I Didn't See That !
- Thread starter Red 6
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Brand new Trooper to the Regiment is on his first ex, gets tasked to go place red glowsticks on all fire equipment points as darkness is falling. Young Trooper comes back after several minutes and of all people walks up to the SSM and tells him the glowsticks are no good, they don't illuminate. SSM tells Trooper "Just flick the switch on By!" Trooper thoroughly examines the glowstick and says, "They must be no good sir, there's no switches on these" SSM grabs one from him, holds it millimetres from the Troopers nose, snaps it, shakes it and says "Magic eh By?" Said Trooper goes off into the night to place the glowsticks feeling like a total idiot...............
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Not a story about a FNG but I swear it happened.
Time; early 70's. Place; Florida - Homestead AFB. The 82 ABN was deploying from Ft. Bragg NC for a training exercise at Homestead. This was a Div field exercise with all three brigades conducting a jump into the training area. As usual for an exercise of this type each battalion sent an advance team down to coordinate the various support activities that would be required. Advance team assignments were highly prised and coveted duty. Men were know to sell their sisters for this duty. Not only was the work load light, it meant you did not have to spend hours wearing full combat gear plus chutes while you played "hurry up and wait". Nor did you spend additional time in a C-130 while the AF flew nap of the earth for a couple of hours. As I was saying, advance duty was easy, the hours short and if you were deployed to an Air Force Base, there were always gullible Air Force types that could be conned into buying you beer while they were regaled with "war stories" of the hazards of being a paratrooper.
On the morning of the first drop (time was 0 dark thirty) one of our stalwart advance party NCO's had spent the preceding 12 hours at the NCO club. Here he was plied all night with free beer as he regaled his audience with stories of his daring do, and hair raising escapes from the clutches of death as he bravely launched himself from airplanes time after time. With a full load beer on board he made is way out to the drop zone to watch the first jump. As he watched the drop and thought "better them then me" he noted that each flight of three aircraft were drifting off the DZ. Eventually, inevitably, jumpers started to come down over the scrub pine and pimento bushes that ringed the DZ. Now, at the time the troops were still using the T-10 chute that was as maneuverable as a dump truck without a steering wheel. Eve so most were able to side slip and regain the DZ. All except one! This poor hapless individual managed to find the only 40 ft cedar tree within 2000 meters and get hung up swinging 20 feet off the ground. Our stalwart, helped no doubt by the beer, was greatly offended by this show of incompetence, rightly thinking it reflected badly on all paratroopers everywhere! And to make such an error while AF pukes were on the ground watching, unforgivable. With the conviction of the righteous that only a full tank of beer can give he advanced on our helpless incompetent and proceeded to let forth a string of invectives that were a wonder to listen to. He spoke to the jumpers professionalism, he talked about his ancestors, his sister, mother, wife, brother, his dog, his brothers dog and the fate of his children. He did this using soldiers language and rarely repeating himself. When he finally wound down, he stood with hands on hips looking up into the darkness at our jumper as he swung slowly back and forth, and said "well, what have you got to say for yourself". From the darkness above him a voice full of command presence and more then a hint of anger said "This is MGen Dean, who are you!" (Note Dean was the 82nd Commanding General at the time). There was a period of silence before a small voice answered "Don't you know?". "NO" relpied Dean.
A much smaller voice yet answered "thank god for that" follwed by the sounds of receding feet!
This same NCO years later had his name removed from a jump manifest because he had a premonition that he would be injured on the jump. So instead of jumping he went out to the DZ as the ground safety NCO. A jumper landed on him and broke his collar bone! He was given a repremand for allowing himself to be injured while acting as a safety!
Time; early 70's. Place; Florida - Homestead AFB. The 82 ABN was deploying from Ft. Bragg NC for a training exercise at Homestead. This was a Div field exercise with all three brigades conducting a jump into the training area. As usual for an exercise of this type each battalion sent an advance team down to coordinate the various support activities that would be required. Advance team assignments were highly prised and coveted duty. Men were know to sell their sisters for this duty. Not only was the work load light, it meant you did not have to spend hours wearing full combat gear plus chutes while you played "hurry up and wait". Nor did you spend additional time in a C-130 while the AF flew nap of the earth for a couple of hours. As I was saying, advance duty was easy, the hours short and if you were deployed to an Air Force Base, there were always gullible Air Force types that could be conned into buying you beer while they were regaled with "war stories" of the hazards of being a paratrooper.
