Real Life Stories

[PunkReaper]

I was wondering that since we all like wargames whether we have any real life family war stories that we could share. My father served with the British Army in WW2. The stories he told were mainly of how confusing everything was, especially the direction in which they were supposed to be fighting. One night outside Falaise he was in a trench with his mate from home when they became under attack. Two friends were in another trench and as the mortoring got heavy they became scared and asked if they could shelter in my dad's trench. They zigzaged across but as they dropped into the trench they all heard a shell coming their way. He said they looked at eachother and it was as if they all knew it was going to hit. The next thing the trench exploded and he remembers someone shouting "if you're alive stick your arms through the soil". He did so but felt his side rip open as he was pulled free. The next thing he remembers was having the last rights on HMS Belfast. He was the only one who made it.
I am sure others must have stories, maybe from further back than WW2.

[ravinhood]

I remember when I was in the Airforce at Ft. Walton Beach one night at the local club VICTOR's some locals picked a fight with some marines from Pensacola and were beating them up rather badly and us guys from the Airforce (Hurlburt field) came to their rescue and stomped all them city boys. Then the two marines got mad at us for butting in and picked a fight with us and we stomped them also. haha ROFLMAO

[rogueusmc]

ORIGINAL: ravinhood

I remember when I was in the Airforce at Ft. Walton Beach one night at the local club VICTOR's some locals picked a fight with some marines from Pensacola and were beating them up rather badly and us guys from the Airforce (Hurlburt field) came to their rescue and stomped all them city boys. Then the two marines got mad at us for butting in and picked a fight with us and we stomped them also. haha ROFLMAO

That sounds terribly like a fish story sir!!![:D]

[chief]

One night in 1951 on the island of Malta (VC), my shipmates and I had just come in from a Patrol Flight and after a quick shower we headed for liberty in Valletta. Unbeknown to the four of us the Aussie fleet and the Brits had a disagreement as to moorage privelages in Valletta harbor.
 
So we went to the "Gut" an area of many little bars leading to the docks area. We were drinking our warm beer and had the place to ourselves. Just about that time we heard a commotion outside so I went to investigate. Well looking up and down this narrow alley I saw Brits fighting Brits and I knew we were soon to be in this bally-hoo. We wrote our last wills and testaments and prepared for the worst. Just then a head appeared in the beaded doorway and shouted " Mates, we got four more in here", now we knew we had been had, so one of my shipmates screamed, "Bring your asses in here and we'll accomodate you". The original sailor who spotted us said, "they're bloody yanks.......there on our side", and in came a group of Aussies and out came the beer and a jolly good time was had by all. (except the Brits that were in that area that night).

[chief]

Well if you did or did not enjoy the previous story try this one.
      Our squadron was sent to Crete, to an abandon WW2 airbase for forward air operations with NATO fleets. For quarters they (USN) supplied an LST (I swear it must have been refloated from Anzio). The bridge was the control tower, the tank deck was filled with cots, very litlle fresh water and we could not use the beach (it was still mined). The crew was right out of the Dirty Dozen, I think it was either a Naples brig or volunteer to sail this rust bucket to Crete. The cooks supplied us with spagetti (sp?) 3 meals a day for 7 days, fortunately flight crews on flights had C rations so we survived. On the third night the General Quarters Alarm was sounded and all non-ships personnel were to report for muster on the main deck. We all went topside as required and while at quarters we were told one of our birds was limping home with one bad Engine and the other wasn't much better. The bird didn't make the runway but ditched between us on the beached LST and the Tanker with a load of AV gas. The skipper passed the word to put the lifeboats over the side to pick up survivors, that went over like a Chinese firedrill, the davits were so rusty and the lines so bad that no boats made it off that LST. Now.......just as we were doing our best to get the boats off the "Tank Elevator" decided to fall, yes fall, into the tank deck crushing many empty bunks. The aircrew survived their experience, the plane didn't, it sank in 20 minutes or so.
 
