Military Veterans Who Collect Watches

Keith, he's just bitter about his ACTUAL Navy call sign: Ice Man. (He was always sent to get extra ice.)


Is it me, or are those other guys enjoying that just a little too much?

The worst trouble I ever narrowly avoided was during, not surprisingly off duty hours. I got a knock on my door at about 2 am to find one of my buddies from Vehicle Ops (motor pool) excitedly telling me about some guys from motor pool who took a hummer without permission out on a joyride on the base perimeter road. He needed a hand extracting the stuck vehicle from a "mud puddle". This was all supposed to be on the DL because they didn't want the SP's (Air Force Military Police) to find out they had been screwing around. I threw on a fresh set of BDU's because I was fairly certain my Flight Suit would have been somewhat inappropriate and climbed aboard the waiting 5 ton 6x6 wrecker.
The perimeter road at the time was a poorly maintained dirt and gravel road mostly used by joggers and mountain bike enthusiasts. It was full of ruts and washouts and a couple places that would flood to several feet in depth after a heavy rain. After driving for nearly a half hour in pitch blackness in that giant wrecker that I'm fairly certain rode worse than a buckboard wagon on that terrain, we found the 2 Airman who had taken a bad situation and made it worse. There, a quarter of the way into the far side of a pond nearly 75 yards wide sat a mostly submerged HUMVEE. All we could clearly see was about the top most 3 inches of the roof. Both Airmen were soaked to the bone and shivering. My buddy had them sit in the cab with the heat on while he and I got to work.
After a quick lesson on how the hand controls worked and setting the outriggers, my buddy tied a rope on the tow line, kicked off his boots, emptied his pockets and proceeded to wade out to the forlorn Hummer. After bobbing around the front of the hummer for a few minutes my friend swam back and waded out dripping. He had a frustrated look on his face but didn't say anything to me. He started rummaging around in the gear boxes looking for something. I hear him say "Got it!", "Got what?" I asked him. He then explained to me that the hummer had submerged itself in a thick mud down to its axles and that we would need more pulling force. He had a rather large pulley assembly in his hands that he called a "Snatch Block" with which he waded back out to the stricken Hummer once more. After more diving and bobbing he waded back to shore carying the rope. He then had me use the winch controls to play out the cable as he drew the feed rope in. After what felt like forever, the rope ended and the large clevis at the end of the cable emerged from the water. My buddy the hooked the clevis to a bracket on the rear bumper of the wrecker and once more, off he waded to the Hummer. He then climbed on the hood of the Hummer and yelled for me to pull the control to retract the cable. The slack cable drew tight and strained, the winch motor complained but I kept at it, and then, slowly, but surely the muck let go of the poor Hummer and out it rolled onto the gravel road.
We opened the doors to let most of the water out. I helped my buddy rig the Hummer up for towing and made the 2 clowns ride in the smelly wet HUMVEE back to the shop. About 50 yards from the entrance to the perimeter road, our exit from hell, there was a dip in the road and on the way up the other side, we clipped a huge overhanging branch and dented the roof of the wrecker, obliterated the two revolving yellow caution lights and knocked the exhaust stack loose. Scared the hell out of both of us. Turns out this was what nearly got my buddy an Article 15 over the entire situation! My buddy dropped me back off at my barracks and made the two delinquent airmen help him drop off the Hummer at the Motor Pool compound.
The next day I fully expected to get a visit by the SP's but no one ever showed up.I was nervous as hell all that day and when I went to check in at my squadron on Monday the incident was the talk of the base. My buddy had to explain what happened to the wrecker but he never ratted me or the 2 delinquent airmen out. He took a 12 week base restriction over it and that was it. He told me it wasn't the first time he did something like that, and that it likely wouldn't be the last. I asked him why he didn't rat me or the others out. He said he made sure the others had consequences, they had to rebuild the flooded engine and transmission. He said I wasn't in his career field and that I shouldn't have been out there and that they would have likely court-marshaled us both for that. He's one of the very few guys I'm still in touch with after all these years.

Believe it or not, Dad hit my chest a wee bit too high (missing my Naval Aviator wings) on his initial attempt at giving me blood wings...my wings “flew” off my chest and bounced into the audience of about 200-300 people...a humongous uproar ensued. Those high ranking USMC and USN dudes were laughing due to what had just happened...and they were probably wondering if Dad was going to miss again...which he didn’t. 😁

I wish I could have had hot cocoa period.🙁

I did have just the half. Needed another to have a whole tent. The poncho was ok, but those liners were really good.

