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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Two fights that I'll always remember (smokers)
1. My friend Larry, the first guy I met on my first ship, was a tough guy from Detroit and he went against this cocky kid from the hood in Philly named Bronson. Larry was tapping him and a punch slipped and Larry broke his thumb so they stopped the fight. Bronson kept jumping up and down with his arms in the air whenever Larry came by and Larry warned him to cool it. Bronson didn't, Larry's thumb healed, Larry beat him dang near to death. 2. We were in Uraguay having smokers against the Marines (off a gator freighter) and someone, purely as a joke, signed up a real quiet and seemingly whimpy guy, I don't remember his name. We were all surprised when the kid showed up, the Marine had been told it was an easy win, and then walked up to the Marine and hit him about three times and put him down and unable to get up. The kid walked out of the ring and went back to work. Seems he was a golden gloves guy out of Chicago. I never fought, that love tap from Martin was enough to convince me never to fight a boxer. |
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kcg5 Inner circle who wants four fried chickens and a coke 1868 Posts |
Keep the stories coming!!!
Nobody expects the spanish inquisition!!!!!
"History will be kind to me, as I intend to write it"- Sir Winston Churchill |
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
Santa
Did you ever experience WATER HOURS? That is when your ship is using more fresh water than it can make, so you brush your teeth with coffee, run out of clean clothes (underwear), and you can't shave for days. There is no feeling quite like putting on the sticky, damp clothes you wore yesterday (socks). This only happens when you are in the tropics.
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Oh yeah. On the destroyer, a beautiful ship, it didn't get so bad I think in Brazil we went three days without showers. On the tender we never had water in my section of the ship, and we were pumping it from shore! On the New Jersey we were at battle stations most of the time and rarely had time to take showers so I think I had two or three in a month.
In Kings Bay, which is the second to last exit off of I95 before you hit the Florida border, I was one of the first dozen people there. You entered the gate and had about five miles of forrest until you go to the pier, then the ship pulled in and we had three hundred people on the base (check out the web site for NSB Kings Bay and you'll see now they have over several thousand people, in fact they have more Marines than the county had people when I was there). We had a family of sea cows on the base and they would float under our walk way, or brow, from the pier and drink the fresh water that dripped out all the time from the hoses connecting the ship to the pier. It was very cool to see these huge animals. Our pier had great fishing and a popular past time was to sit out there and catch a mix of salt and fresh water fish from spotted bass to hammerhead sharks. One day we are loading cargo and down the pier we heard a loud piercing scream. We look over and this bubblehead is leaping to his feet, looking at the water, and he throws his fishing pole into the river and starts running and screaming with a look of terror on his face. We grabbed him and he says "monster!" and we went to look and what happened was a sea cow, the huge bull, had risen out of the murk to look at this guy and he had never seen anything like that and thought it was some sea monster coming to eat him! Other fun animals we had were wild boars, big ones that looked like VW's with muscles, aligators, and the most fun was when it rained and they would close the brow because rattle snakes would be trying to climb up on the highest ground, our ship. We also had a family of rabid raccoons. Of course you usually didn't notice these things while running from these little black biting gnats we called flying teeth. |
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MickeyPainless Inner circle California 6065 Posts |
It seems we were always on water rations when under way (which did not effect us since we made it and pumped it)! One way to conserve water was in the ships laundry and they would do the first rinse cycle in salt water then fresh. Just the slightest bit of salt still in your socks and skivvies would cause jungle rot especially if it was hot and humid or ya worked in the engine rooms so most of us went commando when out to sea!
We always knew when there was gonna be a greasing because we'd get a call to shut off fresh water to the heads and all degreasers and GoJo would get locked up for a few hours! I got in a few scraps, usually in a bar but occasionally on board over some silly dispute. The worst butt whipping I endured happened near the end of my hitch when we got this new boot from West armpit Wyoming who informed us that there wasn't anyone tough enough to grease him! I was a short timer, senior hole snipe and it sounded like a challenge to me! It took 12 guys to get him down and I was the "Greaser" so he intended to take it out on me! About a week passed and I dropped my guard and this big corn fed cowboy showed up in my engine room when I was all alone and put a whipping on me I'll never forget! Code of honor kept me from ratting him out but my last 3 weeks on board were his worst! He got the worst jobs, watches and work details, his mail got lost and he was always missing laundry but we shook hands in the end and I had to give him credit for standing up for what he believed! I later heard from buddies still on board that he was now the new guys worst nightmare! LOL |
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Nice!
We had a snipe who came on board, second class, and he quickly earned a reputation for being a wake up swinger. That meant if you shook him to wake him he would swing on you, and as you know you are not held accountable for the first ten seconds after being suddenly awakened, so he would smack a couple young guys and no one wanted to wake him. He had the 4 am watch on deck and the petty officer of the watch sent the seaman runner to wake up the relief watch guys. The kid came back and told him he didn't wake up the snipe because he was afraid he would get hit. The petty officer of the watch asked the chief of the watch to cover for him for a few minutes and went to the snipe bearthing and got a dogging wrench (basically a length of pipe) and gave that snipe a good shove. The snipe jumped up to get his swing in and the PO of the watch clocked him across the bridge of his nose, I mean he hit that dude with everything he had, split him open. That was the last time that guy ever woke up swinging. Next....the kid who challenge a Marine after a drunk outing. |
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MickeyPainless Inner circle California 6065 Posts |
And my next will be the night we stole the liberty launch!
