Your military service...

[bassackwards]

Bass Tracker...not to pile on and make you feel even older (a.k.a. "experienced"), my MOM was born in 1947!!!

God Bless ya brother!!

[leahcim_dahc]

Thank you all for sharing your stories. There are some very interesting one's indeed. Thank you for your service! If at some time we happen to cross paths...you'll have to let me buy you a beer...or two!

I joined the Navy in July 1949

Wow! That is definitely "Old School". Thank you for your service! One question, though... Back then, how many men did it take to row a boat that size...? LOL!! Just kidding!

[cavdad45]

Thank you all for sharing your stories. There are some very interesting one's indeed. Thank you for your service! If at some time we happen to cross paths...you'll have to let me buy you a beer...or two!

I joined the Navy in July 1949

Wow! That is definitely "Old School". Thank you for your service! One question, though... Back then, how many men did it take to row a boat that size...? LOL!! Just kidding!

Spoken like an Army guy. They didn't have to row. "Why they's a sailin' ships, Matey" Environmentally friendly, too!

[bob johansen]

Thanks to Wayne for the "Old Man Of The Sea" crown but I am sure that there many old salts out there that are older than I. And, to Leahcim, we didn't have oars or galley slaves but we did still wear the standard Navy issue Flat Hat. That hat as you old salts will recall disappeared from the standard issue sea bag in 1963. And, my thanks to all of you for your patrotic service. BT

[bob johansen]

how do you make the photos smaller?

[leahcim_dahc]

Bass Tracker-

Scale them down with some photo editting software like Photoshop or GIMP. Gimp pretty much does the same exact thing as Photoshop...but it is Open Source and free!! :-D

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

BTW...I was just teasing about the whole row boat thing...no disrespect intended. :-P


Chad

[cavdad45]

I don't think anyone thought it was intended as disrespect. We know it was in fun.

[Marc Martyn]

I don't think anyone thought it was intended as disrespect. We know it was in fun.

Ditto:thumright

[littleriver]

Marc.. I enjoyed reading the story of your service...

I'm actually kind of familiar with what was happening in Guam then.

I used to drink and party with pilots and navigators of the Buffs and the Kc-135's who
would go over and fly out of guam for 3 to 6 months at a time.

Unfortunately everything was totally classified in regard to what they did and what I did so
though I can still remember many of their personal stories I have absolutely no specific information about
what they did in Guam. I could only interpolate from what I read in the newspapers

[leahcim_dahc]

...

...

ok...once in a while my dry sense of humor can get me into a bit of trouble...so I thought I would clarify just in case I might have offended.


Chad

[Marc Martyn]

Marc.. I enjoyed reading the story of your service...

I'm actually kind of familiar with what was happening in Guam then.

I used to drink and party with pilots and navigators of the Buffs and the Kc-135's who
would go over and fly out of guam for 3 to 6 months at a time.

Unfortunately everything was totally classified in regard to what they did and what I did so
though I can still remember many of their personal stories I have absolutely no specific information about
what they did in Guam. I could only interpolate from what I read in the newspapers

Well, basically they flew a lot of missions. There were 150 bombers over there, but they did not have that many parking spots for them. So, we were under constant pressure to what I called the 4 P's:

Park them
Pump them
Peak under the hood
Push them out of the way for the next one.

If your buff wasn't ready to go to launch on schedule, you had top brass climbing all over you like stink.....well you know. I only experienced that once due to POL problems. I still remember the chewing.

Here is some more info on the Operation:

Operation Bullet Shot
Operation “Bullet Shot” conducted during 1972 and resulted in the North Vietnamese finally getting serious about negotiating. In February 1972, in response to the increased infiltration by the North Vietnamese into South Vietnam, SAC initiated Operation Bullet Shot. Bullet Shot resulted in the build up of B-52 forces at Andersen AFB to carry out increased bombing missions that would eventually involve every B-52D unit. By July 1972 a force of almost 50 B-52Ds, 100 B-52Gs and over 12,000 personnel were bedded down at Anderson AFB. These bombers participated in bombing raids against enemy targets all over Vietnam, including north of the demilitarized zone.

When Operation Arc Light began during the mid-1960s. B-52's from Guam, Thailand, and Okinawa would each take off at approximately the same time and rendezvous at roughly the same points using essentially the same tactics night after night. Flying at an altitude of 39,000 - 41,000 feet, the bombers would head directly to the target areas. During the early days of Bullet Shot, many B-52's were lost on the flights over North Vietnam due to the repeated use of the same tactics. When the bombers changed the day-to-day tactics, the number of lost aircraft went down significantly.

