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Post by 6l6 on Apr 6, 2021 11:18:26 GMT -5
My wife and I elected to walk back to our hotel in the rain one night in 2016. I grabbed this shot in my favorite city in the world, London, with my iPhone. That's Harrod's in the background with the large dome on top.
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Post by gato on Apr 7, 2021 5:16:15 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 8, 2021 5:16:13 GMT -5
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 20:39:59 GMT -5
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 20:42:37 GMT -5
FISHER UH1h takeoff by john fisher, on Flickr I was very fortunate to get assigned to a UH1h Helicopter unit for my first assignment. I was in tactical communications for my entire career, and got to experience quite an array of different kinds of units. Here is a UH1h Helicopter taking off from our field location.
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 20:47:25 GMT -5
FISHER UH1h Friends by john fisher, on Flickr These two Sergeants First Class had each been Helicopter Crew Chiefs in the Vietnam War. They were so chilled and unflappable. To me, they were bigger than life. Way bigger than actors who portray them. These guys were the real deal.
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 20:50:23 GMT -5
Graf Simer by john fisher, on Flickr This is a Field Artillery Crewman on an M-110 Self-Propelled Howitzer in West Germany, around 1988. A really good guy.
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 21:04:41 GMT -5
Fisher Bundeswher copy by john fisher, on Flickr That is young SPC WireDog, alongside a West German Bundeswher Falschurmjaeger Grenadier (Parachute Infantry) in about '86. Three other guys and I got to spend two weeks training with them in Hoenfelz Training Area, Bavaria. I got selected for this cool thing because one morning during a three week field exercise, after all of us being up literally for almost three days, my First Sergeant walked by and saw I was on the roof of my vehicle, adjusting the camouflage net. He asked me how it was going and I replied, "It don't get no better than this, First Sergeant!" That was a popular phrase in some commercial back then, maybe a beer commercial. It impressed him enough to recommend me for that mission. The truth was, it SUCKED at that moment, I was exhausted, and practically hallucinating! We got to fire all their cool weapons. Here, I'm holding a Heckler and Koch G-3 Rifle in 7.62 NATO. It's heavy and awkward, with terrible ergonomics that jab you everywhere, but it is accurate as heck. Each day I'd swap out my M-16 with one of theirs. Without fail, they'd toss the M-16 in the air and laugh with amazement at how light it was! It was a gas!
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 21:13:29 GMT -5
Graf GUY W 2 PROJOS copy by john fisher, on Flickr Here is another young Field Artillery Crewman. His position is readying the projectiles with the properly timed fuses and getting it loaded into the gun. They are kids, with extremely well-trained and experienced leaders. We entrusted them with responsibility to handle high explosives and operate powerful (and very dangerous) weapons. In just a few short years, many of them became leaders. These rounds are 203mm in diameter, close to 8". You can imagine the devastation done to a target. Our Fire Direction Control guys calculated the trajectory and impact and they were very accurate.
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 21:22:13 GMT -5
Graf 89 Track by john fisher, on Flickr M-110 Self Propelled Howitzer on the move in Grafenwhoer Germany. They were the biggest cannons in the US Army, surpassed only by Naval guns. The Army discontinued using them in favor of having smaller Howitzers that are towed behind a truck, and the smaller, more maneuverable 155 Paladin Self Propelled Howitzers. However, the Marines still use the same 8"gun, in a vehicle-towed configuration. Those huge, heavy rounds are very accurate and have tremendous range. On the downside, the huge, heavy M-110's took a heck of a beating and required constant maintenance. My role as a Communications-Electronics specialist was maintaining the Vehicle Intercom System, as well as the many radios used in the Fire Direction Control vehicles. All the support vehicles had radios, and the field site became wired together by field telephone. Each cannon had a phone line run to the Fire Direction Control vehicle through which firing data was sent to the guns by voice. A phone line got run to the Higher HQ. It was non-stop work that went on day and night, with usually at least two moves every day, including at night, and in simulated chemical warfare environment "Chem-suit" and gas-mask. Firing the guns instantly gave away our position to the enemy, therefore it was essential to be able to shoot and scoot rapidly. Typically, we do this in three-week long exercises, and they were no joke. Yet the guys were awesome, and we pulled each other through and kept each other's spirits up. At times, it was rather Hellish, but it's all good in hindsight! The Soviet Union collapsed during my tour with the 8" Howitzers. They knew they couldn't take the US. We had the best training, the best equipment, and most of all, we had the best people. Freedom isn't free!
