And No ****, There I was .................

[one of many small ones]

Once during Flight Ops, I was OOD [Officer Of the Deck Underway]. Just me and my staff. Boats, Coxs, Gator, JOOD helm lee-helm etc....

Tomcat on cat two fires up his AB, JBD, of course up, and as he is launching/firing off the bow, one of his [I'm guessing, 250#'s] comes loose and bangles down the flight deck, port side. I notice it's green with yellow ogive: LIVE BOMB, not practice....

After about 10 seconds, I notice NO ONE is making any effort, either verbally or otherwise to extract it. ME on the MC to Flight Control: "is anyone going to remove that bomb?" <silence of about two seconds>, 'excuse me sir'.

ME: Ahem, last launch a live bomb came loose on it and it's resting on the Port side. <I can hear some words over the muffled mike>.....'we are on it'

Scrambling of personnel to the area, over goes the chute, bomb rolled onto chute and it goes over the side, with me giving a left standard rudder.

Ol' man shows up wondering why we were off launch course: I had some splainin' to do .. but it turned out ok.

 

Mark,

As a non-military guy I can already tell you that some of these stories are going to need to be translated from Mil-Speak into Civ-Speak.

 

I remember I was in Iraq in about 2002 and was watching some Army grunts shoot up a building from about half a klick away and they had a CNN unit trailing them and were filming live. One of the grunts was doing windage and the other pulled out an RPG and was aiming for a 3rd or 4th story window, he pulled the trigger, projectile flew out and swished straight through the intended window. The windage guy goes "Holy S*hit!!!! That was an awesome F*cking shot man!!!!" Right on live TV to the world..... we had some pretty good laughs about that.

another quick one

I was the WCS at the TOPGUN Tactical Intelligence Center on 9/11 and after about 11am we were already starting to get plans underway (maps of Afghan, AOB's, MOB's, etc.) and one Senior cheif comes in and is talking to one of my ops guys about needing pencils for the next TOPGUN class. My buddy who was a SSgt in the Marines just started giving him the riot act, just "who the f*ck cares about your stupid pencils" and so on, I laughed about that when I was taking a helo into Afghan from the USS Kennedy until I started crying lol, way too funny.

 

Back somewhere in late '92 SSBN 617 was in drydock at Bremerton, WA for defueling & decom.

During defueling ops there is 24/7 Marine presence all around the boat.

My friend & I are headed from the living/duty barge to the sub - I have the midwatch as shutdown reactor operator & he has to do some temp readings with an rtd bridge.

As we're nearing the seawall (the ladder/walkway down to our boat was at that end of the dock), we come up close to the Marine sentry on his rounds...

He turns around & is surprised to see us about 10 feet behind him... as he is startled, his M16 drops from his shoulder & clatters to the ground.

Either my friend or myself could easily kicked his weapon out into the drink and REALLY screwed up the poor guy's day, but we just chuckled between ourselves and continued on down to the boat.

Note to Marines - submariners tend to be rather quiet when walking around... just kinda a habit

 

spent a year in dry dock overhauling CVA 63 Kitty Hawk in Bremerton....got one of my marriages there too. oh, hood canal, the oysters were to die for....

 

Desert Storm - Tabuk Saudi Arabia - Jan or Feb 1991

I received a radio transmission stating that four F-15s were returning from a CAP mission (Combat Air Patrol) and they'd be a gas-n-go (just like a F-1 pit stop). Just as they're on final approach we go into Condition Red (take cover and go into full chemical gear) for a Scud missile that's launched towards us. It's at night (love night time flight ops!) and they're isn't a sole around as the 4 jets come rolling up. As I'm running up to the first one I'm putting on my gas mask and chem gloves. I marshal the jet to its spot and throw in the wheel chocks (no parking brakes on most jet fighters) all the while I'm looking over my shoulder for incoming Scuds. Then on to the next jet. Fortunately, one of the Crew Chiefs came out of nowhere and helped me with the last three (supposed to be a 2 person job parking a jet with one in full view of the pilot).

With all four parked the pilots waited, with engines running, for the "all clear" or "asset dispersal" signal.

There I was... Me and Crew Dog waiting and watching for the inevitable (?) without any cover or protection. The nearest hardened shelter was too far away once you saw an incoming missile.

After about 5 to 10 minutes, we got the all clear.

 

My Dad was a submariner on the USS Lapon back in the Cold War and did his deployment in the Mediterranean. So he tells great stories about his time spent on there. Keep them coming! Loved the Czech story.

 

I've not been in the military, and will never be, but like everyone I know some stories relatives told me... the funniest one being about a meeting of very high officers, a frustrated young fellow (with a father in the satellite industry) who had to stay over the weekend to serve as a waiter for the aforementioned meeting, a room with no windows and only one door, a bit of glue made for assembling satellites and some heavy machinery needed to open the door again...

 

+1

 

ok, not a great story, but just came to mind.

Father after WWII, married my mother, almost immediately they get pregnant, then he shoots off [ Mom's term ] to Korean war. War/conflict, whatever, over and he comes home to SF, CA on the Bon Homme Richard [curiously still in commission today]. During his 'away' time, I was born, grew and he saw me for the first time @ 17 months old.


A photographer for the Chron., SF paper, happened to catch it all. My dad [ green area and his typical style ], made his announcement and kissed my mom. I look happy here, but actually I'm crying my eyes out on this strange guy kissing my mom. [yes, I know there's a joke there about other men not being a problem . Later I would use that joke @ every chance....Mom would pickup that lead and go into her routine, MUCH to Dad's chagrin.....had a GREAT sense of humor, ol' mom......you have to being a military spouse ]
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