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d8alus
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Guest Grayfox

ya earplugs are a must sometimes i swear the phone is ringing when it really isnt... same when blowing road craters. those cratering charges are heavy duty.

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speaking of slogging thru mud....reminds me of the last live-fire I did before I got out...it was last feb-march-ish...I was at Ft Campbell and we were doing a company live-fire on range 50-something..(think it was 55)..anyhoo, I was carrying the SAW and it'd been raining all day...so that night things were nice and muddy and we had a hill that was like 60-70 degree incline to go up (about 50 meters to the top)...well, I only fell 3 times..and I got my weapon all nice and muddied...it got below freezing that night..anyone wanna guess what happens when a machine gun gets muddy and the mud freezes?? That's the only time I've seen three consectutive machine guns get pulled off-line for saftey hazard...interesting side note...it was the only time I've had my clothes freeze while I was wearing them...

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Guest Grayfox

hey race, my ASVAB was high enough to enter the air force... i just wanted to EARN my pay is all (hopefully you know im joking right??? all branches of military have my highest respects... even marines )

they took a few of us with high ASVAB scores aside in BT and asked how we would like the army UDT program... i was all for it untill they mentioned we would have to travel on boats...ick.

as for clothes freezing... one word for that... Boz so cold my pee just about froze as it came out.

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quote:

Originally posted by Kiran:

anyone wanna guess what happens when a machine gun gets muddy and the mud freezes??

Don't have to guess too much, Cadet. Imagine the fall of 1988, Grafenwohr, West Germany....

A little history is required so that this story makes some sense. Grafenwohr is pronounced "Graf-in-veer" for the unitiated.

quote:

HISTORY OF GRAFENWOHR

( THIS IS WHERE THE 553d AND 18TH ARTY WENT FOR TRAINING IN GERMANY )

This article was provided by Jim Fry from Texas and Hal Holland found it in some old Newsletters from Feb. 1996

The training camp was first established by Prince Luitpold of Bavaria. It was to be the training area for the Reichswher or also know as the 100,000 man army. It became operational in 1911 with 37 square miles of training area. Bavaria was an autonomous monarchy during this period, however, during the first world war it was taken control of by the German High Command in Berlin. 1933 saw the emergence of Adolph Hitler as chancellor of Germany and by 1935 the Reichswher had been totally forgotten along with the treaty of Versaille. Hitler created the Wehrmacht and the area grew to 50 miles by evacuating the residents the SS or Leibstandarte(Hitlers Personal body guards, and General RommelÔÇÖs Africa troops, trained in this area, as did some Italian troops and Russian.) After WW2 Grafenwoher was closed until 1947 when it became the training area for the 370th and 371st infantry Battalions of the First Infantry Division. It exploded to ninety-nine square miles and has been used extensively by the US Army since. It has been known as a sub station of Vilseck Germany.


Trainload after trainload of sand was imported by the SS into Grafenwohr, to make it a better training camp. This sand was spread across a 100 square mile area, and was used to toughen the SS and advanced military units.

All that sand, mixed with regular dirt, seemed perfectly normal in clear, dry weather. However, when mixed with rain or melting snow, it made walking very difficult, and very sluggish.

In ice, the sand/dirt mix made the ground 5-times harder than normal -- you didn't want to fall down on it! Period!

Late August, 1988 -- Regimental Command ordered us to Grafenwohr, for 3-weeks of R&R (NOT!) I had just then gotten my BDUs dry-cleaned, so I looked pretty good coming back to my unit from the Rear. I was hopping into the back of a Deuce-and-a-Half (2 1/2 ton truck), and lost my footing, good and proper. I feel down into that sticky mud.... Me with me great-looking new clothes in the field, all covered with mud.... The other guys laughed at me, but it was pretty funny.

The not-so-humorous part was that my weapon, an M-16A1, was plunged a good foot or so into the mud, and then landed long-wise on top of it. That weapon got more guck in it than I thought was possible. It took me 2-days to clean it enough to trust firing it, which was good since we had live-fire exercises from time-to-time.

I'm just happy it didn't have ammo in it at the time... They didn't trust Artillery personnel to run around with live ammo -- on this occasion, that was perfectly okay with me.

We had to bug-out in Early September, because the snow had already hit 2-feet, and the tracked vehicles tended to get stuck. That was fine by me -- I hated that place.

Anyway, back to your question. Water is an odd substance, compared with normal science. It is the only known substance that EXPANDS when it freezes. A machine gun, filled with cold muddy water, would tend to crack the insides when it freezes. My guess is that it made the safe use of the weapon negatable. Hence the reason it was pulled off the line...

Suggestion: Don't let your weapons fall into cold, muddy water, without cleaning heck out of them before nightfall... Unless you like to write-off military equipment...