Now you might think that would be enough, we returned to RAF LUQA Malta (VC) and were resting when we were alerted to an Air Sea Rescue Search, yeah you guessed it.....LST was missing, it had left Crete and hadn't been heard from after the third day. We went looking and after about 4 hours we found her adrift and notified a Tin Can in the area which took her under tow to Naples. Last I heard of that relic was that she was going to be sunk by destroyers for training.

[ilovestrategy]

The Time I thought I Was a Dead Man!
About 1988 or so I was with my unit near Moonchuck, Korea. After many nights of getting wasted out of my skull I decided to go out on the town sober for a change. I should have gotten drunk that night!
Anyways, I drank Coke while my Marine Corps buddies got smashed on Soju, a drink bars had at the the time. After they had all gotten wasted, we all decided to call it a night. Well. lo and behold, when they all walked outside they decided to go for a walk! Unwilling to leave my buddies behind, I followed them down a crowded city street. They were so wild. one guy jumped in frotn of a car and I saved his ass by yanking him back on the sidewalk. Man, was I pissed!
This one guy named Gomes yelled"Let's go down Engineer's Alley!" I said "NO!" while eveyone else(There were 5 or 6 of us) overuled me and voted to go down Engineer's Alley. No sober man goes down Engineer's Alley at night. Well, I did to protect my buddies so I guess that meant I was lacking in common sense.
Engineer's Alley was a small alley that snaked in between a series of buildings with very poor lighting at night. It was where the dirty low cost cheap hookers hung out. It was really dangerous because of the muggers that infested the place. I had heard of service men getting mugged while trying to save money on sex. Very dangerous place in the 80's. I'm not sure about now.
Well, they charged into that dark alley looking for fun and I followed fearing the worst. One thing about the Marines is that you never leave your buddies in danger, no matter what the risk is, so in I went.
It was like that little alley in Bloodsport that led to the Kumite but at night. It was almsot pitch black and I kept expecting a knife in my ribs. I followed these drunk guys through twists and turns until I was thoroughly lost. We finally ended up at a junction where the alley went into 4 different directions. It was really dark with the only light filtering out from curtained windows. There were laundry lines around and over us with clothes hanging from them and a couple of large plastic bowls full of water.
My buddies decided to have a little fun and started wrestling with each other. In the process they tore down some of the laundry lines that had clothes on them! Gomes even picked up a big bowl full of water and dumped it over this guy named Shelby. I tried to get them to stop but I was ignored.
Then windows started opening all around us and light streamed in from every where. It was like a freaking movie! All these Koreans poked their heads out of all these windows and boy were they mad when they saw their laundry!
Koreans started pouring out of doors like all those Agent Smiths on Matrix Reloaded. That's what it looked like. They surrounded us and they were pissed!
I looked at the situation and just told myself, "David, your'e a dead man. You are so dead." I was so sure I was going to die I wasn't even afraid, that's how sure I was. I managed to get my buddies into a circle and prepared for the worst. Even though I was sure I was a goner I couldn't leave my fellow Marines behind.
Well, this one old lady said something in Korean and had a small arguement with the guys, who looked like they wanted to lynch us. To this day I remember those old Korean ladies looking at me with sympathy in their eyes.
Well, I don't know what that one old lady said but those people parted and let us get the hell out of there. By some miracle we found our way out not too far from the clubs.
The next day all my buddies thanked me for saving their lives! ROFL
I swear, sometimes I think people's fantasies cannot compare to my real life experiences!

True story too!

[11Bravo]

My Dad told me some stories about serving in Korea as infantry. He was brought out to a company on the line at night and told to dig a shelter up on the ridgeline. He carefully piled all the fresh dirt in front of his new position and crouched in the bottom to catch some Zzzz's. Next morning the Chinese fired a couple of rounds of flat trajectory artillery through the berm. Later that day he crawled out and noticed all the fresh earth he piled up looked much lighter and brighter than the old dirt already surrounding his position. Next night he dug a new position and threw the dirt down the hill behind the position.

