At McClellan in '88, we were advised not to travel in groups of less than 3 since were in Class A's for the first off post pass. We were also told that the townies would sneak into the areas used off post for training camp outs and try to sneak M-16's out of tents. We were strongly advised to sleep with the rifle actually in the sleeping bag.

__________________
A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek with think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

We were strongly advised to sleep with the rifle actually in the sleeping bag.

In the infantry, we always slept with our rifles. The last thing you wanted if someone hit you while sleeping was to have to search for your weapon. We slept fully dressed, too. After a few days in the field, you notice how badly your shelter-half mate stinked. After a few more days, you couldn't smell anything because you yourself stank so bad. It was like a force-field of funk surrounding you. Too bad it wasn't powerful enough to fry the mosquitoes.

During basic, our Drill Instructors would creep around at night and steel NBC masks, weapons and anything ELSE they could pluck from a sleeping soldier.

One poor guy lost his boots, k-pot, NBC mask, weapon, belt, all his spare BDU's, a full supply of MRE's and a pack of chewing gum.
To get his weapon, the D.I. poked him in the butt with a stick until he rolled over.
He spent a lot of time low crawling around the field that morning (didn't get the gum back though.)

I'm a heavy sleeper and was sure they would get stuff from me. I slung my weapon around my arm and apparently every time they tried to get my items I hugged whatever they were trying to get "like a teddy bear."
My D.I. Complimented me on the love and affection I displayed for my weapon...Or something like that. He asked if I'd named her too.
I woke up with all my gear and no memory of anyone having tried to take it.

Let me guess - "Vera."

__________________
SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

That episode was absolutely classic. Not quite Jaynestown, but a classic all the same.

__________________

New! It combines the power of science with the gentleness of your mother's best intentions!
A new miracle technique, we apply homeopathic methods to achieve scientific efficaciousness
for dilutions WAY beyond Avogadro's Limit. It's New! It's Fresh!
It's Placebo^[tm] Brand Power Drink! *[Use as directed. May increase kidney function.]

I wish

Well basic was much before Firefly.

I wish I could name a favorite episode. But there were so few that...

When I was in Army basic training, we had one guy in my platoon named Scheuler. He was always losing stuff (or having it stolen). Just before we went on our first field exercise, our assistant Drill Sergeant called all of us together. The DI's name was Angulo and he had a thick Hispanic accent.

"When we go into the field, some of you are going to lose stuff. Scheuler, you're probably going to lose yourself so we'll have to come looking for you. I'll be following your trail. Look, there's his canteen. There's his shelter-half. Sooner or later, I'm going to find you. Now, don't you do like some other fools have done. When I find you, you'd better not run off. Cause if you do, when I catch you, the accident report is going to read, 'Scheuler ran into a tree!'"

Scheuler was considered the company clutz until several weeks later. In our last week of Basic, we had a 16 mile speed march with full equipment. Sometime during that march, Scheuler suffered a stress fracture of his leg. He never complained and kept going. For the rest of that week, he did everything we did including physical training (running a lot), marching, and the PT test. He went into the first week of Infantry training before finally telling a DI that his leg hurt. When he came back from sick call with a cast on his leg and we learned the story, Scheuler got a lot more respect. He was pretty tough. He tried to keep up with us with a cast on his leg but the Army put a stop to that. He was put on casual status until his leg healed and was assigned to another company to finish his training. I never saw him after that.

Would it be wrong to re-enlist just to see how many Firefly/Serenity quotes I could use in basic?

Basic would be so funny to go through now.

I actually went through 3 kinds of basic. First, I went through Army basic and infantry training (which was like extended basic training) followed by Jump School. Later, I switched to the Air Force. I was there for a couple weeks before they let me bypass the rest of what they called basic training. It was a joke, just not very funny. Years later, I went through Air Force Officer Training School. It was 3 months long and sort of like basic for officers. It was actually some pretty good training.

I guess some of us don't learn very quickly.

So, I've been politely asked not to continue the "Dungeree Liberity" story lines. Well, I have plenty of other stuff to talk about.

And, I'd tell one too, but I spent all day yesterday being a good friend. An injured friend is expecting another son in May and the baby shower is two weeks from now. There was supposed to a stone pateo by then and my brother and I have spent the last three weekends putting it in.

But we are a bit woofed now. What with the 4 and a half yards of gravel to level everything over the last two weekends and the two pallets of pavers we put in yesterday. I'm losing wieght nicely though. I'm actually back down to just half a chin too many instead of the multitude two years ago. Shows off my Kirk Douglas jawline better. And he is apprecietive of the effort. The man's own brothers wouldn't help him. (They are jerks, not him.) Oh yeah, he lives in Sacramento so its just under a 100 miles in each direction. That's how you know who your friends are.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

"Kirk Douglas jawline"? I thought it was a "Mickey Rourke + Prosthetics" jawline.

But clearly you and Marv have something besides jawlines in common: Both of you would go way out of your way to help a friend, and not let anything stop you.

Of course, you haven't killed half of all the shady characters in an entire city, to avenge a friend.

Have you?!?

Now Mr. Van Onselen, the best answer I can give is I haven't had to. As Marv himself says, killing a man for no reason means you are just crazy.

Though there are three people I am interested in locating. To turn over to the police of course.

One is a skinny Donny Osmonde look-a-like who beat my sister so badly he ruptured her spleen. He was a wastrel when he showed up and rumor had it that he moved on to join the terminally homeless in Santa Cruz. Though the statute of limitations has probably expired on that one. Oh well, I guess this means he got away with it.

