Crank Up The John Phillip Sousa music!!

[Hardrock69]

Today is the 30th anniversary of the day I joined the United States Army, the finest fighting force on Earth!!!

God Bless America!

I salute the flag!
http://i15.tinypic.com/4trstg0.gif
The Flag
http://i14.tinypic.com/646zp6x.jpg

[hideyoursheep]

Good gawd! You're an old dog!

Hey Hardrock, you ever get the feeling after being in a while that you might have fucked up?

[hideyoursheep]

Give us one of your favorite stories to honor the occasion.....

[Hardrock69]

Anyone with half a brain is going to wonder "what in the hell have I done?" at some point after they joined the service.


I was a truck driver at Ft. Lewis, WA, just south of Tacome (this is why I saw Van Halen blow Black Sabbath off the stage in Seattle in 1978).

One of our regular gigs was to haul ammo, weapons, and supplies to the Yakima Firing Range in South-Central Washington.

Our battalion was in the midst of converting our 2 1/2-ton trucks to new engines with turbos. My truck had yet to be converted, and it was the slowest truck in the battalion.

So....bright and early one morning that summer, I reported to the motor pool, and drove with some other guys to the area where we were to be loaded up.

They were loading a Conex container into our trucks. 1 per truck. These are about 10 feet square, made of steel, with a pair of doors on one end.

Pictures of a conex:

http://www.mobilesciftogo.com/ph_lg_tricons_3.jpg

http://www.army.mil/cmh/books/Vietnam/logistic/images/F36.jpg

And for those of you who do not know what a Deuce-and-a-half truck looks like, here is a photo:

http://www.deltaforce.net/deuce/side.jpg


So anyway, one conex would fit neatly in the back of a truck. They used these large forklifts to lift them up into the truck, as shown here:

http://www.defence.gov.au/news/armynews/editions/1110/images/21newforkliftnov18.jpg


On with the story.

I knew something was wrong, when the lift truck was trying to lift the conex to load it in my truck, and the conex was so heavy (full of artillery shells) that the lift-truck broke.

They ended up having to use a small crane to lift the thing into my truck.

like this one:
http://nathanielstern.com/blog/wp-content/crane_olivier.jpg

By the way, these are just random photos taken from the net to illustrate the story.


So they got the damn thing on my truck with the crane, and they got the other trucks loaded and it was time to head out.


There were about half-a-dozen trucks on this run.

It is not a bad run....takes about 3-4 hours at 60 MPH.

http://i3.tinypic.com/4opuvt1.jpg


Ok so, of course I noticed right off the bat that my truck was dragging ass.

My truck could normally go about 58 at maximum speed on a downhill grade.

They had governors on them so you could not go faster than a set speed.

And the one thing you cannot tell from the map, is the mountains.

The Interstate goes through Snoqualmie Pass, which has some steep-ass grades. The Cascades are even larger than the Rockies.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7814/2tongaxo3.jpg

Ok so enough with the pictures.

We get out on the road, and eventually get to Snoqualmie Pass. As I said, real steep grade.

So we are on the west side, going up on the Interstate, and it is so steep, and my engine such a weak piece of shit, and the conex so heavy, I had to downshift to where the fastest I could go was 20 mph, in the low gearbox range, in second gear.

My best buddy, by the way, had a new engine with a turbo on it, and had the fastest truck in our platoon.

So I am trundling along at 20 mph going up this steep mountain grade, and all of a sudden WHAM!!!! something hit me from behind.

I look in my rearview mirror, and my buddy had come up behind me and bumped his front bumper into my rear bumper, and was giving me some help. He had it floored, and we actually got going up to about 45 mph going up the side of the mountain.

So we went on to Yakima, did the usual thing (unload the trucks, refill the gas tanks).

Then came the fun part.

When we went to Yakima, once we headed out on the return journey, we would stop at the first rest area on the Interstate (just west of Yakima), and we would smoke a couple of doobies, then we would kind of have an informal race back to Ft. Lewis.

So we did just that. Yeah, there were a LOT of stoners in my company. Remember, this was 1978, just after Vietnam, and the Retardlicans were not in power at the time, and the Reagan-era anti-drug hysteria had yet to hit.


So we got back to post, and my seargent is waiting for me. He sez my commanding officer wants to see me right away.

I ask him what the heck for, and he does not say anything. This is not the first time the CO has wanted to see me.

(HR note: I'll be damned....I found him on the net. We used to call him Rat-Face lol).

So I go to my CO's office, and my friend who helped me up the mountainside was there as well.

Turned out that someone called the State Highway Patrol to report that an army truck was pushing another truck up the Interstate, and they in turn called Ft. Lewis.

Shit rolls downhill, and the post Sgt. Major was upset about it and had called my captain.

So he reamed us for 10 minutes, gave us a rash of shit, and then I told him the story. I told him if the higher ups in our organization would've gotten off their dead asses and gotten me a new engine in my truck, I woulda had the power to get up that steep grade on my own!

So anyway, he gave us the standard routine about "I could write you guys up for this, but I will let it slide THIS time....".
:rolleyes:

Yeah...whatever.

Another time 3 of us had delivered a bunch of Army Rangers out into the forest on Ft. Lewis.

It was 90 degrees that day, and once we dropped them off, we went back to the motor pool, and had to meet up with them at about 3 pm to take them back to their barracks.

Since we were out in the middle of nowhere, we took our shirts off, so we were in our t-shirts.