[rogueusmc]

Didn't listen in his camouflage and concealment classes?...[:D]

[Ketza]

Back in 1988 I was Army ROTC at William and Mary in Virginia. We had a fire training exercise that we had to get up for at 5am. We had breakfast and to our amazement were packed on to buses and sent to a small beach on the James River and were loaded aboard landing craft (Larks). I was in charge of one platoon and we were packed like sardines in this crazy little boat with wheels.

We started down river past the Newport News shipyard and into the Chessie bay. Once we hit the deeper water the waves started rolling the craft. The cadets began to get seasick. [8|] One cadet at the end of the boat tossed his breakfast on the cadet in front of him. They had been packed in so tight he could not move out of the way.

As the smell and general disgust of the situation crept through the craft one cadet after another began to get sick. It was like a wave coming through the ranks. I saw it coming and moved over to a trash can and became ill with a little bit of dignity and without throwing up on a comrade.

The Navy guys driving the landing craft were laughing so hard they were crying.

When we finally hit the beach at Fort Story it was a huge relief. [&o] We were however slaughtered as we exited the craft. Our miles gear was going off like crazy. I was promptly told my the Marine captain in charge of the exercise on the beach that I had managed to get my whole platoon killed.

It was a real eye opener of a day to say the least.

[Kuokkanen]

When my dad was in training, he got to middle of woods with nothing for several kilometers. I guess that wasn't very fun when food delivery got lost and they hadn't anything to eat for 24+ hours. When they finally got food, liver casserole hadn't ever tasted that great.

[Vincenzo_Beretta]

The most interesting war stories in my family come from my mother's side. My grandfather was in the Alpini corps in WWI; he started in 1915 as lieutenant in a company on the Mount Ortigara front, and was promoted to second in command of a battalion via "survival" - i.e., all the higher officers had been killed. He got his first silver medal in 1916 when, during an assault, the battalion commander was killed, and he was able to rally the troops and take the objective. He was thus promoted lieutenant-colonel. A few weeks after he led another assault, and was hit in the back by three Austrian machinegun bullets. He survived and got a second silver medal - but he was left invalid. The doctors were able to remove two bullets, while the third one remained lodged in his spine for all his life. While he was not paralyzed, my mother says that my grandmother had to help him to do some basic tasks, like tie his shoes. With one of the two bullets that were removed from his body he made a ring which is still in possession of my family. When he was wounded he was 20 years old.
 
After resuming civilian life my grandfather started working for the local bank of the small town in the Po River Valley where he lived with my grandmother. When WWII broke out he was the Director and this, coupled with the fact that he was a twice-decorated war veteran, made him basically "untouchable" even by the local Fascist government. This led to some adventures because, after Italy's surrender, his house (a big, old house with big cellars) become an hiding place for the resistance. He and my grandmother hid in the cellars two British pilots who had been shot down while strafing the Po bridges. The pilots were quite happy, since the cellars were used to store salamis and other foods – which they ate.

His cousin, as it happens, was a Fascist, and owned a rice factory near the Milan-Alessandria railway line. One day a British plane was shot down and crashed near the factory, and my grandfather’s brother came out and kicked the dead body of the pilot. After two or three days a whole wing of planes came and razed the rice factory to the ground. No one ever knew who informed the RAF, and my grandfather of course didn’t inquired.

[I remember telling this story a few years to a London cab driver who had served in the Royal Marines, and his sole comment was “Good”.]

After the war the cellars were “converted”, and became hiding places for former Fascistis who were looked for by the most extreme fringes of the resistance. I think that it was an application of the “fairness doctrine” by my grandfather. He died in 1948, leaving my grandmother (who survived until 1997), my uncle and my mother.

My father’s father served in Libya with the “Bersaglieri” during the two wars, but the only remembrance my father has of his military service is that “his company *walked* from Libya to East Africa” when they were re-deployed. He was never in combat, AFAIK.