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Grayfox,

I was also a part of the 19th Engie BN. 1987-1993.

Delta Company, a Reserve unit.

Did you happen to be with Charlie Co during that little training exercise with the Canadians, summer of 92 I think it was. Camp Wainwright, way up in Alberta.

And a little story from BT at Ft Lost-in-the-woods...

Bravo 4-10 hoo rah! I was 33 years old at the time, with a head full of premature grey hair. WHat can I say? I was looking for a part time job, and the Reserves seemed like a good place at the time.

We had just finished end of course testing and we were granted a Brigade pass. Biig whooptiedoo. LOL A Sunday afternoon running amok across three streets.

My battle bud and I had gone into a PX to utilize the latrine. I had just finished washing my hands and had the hot air blow dryer fired up, when a brand newbie trainee stepped into the can. You could tell he was new because his fatigues were still very very shiny new, with the deep rich camo color tones. Vivid green, black, and brown.

This kid took one look at me. snapped to at ease and said, "Sergeant! Is there a drinking fountain around here Sergeant?!"

At least that's what I thought he said. With the blow dryer running I didn't want to trust my ears at the time, so I leaned over and asked him, "WHat was that Private?

He quickly repeated himself, only louder this time.

Meanwhile, Pilcher is in the stall laughing his guts out.

I reached into my right cargo pocket, pulled my hat out and pulled it down on my head with the perfect two finger spacing between bill and bridge. I leaned in close to the kids face and said, "Private!, I am a Private same as you!"

Now Pilcher is rolling in the floor laughing.

The kid turned 16 shades of red, snapped to attention, executed a perfect about face, and ran from bathroom.

Pilcher falls out the door of the stall, laughing so hard he can barely breathe.

He then asks me, "Why didn't you drop him?"

I said, "Yeah, right! That's all we would need to have the kids' DI walk in and find me making him beat his face on the latrine floor! Are you nuts!?"

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Guest Grayfox

wolferz, i missed that one, cause i was in campbell from jan 93-jan 94.

i didnt get to knox until jan 94. in feb 94 we went to wainright, and did a 45 day rotation. it was cold there too, but not the coldest ive been in. i swear i did more out of state field rotations when i was in knox than when i was in campbell.

in campbell, we went to JRTC when it was down in chaffee, then we went to bragg for bridge ex for 45 days. when i went to knox, we went to canada, NTC twice, JRTC twice when it moved down to ft polk, camp greuber OK for MOUT training, ft leonardwood for more bridgex... then there was the out of country rotations... and i dont mean training.. haiti was one, so was boz.

after boz i was so damn glad to be in warm weather... even if it was 40 or 50 degress out

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  • 1 year later...

Bump

Somebody mentioned a war stories thread and I remembered this was being used for that.

I enjoy reading them. I like "Humor in Uniform" in Reader's Digest but that's about as close as I want to get to the military.

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Sergeant T.A. Bonds

HQ PLATOON SERGEANT

ANTI-TERRORISM FORCE PROTECTION OFFICER

INTELLIGENCE ANALYST

MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP 12

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION IWAKUNI JAPAN

1ST MARINE AIRCRAFT WING

MARINE CORPS FORCES PACIFIC

And i've been in the military going on 5 years.

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quote:

Does getting kicked out count??

I would think so, Litvyak!!! Hell, What kind of military would it be, if EVERYONE was stupid enough to follow orders, without question???

6 years United States Navy

>>>6 Captains Mast and 3 demotions later.....lol

Honorably discharged E-6,w/Honorable conditions.

And I have been told:"You still scare the hell out of them."(my old Team)" :D

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I feel you. I got confined to base one day before my birthday and decided I didnt want to miss my own birthday party so I was smuggled off the base in the trunk of my friends car. When I got back I was so shitfaced that I walked through the front gate. The only thing that saved me was my roomdog being on gateguard duty that night God bless him. Oh I miss those days! I woke up the next day to find a full mixed drink in my jacket pocket.

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I probably shouldnt talk, just been in the Air Force 2 years, and aint got no real war stories to tell...

Besides the localizer (Half an ILS set) that got taken away by a tornado..nothing left but the concrete pads...

And the guy that had a heart attack on the access road, came through two VIDS fences, under an AWACS, and came to a rest next to our RVR set...

I swear, all the fun stuff on the base and I was only indirectly involved, let alone responsible.. (although it is fun to write off a quarter million dollars of ILS gear as simply...missing)

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SGT Eric J. Kuyper

13F (Forward Observer)

4th BN 41st FA

197th INF BDE (M)(S)

Gulf War Aug 90-Apr 91

Got a great story involving a campfire and a camel once I get the time to type it

Eric

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