On the morning of the first drop (time was 0 dark thirty) one of our stalwart advance party NCO's had spent the preceding 12 hours at the NCO club. Here he was plied all night with free beer as he regaled his audience with stories of his daring do, and hair raising escapes from the clutches of death as he bravely launched himself from airplanes time after time. With a full load beer on board he made is way out to the drop zone to watch the first jump. As he watched the drop and thought "better them then me" he noted that each flight of three aircraft were drifting off the DZ. Eventually, inevitably, jumpers started to come down over the scrub pine and pimento bushes that ringed the DZ. Now, at the time the troops were still using the T-10 chute that was as maneuverable as a dump truck without a steering wheel. Eve so most were able to side slip and regain the DZ. All except one! This poor hapless individual managed to find the only 40 ft cedar tree within 2000 meters and get hung up swinging 20 feet off the ground. Our stalwart, helped no doubt by the beer, was greatly offended by this show of incompetence, rightly thinking it reflected badly on all paratroopers everywhere! And to make such an error while AF pukes were on the ground watching, unforgivable. With the conviction of the righteous that only a full tank of beer can give he advanced on our helpless incompetent and proceeded to let forth a string of invectives that were a wonder to listen to. He spoke to the jumpers professionalism, he talked about his ancestors, his sister, mother, wife, brother, his dog, his brothers dog and the fate of his children. He did this using soldiers language and rarely repeating himself. When he finally wound down, he stood with hands on hips looking up into the darkness at our jumper as he swung slowly back and forth, and said "well, what have you got to say for yourself". From the darkness above him a voice full of command presence and more then a hint of anger said "This is MGen Dean, who are you!" (Note Dean was the 82nd Commanding General at the time). There was a period of silence before a small voice answered "Don't you know?". "NO" relpied Dean.
A much smaller voice yet answered "thank god for that" follwed by the sounds of receding feet!
This same NCO years later had his name removed from a jump manifest because he had a premonition that he would be injured on the jump. So instead of jumping he went out to the DZ as the ground safety NCO. A jumper landed on him and broke his collar bone! He was given a repremand for allowing himself to be injured while acting as a safety!
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Red 6,
You stayed a leg in armor to stay alive? Are you nuts? People like to shoot at those things! Besides that, they are full of nasty pointy things that go bang! Sometimes when you don't want them to go bang. No those big noisy, smelly things attract trouble! Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those misguided folks that go armour (or even armor). Why even my own nephew is a member of the RCD,. although we don't talk about him much. We still hold out the hope he will come to his senses and go Airborne! Why even I in a moment of weakness cross trained as a armored vehicle crewman. But then I was a troubled wayword lad that really should of had more adult suppervision. Thankfully the army after spending untold thousands of dollars ensuring I had the best and latest training on the beast saw to it I never saw the inside of one again! Without the Army looking out for my welfare I would have spent years going to the field without wearing out my boots and listening to a crew complaining that the beer in the cooler wasn't cold enough, or the heater wasn't pumping out enough heat on those cold winter days. No you can keep the things, who needs all that grief!
You stayed a leg in armor to stay alive? Are you nuts? People like to shoot at those things! Besides that, they are full of nasty pointy things that go bang! Sometimes when you don't want them to go bang. No those big noisy, smelly things attract trouble! Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against those misguided folks that go armour (or even armor). Why even my own nephew is a member of the RCD,. although we don't talk about him much. We still hold out the hope he will come to his senses and go Airborne! Why even I in a moment of weakness cross trained as a armored vehicle crewman. But then I was a troubled wayword lad that really should of had more adult suppervision. Thankfully the army after spending untold thousands of dollars ensuring I had the best and latest training on the beast saw to it I never saw the inside of one again! Without the Army looking out for my welfare I would have spent years going to the field without wearing out my boots and listening to a crew complaining that the beer in the cooler wasn't cold enough, or the heater wasn't pumping out enough heat on those cold winter days. No you can keep the things, who needs all that grief!
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"Go ask QM for the CADPAT paint" :dontpanic:
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Now that second pic is one I can relate to. Who here hasn't spent a good part of a day battling flint hard ground, rocks, roots and assorted debris digging a hole (excuse me...fighting position). Only to end up with a sore back and blisters, and just when you got it the way you want it for optimum comfort you hear "fill'em in and saddle up! We are moving!
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Red 6
Forgot to ask, what model of Bradley is that in the photo? I heard the sound system in the early models as pretty bad and that you guys sometimes would not be able to hear the dialogue from the inflight movies! I also heard the electrical system was not up to the job and the fridge and microwaves would go U/S. I swear I don't know how you guys put up with it!
Forgot to ask, what model of Bradley is that in the photo? I heard the sound system in the early models as pretty bad and that you guys sometimes would not be able to hear the dialogue from the inflight movies! I also heard the electrical system was not up to the job and the fridge and microwaves would go U/S. I swear I don't know how you guys put up with it!
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Hey Sarge, heres some trivia for you. Waaaaay back when I was in (Armoured) we actually had Armoured Airborne troopers. Back when they were trying to land Lynxes by parashoot.