My father, however, took part in the world-famous “Po Bridge Resistance Act!” which is still talked about today. He is from a small village in the Po River Valley and, while the place is a dot on the map, it is near the Bereguardo barge bridge – which was one of the most important crossings of the Po river.

In 1943, when Italy surrendered, the village major and some other dudes founded the “Local “Liberation Committee”. Late April 1945 comes, and the LLC still had to do something to justify his existence. The Allies armies were very near, and the Committee learns that the Bereguardo bridge was guarded only by a small squad of German soldiers. They decide to re-conquer it.

The plan was like this: a bunch of men and boys (including my father, who was 12 years old at the time) jumped on an horse-driven cart armed with improvised weapons (hunting rifles, WWI “memento” rifles, dung forks, axes…), and then they rode to the bridge. They were almost in sight of it when the hunting rifle of a dude (probably the only sane weapon in the whole bunch) accidentally discharged in the air.

My father said that, thinking back at that episode, it would have took only a single, determined, German with a submachine gun to kill everybody on the spot - end of the story. Instead, the young German squad leader and three others (my father remembers that they were all about 20 years old) comes out with raised hands and surrenders.

Joy and celebration! The cart, with the prisoners, returns home. The Germans are locked up in the local school-building (where they are fed and everything), and the LLC now has something to show to the Allies. Some days later (early May, so probably the war was almost over), an Allied captain and some soldier enter the village – and are informed of the “liberation” of the bridge and shown the German prisoners. The Allied soldiers looked around, and then collected all the Germans’ watches, rings and other valuable items (something that *no one* had thought about) – and left. The Germans, of course, were locked again in the school building, where they were fed and everything until the war ended.

And this is the story of the famous “Po Bridge Resistance Act!” my father took part to (he later served in the Italian Air Force as a ground-crew engineer, with the rank of Captain).

[sterckxe]

Hi,

My grandfather fought as a private with the Belgian army in WWII, got captured near Dunkirk and spend most of the war in a POW camp - got paroled real late for some reason or other - he never talked about the war, my grandmother said it was because he had seen too many of his buddies getting wounded and killed and didn't want to be reminded of that episode in his life.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Neilster]

Vincenzo...great stories. Thanks! I just watched a DVD about the Italian Front in WW1. Pretty nasty. Vicious combat, often at high altitude in terrible terrain and diabolical weather. Dudes living and fighting in caves and tunnels etc

Cheers, Neilster

[sterckxe]

Ok, real story of my own this time :

Back in the late eighties I was a conscript in the Belgian Air Farce (not a typo), serving as an assistant air traffic controller (atc), which basically means I had to make the coffee and bring the pizza to the real, professional air traffic controllers. One week we had big Nato maneuvers and our captain had divided his atc team into three groups. He put the worst guys in the tower, knowing it would get “bombed” straight away as per default in those kind of exercises and his best team in the safe, underground concrete bunker, leaving me and 2 sergeants in a mobile, camouflaged trailer.

The exercise starts and sure enough one of the first things happening is the tower getting “bombed”. Ha, we saw that coming you lousy Ruskies ! – the team in the bunker takes over without a hitch and we settle down talking women and soccer. The base comes under NBC attack so we put on our full NBC gear including masks, the runway gets cluster-bombed but the experienced ATC crew in the bunker has no problem handling all of this. Then we get notified that a lucky direct hit has taken out the bunker – so suddenly it’s just us ! And we’ve got a full squadron of F-16’s in the air coming back (really up there, not make-belief). To top it off a German observer of the Nato exercise enters our trailer.

I don’t know how we did it, and wearing those NBC suits inside a trailer is plain murder, but we got all aircraft on the ground in one piece and according to procedure. Meanwhile that German behind our backs doesn't utter a word. Then we got the NBC-all-clear and stripped down to our regular uniform. That German officer took one look at us and noticed the shoulder insigna : a sergeant, a first sergeant and … nothing (me). Having observed that I had done all the comms and more or less had directed the whole show with the ground crew, fire department, wing ops and medics, while the two real atc guys concentrated on their radar screens and talking the pilots back home (beacons were out too) he gruffly asked why I wasn’t wearing my insigna.

