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MS wasn't always bad...

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creedon:
To be perfectly honest, I didn't really like my time in the military.  I was a Seabee, and I ended up in Spain building an airfield.  When I was there, Spain was still a Facist country, and not too long after I got there, the US lost 2 H-bombs off the coast.  Needless to say, we weren't popular over there.
When I was supposed to re-up, I found out that my next duty station would have been Camrahn bay.  The life expectancy of Seabees was real low in 'Nam; Charlie figured out if you kill the guys that fix the runways before you fuck up the runways, it lasts longer.  I guess I never got any of that real "good" duty, but my ass is still attached, and all my original parts still work- that's somethng.

Centurian:
Hey Creedon,

Sounds like you got out just in time.

voidmain:
It's true I was in post Vietnam and I heard many horror stories from the guys who were there. I did the Saudi thing which must have been like boy scout camp compared to Vietnam.  I believe there were a lot of lessons learned in Vietnam which caused us to have a better chance in Saudi. I went over about 3 weeks after the invasion of Kuwait (20 miles south of the Kuwait/Iraq/Saudi border).

During the buildup stage it was a little nerve racking and the whole time we had this one engine mechanic who spent time in Vietnam telling us how bad it was going to be and how things were going to go down when they overran our base (he had me scared shitless). Luckily things went a little better than that. We had several Scuds shot at us and luckily the Patriots did the trick (most of the time). There definately were tense moments but we definately had things better. And I for one appreciate what you guys had to go through when things didn't go so well. Thank you! We can only hope that history will not repeat itself.

creedon:

quote:Originally posted by VoidMain:
It's true I was in post Vietnam and I heard many horror stories from the guys who were there. I did the Saudi thing which must have been like boy scout camp compared to Vietnam.  I believe there were a lot of lessons learned in Vietnam which caused us to have a better chance in Saudi. I went over about 3 weeks after the invasion of Kuwait (20 miles south of the Kuwait/Iraq/Saudi border).

During the buildup stage it was a little nerve racking and the whole time we had this one engine mechanic who spent time in Vietnam telling us how bad it was going to be and how things were going to go down when they overran our base (he had me scared shitless). Luckily things went a little better than that. We had several Scuds shot at us and luckily the Patriots did the trick (most of the time). There definately were tense moments but we definately had things better. And I for one appreciate what you guys had to go through when things didn't go so well. Thank you! We can only hope that history will not repeat itself.
--- End quote ---
That guy was giving you good info; I had a real good buddy who was an EO (equipment operator).  He was repairing a forward airbase that had been mortared, and they started dropping rounds again.  One hit the bulldozer he was operating.  There wasn't anything to ship home.  He was a good guy, and I miss hm.

voidmain:
I was lucky enough to not lose any close friends but we did lose a couple of pilots that I knew. We also had a patriot take out a SCUD but not detonate the warhead. It came down in our tent city and took out a few of the coalition guys. I almost got taken out one night by a U.S. F-4G. For a time I was working the 6pm-6am shift.  Well one morning around 2:00am it was pitch black out and extremely foggy, you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you.  Well I was on the taxiway working one of our planes when I heard an IFE (in-flight emergency) announcement come over the radio.  

An F-4 was coming back from a mission low on fuel, apparently missed his tanker hookup.  Well we could hear it coming in but we couldn't see it, then we heard the engines flame out, then no sound, then directly above our heads we see these two flashes of flame from the rocket motors on the ejection seats. Really made the fog glow for a couple of seconds. They couldn't have been more than about 100-200 feet directly above our heads when they punched out. For about one second we thought "wow!" and a nanosecond later I realized that there were going to be canopies and other pieces of debri coming down around us so I began to run for cover. Well I didn't get one step when I heard the thuds from canopies and ejection seats hitting the ground on either side of us, and a little too close for my liking. Shortly followed by the sound of the airplane hitting the ground (couldn't see any of it because of the fog by the way).  

Well a couple of seconds later, one of the pilots came down in his chute right on the taxiway next to us. He was obviously shaken up and we walked him to our crew building where we met up with the second pilot. Neither one were hurt. Come to find out they were from my old unit in Germany. I was chatting with them about how things had changed since I was there last (trying to get them thinking about something other than what they just went through). The fog cleared some by time the sun started to rise and that's when I saw where the airplane had ended up.  It hit the ground, bounced over the road and between a couple of buildings and stopped in an open patch about 400 yards from where we were standing at the time it came down. Not a soul was hurt, truly amazing. I think I have some pictures of it lying around somewhere. That's one experience that will stick with me for a long time.

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