Military Veterans

[drbark]

Thanks guys for posting your pics. I lost all mine in a fire few years back. Brings back memories.

 

[Brewski262]

Thanks guys for posting your pics. I lost all mine in a fire few years back. Brings back memories.

I'm sorry to hear that, you may be able to obtain some information from the archives in St. Louis (I think It was in st.louis.) about 6 years ago I filed some paperwork and received my grandfathers service record from 1943-1946. He ran away from home due to his drunk father when he was 16 and tried to join the army 3 different times with multiple attempts of forging his birth certificate. He finally tried the Navy and got by the first time. Dont know why I told you that or how it's related to the archives but still a interesting story.

Hope you can find something! it's also possible that there may be some facebook groups out there for the unit or division you served with and may be able to recover some of their pictures with you in it?

 

[Paul B]

Same here. Can’t run worth crap with all that gear on me.

I agree. I know today you can't modify your weapons and you have rules as to who and when you can shoot and you have to have a haircut and wear your uniform exactly like everyone else. Also no roof or walls.

We had no such rules and no electricity or plumbing so very few haircuts and they were with a sissors.
We could wear anything we wanted but of course all we had was those Army clothes (no underwear) and bamboo which may have chaffed a little.

As for weapons, I of course had an M-16 but I also had a 45 and a thing with a grenade launcher barrel under the normal barrel. I think it was an M-79 or some other number. I could have used one of the enemy's AK-47s, sling shot or a cross bow.

I never saw a road in that country so everything came on choppers. My friend had this one and he would bring us the mail. He would get me out of my bunker in the morning and yell "Hey Sgt Baldassano, I got some Wild Turkey" lets go flying.

I had some rank and no one really in charge of me so we would take the thing flying while drinking that stuff out of the bottle. We would fly under bridges and 100 mph over dirt roads.
Sometimes we would take small arms fire and he used to let me fly. I never landed but we crashed in this one and a larger Chinook.

I didn't croak.

We were always on a small LZ and when a new guy would show up, we would ask him if he ever heard of "Charge 7 plus rat"

We would load a rat into the barrel of the Howitzer, (they were all over the place) load a charge and fire it. Then we would make him clean the gun.
There wasn't many ways to have fun.

Brewski, your GrandFather was a Patriot. Like all the people here.

 

[KWT]

20 yrs retired USAF, heavy equipment and Red Horse in Korea and at Nellis. Just retired USPS last March. Always wanted Saltwater Tanks, finally started last Aug. I had 18 fresh water tanks set up during my team years.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

I agree. I know today you can't modify your weapons and you have rules as to who and when you can shoot and you have to have a haircut and wear your uniform exactly like everyone else. Also no roof or walls.

We had no such rules and no electricity or plumbing so very few haircuts and they were with a sissors.
We could wear anything we wanted but of course all we had was those Army clothes (no underwear) and bamboo which may have chaffed a little.

As for weapons, I of course had an M-16 but I also had a 45 and a thing with a grenade launcher barrel under the normal barrel. I think it was an M-79 or some other number. I could have used one of the enemy's AK-47s, sling shot or a cross bow.

I never saw a road in that country so everything came on choppers. My friend had this one and he would bring us the mail. He would get me out of my bunker in the morning and yell "Hey Sgt Baldassano, I got some Wild Turkey" lets go flying.

I had some rank and no one really in charge of me so we would take the thing flying while drinking that stuff out of the bottle. We would fly under bridges and 100 mph over dirt roads.
Sometimes we would take small arms fire and he used to let me fly. I never landed but we crashed in this one and a larger Chinook.

I didn't croak.

We were always on a small LZ and when a new guy would show up, we would ask him if he ever heard of "Charge 7 plus rat"

We would load a rat into the barrel of the Howitzer, (they were all over the place) load a charge and fire it. Then we would make him clean the gun.
There wasn't many ways to have fun.

Brewski, your GrandFather was a Patriot. Like all the people here.

The times may have changed but the shenanigans continue. Soldiers always find a way to have fun even in the worst of times. Your story brings up fond memories of some of the dumb stuff I did for a laugh over seas.

