Vets...What did you carry???

DeathGrip said:
The best crew I could ever have.

We carried each other.

Me,Peace time Army....But when your flying with the best it's good to be the best.No room for error.No room for slackers.Off to the motor pool for slackers.

Army aviation is another Army.Only rotor heads would understand.
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Well said -

With 1,100 hrs. of combat time in RVN, I know how tight crewmembers are. All of Flight Platoon were very close - even when we didn't agree on the ground (Heads vs Juicers).

A few things I always carried as much for use as superstition:
P38
Zippo lighter
plastic spoon
pocket knife (small)
Buck hunting knife (large)
sun glasses (aviator style naturally)
extra gas cylinder plug for M60
 
My father used to tell me stories about WWII:
"When we landed in Normandy we had a long way to walk to get to the Germans. You would see guys just drop their BARs on the side of the road. They were just too heavy. When we finally got to the front, you couldn't buy a BAR for any price. I carried the BAR and Thompson sub-machine gun."
"We would throw hand granades as a team. One guy would grab the granade and the other guy would grab his arm, pull the pin, then let go of his arm. Guys would get tired and excited and would sometimes throw the granade without pulling the pin or would pull the pin and drop the granade. We loved to get a hold of the German "potato mashers" you could throw them much further than the American "pineapple" granades and they didn't have shrapnel, they were concusion granades, although the Germans at the factory that made tater mashers would put metal filings in with the powder."
Dad carried those little metal filings from German grenades for the rest of his life. He said the best enemy soldiers he fought against were the Hitler Youth, they didn't know the war was almost over, they fought like hell and they were mean as the devil."

When Hitler killed himself dad was in Germany. The war was not over yet, most Germans were surrendering but not all of them.
Dad had a German POW as his jeep driver, still in a German uniform. He had seen this castle across this valley and wanted to see it. So they go driving through this valley and came to this little village. As they drove through the village he discovered that it was full of armed Germans. They looked at him and he saluted them and told the driver to keep driving. They made it through the village and up to this castle. He was about to get out of the jeep when a Luftwaffe officer came out, fully armed. He told the guy that the soldiers in the village had just surrendered and that he and his men should go down there and wait with the others. Then he got in his jeep and got the hell out of there. He said he captured the whole village and castle single handed without firing a shoot. Then he would laugh....... I miss that old man.
 
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Usually just a couple of 3H pencils and enough money to go to the snack bar next to Base Operations a couple of times during the day.

Hey, I was a Weather Observer in the United States Air Force for 4 years,
somebody had to do it. (At Wethersfield RAF base in England)
 
As a Navy CT, my EDC was a multi-blade pipe tool and a set of Telex Twinset headphones. There were a couple of times when I was issued a 1911 to guard a Japanese typewriter repairman to keep him from learning any secrets.
 
A P-38, dog tags, St. Christopher's medal a photo of my wife a K-Bar from Ranger Joes in Columbus Ga. then a Randall. Socks lots of dry socks and foot powder. As an 11B lots of foot powder.
 
imjin138 said:
A P-38, dog tags, St. Christopher's medal a photo of my wife a K-Bar from Ranger Joes in Columbus Ga. then a Randall. Socks lots of dry socks and foot powder. As an 11B lots of foot powder.
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Been to Ranger Joes...would love to see pics of the Randall
 
As an 11B in Iraq from 2007-08, I was never without the St. Christopher's medal on my dog tag chain......I believe it saved me a couple times, as well as the other guys I was with. Some things turned out well for us that could have gone seriously, seriously wrong for me and other guys. I was never without that medal......

I had a few knives I brought with me, including a Japanese made S&W branded "tanto" knife. I still have a box of crap I haven't even gone through yet from when I was over there. I also carried a little CZ-70 .32 ACP pistol I found in a house,had it for a few weeks and then broke it down and dumped it when my team leader almost found it stashed in my IBA...... no one knew about that though........I wish I could have brought it back but they did everything but a cavity search in Kuwait on the way out.....

Also was never without a pack of Royale or Miami:)
 
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And a nasty habit I brought back with me - which totally disgusted my pops.
Crown Royal mixed with Dr Pepper -
Hey, Dr Pepper was the only thing we had at the time.

Bruce
 
CH47gunner said:
And a nasty habit I brought back with me - which totally disgusted my pops.
Crown Royal mixed with Dr Pepper -
Hey, Dr Pepper was the only thing we had at the time.

Bruce
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I agree with your dad; that's a waste of good Dr. Pepper. Overholt and Dr. Pepper, now there's a cocktail!
 
In my 23 months in Vietnam I carried a CAR-15 or a M16A1 (with a Weaver K6 Scope and a carry handle scope mount my uncle who was a gunsmith in NM made for me before I went left) depending on where we were working. I also carried a Walther P-38 that I bought in Nha Trang when I first came in country. At times I also carried a cut down M79 Grenade Launcher in addiation to my rifle and pistol.

I also carried a couple or three knives. I still have my Randall #1 and my Buck Folding Knives. In the two units I was in while in country both were very lax about what you carried.
In the unit I was with in the 101st, it was an Article 15 if you were caught without a weapon on you when we were in the rear with the Sergeant Major, the gear and the beer.

And we thought that "High Livin'" was Hot Dr. Pepper and Cutty Shark at LZ Betty or Camp Eagle....
Low Livin' was hot beer at any of the low places we were working out of.

Rule 303
 
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P-38, "demo" knife, Zippo, one of an assortment of 1911/1911A1 or an M-16, pencil or pen of some sort and a litle pocket pad in a baggie with wallet. As issued sundry pack brand cigarettes (we were engineers, and everyone always pawned of the Kents on us if there was a split of the sundry pack stuff).

rayb
 
The gun I used for the 4 years I served was a Devilbiss JGA-502.
I still use them to this day.

Look it up, it's a real gun! hahaha!

Leon
 
lazy said:
I did, what did you shoot?
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Lacquer by the dozons of gallons!

We sprayed in an open maintenance hanger.
No ventilation, no filtration, just half faced masks.
Good thing it was on a USAF installation, because I'm sure the EPA would have shut a civilian operation like this, in a heartbeat.

I painted RF-4C Phantom II aircraft.

Leon
normal_66-0467_1_67TRW_BA_Bossie-1.jpg
 
29aholic said:
There was a poet some years ago who did a short story titled "Things they carried" memory fails me who wrote it (ee cummings?) and it didnt deal with the normal gear, but what the Vets thought were important enough to them to hump. Family pictures, a favorite book, things they thought they might need in a pinch...a metal spoon for instance. I have long thought of writing a modern day version of the story, and would like to hear what you carried, or carry if you are still active.

I appreciate the replies.
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Sir, I was a grunt and thus did not like to carry anything more than absolutely necessary. "Extras" that I considered necessary included:

* "John Wayne" can opener, even though we mainly ate MREs
* Foot powder
* Extra socks
* Tabasco
* Spare MRE spoon
* K-bar
* Swiss Army knife (very handy--used this much more than the k-bar)
* Cigarettes and lighter
* Civilian compass (Silva)
* Field notebook, including a map protractor and various laminated "cheat sheets" (medevac, call for fire, etc.)

I also saved all my MRE matches, toilet paper and any MRE chow that I didn't immediately eat. Never know when you might need that stuff.

All this was in addition to the regular deuce gear, weapon and cleaning gear, etc.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.
 
Tool box. A M16 on first day at Nha Trang. I never saw it again after the 1st day.

LTC
 
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