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Al Angello Eternal Order Collegeville, Pa. USA 11045 Posts |
In old San Juan on Luna Street it was "5 and 2 I love you"
Al Angello The Comic Juggler/Magician
http://www.juggleral.com http://home.comcast.net/~juggleral/ "Footprints on your ceiling are almost gone" |
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Ever been to the black angus in San Juan Al?
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manal Inner circle York ,PA. 1412 Posts |
I'm a shellback. Crossed 4 times.
U.S.S. Sierra AD-18. The shipped was decommisioned since ( but not because) I was honorably discharged June of 1986. My older son is 82ND Airborne Paratrooper US Army Active Duty. My middle son is Special Forces Recon US Marine Corp. Active Duty. My youngest son just turned 6 and is Commander of the Home Very Active Duty. |
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Right on Manal! Hey, I know the USS Sierra, knew a bunch of guys off there in the early 80s. Seemed some tender pukes stayed tender pukes.
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manal Inner circle York ,PA. 1412 Posts |
Hey, I could have been one of those pukes as I was a crew member from late 82 to mid 86.
I flew to meet her in Diego Garcia first time I went aboard. Diego Garcia,Wonderful tropical Island BIOT gettaway. |
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MickeyPainless Inner circle California 6065 Posts |
Ahhhhhh yes, the world famous "Black Fungus" in Old San Juan! I'm afraid our stories of that land mark would be censored beyond the point of good reading but the terms "Blued, Screwed and Tattoo'd" comes to mind!
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
Story for Manal. The Sierra, as you know, was one of the first ships with women on board, the Simon Lake was the first. When they went to Diego Garcia it was still being built and was mostly sea bees and grunts (they did a great job because the jetti they built stopped the tsunami wave a few years ago) and was the most isolated of isolated duties, maybe with the exception of the secured part of Gitmo. The Sierra pulls in and, as expected, everyone gets off to enjoy an adult beverage, I hate that term by the way, but not too many because it was right before pay day.
That night they set up a search to make sure no one is bringing on drugs, a very common practice on ships. One not so attractive woman (called WiNdS for Women in Naval Service so winds sounds good rather that the old WAVES, we you to say "We use to join the Navy to ride the WAVES now we go where the WINDS blow free") is searched and the found over $3000 in cash on her! Seems the Sea Bees and Marines were loanly having been out there so long and,well, the gal was a business woman. (note: I was at the Nugget in Fernley Nevada and ran into a woman off the Sierra about a month ago and she verified this story and gave me other details I left out) |
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kid iowa Loyal user Oklahoma 300 Posts |
We were doing counter drug ops down in the Caribbean and we got an SOS call from a private vessel, they were taking on water and they're pumps were fried. Got there ahead of the Coast Guard (they had to put on their training wheels) and picked up a family of 6. The father and the XO got into an arguement over something, and all of a sudden the father ran below deck, came out and threw something onto the deck of our ship. Turned out it was a monkey they got down in Puerto Rico that the XO said they had to leave. The father said "F that" and threw it on our ship. The monkey ran straight up the lines and none of us could get him.
The monkey ran around for about a half hour, raising cain and hurling crap at us. The CO finally ordered the long range radar turned on. The monkey went up one line, screamed once, and came down a burning ball of hair. Good times, good times.
Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile...can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, "I served in the United States Navy." J.F.K.
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MagicSanta Inner circle Northern Nevada 5841 Posts |
That is so cool.....
The Invasion of the Skirts. That was the headline in the newspaper in Antofagasta Chile after our second night in port. We were in port with another destroyer and a gator freighter full of Marines, real grunts. The grunts were bent out of shape because our SEALs had gone over to work out with them and showed them up and the head grunt had held PT all day to torment the troops. Adding to his anger during the run a Marine photojournalist was not told that you never, ever, finish ahead of the CO of the marines even though he challenged them before every run. The journalist beat him and that just set off the grunt officer. So to say the Marines were angry was an understatement. The guys off the other tin can were just idiots. We hit the town and went to this huge club that had girls and booze and everything a growing boy could want. It was set up with big rooms with glass between them so it was like a lot of lounges, lots of neon. I was sitting with the SEALS and Frenchy, their corpman who was a good guy, told me that they were going to set up a fight by tricking the guys off the can into thinking the grunts were doing something and when he said to go to get out. My pal and I watched as the SEALS dispersed in the crowd and watched them talk to different people and pointing to other parts of the bar. Frenchy and the SEALS start to exit and Frenchy yells "go" and we head for the door just as the sound of screams and breaking glass start. We hit the door and left and you could here the fight start as my shipmates and I headed across the park, turning to see the police show up with the shore patrol. The next day they had the admiral, my boss, apologize for the damage, which was huge, and not one guy from my ship got caught up in the fight. The guys off the other can and the grunts all got restriction for the next port, which was a great one, and it was the only time I ever saw a bar fight make the front page. |
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manal Inner circle York ,PA. 1412 Posts |
I have lots of sea stories as well but I type with 2 fingers so they will go untold.
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