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I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 9:09 am
by SA1911a1
And, No, I did not buy the bootk-camp photos. There was not a damn thing that I wanted to remember about RTC Orlando in 1971!
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 11:16 am
by ffuries
SA1911a1 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 9:09 am
And, No, I did not buy the bootk-camp photos. There was not a damn thing that I wanted to remember about RTC Orlando in 1971!
Damn, Baby Face Steve......How old were you in that picture?
We were all once young. Here's my contribution to the "When we were young" pictures. USAF Basic Training, Lackland AFB, Texas 09 Jan 86 - 24 Feb 86, 19 years old.
BTW Steve, I was starting Kindergarten in 1971 in Munich Germany...!
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:12 pm
by ffuries
SA1911a1 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 9:09 am
And, No, I did not buy the bootk-camp photos. There was not a damn thing that I wanted to remember about RTC Orlando in 1971!
You need to bring that picture with you next time you're in town. I can scan it, and photo shop the proof stamps out and clean it up a bit for ya.
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:42 pm
by SA1911a1
I was 18, Mike. I see you are well tanned in your Boot camp photo. Keep in mind, I was in boot in Orlando in the late Spring and Summer. You see that I am still a bit pasty-faced. That is because, in the first week, I landed the job of Batallion Yeoman because I could touch-type, and I scored well on the GCT-ARI testing.
I must have had one of the easiest boot camp experiences in history. The biggest reason that I skated so much was that the Bat Commander, a warrant officer who was bucking for a promotion, found out that I could do his paperwork better than he could, so I did his coursework. As far as rifle drill, on that asphalt grinder in the tropical paradise of Orlando, I didn't even know which rifle in the rack was mine. I can't tell you whether we drilled with '03s or Garands...;) Unlike the rest of my company who could only go to the exchange, in a group, to buy essentials, (shoe polish, deoderant, toothpaste, etc.) I went often, unsupervised, to get the WO cigs, or whatever. Whenever I was there, I loaded up on things that were forbidden in my company; newspapers, magazines and candy. I would buy candy and give it away in the evenings after staff went home. Hell, my friends even kept my locker and rack ship-shape. I was the good King Rat of bootcamp.
One good story that I have is that when we went to the firing range for the 1911A1 training, and it was time to shoot for score, I was next to one of the biggest doofuses in my company on the firing line. I scored expert because that dumb-ass was shooting my targets. Between the two of us, we made a good score! ;) He had to go for remedial training; poor bastard. I was fortunate to not have more hits than were fired in the sequence.
I was terrified about half the time in boot-camp, but looking back on it from over 50 years, I just remember the funny shit.
I also found a photo of my wife, myself and my mother taken a few months after my release from the Navy. Apparently all of the training went for nothing: By the way, I haven't shaved that moustache since. ;)
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 1:00 pm
by ffuries
SA1911a1 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:42 pm
I was 18, Mike. I see you are well tanned in your Boot camp photo. Keep in mind, I was in boot in Orlando in the late Spring and Summer. You see that I am still a bit pasty-faced. That is because, in the first week, I landed the job of Batallion Yeoman because I could touch-type, and I scored well on the GCT-ARI testing.
I must have had one of the easiest boot camp experiences in history. The biggest reason that I skated so much was that the Bat Commander, a warrant officer who was bucking for a promotion, found out that I could do his paperwork better than he could, so I did his coursework. As far as rifle drill, on that asphalt grinder in the tropical paradise of Orlando, I didn't even know which rifle in the rack was mine. I can't tell you whether we drilled with '03s or Garands...;) Unlike the rest of my company who could only go to the exchange, in a group, to buy essentials, (shoe polish, deoderant, toothpaste, etc.) I went often, unsupervised, to get the WO cigs, or whatever. Whenever I was there, I loaded up on things that were forbidden in my company; newspapers, magazines and candy. I would buy candy and give it away in the evenings after staff went home. Hell, my friends even kept my locker and rack ship-shape. I was the good King Rat of bootcamp.
One good story that I have is that when we went to the firing range for the 1911A1 training, and it was time to shoot for score, I was next to one of the biggest doofuses in my company on the firing line. I scored expert because that dumb-ass was shooting my targets. Between the two of us, we made a good score! ;) He had to go for remedial training; poor bastard. I was fortunate to not have more hits than were fired in the sequence.
I was terrified about half the time in boot-camp, but looking back on it from over 50 years, I just remember the funny shit.
