Go get a box of grid squares and some high-speed missile wax

[tuna]

Were any of you vets in medical units? Do you have any medical related material? I'd love to introduce this kind of ball breaking to the hospital I work at.

No, but I partied with the MASH unit at Cp Humphreys in Korea one night. What a freaking trip that was! I was chased around by dudes with IVs saying they were going to cure my hangover. Somebody had the bright idea to drive me back to my barracks in an ambulance. They opened the door, me an a bunch of beer cans tumble out and the ambulance takes off with one of my new friends leaning out the window yelling “see you later!”

I picked myself up to see my 1SG standing outside with his morning coffee and cigarette. He asked if I was on break (Intel unit, we worked every day so our off days were always rotating) and I told him I was. He said he didn’t want to hear anymore, didn’t want to know, didn’t want to hear, and knew where to find me when the MPs showed up. They never did.

 

[rali]

Metric crescent wrench.

A great guide to your career (if you don’t care) is “Skippy's List”. I posted it in the military bubba forum. Google it but be prepared to laugh.

I honestly got through between half and three quarters of the list.

I’ve had some of Skippy‘s lines in my rotating sig file for email for more than a decade.

Also, Things my girlfriend and I have argued about (does not include grid square)

R

 

[Matt_SERE]

My worst hazing was in Canadian airborne school (CFB Petawawa) Aug 1981 while earning my Airborne wings up there. I had finished my qualification jumps (and couldn't drink anymore), so I opted to go with the remaining jumpers who were finishing up. I put on a monkey harness which almost like a parachute harness but has a large snap link which you attach to the floor of the plane. I set up to take photographs of the jumpers as they tailgated out the ramp Hollywood style.

The French speaking crew chief decides to unhook me from the floor the plane to a jumper ready to exit, sort of daisy chain....but I have no chute. I doubt he would have sent me out that but it was a hell of a burn. View attachment 349900

That is awesome!

Worked with the exchange instructor program with Survival School instructors at CFB Comox, Vancouver Island. They play wickedly. I will say only two things. Well into the night they were collectively buying me 'doubles of Rum and coke'. Very early the next morning for added realism in the open water portion the Motor Lifeboat made sure I had enough waves and diesel exhaust to help with understanding seasickness. It turns out that 4k clicks away my mother and the OIC's mother lived around the corner from each other here in MA.

 

[garandman]

When the Squadron Commander visited the border camp, we put a blow up “Love doll” in his locker and the S3 brought his camera. When he opened the locker door, the doll fell out, he caught it in his arms and - snap! Photographic proof.

He was a good sport about it. The love doll then made a number of other surprise appearances in Jeep’s, APC’s, tanks, and helicopters. About half the time it was mistaken for a dead, naked body and the resulting flip out was even better!

I’m guessing that can’t happen nowadays.

 

[Picton]

I’ve had some of Skippy‘s lines in my rotating sig file for email for more than a decade.

I'm only reading Skippy's list now.

Holy shit. It's hilarious. Freakin' E-4s...

I might have told this story before here, and it wasn't really hazing per se, but one of the most unethical things I ever saw in the army. I was at Ranger school in 1998. The RI pulled us out of whatever we were doing and told us to get our wallets out of our A-bags, which I seem to recall were being stored in a tiny little shack called the "chicken coop" across from the RI offices. This was the middle of the night; it was all done by flashlight, and I remember cramming into the little room digging through the bags.

We'd all brought like $60 or something; whatever was on the packing list, for doing laundry during cycle breaks and all that. Well, this RI had brought out what seemed like a pallet of Girl Scout cookies from his daughter's troop? pack? whatever. He told us we had one hour to buy and consume whatever cookies we felt we needed.

This was the middle of the night at Darby. I've never felt so sick. I pounded like two boxes of shortbread, crammed into a corner of the chicken coop. I'm certain his daughter won whatever prize her troop was offering for cookie sales.

 

[garandman]

I met an old Marine who was in Korea(?).

He said the brutality of boot camp made him strong enough to survive being a POW.

He told me that he was beaten harder in boot camp than in POW camp.

Years later he thanked his DI.

In Ranger School they used to water board you as part of the "Resistance to Interrogation" training. It's assumed you will be behind enemy lines.

Not sure when they stopped. Some people definately didn't handle it well.

 

[Picton]

In Ranger School they used to water board you as part of the "Resistance to Interrogation" training. It's assumed you will be behind enemy lines.

Not sure when they stopped. Some people definately didn't handle it well.

When was this? I went many moons ago, before GWOT, when probably .0001% of the planet had ever heard of waterboarding. The place was all about patrolling and leadership and not at all about resisting interrogation.

In SERE, they've always done torture. I'll bet they've always waterboarded, and still do.

 

[garandman]

When was this? I went many moons ago, before GWOT, when probably .0001% of the planet had ever heard of waterboarding. The place was all about patrolling and leadership and not at all about resisting interrogation.

It stopped some time after Vietnam, not sure when. They were not doing it when I went in '82.

It was more about fundamentals like what to do if you were captured to escape. For example, spread the formation out, take advantage of artillery or air attacks to bolt, etc. I was headed for a Cavalry Squadron in Germany so we didn't worry to much about becoming prisoners, we were probably more likely to be nuked by NATO than the Russians. "Red Storm Rising" didn't make us any more hopeful.

 

[Picton]

Good book, though.

I wonder how many times they've changed the Ranger MOI over the years. Hundreds, probably.