Smith & Wesson Forum

Go Back   Smith & Wesson Forum > General Topics > The Lounge
o

Notices

The Lounge A Catch-All Area for NON-GUN topics.
PUT GUN TOPICS in the GUN FORUMS.
Keep it Family Friendly. See The Rules for Banned Topics!


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 06-05-2015, 03:10 PM
OLDNAVYMCPO OLDNAVYMCPO is offline
US Veteran
Absent Comrade
Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups  
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: EL Paso, Tx
Posts: 1,068
Likes: 6,036
Liked 7,399 Times in 864 Posts
Default Mental Pop-ups

Increasingly, I've found in my old age, that memories from my past, good and bad, just pop into my mind of their own accord. Some are just a brief flash, a moment in time, others tend to hang on for days, playing themselves over and over. Lately, one such memory that has been persistent has to do with the submarine, USS Redfish (SS395), what we in the Navy called a pigboat.

To explain this, let me go back some. I enlisted in the Navy in 1964. Not so long after WWII and Korea that many of the drill instructors at boot camp were combat veterans of those wars. I attended boot training at San Diego Recruit Training Command. We had many hours of classroom instruction on the Naval battles of WWII. Many lectures were given by instructors who had personally participated in the battles. Really a first rate experience for a young boot.

During the course of bootcamp, on two occasions, the top man or two of each boot company were chosen to go on a off base liberty trip to a museum or a ship for the day. You can imagine what a big deal that was for a young trooper who had been confined inside the gates of the camp for weeks.

I was lucky to be chosen to make two such trips, the first was to a WWII private museum and viewarama of the war in the Pacific with the ocean the size of a large dinning room, with all the model ships and lighting effects to show gun flashes. The owner was a retired Navy Chief who narrated the entire war in the Pacific from memory. Impressive as hell.

The next liberty trip is the one that keeps popping up in my memory, it was to the USS Redfish. The Redfish was a Balao class submarine commissioned on 12 April 1944 and decommissioned on 27 June 1968. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 27 June 1944. Prior to Dec 1944, she was credited with sinking 18 thousand tons of Japanese shipping. Together with the USS Sea Devil (SS400), she sank the Japanese Air Craft Carrier Junyo on 9 Dec 1944. On 19 Dec 1944, she sank the new Jap carrier Unryu.

I never became a submariner but that visit still sticks in my mind.
Reply With Quote
The Following User Likes This Post:
  #2  
Old 06-05-2015, 03:21 PM
Coldshooter's Avatar
Coldshooter Coldshooter is offline
Member
Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups  
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Fairbanks AK
Posts: 1,422
Likes: 314
Liked 2,521 Times in 708 Posts
Default

When ever I read about the submarine service in the Pacific I am very glad the Japanese attack missed them. It was tough duty made worse by malfunctioning torpedeos. I read once in Naval History that a US tordedeo had 1400+ parts which was many more than other nations.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 06-05-2015, 03:40 PM
Texas Star Texas Star is offline
US Veteran
Absent Comrade
Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups  
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Texas
Posts: 20,362
Likes: 24,260
Liked 16,154 Times in 7,408 Posts
Default

I saw a SBD Dauntless that participated in the Battle of Midway. It was at an air show.

And as a kid I got to sit in an F-84F flown by the Thunderbirds. I was about 12. The pilot warned me not to touch the trigger on the control stick. The guns were supposed to be empty, but he didn't want to take a chance.
Apart from the gaudy paint scheme, those were front line fighters.

I also got to crawl around in a B-25.

Don't think I saw anything special as an airman in the USAF, but our basic training class did get to go to see, "The Longest Day" in a theater. That's still an impressive movie and probably the last that I saw in B&W.

I did get to see modern planes for the day. One thing that impressed me was how fast the RAF Vulcan bombers got off the runway at Goose Bay and climbed. Our B-52s just sort of lumbered by comparison. I was always afraid that the day would come when those planes would head for the Soviet Union, for real. I still don't trust Russians much. Or, China.
But it's better now than during the Cold War.

Last edited by Texas Star; 06-05-2015 at 03:42 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 06-05-2015, 04:21 PM
venomballistics's Avatar
venomballistics venomballistics is offline
Member
Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups Mental Pop-ups  
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: between beers
Posts: 8,874
Likes: 4,772
Liked 6,925 Times in 3,301 Posts
Default

I have a love hate relationship for that phenomena.
some leave you to grin slightly while stifling the urge to jump up and declare "That was God$(@ED EPIC!!"
Then you have those bitter pills that come forth, rekindling the fires of vengeance.
__________________
it just needs more voltage
Reply With Quote
The Following User Likes This Post:
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Male Mental-pause federali The Lounge 24 04-01-2014 10:13 AM
Mental Illness blazzinbird 2nd Amendment Forum 17 02-10-2013 11:02 PM
Mental Instability and firearms ... mc5aw The Lounge 27 02-09-2013 02:58 PM
Mental health vikgorr 2nd Amendment Forum 2 01-19-2013 10:57 PM
Mental Health RightArm The Lounge 4 12-24-2012 06:49 PM

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3
smith-wessonforum.com tested by Norton Internet Security smith-wessonforum.com tested by McAfee Internet Security

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 03:09 AM.


Smith-WessonForum.com is not affiliated with Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select: SWHC)