# This could only happen in the service



## fuzzybuddy (Oct 8, 2020)

Not everything that happened to me when I was in the  US Navy was do or die. Most was boring, some was funny.
I was the Hospital 'driver". I had to drop off letters, pick up small packages etc. . I had to pick up and bring back the movies. I had a bunch of jobs. But I had to get a Security Clearance. You see I was supposed to pick up Confidential -Secret stuff. After about a month of the FBI investigating me, I got my clearance. So now, I will tell what my secret missions were. I had to go to the base secret message center, sign my life away and get these documents. The thing was the weather report was considered a "Confidential" document. In, war you can kind of see the reasoning. for that. That is why I needed a Security Clearance. So what was I supposed to do with this 'document? On my way back to the hospital, I had to drop it off at the base radio station, so they could announce it over the air.
This could only happen in the service


----------



## jujube (Oct 8, 2020)

And then there's the "hurry up and wait" that's a staple of service life.


----------



## Pappy (Oct 8, 2020)

I can’t count the times I pulled overnight guard duty with my rifle....no bullets mind you.


----------



## fuzzybuddy (Oct 9, 2020)

Pappy said:


> I can’t count the times I pulled overnight guard duty with my rifle....no bullets mind you.


I will always remember having "guard duty" at 2 AM. I was out freezing my     off from the strong winds off the Great Lakes. I was guarding an enormous beam. They were building a new auditorium. The beam was about 6 feet high and about 80 feet long. It weighed many tons. It took two cranes just to move the thing. But there I was with a  WWII rifle, filled with cement , guarding this beam, in case somebody  tried to steal it. Apparently, robbers saw me there, and knew they were hopelessly outclassed. They didn't even bother attempting to steal the beam.


----------



## jerry old (Oct 18, 2020)

Okay us do humor
Sniper rifles: It really does not matter how far your round will travel; does it have sufficient Connecticut energy to kill the enemy when it hits?


----------



## 911 (Oct 18, 2020)

jerry old said:


> Okay us do humor
> Sniper rifles: It really does not matter how far your round will travel; does it have sufficient Connecticut energy to kill the enemy when it hits?


I wish that we had some of the rifles in Vietnam that the soldiers and Marines have today. Some of those weapons look very intimidating and I can only imagine their capabilities.


----------



## 911 (Oct 18, 2020)

Nine of us were gearing up to do a night recon patrol in a jungle area just outside of Bien Hoa. We were given orders that if we found the enemy to identify only, but do not engage. We patrolled the area for about 2-3 miles. We found nothing, so we decided to turn back. On the return patrol, we may have went a hundred yards, we saw 4 enemy soldiers smoking and joking around a big tree. They were standing right into our path, so we had to stand down.

We waited for almost 2 hours before they finally moved on. When we got back, the Sergeant went into a discussion with the Lt. Pretty soon, the Sgt. came back over to where we were dressing down from being on patrol and told us we were getting a medal for “Meritorious Service.” I didn’t even know what that was.


----------