 

[fade2black]

Somewhere in Be'er Shiva Israel in the mid 90's. '95 I think. I'm the guy in the front. I was on a med deployment with the 26th MEU. Spent most of our time off the coast of Bosnia that winter.

 

[fade2black]

Somewhere in Be'er Shiva Israel in the mid 90's. '95 I think. I'm the guy in the front. I was on a med deployment with the 26th MEU. Spent most of our time off the coast of Bosnia that winter.

Incidentally, I was in Tel Aviv about a week after this was taken and about 4 blocks from where I was prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.

 

[Paul B]

The times may have changed but the shenanigans continue. Soldiers always find a way to have fun even in the worst of times. Your story brings up fond memories of some of the dumb stuff I did for a laugh over seas.

I would like to hear about some of the dumb stuff. I got one.

On a firebase we needed a pick up truck to take the expended 105 Howitzer shells out to the tree line to dump. (all solid brass, tons of them, I wish I had them now) and we also wanted to dump the garbage there so my Capt asked me to go to this semi rear area and get one.

My friend flew me there in that small LOH helicopter and it was on top of a steep mountain called Nui Ba Din (spelling is most likely wrong)

My "friend" told me to get the truck and weigh it then see this guy from the Air Force and he would fill the truck with 3.2 beer but don't tell the Chinook helicopter crew what was in the truck or I would have to split it with them.

So now the truck has a thousand lbs of beer in it under a tarp. About 20 of us get on the Chinook.
Maybe this one.



And we take off. As I said it was a high mountain with a steep cliff. Right after we were airborn, we started to lose altitude. The door gunners were frantically trying to release the lever that held the truck and I was yelling at them that that was my truck and I needed it.

Finally the truck released but we were to low and the front rotor hit the bamboo and we gently fell into a rice paddy. The truck was about half a mile away.

We hiked up the mountain and I called my pilot friend from a radio and told him, "we have a problem!"

He said stay there and he would come get me in that small Loh helicopter.

We made three trips that night in his Loh in the dark to get all that beer out of that truck because we didn't think we could pay for that Chinook Helicopter.

Then we all had hot beer for a week.

 

[\m/reefsnmetal\m/]

Somehow during my second time in country we RIP'd with a unit that had loads of unaccounted ammo/ordinance. I'm talking 40mm grenades, AT4's, and a karl gustav recoiless rifle. We went out on "patrol" and found a random mountainside to use as a backdrop. We blew the hell outta that hillside using every bit of ordinance we found. It was a blast lol.

I also remember playing fruit ninja with my kabar and some expired IV bags. It sounds so stupid now, but seemed like a good idea at the time. There's too many stupid funny moments to recall.

 

[fade2black]

Somehow during my second time in country we RIP'd with a unit that had loads of unaccounted ammo/ordinance. I'm talking 40mm grenades, AT4's, and a karl gustav recoiless rifle. We went out on "patrol" and found a random mountainside to use as a backdrop. We blew the hell outta that hillside using every bit of ordinance we found. It was a blast lol.

I also remember playing fruit ninja with my kabar and some expired IV bags. It sounds so stupid now, but seemed like a good idea at the time. There's too many stupid funny moments to recall.

Heck yeah, those days were so fun. Hey, we have all this "extra" ammo that we need to use. Let's go qualify with the machine guns. AT-4 were a blast, but nothing beat the Mk19 and ripping through belts of 40mm.

 

[Weasel1960]

The times may have changed but the shenanigans continue. Soldiers always find a way to have fun even in the worst of times. Your story brings up fond memories of some of the dumb stuff I did for a laugh over seas.

You got that right you should see some of the shenanigans on TikToc....also plenty of this is what we do videos as well

 

[Paul B]

LOL, I wish I had a video of a Mad Minute. I have it on a small tape cassette but it is so bad now that you can't hear it.
A couple of times a night we would call out "Mad Minute" Everyone on the LZ, sometimes 150 of us in this large clearing would shoot everything and anything we wanted all at once into the jungle tree line.

fifty calipers, M-16s, AK-47s. Howitzers, Dusters (like a tank with two 90mm barrels), LAWs (our equivalent of Bazooka's) 60 caliper machine guns, grenade launchers, sometimes Cobra Gunship helicopters would join in and often other firebases would also fire around us from miles away. Many of our rounds were tracers so you could see them streaking through the jungle. It was common in Nam but I never saw it in a movie. Of course it was quite expensive.