Then there is whoever murdered my sister's fiance. An executive chef. His family was going to buy him a restarant in downtown San Francisco as a wedding present. He was murdered in a restaurant in San Francisco after hours. He didn't even work there. He was doing a favor for a "friend". Handcuffed, laid face down on the floor and shot through the spine and heart with a .38, (one shot).

That night, when he was supposed to get off work, my sister and a another friend went to pick him up as they had planned to go dancing. They heard him on the other side of the door saying, "No wait! I know who it is, I'll get rid of them!" and when he opened the door he yelled at them, "What are you doing here! I thought I told you I never wanted to see you again!" And then slammed the door. So they have an idea when the bad guy got there.

The owner of the restarant, who was summoned by my future brother in law with a phone call saying the boiler had a major leak was found in his office with the safe open and him tied to a chair beaten so badly it was considered a torture murder. Most of his bones were broken. The bullets in him were window dressing.

Thirdly, the slimy little piece of dung that called my future brother in law the night before to work for him that night because "something came up". Who then became harder to find over the next couple of days, particularly after other folks had a talk with him, until he and his girlfriend disappeared all together. I'm not Judge Judy. I don't require constitutionally admissiable evidence to be convinced of complicity.

And that's where I became an advocate of the old saw, "The first step in getting away with murder is lure your victim to San Francisco."
Their investigation deviated so far from reality that the family of my murdered future brother in law (They had a set wedding date) hired their own P.I.'s. They had a different story.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

By who*? Do we get a vote?

* Or is it whom? Gillianren?

In order: 1) Very likely one or more mod(s) not wanting us to discuss approvingly of what is legally assault, 2) Probably not, 3) Yeah, "whom". "Whom" is the object form. "Who" is the subject form. "Who did it?" "To whom are you referring?"

/ Not Gillian, but I've got English grammar rules nearly memorized except for gerunds. Never had a teacher who understood them enough to explain them properly. I can work with 'em, after a fashion, but I don't really get them.

__________________

New! It combines the power of science with the gentleness of your mother's best intentions!
A new miracle technique, we apply homeopathic methods to achieve scientific efficaciousness
for dilutions WAY beyond Avogadro's Limit. It's New! It's Fresh!
It's Placebo^[tm] Brand Power Drink! *[Use as directed. May increase kidney function.]

Actually, it wasn't a mod. I had visitors.

__________________
"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Men in Black?

Woman in cashmere. Said names I knew. Friends of mine had concerns.

__________________
"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Now I want to clarify something that was commented on by Mfumbesi in another thread. When we visited Africa we were too large to be anywhere near the harbor at Mombasa when we anchored. Had to hook a sea mount peak with our anchor by trolling for it. That's when you cruise around with your anchor down hoping to snag it. This was five miles offshore.

A monster cyclone was out to sea and no danger directly, but set up these amazing swells. We launched fifty foot motor whale boats to ferry guys back and forth to the beach. (Land, the harbor) These swells were so large that you would often find yourself completely surrounded by water and looking sunward would often see large pelagic fish highlighted like in some giant wall of blue glass.

Sometimes these fish would startle and pick a bad direction to jump and end up in the boat. Often with hilarious results. Its very Monty Python-esque to be looking down a line of bored sailors leaning against the low cabin and see one get flattened by a four pound flyingfish right in the mug.

With almost two years at sea I know of five diffent guys this has happened to, one guy twice. But he was a Bosun's mate and spent a lot of time on watch looking at water a lot closer to the surface than the flightdeck. On one of the above mentioned sponsons. Davenport was his name.

But anyway on one of the excursions to shore to party at a giant chess game* a short finned mako about 8 feet long jumped into the front of the boat. That's one of the bitey kind.

This had a bad effect on the trim characteristics of the motor whale boat. Went a little nose high it did. Several stalwarts with boathooks working in concert finally returned it to the sea, sort of gnarled up but vigorously alive.

The other two I didn't see personally the invading fish were said to be large members of the oceanic whitetip tribe. Another creature you don't want in close proximity while you are trying not to be sea sick.

So what I'm saying is they weren't great whites, like Mfumbesi supposed in the other thread, but I didn't answer. The water was way too warm.




*This hotel bar in Mombasa had a tiered floor with a giant chess board at the bottom. You would make a move then run up the stairs to look down at the whole board. The pawns were over three feet tall. People in the tiers would yell drunken kibitz's. I drank a lot of the brown liquor of Bora Bora that night.

Though fortunately I didn't get so drunk as to purchase and eat a meat pie from a push cart vendor near where the lepers hang out and beg. I didn't go but a couple of guys I know did, just to say to the folks at home they saw lepers. (Could I make something like that up?)

I had already seen some of the other wonders in the poor section and I gave generously. Fortunately I had a drago man who saved me. (A local hired to save you from stupid stuff like that. I had never been in a place that bone desperate before. The guy who ran the bar recommended hiring them, and which ones.)

The man who ate the meat pie had a case of the huck and squirts so bad that he was prostrated. But medical was full and had no spare beds so he had to be in his own rack while we sat with him in shifts for five days. The medics would come around to change his iv bag and measure stuff like pulse and temp.

We had to steal a new mattress for him every day from some other group's berthing like the bosun's mates or a snipe berthing and throw the old one overboard. (Supply was out of mattresses. Yeah I know, waaah. The other guys should have maintained a fire watch like they were supposed to. We sure as hell did AND kept a man at each entrance to the berthing on a stool. We did this in each of our berthings. There were thieves out there.)

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah

Lepers and adventurous shipmate eating the local pies. Ahh good times, good times.
The scene you painted about the swells reminds me of a movie Perfect Storm, positively frightening stuff.

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