my buddies weren't so lucky. Back in the day we would transport bodies on destroyers in aluminum coffins stacked in the crews lounge. During heavy seas they would get tossed around. Had a pudgy seaman, yeoman striker, who had messenger watch. His jobs also entailed checking the bodies for being stowed properly. Some got loose and a couple came open. Ole Sugar Bear, nick name, never ever went in that lounge again. Even when we hadn't carried anything in there for a while hehehe Destroyers were the perfect option, close to the fight, pick up in shallow waters and transport back to a port with air capabilities. Bird farms had refers for that but the crews lounge had an air conditioner that ran cold cold so the bodies wouldn't decompose. Remember "greasing" the new guy's butts? Not politically correct in this day an age but was always fun and usually a good fight and strong bonding afterwards. .
LOL. It wasn't just the new guys that got their butts greased. When I made PO2 in Nam, the guys caught me, stripped me down to my skivies, greased me from head to foot and tossed me in the river. It was fun climbing in the big vat of diesel fuel used for cleaning weapons just to wash all that damned grease off. Somewhere in all of my junk I still have a pic of me covered in grease.
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Post by fantastic5 on Jul 24, 2017 15:41:05 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words.
My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'!
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 24, 2017 16:04:16 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! Correction, You gotta be a Navy guy to understand.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 24, 2017 23:22:18 GMT -5
Back in the day we would transport bodies on destroyers in aluminum coffins stacked in the crews lounge. During heavy seas they would get tossed around. Had a pudgy seaman, yeoman striker, who had messenger watch. His jobs also entailed checking the bodies for being stowed properly. Some got loose and a couple came open. Ole Sugar Bear, nick name, never ever went in that lounge again. Even when we hadn't carried anything in there for a while hehehe Destroyers were the perfect option, close to the fight, pick up in shallow waters and transport back to a port with air capabilities. Bird farms had refers for that but the crews lounge had an air conditioner that ran cold cold so the bodies wouldn't decompose. Remember "greasing" the new guy's butts? Not politically correct in this day an age but was always fun and usually a good fight and strong bonding afterwards. .
LOL. It wasn't just the new guys that got their butts greased. When I made PO2 in Nam, the guys caught me, stripped me down to my skivies, greased me from head to foot and tossed me in the river. It was fun climbing in the big vat of diesel fuel used for cleaning weapons just to wash all that damned grease off. Somewhere in all of my junk I still have a pic of me covered in grease. Yeah remember that third class crow. Made the rank in Bangor Washington at the ammo piers. Thought that that water was cold.. Until I made 2nd class in Alaska refueling . Had 2 belly buttons for 3 days. grin Yep sure know the smell of hot gun grease. Comforting in a strange kind of way. Leaning into a twin 50 cal, pintle mounted. We used sea marker dye, cigarette butts, coffee grounds, permatex and good ole grease from the lube oil purifiers. Being a member of the black gang and a being down hole snipe gave me good access to a lot of bad things. If you wanted to mix in a little nair or cinnamon oil you had to get that on the beach. Sea store cigarette for almost nothing, writing free on a letter in the zone and not paying any postage. And for al that fun they even paid you. Looking at my old pay schedule a few months back. Less than $100. 00 a month and combat pay was I believe 50 bucks. A small allowance for enlisted married housing. Those were the days. You ever feed the gator the ducks in Subic Bay? If you came back to the ship with blood or feathers on you, you were restricted to ship. Or Pinkies in Hongkong. Got my second tattoo there. Or the gypsy good time scam on hotel street in Honolulu? How about the Glades transvestite bar on Hotel. Remember taking the chump cherry boots there? Ot the lollypop down on Waikiki? Loved letting the animals loose stateside for liberty. hot dang !! Remember the rock on monkey mountain in Danang? Boomboom rock.. hehehe
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 24, 2017 23:25:52 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! Correction, You gotta be a Navy guy to understand. Appropriate correction. Sailors are a mess.. grin.. Anyone worth their salt got greased. Even the flip stewards.
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geezer
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2016
Posts: 338
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Post by geezer on Jul 25, 2017 7:09:48 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! And I'll bet that Shellback kissed "The Baby" too!
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Post by rockjunquie on Jul 25, 2017 7:21:50 GMT -5
Are you guys shellbacks? Now THAT was an initiation- or so I'm told.
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geezer
spending too much on rocks
Member since April 2016
Posts: 338
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Post by geezer on Jul 25, 2017 7:34:47 GMT -5
Not me, but I grew up around a hell of a lot of them! Proud of it too.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 25, 2017 17:26:11 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! And I'll bet that Shellback kissed "The Baby" too! Thaat's one honer I never received. All of my time was spent north of the equator.