The sound was deafening. (we had no ear protection) WE did this almost every night to try to persuade the enemy not to attack. It didn't work because right after one of these we were almost over run but I bet we eliminated a bunch of them before the attack.

Besides Mad Minutes I could fire anything I wanted at any time. We used to play with the howitzers to see if we could hit a tree by aiming through the barrel. I was pretty good.
It used to look something like this but much more widespread.

 

[Paul B]

I know some of you guys did some stupid things unless there are so many rules now that you can't do anything. Officers were careful in Nam when they gave orders because if it sounded to stupid some one may frag the guy. (Throw a grenade at him when he is sleeping) we had cases of grenades and threw them all over the place for fun. If we found a bomb crater filled with water and we wanted to take a bath or just get out of the heat, we threw in a couple of grenades to kill the snakes and leaches.

 

[drbark]

I agree. I know today you can't modify your weapons and you have rules as to who and when you can shoot and you have to have a haircut and wear your uniform exactly like everyone else. Also no roof or walls.

We had no such rules and no electricity or plumbing so very few haircuts and they were with a sissors.
We could wear anything we wanted but of course all we had was those Army clothes (no underwear) and bamboo which may have chaffed a little.

As for weapons, I of course had an M-16 but I also had a 45 and a thing with a grenade launcher barrel under the normal barrel. I think it was an M-79 or some other number. I could have used one of the enemy's AK-47s, sling shot or a cross bow.

I never saw a road in that country so everything came on choppers. My friend had this one and he would bring us the mail. He would get me out of my bunker in the morning and yell "Hey Sgt Baldassano, I got some Wild Turkey" lets go flying.

I had some rank and no one really in charge of me so we would take the thing flying while drinking that stuff out of the bottle. We would fly under bridges and 100 mph over dirt roads.
Sometimes we would take small arms fire and he used to let me fly. I never landed but we crashed in this one and a larger Chinook.

I didn't croak.

We were always on a small LZ and when a new guy would show up, we would ask him if he ever heard of "Charge 7 plus rat"

We would load a rat into the barrel of the Howitzer, (they were all over the place) load a charge and fire it. Then we would make him clean the gun.
There wasn't many ways to have fun.

Brewski, your GrandFather was a Patriot. Like all the people here.

Great stuff. Thanks for the info. I had a M-20 with a Kimber 1911 as my sidearm. I was 3rd SF my first few years so I had very few rules I needed to follow unlike my brethren. Hated shaving so it was cool that I really did not have to.

 

[Paul B]

Once on an LZ a deer walked out of a clearing about 100 yards away. We normally ate C Rations and since we had a lot of Red Necks with us some of them decided to shoot the thing and one of then would cook it.

About a dozen of them started firing at the poor creature who just stood there in Awe. M-16s fully automatic, grenade launchers and I think one of them fired at it with a 60 caliper machine gun.

The deer eventually walked away. I said, "Please, if we get attacked here, you guys stand behind me so I can shoot something" .

 

[sfin52]

I really don't have cool stories like you guys.

 

[Paul B]

Sfin52, something must have happened to you and the rest of the Hero's here who haven't said anything. What did you do all day? Even stupid things.

I am old and I still remember stupid things. Once right after Basic I got my first weekend pass. I think I went to Ohio although I don't remember how we got there so we must have hitched.

We were at the gate of the "Ohio State Fair". No one was there because it was the middle of the night. We didn't have any money but we were in uniform so we figured they would let us in.

We walked through the gate and it was pitch dark and we were looking for a place to sleep while we waited for the place to open.

I found a bench and my friend Marty kept walking.
Just as I started to fall asleep, I heard this blood curtling scream and Marty frantically ran past me.

I followed him out the gate and when he calmed down I asked what happened.
He said he sat on the ground near a tree and as soon as he sat down the tree moved and made a loud noise. I told him he was nuts and we found a small apartment building and slept on the steps.