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ExSarge said:
You must be confusing me for a someone on the Stryker. We had 4-15 air conditioning on our tracks. (4 hatches open at 15 mph) I'll tell you guys, those pressure cookers you guys have on your tracks are too cool.
To answer your question, my unit in Desert Storm had the first model of the M3. When I was in the Blackhorse Regiment in Germany, we drew the Bradleys in May of 85. In 88 we transitioned to the M3A1 and turned in our old tracks. Anybody who ever went thru this procedure knows the meaning of high ressure water in places where you're not supposed to project high pressure water. (such as turret sub-floors).
Anyway, I got to Fort Riley in 89 just as my unit was transitioning from the old '113 & ITV to the Bradley. Guess what tracks we drew? The exact same ones we traded in at transition in Germany. They were still in serial number order. It took about a year to get all the turrets working right.
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When I was assigned to the 1/10 Cav they "gave" me a M-114 with the promise that if I and my crew could keep it running for one complete field problem we would all get a three day pass! We never collected! When they ran they were great, unfortunately they required 8 hours of maintenance for every hour of run time! I never came back from the field except under tow!
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CDN Zipperhead said:
The 82nd Abn used to have a Armored Bn assigned, although I believe it stood down in the late 90's. There is nothing quite so spectacular as watching a Sheridan being dropped out of the ass end of a C-130. Especially if the chutes don't fully deploy!
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Garry
Remember that MCpl back in 83/84 who wanted to impress the Gasthaus Owners with his German, so he asked his 'buddies' to teach him on the Service Flight over to Fall Ex how to order a "Large Beer"? His 'buddies', being good "Army Buddies", taught him to say "Ein Scheiss Bier, bitte!". He of course practiced this phrase all the way across the Atlantic.
On his first opportunity to use this phrase, our proud MCpl using his 'best' German proudly asked the Gasthaus owner for "Ein Scheiss Bier, Bitte!". This of course caught the Gashaus owner by surprise and with an excited voice he replied "Kein Scheiss Bier hier!" to which our proud MCpl again proudly asked "Ein Scheiss Bier, Bitte!" and his 'buddies' started howling with laughter and falling out of their chairs. With a little more of a red face, and more volume in his voice, the Gasthaus owner again proclaimed "Kein Scheiss Bier hier!". A little puzzled now the MCpl asked again, and the owner more angerly denied having any "Scheiss Bier". In the end our MCpl ordered another type of bier and the Gasthaus owner was a little more charitable. A little bit later, the truth came out........
Remember that MCpl back in 83/84 who wanted to impress the Gasthaus Owners with his German, so he asked his 'buddies' to teach him on the Service Flight over to Fall Ex how to order a "Large Beer"? His 'buddies', being good "Army Buddies", taught him to say "Ein Scheiss Bier, bitte!". He of course practiced this phrase all the way across the Atlantic.
On his first opportunity to use this phrase, our proud MCpl using his 'best' German proudly asked the Gasthaus owner for "Ein Scheiss Bier, Bitte!". This of course caught the Gashaus owner by surprise and with an excited voice he replied "Kein Scheiss Bier hier!" to which our proud MCpl again proudly asked "Ein Scheiss Bier, Bitte!" and his 'buddies' started howling with laughter and falling out of their chairs. With a little more of a red face, and more volume in his voice, the Gasthaus owner again proclaimed "Kein Scheiss Bier hier!". A little puzzled now the MCpl asked again, and the owner more angerly denied having any "Scheiss Bier". In the end our MCpl ordered another type of bier and the Gasthaus owner was a little more charitable. A little bit later, the truth came out........
George,
I can remember that guy- naiive as hail....but Lord, what a warrior
Wasn't he the same guy that finally broke one of the new Leopards (return roller iirc)- in the parking lot of a gausthous??
Same guy was tossing apples at the 32A crew. Gave his driver bud hail for not joining in. Driver said "nope, I always get in trouble when I do this" but peer presure won out and he tossed one anyways...and hit 32B himself in the head.....who failed to see the humour (nor frankly the skill) a long Hesh-inspired shot like that required. (pretty funny actually, Bob was washing- and the apple near drove his face through the washbasin)
I enjoyed my youth.........
I can remember that guy- naiive as hail....but Lord, what a warrior
Wasn't he the same guy that finally broke one of the new Leopards (return roller iirc)- in the parking lot of a gausthous??
Same guy was tossing apples at the 32A crew. Gave his driver bud hail for not joining in. Driver said "nope, I always get in trouble when I do this" but peer presure won out and he tossed one anyways...and hit 32B himself in the head.....who failed to see the humour (nor frankly the skill) a long Hesh-inspired shot like that required. (pretty funny actually, Bob was washing- and the apple near drove his face through the washbasin)
I enjoyed my youth.........