That look on his face when I told him I didn’t have any because I was a private was priceless. He told us that in Germany our job was an officer-only affair and that only the Belgians would be crazy enough to put a conscripted private in my chair with billions of dollars worth of equipment in the air and real lives at stake. His report must have been excellent as well, as the colonel awarded us all an extra day leave

Oh, heck, as long as I’m typing – here’s another one :

One day, after dusk, the activity on base was winding down with the last planes heading for home. The very last flight of 3 F-16’s was in approach and one of the standard exchanges between the tower atc and a pilot is a check if the landing gear is out and locked. It goes like this : atc: “(confirm) three greens” – pilot “three greens”. That faithful night it went atc : “three greens” – looooong silence – pilot : “negative, 2 greens, 1 red”. This means that one of the 3 wheels of that F-16 wasn’t out. We went in overdrive immediately and while we were making the pilot fly a circuit the base went to full alert and the colonel entered the tower and started going over the options/procedures with the real atc guys. Plan A was to have the pilot approach and retry several times – that didn’t work, we kept hearing “2 green, 1 red” on the radio. Plan B was to check the possibility that in fact the detection mechanism was busted and that all 3 wheels were in fact locked for landing. There was only one way to check this : visually. As it was already dark and we didn’t have any night-vision gear the colonel decided he and the person who could be missed from the atc crew (me) would climb up to the observation platform on top of the tower where we would use regular binoculars to check the landing gear. Meanwhile the pilot was told to “fly over the tower” to give us a better observation angle.

So here’s me and the colonel, each with binoculars in our hands watching the approaching headlights of an F-16. I’m thinking “hmm, that light is kinda low” but as every private soon learns I keep my mouth shut while that plane is approaching fast. Then the colonel says “don’t you think he’s kinda low ?” - we look at each other and without a word both throw ourselves on our belly covering our head while an F-16 - with landing gear extended – only just manages to miss us. It felt like we could have touched the wheels of that plane by just extending our hand. Understandably that pilot was a bit jittery and when asked to “fly over the tower so we can visually check your landing gear” had interpreted that order literally. His landing gear was ok, it was the control electronics that were busted and the plane landed ok. Afterwards the joke among the atc crew went that Eddy and the colonel had not visually checked it, but *manually*. And we sure needed a couple of stiff drinks from the “emergency supply” to shake it off

But it did create a bond between me and the colonel and one day when walking on the base with a fellow private I see him approaching and say to my mate “look, there’s the colonel” – and he immediately starts to walk in a more military fashion and when passing the colonel salutes him while I just go “good day colonel” and he goes “good day Eddy” while saluting the other guy. My mate just looks at me in total awe and says “he knows your name ????” – in short order that became a tall story in the private’s mess about how I passed the colonel slouching, with my hands in my pockets and just nodded when he greeted, but the basis of that soldier's myth was a true story

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[Vincenzo_Beretta]

ORIGINAL: Neilster

Vincenzo...great stories. Thanks! I just watched a DVD about the Italian Front in WW1. Pretty nasty. Vicious combat, often at high altitude in terrible terrain and diabolical weather. Dudes living and fighting in caves and tunnels etc

Those interested in military history can still tour the battlefields. The extensive networks of forts and the caves are still well preserved, and the area is very good for tourism (I suggest the Asiago Highlands: very good food, good climate in the summer, skiing in winter, and amazing natural landscapes).

One thing I noticed is how rarely veterans talk about their war experience. I never met my grandfather but my mother tells me that, while he was full of stories from the military life, he *never* talked about combat episodes. Not even my grandmother knew the details of how he was wounded, for example, only that he was hit in the back by an Austrian machine gun while assaulting an enemy position.