Bunch of salt dogs on this forum. US Marine Corps 2012-2017 with 5th Marine Regiment 2nd Battalion.

I don't have too many "military-style", my primary rotation is the new SMP, G-Shock GW9400, and AP RO 15400.

Hey, hey, hey!!!

Marine Corps!!!

Did you see the super awesome @Radiozoop post on this thread???

Check it out!!! 👍 👍 👍

Oh my. I never knew that. Such a classy story. I wonder if Hallmark will do an inspirational movie about his joining the Navy. Might even be a musical... (wishes I was more mature than to fall for such a great joke set-up, but alas, I fear that I am not.)

That’s part of the true story. The other part of the true story is that when I graduated from college in 1986 with a BS in geology, I couldn’t get a job [in geology]. I needed a job. At that time, the Navy was seeking pretty much anyone with a college degree and a 2.0 college GPA regarding a pilot slot. So...that’s the other part of the true story. 👍

LATE ENTRY: I won’t talk about how [or why] the Air Force turned me down regarding a pilot slot...other than the fact that the Air Force stated, “Your college GPA sucks!!!” 😁

Jet pukes...they got all the hot girls.

Shit...I remember this one time at the Miramar O Club back in the late 80s...I was talking to this hot girl...

She asks, “Are you a Naval Aviator?”

I replied, “Yes, ma’am.”

She then asks, “What do you fly?”

I replied, “SH-60B Seahawks.”

She asks, “What’s that?”

I replied, “It’s a U.S. Navy combat helicopter.”

She says, “I thought you said you were a Naval Aviator! I want a Naval Aviator...you know...a jet guy! Bye!”

===sad trombone sound===

I get the same thing because they thought I worked on jets, but I worked on helicopters. They have no idea all the extra skill and mechanical systems it takes to just hover... well, harrier guys do. And boy howdy do they know how hard it is to just hover. Loudest jets out there, in my opinion.

You know it, boss...buddy of mine at Delta is a former Harrier driver and he was telling me that hovering the Harrier is like standing on a beach ball wearing roller skates...all on a sheet of ice. I believe it...you watch vids of them hovering and it looks really unstable...all twitchy and shit.

Also, what helos did you work on in the Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children? UH-1s? AH-1s? CH-46s? CH-53s?

Well, my unit was "special" so we worked on uh-1s, h-3s, 46s, 53Ds, 53Es, and h-60s. From time to time we cranked on the v-22 osprey as it was in development and a h-34...

Hot dog...you must have been in HMX-1...that’s pretty freaking cool. 😎

Well I do not know what hmx 1 is, but depot level maintenance does have it's advantages.

And you know what? I don’t know who’s worse...the fighter pilot or the GIB (guy in back). No shit...there I was at the Miramar O Club (again) in the the late 1980s trying to get a beer at the crowded bar...plowing my way to the front. I bump into this drunk dude who’s wearing his pickle suit with stupid patches all over it...and I can see that he’s a GIB (aka a Naval Flight Officer - NFO) according to his wings which have double anchors...

He says, “Hey, douche bag...what do you fly?”

I respond, “H-60s...and what aircraft are you on?”

He says, “Pfffffffft...helos suck...I fly F-14s, bitch!”

===I poke his wings===

I say, “Ummm...it looks like you ride F-14s, bitch!”

And then he commences to spout off about all sorts of ridiculous bullshit...blah blah blah...while I continue plowing my way to the bar.

LATE ENTRY: For the record, I stopped going to the Miramar O Club...I figured I was going to get my ass beat sooner or later...better to just hang out at our O Club at North Island with all the other rotorheads.

Artillery as in the Heavy variety, reg force. Daughter went on to now be a Police Captain. True an apple will not fall far from the tree.

What was Slider doing at the O Club without Iceman?

The Iceman(s) were there...they were all with their hot girls sitting at tables near the bar. To be honest, the Iceman(s) were pretty laid back...but of course they were...they already had the hot girls and they had their GIBs fetch them beers.

LATE ENTRY: Speaking of Iceman(s) with hot girls at the Miramar O Club, it was pretty routine to see one Iceman with two, three, or four hot girls. So this one time I had this great idea...I’d walk up to an Iceman (with his multiple hot girls) and politely ask, “Hey, Mister Iceman...can I have just one of your hot girls? Please? I have zero hot girls! I’d be willing to accept the ugliest hot girl!” I’m sort of glad I never actually implemented that great idea...I probably would’ve gotten my ass beat by all sorts of people.