BITOG Veterans Fall In

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bt
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Muster on the quarterdeck/hanger deck/parade field.

For those of you who served, what were;

your best/worst duty stations,

best chow halls/mess decks,

longest deployments,

best/worst memories,

still keep in touch with shipmates or unit buddies,

keep it brief, nothing classified.

bt
 
US Army more than 50 years ago.
Okinawa for 18 mos
Kadena Air Base for chow
Firing a shoulder mounted launcher aka Bazooka
Haven`t heard from anyone in 40 years
Would do it again
 
Well, for me:

Pensacola (wonderful beaches, cool town) and Pensacola (run in boots on those beaches, carrying a Garand, getting yelled at by a USMC DI)

Al Saliya. Army Base in Qatar. Awesome surf & turf Wednesdays.

7 months. Adriatic/Bosnia

Too many... Night landings. Day landings. Gunning USAF Eagles. All good. Time has a way of erasing the bad.

My first squadron, VF-84, has regular reunions. Desert Storm aircrew. We were tight.

Still are.
 
Mine were;

best :a tiny LORAN station in northwest Spain, worst, MCB Camp LeJeune

best chow, Torrejon AFB Madrid, Spain, worst, anything 'MRE'

longest deployment, Desert Storm

worst memory, at sea in a storm

hear from one buddy that lives nearby occasionally, get squadron email from time to time
 
Best/Worst: Edwards AFB and Channel Islands ANGS were my only duty stations. Both were good in different ways.

Chow: Best was probably Point Mugu NAS. Worst Al Udeid, AB Qatar.

Deployments: only had 1 short deployment and it was to Al Udeid AB. It was during Ramadan so it was 90 days never leaving a tent city. Every day was Groundhog Day

Best memories: Lots of interesting stuff going on at Edwards AFB if you like planes. Also working and socializing with a large group of coworkers of similar age and interests. I haven't had that in civilian life.

I keep in touch with a few buddies through Facebook.
 
I always heard that too. First time I ever saw a salad bar was at an AFB. Somebody told me that when the AF builds a base they build the chow hall first, barracks second and if there is any money left over they build runways.
 
Best assignment: Elmendorf AFB (Anchorage, AK)
Worst assignment: Keesler AFB (Biloxi, MS)

Most intense assignment and short tour:
Comiso AS working on a tactical nuclear cruise missile system inside a GLCM Alert Maintenance Area (GAMA)

And yes... the USAF had the best chow -- bar none
smile.gif
 
Aw, the Air Force always has money left over for runways. They always used to also have money left over to build jets with takeoff rolls that were so long they couldn't get airborne on those runways. They are a little better about that now.

Best duty station? Every fighter base I was stationed at. Worst? Any AF base where the fighter wing was a tenant unit. There, the shoe clerks ran things without a sense of urgency.

Best chow halls, anything AF or on Navy ships. Even the Kunsan Korea AB C-pad dining facility, where there was a rat the size of a beagle living in the wall was great. Worst, anything associated with the Army, who could turn even a nice NY steak into shoe leather.

Best deployments, all of them. I especially liked working joint deployments with all the other services. But I am self admittedly a little nuts. I even enjoyed survival training.

Best memories are too many to list, but flying at Kadena AB in an F-4C Wild Weasel squadron of Vietnam experienced pros had to be near the top. . Worst was losing buddies to accidents.
 
Best: Clark AB
Worst: MCLB Barstow

Best Chow: Kadena while stationed at Camp Butler

Longest: Clark AB (3 years)

Best Memories: Toss up between Clark and LeJeune. Clark because I was on Motors and LeJeune because I love NC.
Worst Memories: I served in both the AF and then MC. The AF cannot be beaten if you have a family, from the hospitals to the BX and all other accommodations. Takes a lot of worry off your mind when deployed. There is a saying in the MC that if the Corps wanted you to have a family they would have issued you one. Strange because I was, and still am, closer to the Marines I served with than my buddies in the AF.
 
Originally Posted by Passport1
I always heard that too. First time I ever saw a salad bar was at an AFB. Somebody told me that when the AF builds a base they build the chow hall first, barracks second and if there is any money left over they build runways.


Totally untrue!

They build the golf course first....
 
Army Paratrooper
Best duty station was Ft. Bragg
Second best Ft. Campbell
Best chow at Bragg
Longest and worst deployment was Vietnam 67 and 68.
Best memories are serving with the 82 and 101st Airborne.
Worst memories, Vietnam war.
 
