Looking to hear stories.

[jjohnisme]

It must be a weird fascination of the connection between people i know and a story they have about a specific encounter, or just a general overview of the conflict they served in, but i really enjoy listening to people's war stories, and stories about combat experiences or anything of the sort.

Call me cliche, but i get the most vivid mental images when i talk to people about their respective roles and whatnot. Namely my granddad (fought in Korea), but young and old alike.

Any stories out there to share? I ask because i'm sure there are some vets on here with histories that no book can hold, and i'd be honored to hear them.

And if i offend anyone, i apologize, i'm only looking to read what you have to say, i'm not prodding anyone specific to respond. Sometime's i'm just not too good with words, though.

 

[Indecision]

I got nothin, i'm a grunt, but I got stuck in an office job cuz I'm intelligent. It sucks.

 

[Disposable Heart]

To be honest: I don't think alot of folks that have "been there and done that" like to talk about that sort of thing. My father would never tell me anything but VERY vague duties he performed in during Vietnam.

 

[JetGirl]

To be honest: I don't think alot of folks that have "been there and done that" like to talk about that sort of thing. My father would never tell me anything but VERY vague duties he performed in during Vietnam.

Ditto to that ^.
It's not uncommon to only hear the "socially acceptable" stuff... funny anecdotes, quips about women, weird food, and odd customs of other places...but not much else unless there's a reason, I guess.
Sometimes I'd like to know. Sometimes I'm glad I don't.
I don't deal well with people I love being hurt and I'm finding out lately that I'm sort of a grudge holder against those who did the hurtin'.
Not really sure where that's coming from. Nor why I just blabbed it.

 

[Jay]

Nor why I just blabbed it.

I'm bettin' it has something to do with the tension settings on yer jaw muscles.......

 

[JetGirl]

I'm bettin' it has something to do with the tension settings on yer jaw muscles.......

Mess with the bull, and you're gonna get the horns, duffer.

 

[Jay]

DUFFER ?? Ok, remember that one...... cuz I will.....

Mess with the bull, and you're gonna get the horns, duffer.

Already got horns....but you'd never pass the physical for a bull.....

of course, bull "headed" is an entirely different matter........

 

[JetGirl]

of course, bull "headed" is an entirely different matter........

As well as buller, no doubt. I have my moments.

 

[Jay]

As well as buller, no doubt. I have my moments.

uhhhh go ahead, I'm writing all this down...... and yes, I can BS successfully with almost anyone, but some folks don't have room for any more......

 

[CombatVet]

So the MI guys had just installed our "Eye in the Sky". They where looking around one day. This one local was acting suspicious. So they started watching him. The local looks around for a little bit (he was in a cow pasture). Walks up to a heffer, and smacks it on the rump. The MI guy was like errr ok? The local looks around some more and pulls his pants down. See where this is going? I'm told he was turned in to the locals and was stoned for it.

I got another short one.

Me and my grp where guarding this Hoji bunker full of captured munitions. When all of a sudden we here BOOM! we all get down and start looking around. We hear it again. BOOM. It's coming from behind the bunker. We though **** we're getting hit. So we slowly make our way around to the back of the bunker and see all these goats walking. BOOM! a goat goes flying up into the air. Eventually the goats stop walking and the herder comes over. Through a Terp we figure out he wants us to pay for his goats since they stepped on land mines.

 

[JetGirl]

uhhhh go ahead, I'm writing all this down...... and yes, I can BS successfully with almost anyone, but some folks don't have room for any more......

I said *me*, not *you*... hence the I have MY moments.
Sheesh.
Paranoia much?

 

[Jay]

per Webster.... paranoia = an unreasonable fear of persecution.... or of Annie

 

[JetGirl]

So then, that's a "yes".
Mkay.
Carry on.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I do not have any war stories, as I was in the Coast Guard. However one day, I was doing boat checks in the morning. I looked out at the break wall, and waves where just crashing over it. It's the same break wall seen in the first Jurassic Park. Us guys where talking about wanting to go out in it. Well we had two 23" foot safe boats, with twin 115 horse Yamaha's. The Commandant said we could only into weather conditions of 6" foot seas, no breaking surf, and no more then 32 knot winds. Well some guys left to go look at the waves. Said there where two boats trying to tow in surf. One being a jet drive, and the other had an outboard.