Unless you have orders to do that, it is against regulations. 90 degrees in the Northwest is fucking HOT because it is usually VERY humid up there. And wearing a heavy cotton fatigue shirt with an undershirt in 90-degree humid weather was real torment.

Since were were by the side of the road in the midst of the forest, we thought it was no big deal.

Wrong.

Suddenly a jeep pulls up with a red license plate with 2 stars on it. It was the commanding general of the post.

We hurriedly got our shirts on, and the general kinda lightly reamed us about being "out of uniform".

After he left, we realized the E-4 in charge of our little detachment had accidentally put on MY shirt. So the report that was made to my captain was that it was ME that was in charge of our detachment, as the general had asked who was in charge, and when the E-4 replied HE was in charge, they took down MY name.
:eek:

So word got back to my CO, and we all were called on the carpet about that.

Man...what an ass-reaming we got!!
:rolleyes:


Those were things that made me hate military life.

Being bitched out for stupid stuff is a way of life in the army, and of course I knew that when I went in, but it still did not make it any easier.





Now then, on the other side of the coin, that was the year I came of age. Was in my first real rock band. Did a lot of drugs for the first time, got laid for the first time.

Those Yakima trips were a real hoot.

One time, we had to haul several truckloads of soldiers up to Yakima. There was about 12 of them in the back of my truck. It had a canvas top on it, and there was a flap covering an opening at the rear of the drivers compartment to talk to them through or whatever.

We got out on the highway, and some guy opens the flap up and asks if it is ok to smoke back there.

No problem, I said.

5 minutes later, the flap opens and a hand sticks out of it holding a lit joint.

That was fucking great. I got really high that day. Thai weed and Columbian Gold were every where in the NW at that time.

One other driver in my platoon had an amazing talent. He could roll a joint with one hand. And it would come out looking like a cigarette.

SO I would offer to roll one when I rode with him, but he would decline and say he would roll it himself. So he would steer with one hand, and roll with the other.

Fucking amazing.

Like so many others, I have other stories to tell, but this tale is enuff.

Though I am a stone-cold hippie rock musician, I am proud to say I served my country.

:cool:

PS. I sent my former CO an email a moment ago, just to say hi. It will be interesting to see if he replies, and what he might say. I dunno iif he remembers me or not. But he bitched me out periodically over stupid shit, so there is a chance he will remember who I am.

He was not really an asshole, but just doing his duty, which of course included keeping me in line lol.

:D

[Hardrock69]

I'll be damned...
I got a reply from my old CO!

Here is part of what he said:

"I continued my service in the Army and retired in 1999 after 30 years as a Colonel. I thoroughly enjoyed my years of service, and have many good memories of wonderful associations and friendships. However you may have left the service, the fact is you served your country for some period of time and left under honorable circumstances is something to applaud. I now have a son in Iraq, 1LT, soon to be a Captain in the Infantry, graduated from West Point in 2004. "

So it seems his son is carrying on the tradition!

How cool is that!

The internet can be quite strange at times, but just think of all the wonderful things that have come about because of it!
:cool:

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Hardrock69


I salute the flag!
http://i15.tinypic.com/4trstg0.gif


I salute both the Flag and the service you gave to our nation.

:cool:

[Hardrock69]

I would not hesitate to do the same for you.

Goober.
;)

Thanks.

[hideyoursheep]

That's good stuff, HR.

Very much like being there and going through it all again.

Ahh, the memories...

Thanks, pal.

On my anniversary I'll tell you how I got my first AAM riding around Deutchland in a 5-ton POL truck with a real basturd Sp5 who couldn't read a map....
And then some....

Ft. Lewis area looks beautiful.

[Hardrock69]

When it rains it pours....

I just discovered online the guy who was in charge of our detachment when we got chewed out by the Major General for having our shirts off on a hot day.

I sent him an email, and he replied with a short note.

I look forward to hearing what he has been up to.

I always say...when I was a kid I wondered why my grandparents used to sit around talking about "The Good Old Days".

Now I know why they did that.
It is much fun revisiting them.

:cool:

[FORD]

Originally posted by Hardrock69


Ok so, of course I noticed right off the bat that my truck was dragging ass.

My truck could normally go about 58 at maximum speed on a downhill grade.

They had governors on them so you could not go faster than a set speed.

And the one thing you cannot tell from the map, is the mountains.

The Interstate goes through Snoqualmie Pass, which has some steep-ass grades. The Cascades are even larger than the Rockies.

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7814/2tongaxo3.jpg

Ok so enough with the pictures.

We get out on the road, and eventually get to Snoqualmie Pass. As I said, real steep grade.

So we are on the west side, going up on the Interstate, and it is so steep, and my engine such a weak piece of shit, and the conex so heavy, I had to downshift to where the fastest I could go was 20 mph, in the low gearbox range, in second gear.

My best buddy, by the way, had a new engine with a turbo on it, and had the fastest truck in our platoon.

So I am trundling along at 20 mph going up this steep mountain grade, and all of a sudden WHAM!!!! something hit me from behind.

I look in my rearview mirror, and my buddy had come up behind me and bumped his front bumper into my rear bumper, and was giving me some help. He had it floored, and we actually got going up to about 45 mph going up the side of the mountain.


:D

I got stuck behind one of those Army convoys going over Snoqualmie Pass once. I don't think anyone in that group had the "faster trucks".

Had I known they were gonna be on the road, I probably would have taken White Pass instead. Of course there you always can get stuck behind a logging truck, or an old fart in an RV, and there's not even a passing lane half the time.