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Old Tales from the Military

I received an e-mail from Dennis (POG) saying Hi. Dennis is Sgt Maj, USMC Ret. It got me reminiscing those days way back when ... I’ve got a couple Marine stories … 1970-71 I’m stationed at George AFB, California in the upper desert. Our base had fighter jets (F-4E Phantoms) & I was in weapons. Occasionally we’d pull end-of-runway duty to pull safety pins from fuses & pylons and do inspection. Our AF planes would come out in groups of four and they’d often be sitting there at the ramp waiting to take off after other planes landed, touching down near us. The Air Force pilots would “flare” on touchdown much like a commercial jet, smooth as can be. We would occasionally get Navy & Marine planes come in. The Navy pilots would land a bit hard … after all, they were taught & practiced “planting it” on aircraft carrier decks. You don’t want to screw around on such little real estate, especially pitching to some degree or another. Need to catch that wire! And the struts were beefed up on their planes for it. The Navy pilots would at least, however, give it an honest try for a “normal landing” at the AFB. Oh, but not the Marine Pilots! Oh, No! They liked to have planted themselves half way to China. It got so we couldn’t watch … avert our eyes and sing “la la la”. Every time they’d land we expected to find bits and pieces strewn all over the runway. But, then again, us grunts, what did we know about flying? So we glanced up at the cockpits of our waiting jets and our Air Force pilots were shaking their heads and covering their eyes too! I figure the Marine pilots thought they were still out to sea, but it just turned a sand color of brown … The following isn’t so much about Marines as an association I had: I got out of the Air Force 1973. In 1985 I was living in Eugene, Oregon and thought I might try the “Guard” for a bit of extra money. There’s an Air Guard unit in Portland 120 miles up I-5, but an Army infantry unit was right in town, just down the road. What the heck, I thought, for just 1 weekend a month & 2 weeks a year, it isn’t worth the trip. The Army Guard had a “try 1 year” sign-up program and they’d take me in at my AF discharge rank (E-5, Army Sgt)”. Nothing to lose, right? I found out there is a HUGE difference between Army, Marines and Air Force! After that year I made the trip to Portland! Complements of the Oregon Army Guard I had some adventures. First was the bit about guns … I hadn’t touched a gun in my life until the M-16 at Air Force basic training in San Antonio where in all of no more than about 30 minutes I got some sort of “Expert Marksman” medal(?!). (Note: I since found out that the instructors were successful in accomplishing their main goal: survive the day. The less time a new recruit is on the range that day, and if they don’t return, the greater the chance of not being shot!) I didn’t touch a gun the rest of my AF four years, including 1 year in DaNang and 6 months in Thailand. And I hadn’t touched one since. So now I’m a Sergeant in the infantry … supposed to know a bit about the M-16, I think … Luckily they found an out-of-the-way place for me: mortar platoon, trajectory figurer. I pretty much stayed out of trouble except for the time I accidentally left my rifle lying around. Got about half a mile down the road towards home before figuring it out … boy, was Top mad about that! Our two week duty was at Coronado (San Diego), the Seals training base. The main goal was to learn “storming the beaches” (mothership to landing craft to beachhead) But we had lots of other adventures … rafting, boating, swimming, climbing, repelling, helicopters, hiking(!), atv’s, and judo, jujitsu, karate and all that shit! All with genuine Navy & Marine Seals instructor’s stamps of approval. (Reference a zillion movies out there). Luckily, the instructors were tipped off that we were Guard members and maybe some consideration and respect (Ha!) ought to be paid to our age & backgrounds. After all, kill us all off and the mail might not go through, cars might not get fixed and what not. They “pretty much” got it. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit holiday for them. There was plenty enough in-your-face hollering at us, but we were better able to handle the verbal abuse now that we were older, more mature and hardened (married). And we were pretty much given “opt out” privileges on the more challenging/dangerous things. But, there’s always the male pride …, even for us “old farts”. A couple of us (not, me luckily) ended up in the Med Clinic for casts. These exercises were for real … I especially remember the obstacle course. I had excelled at the obstacle course in the AF Boot camp. Lots of Laughs! There was a place you walked along a rope bridge: lower rope for feet, upper rope for hands. If you fell off, it was about 3 feet to a bit of a swamp. Nice dirty fun! The Marine Seals obstacle course had one rope 20 feet above sand. The rope was maybe 50 feet long and slightly downhill. They taught us how to do it: you don’t hang on underneath with your arms (never make it), but rather keep on top of the rope by hugging it with your chest and hanging a leg down for counterbalance. Then pull yourself along on top. With confidence and discipline, it works: you don’t flip over. Some didn’t listen too well … reference the above about “Med Clinic casts”. I mentioned near the top about going back to the Air Guard after 1 year. There was a very specific time at Coronado that I made that decision: We actually had an exercise where we affixed bayonets and en masse came up over hill shouting KILL! KILL! KILL! I knew then that that just wasn’t “me”. (to be con’t)