The Arc Light sortie rate had been reduced to 1,000 per month in July 1971, and was increased to 1,200 per month in February 1972. When BULLET SHOT was complete the B-52s were capable of 3,150 sorties a month, until President Richard M. Nixon ordered a cessation to the aggressive bombing efforts. President Nixon gave that order when it appeared that the Paris Peace Talks were resulting in a possible agreement. However, when the communist forces took advantage of the bombing halt by increasing their operations tempo, President Nixon gave the order to execute Linebacker II.

Since Veteran's Day is approaching, some of you guys may be interested in reading more about this campaign.

Although it was a great deal of very hard work, I had it easy:

http://www.306thbw.org/306thhistory/his ... morial.htm

[bob johansen]

BTW...I was just teasing about the whole row boat thing...no disrespect intended. :-P


Knew you was just joking. Besides, I'm not sensitive about my age considering the alterative

[cavdad45]

Marc, you mentioned the loss of lots of B-52's. Were most from SAMs or Migs? Just curious. Though I can only imagine the horror of an inbound SAM, especially at night. Glad your here, today.

[littleriver]

As important as it is to remember our veterans, let's not forget about the brave guys and gals who
are fighting a hot war right now.

And if you think all the action is in Iraq and Afghanistan then you think wrong.

It hasn't been covered anywhere but in the Olympia paper (at least that I can find) but things are almost going "hot" in the Olympia Port district.

Fort lewis materials people have been running equipment into the base via the port of olympia and the local surrender monkeys have been picketing pretty much every time a shipment comes through.


A shipment went through yesterday and it got kind of ugly with protestors physically blocking the routes (it's called civil disobedience). Apparently rocks were thrown and it was really nasty.

There seems to be a group of "pro american" supporters forming and they were there for a counter protest yesterday. I'm going to find out who the organizer is and start volunteering to join them whenever they stage an event. But in the meantime it's interesting to read and participate in the forum on the Olympian (www.theolympian.com) discussing the event. If you think our discussions on windmills and "the war" were raucous you gotta check out the posts on that thread. My contributions are under the moniker "RobertL". Anyone interested in this subject and/or in supporting our troops in a little more proactive way might want to visit that thread and make a contribution.

[Marc Martyn]

Marc, you mentioned the loss of lots of B-52's. Were most from SAMs or Migs? Just curious. Though I can only imagine the horror of an inbound SAM, especially at night. Glad your here, today.

From what I understand, I think that they were all SAM's (surface to air missile). Although I was crew chief qualified, I worked recovery and was never assigned a plane all the time there.

Pilots told me that they were like telephone poles going up past them. They never got used to it.

[leahcim_dahc]

It hasn't been covered anywhere but in the Olympia paper (at least that I can find) but things are almost going "hot" in the Olympia Port district.

Fort lewis materials people have been running equipment into the base via the port of olympia and the local surrender monkeys have been picketing pretty much every time a shipment comes through.


A shipment went through yesterday and it got kind of ugly with protestors physically blocking the routes (it's called civil disobedience). Apparently rocks were thrown and it was really nasty.

I think the thing that pisses me off about those situations, is the fact the protesters are hurting no one but the joe's that rely on that equipment.

If they want to protest...fine do so in an orderly manner...don't block the equipment from getting to the people that need it fixed or need it period!

One of my favorite lines from the Olympian...

Jake Waluconis said he was choked with his own bandanna and was punched in the gut with a baton as he attempted to stop a convoy. A protester who identified himself as Emiliano Guevara had a bloody lip.

"The cops were beating people up for no reason," he said.

Allie Van Nostran, 18, an Evergreen State College freshman, said after an earlier confrontation, "People were shoved back to the sidewalk. I was shoved across my collarbone with a billy club."

...not sure exactly what they expected to happen when they decided to try and physically stop a military convoy. I am sure if they had a clue what happens in Iraq when someone tries to stop a convoy they wouldn't be so willing to step in front of those vehicles.


Chad

[Marc Martyn]

This thread was started so that present and former military can post their experiences in the service. Can we please keep it to that and not get worked up again about the anti war demonstrators.

Why do terms like "surrender monkey's" have to come into every thread?

If you want to continue this conversation on the demonstrators, please do so in the War & Politics Thread.

[panfisher]

ditto!!![-x

[littleriver]

uhh.. sorry marc. I guess I just like using the word surrender monkey too much and invoke it whenever possible. I should have put that stuff in the other thread.

[Marc Martyn]

I along with many others enjoy reading about someone's military service. There must be some more vets out there. Let's hear your storyo:)