Later we went back to the fair and found out what happened to Marty.
We walked past the bench where I was sleeping and about 50 yards away, tied to a tree,
was an Elephant.

Just like in the cartoons with a chain around his leg tied to a tree.
Mystery solved and to this day, Marty won't go near elephants.

 

[sfin52]

Sfin52, something must have happened to you and the rest of the Hero's here who haven't said anything. What did you do all day? Even stupid things.

I am old and I still remember stupid things. Once right after Basic I got my first weekend pass. I think I went to Ohio although I don't remember how we got there so we must have hitched.

We were at the gate of the "Ohio State Fair". No one was there because it was the middle of the night. We didn't have any money but we were in uniform so we figured they would let us in.

We walked through the gate and it was pitch dark and we were looking for a place to sleep while we waited for the place to open.

I found a bench and my friend Marty kept walking.
Just as I started to fall asleep, I heard this blood curtling scream and Marty frantically ran past me.

I followed him out the gate and when he calmed down I asked what happened.
He said he sat on the ground near a tree and as soon as he sat down the tree moved and made a loud noise. I told him he was nuts and we found a small apartment building and slept on the steps.

Later we went back to the fair and found out what happened to Marty.
We walked past the bench where I was sleeping and about 50 yards away, tied to a tree,
was an Elephant.

Just like in the cartoons with a chain around his leg tied to a tree.
Mystery solved and to this day, Marty won't go near elephants.

On post my sup took my study materials. I than used my SSI (special security instructions) used them for a bookmark. CMSgt caught me 3hrs into a 12hr shift, stupid cameras. My sup and I had to walk the flight line for the next 9 hours.

In Saudi we used our thermal cameras to track wildlife.

One fall morning a Coronel come on base through an unauthorized entry point. We had two fire teams sitting there for chow. I was on top of the humvee with the 60. We chased him down and I put the m60 on him as he was pulled from the car. He had to answer to a general for that.

My sup Ssgt Brian Cain would come and rescue me from post often to help train his k9. That was always a lot of fun. This particular after noon we went to a field. Sgt Cain and I got out and got into a pretend scuffle. I pretended to beat the snot of him in full bite suite. He told me to run. His dog never hit me so hard, she took me to the ground. Sgt Cain was yelling for me to get up. Those where fun times

SF is a strick laced group that like to eat thier own. Main reason I got out and never worked on a police force. It was a joyless job and not much fun.

 

[Paul B]

See Sfin, I told you you had some interesting stories. I like the Colonel one.

Anyone else? Because I could go on for hours and I have PTSD and unlike you guys, was only in for 2 years so I know there are some stories out there.

 

[drbark]

I'm sorry to hear that, you may be able to obtain some information from the archives in St. Louis (I think It was in st.louis.) about 6 years ago I filed some paperwork and received my grandfathers service record from 1943-1946. He ran away from home due to his drunk father when he was 16 and tried to join the army 3 different times with multiple attempts of forging his birth certificate. He finally tried the Navy and got by the first time. Dont know why I told you that or how it's related to the archives but still a interesting story.

Hope you can find something! it's also possible that there may be some facebook groups out there for the unit or division you served with and may be able to recover some of their pictures with you in it?

Not sure. My service record paperwork is all there. It was just some personal pics I took on some of my missions with one of those disposable cameras. Was not allowed to take pics but I did it anyway. Our office in Irvine, CA. caught on fire in one of the wings and a lot of our personal stuff was destroyed. I have the memories though.

Cool story. Years ago, on a request from my best friend, he asked me to find some info about his wife's uncle. I guess he was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked and he got blown off of a lookout of some sort. He survived. I looked it up where you described it and finally had to ask my CO to pull some strings at the DOD and they had a record of his injuries during that time. Don't know how he found that but that proved he should have been awarded the PHM. By the time I received the award and its paperwork, the poor guy had passed away. At his memorial, I pinned it on his chest, at his family's request, before he was buried. I had goose bumps all over me while I was doing it. I just whish he was alive to actually appreciate it. There probably was around 40-50 Legionnaires there. It's something I will never forget.