Gonna take a chance and copy Hondo, but with a Metal bent…
Or maybe:
Last one, Gotta reckon Jonn will dump this… musical tastes are in play:
https://youtu.be/4uq6Ax-zzkQ
Author: Zero Ponsdorf
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Just A Squid
In THE OLDEN DAYS… The other branches called us, generically, Squids – But I recall terms we used in The Navy to refer to our fellow sailors. NOT PC.
I’m gonna share the ones I can remember:
Airdale: Someone who plays with aircraft and inhales jet exhaust with a smile.
Bubblehead: A submariner – NEVER a sub mariner.
Radarman: Scope dope.
Gunners Mate: Gun Bunny.
Them that kept us moving and kept the lights on, etc.: Snipes.
Pond Scum: Surface sailors collectively – according to the Bubbleheads.
Kinda wonder how the other branches referred to themselves.
So with no acronyms and/or numbers, please, offer the friendly terms you all used to refer to your fellow service members. Keep in mind that I’m including The Navy here. I certainly don’t remember them all… anyway the ones I DO remember are from near 50 years ago.
The Marines and Army types were collectively “Grunts” to most of us, as I recall, so now you can set the record straight.
One I DO recall is “Redlegs” for artillery – There is some historical basis for that one.
Anyway, fill in the blanks…
Quick update: Thanks I did forget deck apes and pecker-checkers, and The Shoes.
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Monkeys
OUR own TSO did a post the other day that stirred memories. AND added some much needed humor into the mix that is our lives today.
It actually took some time before I realized what was missing. Gorillas making meaningful music. No wonder Dian Fossey liked to hang out with them.
There are so many things currently that make MY stomach hurt it is nice to know what to do about it. I won’t defend the following as meaningful, it just made me feel better about the phonies and er,um life. Gonna try this solution.
Put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up…
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Sunday Silly – NOT Quite
I’ve been scanning my usual news sources when I can much of the weekend. Can’t seem to find stuff that makes me smile.
Long aside: Snow storm knocked out our satellite internet AND we were without power for a time. Even didn’t have DirecTV, etc. My back-up generator did the self test on Wednesday just fine, but decided NOT to run when our power failed. Did get it running, and the snow on the dishes slid off, etc. We do have battery powered laptops and a cell based Hotspot, but we only used those for weather and tracking power outages. A point worthy of note only because I reckon those events soured my attitude some.
Subsequent to all that I still haven’t been able find much that makes me grin out there in the rest of the world. So I’m gonna ask YOU lot for links to the silly I know is out there.
The only rule is that it has to be safe for work. Kinky does NOT always equal silly.
Should add also, that the snow is melting, and our world is just fine. Living on a remote ridge in WV, even with yer own gas well, does have some downsides at times .
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Just A Sailor
Preface: Title blatantly stolen from Steve Waterman’s book “Just A Sailor”. We met once and I have a signed copy. Kinda happy to give him a nod here.
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This post may seem a bit of a whine, perhaps, but it is primarily just a sort of journal entry. It was suggested I post some Navy stuff and that process has been ‘interesting’, and perhaps a bit painful at times.
I consider myself a Vietnam vet. Says so on my DD-214 as well. Still the only VN mud I got on me was during a single trip to a bar in Da Nang. I can document being shot at by shore batteries and firing back. I can document helping to pick up downed aircrew in the Gulf of Tonkin. There is more similar, but I did my job well enough. Thing is… I was Just A sailor.
Of course there were sailors in the thick of things, from Corpsmen to SEALS, and others like Steve Waterman. I wasn’t one of them. I was Just A Sailor.
Came back to CONUS in May 1969. Arrived via SFO, in uniform, and was spit at and called a “Baby Killer”. But I was Just A Sailor.
Certain veterans groups said I didn’t qualify for membership back then. I was Just A Sailor.
Those last two items serve to highlight the one common area each and every Vet with a Vietnam Service Medal in their records share; the way we were dealt with when we came back and how we coped with that. I was painted with THAT brush as broadly as any other. Even tho’ I was Just A Sailor.
No two human beings standing side-by-side will experience even the simplest of things identically. That one saving grace, at least, makes me feel okay to call myself a ‘Nam Vet… even if I was Just A Sailor.
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Now The TRUTH Can Be Told! A Sunday Silly
Was digging through some old records and found my Commission. The Cherry River Navy is a super secret organization for those of us with super secret squirrel missions that can’t be discussed among ordinary folk.
I can’t discuss my time as a SEAL/Ranger/Force Recon with you lot, but I DO expect proper honors and respect as an Admiral!
Rats… The NSA deleted my real name after I posted this.
Heads up Jonn, they’re HERE!
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Setting The Drip – A Winter’s Tale
Been cold here on the ridge and THAT particular ritual has been taken care of some days ago. But I’ve been thinking about how out-of-tune it is to complete a rather simple preventative measure. Is there some government entity that will come down my dirt road to help if the toilet won’t flush? Who do I call if the pipes burst, etc.
A neighbor’s house burned down a day or two ago. No one was hurt, but it serves to emphasize my point. We have a volunteer Fire Department out here in the boonies. They are great folks, but…
Call 911 here and don’t expect a rapid response. And they don’t provide plumbers.
So… Among other things we set a drip. We have Fire Extinguishers, etc.
We might be (gasp) Preppers. So long as our gas well works we’ll have heat, and power. We can feed ourselves and the critters for at least 3 weeks at any time. I know, that is puny compared to some, but it is the most I’ll admit to in a public venue.
Sidebar: Gas Well needs swabbed – the weather has prevented the guys from even getting their gear moving. Something we never considered. Lesson learned.
Anyway, lots of terms are used to defend government intervention in our lives. Some of us have different frames of reference. Whether it be local, county, State, or the Feds who do YOU turn to when shit happens?
Was gonna offer this as Sunday Silly, but my curiosity overcame me.
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Our Bizzaro World?
Bizzaro World is a place in the comic book (Sorry – Graphic Novel) universe… supposed fiction.
Yet every day some current news item hints that it is becoming more and more real. Could be my advancing age, or my own personal illusion of reality, but I gotta wonder aloud here.
I won’t waste your time with my own lengthy list of such seeming portents of this shift of realities other than offering this: The immediate trigger for this post takes the form of a cute young lady and her words, but ALSO in my case she seems a harbinger rather then just an idiot.
Hmm… It may well highlight my concerns to add a sort of disclaimer. I’m not certain I can use the term “cute young woman” without being denigrated as a sexist.
So, MY opinion about Marie Harf is mine alone and NOT the opinion of this blog.
If you can also cite similar concerns about Bizzaro World encroaching on your reality I’d ask that you only put your personally most egregious single example in the comments. On the other hand, if nobody else actually HAS any such it’ll entertain my shrink so I win regardless.