They said the one with the outboard flipped over. So Chief, I and another crew member got underway. We where sitting in the middle of the channel. There where 20" breaking waves, coming into the harbor. For those land lovers, those are big waves when you are in a tiny @@@ boat. I was just about to call the air station, and here comes one towing the other boat. I was like @@@@. I still wanted to go out in it .

Another is we had to rescue 20 kayakers. They where stuck on this little island, in the middle of this river. The current was f'n crazy. They would have probably died, if they tried to get off the island. We got them all to safety though.

Last was, I had to help the cutter (Coast Guard's name for their ships) do a positive control boarding on a propane tanker. Well I had to be there at like 0400, so the cutters small boat could pick me up. So I'm on the second boarding party to go over. Here we are in choppy @@@ seas. So they have their jacobs ladder (ladder made up rope with wooden rungs) droped over the side. From sea level to the deck, it was probably a good 15"-20".
I have my BPV, all my LE equipment, and a PFD. Climbing up as swaying @@@ ladder, in the pitch black. That was a nice rush!

Best part was though, an HH65 Dolphin flew us around the Island. I was stationed on the Island of Kauai, in Hawaii.

 

[2ADMNLOVER]

One of the funniest times I had is when a grunt comes running up after firing his 60 during a live fire exercise and says "doc , I burned the ***T outta my hand " !

I asked him how he did it and he said he picked it up by the barrel , after LMAO at him I told him not to do that , it hurts !

Another time , myself and another medic was "pimped out" to an rotc group , after a few days they were done with their field training and were going home .

On the last day , some dumb*** louie forgot to secure his transportation and thought he would commandeer our truck and make us ride in the back .

I managed to convince him that our CO was a 1 star general and wouldn't be pleased with him once he found out about his orders .

Long story short he rode in the back and I made sure I hit EVERY pothole I could find on the trip back .

:fawk: You louie !


I almost forgot about San Antonio and the flyboys .

Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio is the home of the Army medical department and everyone in a medical related field will get to know it intimately .

Apparently the air farce has a basic training base near San Antonio and on the weekends we would run into each other downtown .

On our class B & C uniforms , we would wear gold colored rank insignia and most of the time the flyboys thought we were some kind of officers since they made a habit of saluting us .

Needless to say much fun was had at their expense , watching them do push ups in public , downtown in their pretty little blue suits was a blast .

 

[Fergy35]

Well it's not one of my own but Jerry, a gentleman I used to work with, was a Navy pilot in Vietnam. The man was a true American Hero. He did two or three tours flying the A-4 Skyhawk. Flying an attack plane meant it was his job to go in a blow up bridges, AA emplacements, supply caravans and the like. Well, Jerry would humor me with the occasional story and one in particular that I think of, from time to time, had to due with a stuck control stick.

Seems Jerry had just completed a bombing run on a bridge and had been told to look for other targets of opportunity. Well he and his fellow pilots started taking fire from a couple AA guns, so in they go to take care of them. They put the planes into a dive at the AA positions and start firing back. Interesting side note, Jerry explained how they could see the muzzle flashes and knew that is was time to swerve left or right before the rounds reached them, then more muzzle flashes - swerve again. How do you stay calm? Anyway, here is Jerry firing away and he gets to the point where it's time to pull up. Only his stick wouldn't pull back. He fought it for a while, then decided "Well I guess this is it, it must be my time, but I'm taking more of them with me". So here he is headed for the ground all guns a-blazin. See's a muzzle flash -swerves, sees another swerves again etc. Well after several swerve maneuvers the stick frees itself up and he is able to pull up - just barely, literally feet above the trees.

