Jump to content

Let's see your military-related photo(s)


fstop61
 Share

Recommended Posts

 

If we did I never saw any of it bloody SGT must have taken it :o:lol:

Yeah, I think they stopped the Rum Rations in British and British Commonweath Armies in the 60s right? I did like your Sterlings though, got to fire one at down this hugh Gluch at Eielson Air Force Base, (one of two maneuver areas for U.S. Army Ground Troops in Alaska) where we had some weapons firing the second day out during our aggessor field problem, I remember joking with the squadie, (I think he was a Radio operator), who had to give me his piece to fire, by saying, What You Guys Don't Use Sten Guns Anymore! :lol: The Pats did have 50 Cal MGs, we did not have them in the 4th Bn 9th Inf, it was a treat to fire them again, or for me in any rate, I hadn't fired one since the 1st Cav Div at Ft Hood the year before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I think they stopped the Rum Rations in British and British Commonweath Armies in the 60s right? I did like your Sterlings though, got to fire one at down this hugh Gluch at Eielson Air Force Base, (one of two maneuver areas for U.S. Army Ground Troops in Alaska) where we had some weapons firing the second day out during our aggessor field problem, I remember joking with the squadie, (I think he was a Radio operator), who had to give me his piece to fire, by saying, What You Guys Don't Use Sten Guns Anymore! :lol: The Pats did have 50 Cal MGs, we did not have them in the 4th Bn 9th Inf, it was a treat to fire them again, or for me in any rate, I hadn't fired one since the 1st Cav Div at Ft Hood the year before.

Geez I loved the sterling we used the C-1 variant and man it was one of the nicest guns I've ever handled. As for the Rum ration I think the RN had it until 72 but it was long gone from the army when I marched in. As a side note I was in Germany for a spell in march 1980 and had a few drinks with some nice American lads and I gotta say it would have been nice to pump some Rum into them and unlock their full potential ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first time under fire as a photojournalist with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Somalia in 1994. Following a squad of Marines working their way toward some "skinnies" firing on our compound.

post-8602-0-77683100-1374554057.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Receiving fire from buildings in the distance, no casualties on our side, but our guys sure dropped a load on them.

post-8602-0-71329600-1374554487.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our Navy medical team set up a free clinic for the locals. The demand was overwhelming and eventually supplies ran out. It was heartbreaking to see hundreds turned away.

post-8602-0-44104000-1374554674.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Starting up again, in a rare foto, me and two stay behinds when the Battalion was out at Greeley in February 1982 muck around in the CO office. We are wearing the 1st Sergeant's, the Company Commander's and the Executive Officer's Soft Caps. The guy in the center was just a detailed stay behind and was assistant CQ that day, the one on the left and myself in field pants were pulled out for duty back at the Barracks, you know to pull CQ and junk, you can't have one or two Junior EMs pull assistant CQ for a week and half, plus the one guy on company punishment, there was one there, an Artical 15 on restriction, they're not allowed to pull CQ duty by regulation.

 

I love this photo, it one really taken under the radar, and I don't think the Top and the CO or EXO wouldn't really mind we did it. Of course I never showed it to them :lol: At this time we were cleaning the their offices, and these caps were on hooks, it's not that we busted in and stuff you know, and quite frankly it was a honor to put them on and pose with them, as we had a high degree of respect for them. Some of you Officers, former or current might be Appalled by this :lol: but you might have a argument if we posed stomping on the caps..... or..... use your imagination :D

 

post-34986-0-68804800-1377063703.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And More, And More!

 

This one in early May 1982, break up was just ending. Here we are wearing for the very first time the new BDUs in a field setting, juust got them a few days before, the training was a day out in the woods on the Ft Wainwright reservation up in those high hills far beyond the Barracks area, in the area of the big Ammo Dump. I was at this time a Squad RTO.

post-34986-0-06371100-1377064387.jpg

 

Same day field problem, I guess most Servicemen at one time or another possed Flipping the Bird :lol:

post-34986-0-79169300-1377064333.jpg

Note the wear of the old M56 suspenders by me, I found them better to use with the radio, in that I could tuck the wide flat short antenna though the strap on the front part and thread it though it and then though the D loop, this was to keep the antenna from flaping around when on the move.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ARTEP May 1982, took a lot of photos on this one, we where out for two weeks done in the mountains above Anchorage, Elmendorf AFB's reservation, it was then while we were out here that scuttlebutt started that the Falklands Island War might involve the U.S. if Cuba intervened.