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 21:51:04 GMT -5
Graf guy on TA-312 by john fisher, on Flickr This Cannoneer is on a Field Phone with the Fire Direction Control vehicle (FDC). The FDC sends him the firing data by voice, and he relays it by voice, to the Gunner on the Howitzer just a couple of feet away. The data revolution changed all that in the 80's, on my watch. Back then, they even had a way to relay data via hand signals, in the event that all comms was knocked out. That's a lot of responsibility for young guy, but that is what militaries across the globe have always done. In light of the state of the young people of today, it is hard not to laugh at the things that bug them and concern them so much. I find myself always at the ready to tell them to, "Get off My Lawn!"
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WireDog
Wholenote
Posts: 298
Age: 68
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Post by WireDog on Apr 8, 2021 22:06:37 GMT -5
graf 89 Hoadley pull ALPHA 8 by john fisher, on Flickr Grafenwhoer Training Area, where all of these Howitzer pictures were taken, has been used as a Training area since before WWI. All of that hardware for so many decades has churned up some areas so as to turn them into epic mudholes. Here, I got into one and had to get hauled out by an M-548 Ammunition Carrier. I got my HMMWV stuck a couple of times, and once I had no other vehicles nearby to tow me out. In that one case, not shown here, I drove into a flooded crater that submerged the battery and also killed the engine. A Captain was riding with me and he suggested we go off-road to a rendezvous point in a "short-cut". Bad idea. It was almost twilight and I drove over what looked like a yet-another wet patch of ground. It was a big crater full of water. No one knew we'd gone off-road, so we were on our own. The Captain had plenty of game and we spent half the night digging a long trench to low ground to drain the crater. Then we had to put rocks and logs etc. under the wheels and dry out the electrical system. Finally, we got out. We showed up the next morning looking like two Mud Men from Borneo, and no one could recognize us or our vehicle. Big laughs on that one!! Great fun!! I wonder who else got stuck in that same crappy spot over the past hundred years?
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Post by gato on Apr 9, 2021 5:23:39 GMT -5
Wiredog, my son was a member of a self propelled howitzer crew in Iraq.
He is still buds with another crewmember from back then.
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Post by gato on Apr 9, 2021 5:25:47 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 9, 2021 15:27:10 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 10, 2021 5:12:17 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 10, 2021 15:07:17 GMT -5
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Post by funkykikuchiyo on Apr 10, 2021 19:18:39 GMT -5
The gal in #225 looks like the sort I'd congratulate on the upcoming baby, only to immediately regret saying anything.
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Post by gato on Apr 11, 2021 5:24:17 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 11, 2021 12:50:32 GMT -5
i.postimg.cc/fLSpdhJ7/xxx.jpgOkay, you can lead a horse to water, yadda yadda yadda. Bu if your brother-in-law keeps up with the "it wasn't me" excuse, then you've just wasted $19.99 on a family relief package. Time to spring for the activated charcoal seat cushion.
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Post by gato on Apr 12, 2021 5:39:17 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 13, 2021 6:09:42 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 13, 2021 13:01:19 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 14, 2021 5:19:44 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 14, 2021 15:01:17 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 15, 2021 5:17:03 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 15, 2021 14:49:03 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 16, 2021 5:44:23 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 16, 2021 11:58:52 GMT -5
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Post by gato on Apr 17, 2021 5:24:00 GMT -5
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