Well he and his squadron make it back to the carrier without further incident, talking along the way about what almost happened and how lucky he was. All the while, Jerry saying his prayers and thank you's to God. When he lands and gets out of the plane he gets to looking around the cockpit to see if he can figure out what happened. Under his seat he finds a short piece of 2X4. Seems the maintenance guys used them to prop something up and somehow forgot to take it out of the cockpit when they were done. When he went into that dive it must have slid out and got wedged in behind the stick. He figured he must have pushed back forward on the stick during the swerves and freed it up.

Jerry took the piece of 2X4 with him and had a very heated discussion with the maintenance crew. The guy is lucky he didn't get beat senseless with it or end up looking like a Popsicle with it sticking out of his hind end.

Jerry kept the board and had it hanging on his office wall next to the tail hook from his last mission and his helmet.

Sadly Jerry is no longer with us. Miss you Jerry

 

[kedie]

When I was at Ft. Campebell my company was in the field training on entering and clearing a trench line. I was the rifleman in my fire team. As the rifleman I was the lead man in the stack once we entered the trench. I was also responsible for clearing the bunkers by throwing in an M67 frag grenade while my team leader pulled security. This was a live fire exercise so we were using actual grenades. We were running low on live grenades so they were giving us two live ones and two of the "blue body" training grenades. My squad entered the trench and we came to the first bunker. Our squad leader said to clear the bunker, so my team leader watched the entrance of the bunker while I prepped the frag. Now the bunkers are down in the trench so the doorway on them is only three or four feet tall. I had the frag ready to go and tossed it in the bunker. At this point you’re supposed to yell "Frag out!!". As I was getting ready to yell, the grenade hit the top of the doorway, bounced off, and landed at our feet. Our company commander had been watching us from the top of the trench. When he saw the grenade he said "You better run." My team leader and I looked at each other and took off running. My "frag out!!" turned into "fragoutfragoutfragoutfragout!!!". We turned the corner and got face down in the mud just in time for the grenade to go "pop". I had grabbed one of the training grenades instead of a live one. No one got blown up and we had a laugh about it afterwards, but it sure scared the crap out of me and my team leader.


Then there was the time two airborne qualified POGs were escorted out of our company area by our 1SG. They walked in the back door where a bunch of us were cleaning our weapons and said "This place smells like legs." Good NCOs kept those guys from getting their butts kicked that day.

 

[buzz815]

On August 23, 1968 our ship 189 was assigned a mission to support a Special Forces camp in Duc Lap RVN. I usually didn't fly on 189 but voluntered that morning. I don't know if the regular gunner was wounded, on R&R or just had the day off. After arriving at Duc Lap we came under fire from several different sources. We could see and hear the small arms fire coming from below. We could also hear the rounds hitting the ship at different times. I don't know how long we were there, but I seem to remember a discussion on the headset that we didn't have enougf fuel to make it back to BMT. We were taking a lot of fire from a line of hootches and decided to make another run on them.Again our ship took a large amount of small arms fire and I could here them hitting the ship. I felt the ship shudder and knew we were in trouble. I heard a couple of MAY DAYS and saw the pilot trying to keep control. I looked at the crew chief and we both shrugged and said This is it. We were going down. I remember the ground came upon us awfully fast and I remember the initial impact. I think my seatbelt held because I remember my arms and legs extended in front oe me. I seemed to be floating inside the cabin. That's all I remember about the crash. I don't remember who came to first. When I got out I remember mortar and small arms fireall around us. I found an inoperable M-60 machine gun a group of NVA, I suspect were several hundred yards away. The crew chief had been shot and was pinned under the ship, which was held off of him by the gun mount. The pilot and co-pilot pulled the crew chief from under the ship. Someone found a piece of cloth and put the crew chief on it. We were still taking mortar and small arms fire while this was going on. We started dragging the crew chief into the tall grass for cover. The pilot led the way. He had the only serviceable weapon, his 45 auto. I was told later that we crashed near an NVA command and control bunker. They were in the grass looking for us. We had to make it to the special forces compound which was a few hundred yards away. We could hear the grass being swished by the NVA while they were looking for us. I had to stuff a rag or some other object in the wounded guys mouth because he was moaning loud enough we were afraid the NVA might hear him. We crawled for about 2 hours and ended up in a mine field outside the SF compound. One of the personnel on the compound had to come down and lesd us through the mines. The Dust Off driver that evacuated us was great. The ship was overloaded and I was wondering if we were going to get off the ground. I left my boots and the pilotleft his pistol for the people that needed them. Looking back I am amazed at how calm and collected the whole crew was during this event. I think we were all busy enough out for each other that we did not have time to be afraid. I think we were all professionals who gladly did the job we were assigned. Vietnan 1967-68-69 One of my many memories as a door-gunner on a helicoptor gun-ship.