I also found a photo of my wife, myself and my mother taken a few months after my release from the Navy. Apparently all of the training went for nothing: By the way, I haven't shaved that moustache since. ;)
Right after I graduated HS in Germany, we left for my dad's new assignment in California. So the summer before I shipped, I Spent a lot of time at the base pool or the beaches getting rid of the 3 years in Germany pasty body color.
Basic was easy for me. It only took me a few days of arriving there, to figure out that life at Basic was no different than life at home. Just a different asshole in fatigues ordering me around.
Started growing my mustache back out as some as I graduated Basic. My wife asked me to shave it off a few times, but I refused. Then one day she asked again, and I said you want it gone, you shave it. Well she did, and immediately regretted it and told me never again. Hasn't been shaved off since.
Group picture of me, with ny wife and the brats, in 2003 after an awards ceremony.
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 4:30 pm
by Junk Yard Dog
1971, friend of mine was in the Navy about that time, long retired now, he stayed in for 20. 1971 he was doing interesting shit in and around Vietnam. Firing big guns took some of his hearing and he had to fight to get something for that, now you have to tell him things three times before he gets it. Another younger friend of mine went in the Navy in '87, and for the next 20 years toured the world, he loved duty on the flat tops, loved being in Japan, and Cuba, I got license plates from his various shore postings. He hated NAS Lakehurst, but he did get me on base to see the spot where the Hindenburg crashed. He is enjoying being a fat, gray, balding, old civilian, but if someone pisses him off out comes the petty officer. I personally know one WWII vet, 95 years old, lied about his age. Still lives on his own, manages his own affairs, tells scammers who call him on the phone to fuck off. The Vietnam vets I know are starting to dwindle away, still some Gulf 1 vets around, I don't know many of the later Iraq, or Afgan vets as I don't run around with that age group. To think at one time I knew a few WW1 vets, all long gone now, but they are remembered.
Re: I can't believe that I was ever this young!
Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2024 4:46 pm
by ffuries
SA1911a1 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:42 pm
I was 18, Mike. I see you are well tanned in your Boot camp photo. Keep in mind, I was in boot in Orlando in the late Spring and Summer. You see that I am still a bit pasty-faced. That is because, in the first week, I landed the job of Batallion Yeoman because I could touch-type, and I scored well on the GCT-ARI testing.
I must have had one of the easiest boot camp experiences in history. The biggest reason that I skated so much was that the Bat Commander, a warrant officer who was bucking for a promotion, found out that I could do his paperwork better than he could, so I did his coursework. As far as rifle drill, on that asphalt grinder in the tropical paradise of Orlando, I didn't even know which rifle in the rack was mine. I can't tell you whether we drilled with '03s or Garands...;) Unlike the rest of my company who could only go to the exchange, in a group, to buy essentials, (shoe polish, deoderant, toothpaste, etc.) I went often, unsupervised, to get the WO cigs, or whatever. Whenever I was there, I loaded up on things that were forbidden in my company; newspapers, magazines and candy. I would buy candy and give it away in the evenings after staff went home. Hell, my friends even kept my locker and rack ship-shape. I was the good King Rat of bootcamp.
One good story that I have is that when we went to the firing range for the 1911A1 training, and it was time to shoot for score, I was next to one of the biggest doofuses in my company on the firing line. I scored expert because that dumb-ass was shooting my targets. Between the two of us, we made a good score! ;) He had to go for remedial training; poor bastard. I was fortunate to not have more hits than were fired in the sequence.
I was terrified about half the time in boot-camp, but looking back on it from over 50 years, I just remember the funny shit.
I also found a photo of my wife, myself and my mother taken a few months after my release from the Navy. Apparently all of the training went for nothing: By the way, I haven't shaved that moustache since. ;)
New Years Eve 01 Jan 1986 (Kerry's parents house), 5 days before I shipped to Basic Training. I'm on the back left, the guy (Scott) on the right was my best friend in HS in Germany. About 1 1/2 years after I joined, he joined and went into the same career field as me. The two girls (Right) Dawn and (Left) Kerry we met at Billeting in California, they had been best friends in England. Scott married Dawn a few years later.
Man I had a head full of dark hair before I shipped. At Basic not being able to comb it or dry it after a shower, for 4 days before getting our haircuts. My hair looked like I went through a tornado.
For my first 7 years in the AF my hair was borderline (At best) in being in regulations. Then I got to Florida and within a few months I went to wearing a high-n-tight and its been that way since.