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Post by aDave on Jul 25, 2017 19:52:03 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! Correction, You gotta be a Navy guy to understand. I actually gotta go with the "guy" thing. We had similar rites of passage in the FD back in the day...at least our Dept. It was a great source of camaraderie and helped to bond the crew. After "sensitive" folks got their feelings hurt, it was labeled "hazing," and it was clamped down upon. The funny thing is that none of it was ever malicious. If you fit in, you were subject to the various pranks and such. If you were a turd and no one wanted anything to do with you, nothing was done. As mentioned, it was typically a rite of passage and not something to torment folks with. One rule that was typically held sacred, however, is you don't mess with a guy's safety equipment. As usual, however, some things started to cross an ethical line which added to these things being banned. What might cross a line, you ask? There was a long held tradition of "bucketing" in my Dept. An unsuspecting victim would be put into a situation where someone would douse them with a bucket of water...usually from the roof of the station. Usually, the sucker target was posed for a picture in front of the station, and just before the photo was taken...wooosh. Bucket dumped from the roof. The bucketer was most proud when he learned the victim was dropped to his knees from the direct hit. Well, back in the 80's a local TV news anchor visited one of the Hollywood stations. She was getting set to do her story, and wooosh...someone bucketed her. I don't know what her reaction was, as I was not there. However, this move caused bucketing to be "outlawed" at the station level. Creativity didn't end there, however, I've since seen photos of "victim" reaction to being bucketed with popcorn and confetti. It's pretty funny at the end of the day. I've probably got as many stories as the Navy guys, but I'll spare the rest of you. Ann fantastic5, it's a guy thing. Dave
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 25, 2017 19:58:11 GMT -5
So you were REALLY greased?!?! Not just a play on words. My husband tells me often, 'you just gotta be a guy to understand'! And I'll bet that Shellback kissed "The Baby" too! That big old fat greasy belly. grin.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 25, 2017 20:09:10 GMT -5
Correction, You gotta be a Navy guy to understand. I actually gotta go with the "guy" thing. We had similar rites of passage in the FD back in the day...at least our Dept. It was a great source of camaraderie and helped to bond the crew. After "sensitive" folks got their feelings hurt, it was labeled "hazing," and it was clamped down upon. The funny thing is that none of it was ever malicious. If you fit in, you were subject to the various pranks and such. If you were a turd and no one wanted anything to do with you, nothing was done. As mentioned, it was typically a rite of passage and not something to torment folks with. One rule that was typically held sacred, however, is you don't mess with a guy's safety equipment. As usual, however, some things started to cross an ethical line which added to these things being banned. What might cross a line, you ask? There was a long held tradition of "bucketing" in my Dept. An unsuspecting victim would be put into a situation where someone would douse them with a bucket of water...usually from the roof of the station. Usually, the sucker target was posed for a picture in front of the station, and just before the photo was taken...wooosh. Bucket dumped from the roof. The bucketer was most proud when he learned the victim was dropped to his knees from the direct hit. Well, back in the 80's a local TV news anchor visited one of the Hollywood stations. She was getting set to do her story, and wooosh...someone bucketed her. I don't know what her reaction was, as I was not there. However, this move caused bucketing to be "outlawed" at the station level. Creativity didn't end there, however, I've since seen photos of "victim" reaction to being bucketed with popcorn and confetti. It's pretty funny at the end of the day. I've probably got as many stories as the Navy guys, but I'll spare the rest of you. Ann fantastic5 , it's a guy thing. Dave Not bored a bit. Loved the stories. Bucketing sounds great. As a down hole snipe I saw boiler techs in the boiler rooms put coins on the water level sight glasses of the boilers making 600-1200 pound steam at 500 to 1200 degrees approx. After the coin got good and hot and an unsuspecting boot camp new guy walked on the lower level the guy on top would tap the coin and it would fall on the metal deckplates on the lower level.The new guy would instantly proclaim his good luck, pick it up, and have Jefferson on one finger and Monticello on his thumb. Good fun and no permanent damage. Rite of passage thing also. Or have a new guy climb the mast with a 5 gallon bucket of grease and told to grease the relative bearing.. grin. Bonding and camaraderie. Don't ask what we did to Ginzels in the oil firld. Rough necks are devious plus we were all hard core biker trash too.
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Served on two of these destroyers in this nest tied up. Also the heavy attack carrier Constellation. We called dher the Crudy Connie after fighting her hard for 8 months, Bring back memories ?? This was when we used guns, lots of guns, lots of big guns.. Made me almost deaf we shot so much. We poured it on their asps. My last ship the Rogers. 876 fired the last shells of the war. Or at least we got credit for it. The whole squadron wanted to empty our magazines instead of having to offload ammo at Bangor Washington. Was at veterans Hospital most of day scheduling a knee surgery. Lots of good men there. Some older.
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Post by jakesrocks on Jul 25, 2017 21:17:49 GMT -5
LOL Cliff. My first to ships were old APA's. Fossil fuelers. I'm well aware of the engine room antics as I started out as a MM. Changed rates to SFM in Nam to get away from that hot assed engine room. On another note, stand by tonight. It was home made beef and bean burritos for dinner tonight.
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