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Sgt. Mike Viet Nam Humor
- Thread starter AJ
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We did the same thing and called it Mojo........Great for squadron parties!
We called it Hula Jula. Some friends and I made it up every Memorial Day weekend. Drink it and play Rocky Mountain Croquet. You set the course up where ever you are camped.
One time one guy brought his pot belly pig and it got hammered on the pieces of fruit people dumped out. The next day the pig was as hung over and just laid there squealed and grunted kind of like the rest of us.
One time one guy brought his pot belly pig and it got hammered on the pieces of fruit people dumped out. The next day the pig was as hung over and just laid there squealed and grunted kind of like the rest of us.
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AJ
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I started commercial fishing before GPS got common. Running along at night with just an old radar and a compass was "interesting". Loran was not very precision, especially on the inside passage and in South East AK because of the islands etc
Once running from an area that had had a 12 hour sockeye opener (money fish) to get to an area that was open the next day we got lost. I had run the boat from 8pm to midnight and was sleeping on the galley bench when the motor going to an idle woke me up. It was around 3am and when I went up to the wheel house the skipper told me he had gone out on the back deck to take a leak and when he went back in the wheelhouse he wasn't sure just where we were. We looked at the chart, the blobs of islands on the radar and finally decided rather than possibly going the wrong way we just went to sleep until it started to get light. Just shut down the engine, left the lights on so you are visible to other boat traffic and let the boat drift.
GPS change everything. Just where you were, points had names, track lines,. Then tying the GPS, radar, depth finder etc to a computer made life so much easier. You could leave a complete greenhorn at the wheel and still know where you were 2 or 3 hours later
Once running from an area that had had a 12 hour sockeye opener (money fish) to get to an area that was open the next day we got lost. I had run the boat from 8pm to midnight and was sleeping on the galley bench when the motor going to an idle woke me up. It was around 3am and when I went up to the wheel house the skipper told me he had gone out on the back deck to take a leak and when he went back in the wheelhouse he wasn't sure just where we were. We looked at the chart, the blobs of islands on the radar and finally decided rather than possibly going the wrong way we just went to sleep until it started to get light. Just shut down the engine, left the lights on so you are visible to other boat traffic and let the boat drift.
GPS change everything. Just where you were, points had names, track lines,. Then tying the GPS, radar, depth finder etc to a computer made life so much easier. You could leave a complete greenhorn at the wheel and still know where you were 2 or 3 hours later
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Before GPS the UH-60A had Doppler Nav. Before that we just had 1:50,000 (one over 50) terrain maps. Doppler basically shoots a radar beam downward, after you initialize it so it knows where you are to start, and a computer tracks your progress. The problem is bodies of water and mountainous terrain tend to confuse the computer so you have to continually update it with known points. Good luck with that in a strange tactical environment. The longest trip I ever made with doppler was VFR from Ft. Worth TX to Ft. Rucker AL. It worked pretty well over all that flat terrain, with very few large bodies of water. We backed everything up with a VFR Sectional. The trip was almost compromised due to a bunch of drunk Army aviators in the back of the helicopter, but that's a whole different story. The most fun is flying an OH-58 at night under NVG's, looking up at the trees, with a 1 over 50 on you lap. 
The Doppler info is off the cuff and from memory of the late 1980's. That was a while ago. Got to use LORAN a couple times long time ago but I don't remember anything about it, nor do I want to. GPS is the way to go today.
The Doppler info is off the cuff and from memory of the late 1980's. That was a while ago. Got to use LORAN a couple times long time ago but I don't remember anything about it, nor do I want to. GPS is the way to go today.
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AJ
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Before GPS the UH-60A had Doppler Nav. Before that we just had 1:50,000 (one over 50) terrain maps. Doppler basically shoots a radar beam downward, after you initialize it so it knows where you are to start, and a computer tracks your progress. The problem is bodies of water and mountainous terrain tend to confuse the computer so you have to continually update it with known points. Good luck with that in a strange tactical environment. The longest trip I ever made with doppler was VFR from Ft. Worth TX to Ft. Rucker AL. It worked pretty well over all that flat terrain, with very few large bodies of water. We backed everything up with a VFR Sectional. The trip was almost compromised due to a bunch of drunk Army aviators in the back of the helicopter, but that's a whole different story. The most fun is flying an OH-58 at night under NVG's, looking up at the trees, with a 1 over 50 on you lap.
The Doppler info is off the cuff and from memory of the late 1980's. That was a while ago. Got to use LORAN a couple times long time ago but I don't remember anything about it, nor do I want to. GPS is the way to go today.
Our birds had a "Search & Track" radar. For navigation they had an INS (Inertial Navigation System) that was pretty good. Usually got them where they wanted to go. Our radar/auto-pilot system had a Terrain Clearance Mode that no one really trusted.
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YeshuaIsa53
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I loved Loran C, good maps, and a compass. I could tell what another boat was doing miles away, then repeat his actions while he gave it a rest.
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AJ
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We took wars seriously as we were there. However, you needed to inject some levity or you would go nuts. It is the civilian contingent (for the most part) that does not, as they are not getting shot at, rocketed, mortared and whatnot. Our families did for sure, but the folks with "No dog in the Fight" did not.
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I learned to use the stupid approach, act dumb and they would either just roll their eyes and walk away or even better if I was patient, they would actually produce some reason for me doing what I did. This seldom worked when they knew you belonged in data processing though. If they knew that then acting a bit odd would sometimes worked because they didn't expect you to be like a "normal Marine".
We had a Sgt, on Okinawa, that had either lost it or was faking it really well. Finally,when stopped by a full bird about his appearance in the hallway, he produced one of those super balls, threw it on the floor, and when it was done ricocheting around he stomped on it. That was the last we saw of him.
Several officers simply shrugged their shoulders and walked away from me. Senior staff NCOs were more difficult.
"Marine why didn't you salute me?" "I didn't know I was supposed to salute officers in cars, mam". "You salute the general in his don't you?" "Yes mama, but he has that big ol flag on his mam", while holding my hands out about a yard or so apart. Spin stomp stomp stomp
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F4phantom
US Veteran
Whenever the Air Force planes would land at Chu Lai, the ground crews would help get the plane ready to fly. They would stencil VMFA-115 somewhere on the aft underside of the plane. After a couple of times we got a letter from the Air Force squadron CO demanding that we stop. They sure couldn't take a joke. The next time they came in, the pilots looked all over the plane before they got in the cockpit. Little did they know we waited until they were ready to start the engine. Most of the Air Force pilots did not know how to use the external starters. The had these explosives that fired to start the turbine to rotate. Oh the fun we had.
F4phantom
US Veteran
A friend and I were going to the mess hall for lunch. He would on occasion not wear his cover. We were going up this dusty road when a Gunny stopped us and asked why he didn't have his cover on. His reply was "one of your fine Marines stole it". The Gunny than asked what's that it your back pocket? My friend reached behind, grabbed his cover and thanked the Gunny for finding his cover.
The other thing we would do was to not salute an officer on the way to the mess. After we passed them they would shout "Marines", we would stop turn around and give a really sharp salute. They would mumble something and then tell us to carry on. We would salute and go on about our business.
Oh the fun we had.
