Homecomings were always special. Some of the cruises lasted a year or more and the Chief always came home with neat stuff, alligator purses from Cuba...Toys from Japan or Hong Kong...lots of tailored clothes from Hong Kong, too...always something. Except for the big Greenland cruise. That time he came home empty handed...so did all the guys in the machine shop. Here's why. Some of the older hands told some of the newer guys about the great fur deals you could get in Greenland...if th...
BJ Littlefield loved Squoshi...everybody loved her...but she loved BJ. Squoshi means little in Japanese. She was small and pretty and I loved her, too. BJ was a huge North Carolina football player who wound up in the Navy and working for the Chief aboard the Mighty Etai (etai means "ouch" in Japanese...our nickname for the Etlah, AN-79, a worn out old net tender that had been home ported in Yokosuka since the end of the war). A net tender is a pretty small ship with two huge "horns" stick...
If you wander long enough and meet enough people along the way, you may begin to get jaded and believe that there are just so many types of people. You change the hair color or the eyebrow shape or weight or height but basically there are a limited number of "types" in the world. You know you've met people and said to yourself, "he's just like______" , fill in the blank. Well, I know that there are some people in the world that there is just one of. World couldn't handle any more than one...
I'm working from undocumented memory, here...but to the best of my recollection...this is the Legend. Blackie and the Chief went to diving school together sometime in the late 40's...they were hard and fast buddies for ages. Hard hat divers are a limited crowd in the Navy so they served together often and bumped into each other at other times. Sometime in the very late forties or very early fifties, Blackie decided to go to UD school in Coronado, CA. He wanted the Chief to go along but Bl...
Chief R. G. Stone, USN 1944-19641925 - 1997He started WWII on the USS California but soon joined the crew of the USS Landsdown, a destroyer serving with the USS Missouri's battle group. The Landsdown carried the Japanese surrender party from the docks in Tokyo to the Missouri that was anchored in Tokyo Bay. He joined the service fleet in 1946, became a deep water diver. Became a Chief in 1958. Proudly wore the gold stripes of a spotless service record. He was my mentor, my teacher, ...
Hyperborean Wanderer age 4, his big brother, Golf, age 7. Knowing the dog's capabilities made it even more amazing how gentle and patient he could be with HBW's "attentions". They really were the very best of friends.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY US ARMY...AND HAPPY FLAG DAY TO YOU ALL.
At Fort Huachuca AZ I had a boss who owned a huge German Shepherd named Rinty. He was a direct descendant of the original champion named Rin Tin Tin...the dog not the boss. The dog not only impressed me with his size but with his huge intellect. I had always been a fan of Shepherds but had never owned one nor had I met one that was so smart. Mac, my boss, would tell Rinty to do something and wham! it was done right now. He also kept unwanted salesmen, neighbors, or kids out of the yard. ...
After the Metropole Hotel was blown up late in '65, then the Victoria in April of '66, the MP Brigade Commander was hard pressed to come up with a defense against suicide car bombers. The MPs who were killed in both of those BOQ bombings were armed with M16s and they were useless in stopping a car. The solution came to him, or more probably to one of his staffers who used to be a "Rat Patrol" fan (early 60s television, sorry). MPs have jeeps...they have machine guns...they have shooters w...
I drove my First Sergeant to an out of the way place near a tree line on the edge of a series of rice paddies to meet some other people. We had followed the Sergeant Major and now both jeeps sat on the muddy, dusty, almosta road (yeah...muddy and dusty at the same time...what a place). We sat for what seemed to be a long time when the Sergeant Major told his driver to inspect an old ammo box that was laying near by. I was just an old ammo box...no booby or any other kind of trap...so the S...
Southern Arizona Desert...summer 1967...Ahhhhhhh.
I saw a story on the news this weekend that said that organizers all across the country are having a difficult time getting traditional Memorial Day Parades going because the WWII vets are dying off and the Korean and Vietnam vets...well they implied they were a little bitter about the way they were treated and parading now seems hypocritical somehow. The organizers are turning to Gulf 1 and 2 vets but find they are too busy being...well...busy. VFW and American Legion posts are not doing w...
When Karmagirl asked about the perfect car, I answered with a discription of my "welcome home from Vietnam" present to my self. The story of how I...a staunch Chevy guy from birth... came to buy that car...is a little lengthy, but here goes. My trip from Germany to my home town, "the box", is another article in the making...but it was November of 1965 and after the ordeal of that trip I concentrated on enjoying the 30 day leave I had before me. It was the very beginning of the muscle car...
Sometime in the early 80's, the accident statistics in USAREUR (US Army Europe) involving fuel truck drivers got to the point where the 4 star in Heidelberg wrote to the 4star in TRADOC (Training and Doctrine) and said in effect, "It is your problem...train it out". TRADOC contacted the Transportation Corps in Ft Eustis in Virginia asking if they could train fuel handlers to be truck drivers after they finished fuel school. Not a problem, says TC school...here are the prerequisites...send 'em...
Mannie and I worked together at two places...EUCOM in Stuttgart and FT Lost in the Woods, MO. We were in a group of VIP drivers at EUCOM that had to go to a series of special driving courses set up by the Air Force and one by the German Police. It was kind of like a "Dukes of Hazard" course for sedan drivers...and we got PAID for that stuff. A tough as nails New Yorker complete with accent and strutt...one of my favorites. He was a good NCO and a solid soldier...but just a tad too ent...