Both my father and my mother tell me how their families "shielded" the children from the realities of war. My parents both lived in small villages in rural areas in the Po River Valley, far from actual combat. My father (who was 10 years old in 1943) tells me how all the children gathered to watch in awe the "hundreds of big planes flying in formation towards Milan - and then the amazing light show on the horizon". Only when he was older he really understood the meaning of it.

My mother remembers how there was an Allied plane that every evening circled the area. The children named it "Pippo" ("Goofy") and when it didn't show up she was worried that "something had happened to Goofy". It was, as she learned later, one of the liaisons between the Allied and the local Resistance.

She never understood, for example, why two English-speaking guys were hiding in her cellar [:)] Only after the war her parents explained everything to her.

I found a pic of my grandfather's decorations: the two Silver Medals and the "Al Merito" Cross (which is given to those who either served in a war zone for at least one year or that were wounded in combat).

[Vincenzo_Beretta]

Sorry, double post.

[rogueusmc]

sterckxe, Your story on the F-16 reminded me of an exciting time I had once...

I was an ammunition technician for an artillery battery (a supply man when it comes to things that go boom). As an ammo tech, you don't have a job to do unless you are doling out ammo or counting the stuff. What happens with ammo techs is that they are trained in everyone else's job so you can cover if something happens to them. Most folks know two or three so they can cover but ammo techs usually learned them all.

I was on the FO hill at PTA once. We are all there in nuthing but our shorts catching some rays. We call a fire mission whenever we felt like it. Just a Lt., SSgt and a couple of Corporals and Lances in the middle of nowhere.

Soooo...we called a mission...they fired...the rounds whistle over out heads and we see them impact...we call a correction if needed...then call end of mission and go back to catching rays. We ended a mission and heard Alpha Battery call a mission over the net. We heard the guns fire...then a shell detonates in the air right over our hill. We are losing control of our bodily functions trying to hide under any rock or pebble we can find as frag falls all around us.

The SSgt gets on the radio and says,"WHO THE F#$% DID THAT?!?!...AS SOON AS I CLEAN THE S#$% OUTTA MY PANTS< I'M KICKIN' THE S#$% OUTTA SOMEBODY!!!"

The Colonel keys his mike and says,"AT EASE THAT LANGUAGE ON THE AIR!!"

SSgt Grimes says,"with all due respect sir, I just s#$% my pants."

We all got written up for our language over the radio that day. We all laugh our asses off about it now but it wasn't a bit funny when it happened.

Semper Fi,
Lee

[sterckxe]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc
We all got written up for our language over the radio that day. We all laugh our asses off about it now but it wasn't a bit funny when it happened.

That reminds me ... [;)]

Did I tell you about the day I (private) wrote up an Lt ?

It was a quiet day in the control tower when suddenly one of the atc guys sees a civilian car using one of the taxi-ways. Now, the taxi-ways are for planes only and this is clearly indicated but as most of the people on that base are really conscripted civilians who aren't always too sure about everything military this happened with some frequency. No big deal, our standard procedure was to send in our quick fire brigade intervention vehicle (always on stand-by), intercept the guy and tell him to get the hell out of there asap. So as the assistant atc it was my job to send in that vehicle - which I did.

Through our binoculars we saw the civilian car getting flagged down by our vehicle and the driver of said car getting spoken too - case closed you'd think.

Then our intervention vehicle came on the air.

"Tower, we've got a problem"
(me) "Go ahead"
"We've got Lt <forgothisname> here and he insists on using the taxiways as he's got an urgent report for Wing Ops at the other side of the base and refuses to take the normal circuit route"

As those guys in the intervention vehicle were all professional nco's and privates I immediatly sensed the problem when they had to confront an Lt so I said

"Ok, put me through to him"

"Tower, this is Lt <whatever> and I *need* to get this report to Wing Ops"
"Are you aware that you are driving on a taxi-way and that this is strictly forbidden ?"
"Yes, but this is urgent, because it's for Colonel <whocares> and he needs it yesterday "
"Doesn't matter, you're still not allowed access to the taxi-ways"
The Lt got testily "Listen, who am I speaking too"
"Private Sterckx"
"Listen, *private*, I'm an Lt and I'm going to use this road and that's the end of it"

Back in the tower the atc guys were ROTFL because they *knew* that Lt was in deep shit as they saw the huge grin on my face and me taking notes.