Best duty station: NAS Barbers Point, Hawaii
I protected all the bars in Honolulu from the communist red menace.

Worst but most memorable duty station:
USS Essex CVS-9. Ship was built PRIOR to the aircraft carrier my father served aboard in WWII.

Both best & worst chow:
USS Essex. Great SOS and meals overall. Got food poisoning once.

Longest deployment:
None really. A 6 month Mediterranean cruise was scheduled but halfway there the ship was removed from the fleet. We did a 180º turn in the middle of the Atlantic and headed back to the USA.

Best/worst memories:
Watching Apollo 7 mission being recovered in person from the flight deck then living in Hawaii for remainder of duty.
Salt water showers aboard ship due to evaporators constantly breaking down/clogging.

Keeping in touch:
Kinda, there is an online association for shipmates who served aboard.

I'll never forget this, I've posted it here before. This was 51 years ago, I was one of the many "volunteered" for the picture. It was freezing cold.
[Linked Image]
 
US Army 1985-1992
52D
Best duty station FT Belvoir
Worst FT Knox
Longest FT Bragg
Best chow Pope AFB
Longest deployment shield/storm
18th Airborne
1/39 FAR and 3/8 FAR. Lived in the field 🥴
 
Worst duty station - Grand Forks AFB, ND
Best DS - Dover AFB, DE

Best chow hall - GFAFB

We didn't actually deploy, but I flew overseas as an aircrew member...longest stay in another country was about 2 weeks.

Best memories are about all of the friends I made while I was in. They became family really. Some I'm still in touch with today.

Only bad memory was from going through survival training, which included becoming a POW. Although it was just training, it still sucked hard.
 
US Coast Guard. 1976-80.

USCGC Confidence WMEC 619. Kodiak Alaska. 18 month tour.
Great crew and Captain. Food was good as well though a lot of chicken was served in many ways.

Memorable memories: Seeing the Captain sit upright in his chair on the bridge as we headed into a 75 foot swell.

Taking a 65 degree roll just off of Unimak Pass. The ship had to think for a few moments before coming back upright.

Engine room fire.

Breaking ice on board with the government issued Louisville Sluggers.

Last patrol out we hit a big winter storm in the Bering Sea. Winds well over 100 knots. Took shelter on Lee side of island somewhere down the chain. Lost the port anchor and had to go back out. Our helicopter lost the main rotor blades. We also lost a Zodiac boat, cracked the hull on one of the MSBs and wrecked our 3" mount. Came back into port with a heavy list. Ship went into Charlie status and I departed several weeks later. She was still a long ways from being ready for sea.

Side note: the Confidence is still active and running now based out of Port Canaveral Florida. The taxpayers have gotten their money's worth out of that ship.


Motor Lifeboat Station Yaquina Bay Oregon. I was there for the rest of my four years in.

Great crew and command. This is a very busy station on the central Oregon Coast at Newport. We ran 600 plus calls a year while I was there.

Good food. Our contract was with the local Safeway versus a government supplier so we could actually suggest food to the cooks. On weekends we cooked our own. Eggs, steak, bacon and frozen hash browns. We ate very well.

Memorable memories: Qualifying for coxswain on the 44 footers.

A couple of summer weekend duties where we were up the whole time from Friday morning till Monday morning.

Lots of rescue calls. Fires, sinkings, capsizing, drownings, we saw it all. Some of those memories were not good.

Going out on the old Victory on a winter storm call. 25-30 breakers on the bar. We were out well over 12 hours. Towed in a 75 foot fishing vessel that had lost power and her crew safely.

Surf drills.

Side note: the Victory, launched in 1956 is still in active service at Newport where it has been in service its entire life. Still going strong.
 
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I spent lots of time on a 40' like this one on a small boat station on the Great Lakes. Great times being boat crew except when we had to snag a 'floater' and retrieve it with a stokes litter.


[Linked Image]



Bravo Zulu to all you vets!


[Linked Image]
 
Those go back a ways. I never saw one in person. The 41's were around but we didn't have one.

In a freak accident a freighter crashed into our boathouse and took out the 44300. It is now at Cape D in the museum. There were no 44 footers available so we ended up with a 36 foot woody. That was a real step backwards for us except for the old salts.
 
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