 

[zoglog]

awesome thread, amazing stories, outstanding service to our country thank you all!

 

[IndyGunworks]

https://www.indianagunowners.com/fo...t/53613-my_no_story_in_pics_some_graphic.html


My NO story in Pics *some graphic* The flight down there..

and the chinook flight to the superdome...

It was immidiatly evident the filth people were living in.

the inside of the superdome was deemed unsanitary (condemned) so the remaining people who were waiting for evacuation were forced to wait outside....

we then went through the superdome to make sure everybody was out since the lines for the buses were getting really short..... the inside of the superdome had the NASTIEST stench you could imagine..... and was trashed... everydoor was kicked down and thousands of dollars of booz were looted.... there was standing urine in places and feces in piles in the middle of the hallways... feces was also stacked about 6 inches about every toilet since the toilets could not be flushed... rotten food was everywhere.... there were many bodies left behind in the Superdome.... here are a few choice pictures just to give you an idea....

I was detailed to guard the ambulances since there was a problem with people trying to force their way in so they could steel the narcotics.

Here is the aftermath of the evacuation at the superdome.

......

and a view from my concrete bed at the superdome.

We then moved to a differant part of the city to aid in rescue, and prevent looting in Jefferson Parish. Here are some photo's from the trip there.... we ended up sleeping 150 guys on a basketball court.... this is where i spent the rest of my time... i had two sets of uniforms 3 pairs of underwear 3 pairs of socks, and 2 pairs of boots.... it was around 100 degrees and humidity was unbearable.... we crapped into MRE bags, and Pissed into our waterbottles which were stored in an empty boat... we had no toilet paper... it would be 27 days before i had my first shower.... i averaged 3 -5 hours of sleep per 24 hour period.

This following pic was an assisted care facility, we pulled several bodies out of here.

this is my favorite photo from down there.... these boats were on an overpass!!!

all of the following horses died within 6 hours of this photo being taken.... they had been drinking the K-water.... guys in my unit had to drag the horses away so they wouldnt decompose near our living area.

Where the water had recieded there were plenty of rotting fish.

A car dealership

unbelievable damage from the winds.

We then commadiered a boat to try and get to the hard to reach places where the water was so deep that a 5 ton truck couldnt reach.... we found no humans alive... we did make two rescues though.

This was my new best friend, until the SPCA (i think that was the org.) came and put both dogs to sleep.... the larger of the two had bumps all over it from insect bites or something... it was nasty....

Our first rescue.... unfortunatly she was forced to stay by her son... her son was gone when we found her, and when we went back later to try and find her son their was gasoline poured on the inside of the residence, a propane bottle leaking and what appeared to be a flare attached to the door.... we would find out later that grannies social security checks is what this guy was living off of, we later arrested him with a plasma tv in a wheelbarrel, along with hundreds of pieces of jewelry, a large amount of cocaine, and three or four stolen firearms.....

We continued our search however finding survivers was no longer our goal.... we had switched into recovery mode.... every house, every apartment was checked, at least the the degree of cracking a window or something to smell for death to try and find the remains of the victims.... we ran out of body bags before finding this poor soul... so we guarded it to keep the dogs and birds from eating the corpse.... it would be 12 hours before we finally decided to break into an apartment and steel a sheet.... this would be the breaking point for most of us and we were sent home not a whole lot later.... to this day i do not know whether this person was white, black, male or female, but this was a common sight....

We then were sent to a naval ship to shower, and then to an airport to be picked up by a small plane..... while there i took a picture of the nastiest spider i have ever seen with my own eyes.... and another picture of some hurricane damage.