"Ok, let me get this straight for my report - you're Lt <soon to be reported> and you're driving on the taxi-ways after having been explicitly warned not to - correct ?"

Very angry now "Yes - and I've got your name *private* !" - after which he got in his car and drove on.

Of course, my report contained statements from the many witnesses and the transcript from the recorded radio conversation (all tower comms are always recorded) so he got a dirty mark in his official record, possibly eliminating him from further promotion as it was a serious offence, while all I got was a "good job Eddy" from the captain [;)]

I was the hero of the fire department for a week after that too as apparantly he had given the guys in the intervention vehicle a lot of lip and it became common among the atc guys to admonish each other with a "watch out or he'll report you" when someone asked me for a coffee - which was my main job description [;)]

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[rogueusmc]

Well...Lieutenants are usually special cases that have to be dealt with differently than other officers. 2nd Lt.s can't find their ass with two hands...1st Lt.s go around grabbing their asses so they can prove that they CAN find their asses with both hands...Capt.s go around grabbing their ass because some Col. has been chewing on it...Maj.s think that since they have been able to find their ass for quite a while now, they are good-to-go (and for the most part they are).

I had a few Lt.s that needed straightening out...[:D]

I had a Navy Lt. give me grief one day. Usually, they (being equivalent to our Capt.)are usually past the dumb stage. He was an officer with a SEAL team that came to my base for training. I had the weekend duty at the ammo dump. We had taken delivery of some ammunition for them...it was set aside for them when they came and got it.

They pulled in in their like-new hummers and said they were there to get their stuff. I said,"come inside gentlemen."

We got inside and I asked to see the drivers' licenses and medical certificates. They said,"what medical certificates?"

I said,"the medical certificates you have to have before you can drive out of here with the ordnance and be within regulations."

When they told me they didn't have them, I told them they couldn't have the ordnance. The Lt. told me that he was taking the ordnance because it was theirs. I told them I understood that the stuff was theirs but he couldn't, within regs, drive out of my facility with it. I had to sign release of the ordnance saying that I verified that hey had the proper documentation and equipment to transport their stuff. the Lt. said,"Corporal, I am ordering your to let us have it."

I told him that I couldn't do that. He stormed off.

A while later, I got a phone cal from my OIC asking what the hell I was doing up here pissing the Navy off. When I told him, he told me that he now understood the situation.

About 3 hours later, the Navy showed back up with proper licenses, certificates, blast walls for the hummers (the reason for requiring a blast wall 12" high between you and explosives is beyond me), fire extinguishers, placards, and all kinds of stuff they didn't need. The Lt. saying,"yes Corporal...no Corporal." the whole time.

It was interesting. If I had caved and let him have the stuff, and something happened, I could be in Ft. Leavenworth.

Semper Fi,
Lee

[ilovestrategy]

Oh, you guys reminded me of a couple of LT's getting in trouble for chewing me out.
In the late 80's we were on liberty in a small town in Korea, and since the war is technically still on there were had to wear our cammies in town when ever we went out.
One night a firnd of mine and I were walking down a crowded street with marines everywhere. As we were making our way through a throng of fellow marines these butterbars turned around and proceeded to chew us out for not saluting.
When we tried to explain that their back were turned to us and we couldn't see their rank they over ruled that and didnt want to hear it and kept yelling at us.
Well, this one elder marine turned around and all we saw were BIRDS on his collar! [X(]
In a demeaning, disgusted, tired voice he shook his head and told the LT's, "Shut the F^&* up."
Then he turned to us and said, "You boys run along"
We were like "YEAH!"