 

Off loading at Elemendorf proper, the Guy standind with ruck on is my Squad Leader S/Sgt Larsen, he was my Squad Leader the whole time I was up there, note he carries the sleeping pad, this was a very new item, and literally the first time it was taken out in the field, a few guys were only issued it. I wasn't one, I was glad, I always thought it was way to bulky and clumsy, indeed i much prefered the Air Mattress, more compact you see. Also we see two items, one, the standard Canteen complete being worn by Larsen, this was a new item too, a Battalion aquisition doled out to individual Companies as Company property, we never had this before, only used the artic Canteen year round. And two the M56 E-tool cover with the folding V handle E-tool shoved in it, an item not compatable with this carrier, you could barly snap it closed, someting very common in Alaska, I had the M67 carrier myself, but heck we had a few guys with the long handled M49, I guess called the M49, you know the one with the integral pick, one guy broke his handle when we were digging postitions LOL

post-34986-0-04888500-1377236411.jpg

 

At Elmendorf proper after moving off of the Runways. That,s me here, I was detailed Ammo Guard, and was told to fix bayonet (did not of course have a loaded rifle) We brought along a limited amount of the Live Stuff, small arms, machine gun ammo, and 40mm Grenade rounds for the M203s, we would on this ARTEP do some Live Firing here and there, more Ammo, the Heavy stuff, 90mm Recoiless, 81mm Mortar rounds etc was issued out later from the Dumps I gather at Richardson.

post-34986-0-20437500-1377237332.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Patches, Those were the days. Humping an Artic ruck with either snowshoes attached or worn was always fun, I loved it when fell over and did the turtle. How about the blue balaclava and the BAKAHUCHI head that it gave you, or the yuke toast. Man that stuff would kill me today .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Patches, Those were the days. Humping an Artic ruck with either snowshoes attached or worn was always fun, I loved it when fell over and did the turtle. How about the blue balaclava and the BAKAHUCHI head that it gave you, or the yuke toast. Man that stuff would kill me today .

Yuke toast, wow I forgot about that, for those not knowing it's taking a slice of white breaded from the mornings, usualy the mornings, Hot As out in the field, and if 10 man tents with there Yukon stoves were set up (most of the time they were not set up) one would place the slice on the top of the stove and toast it lol.

 

Yeah the Snowshoes, that was a bitch, one Battalion ftx at Eielson in Nov 82, we humped them around all day, sometimes when going through the bush, walking sideways to get though the trees. later we did a night attack, to get to the objective we climbed up one steep mountain, the mountain was uncharacteristically covered in dense pines, so there was no snow under the trees, just ice, we needed one thing here which we didn't have but did have as gear back home, Crampons, that would of helped immensely.

 

Our snowshoes were left behind finally, we were told we would not need them on this attack, Ah but quess whattt, we are sliping and falling all the way to the crest and beyond, we all found the snow on the top of the mountain, you guessed it, was thigh deep practically ALL THE WAY to the objective, so we needed them after all, even my Company CO was a little irritated and DOGGED OUT, I seen him on the move with his RTOs trailing behind him cursing a Blue Streak :lol:

 

I got load of more foto's bummer,, stay tuned, I,ve been dragging my A.S/S in posting them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More fotos from the May 82 ARTEP, out in the field striking a pose, note like in the two previous fotos we are all in MOPP 1, and remained so basically the entire ARTEP.

post-34986-0-45020600-1378872905.jpg

 

Me and a long time buddy, got up there juust before I did from his previous duty station with the 7th Div at Ft Ord, a Coal Miner from Jellico he was, from the Kentucky side of the town.

post-34986-0-10695400-1378873183.jpg

 

Humping out to board a Chinook, this one was painted OD, they Chinooks were normally painted the same Red and White as the Hueys.

post-34986-0-52095900-1378873315.jpg

 

And this last one, one of my many favorites, a candid shot of my Company Commander and the Company Platoon Leaders and Platoon Sergeants gathering for an Op Order briefing, they would, soon after I took this snaped this, go to ground and start business. The CO, he's on the far left facing the camera, note the two RTOs standing directly behind him, both Signal Corps GIs, one carries the radio on the Company Net, while the other has his on the Battalion Net.

post-34986-0-24562400-1378873878.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

439th Signal Battalion

 

Me and a long time buddy, got up there juust before I did from his previous duty station with the 7th Div at Ft Ord, a Coal Miner from Jellico he was, from the Kentucky side of the town.

attachicon.gifjellico ky.JPG

 

 

Been to Jellico many times and have a lot of good friends there. As we say in the South, "They're good people!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Yuke toast, wow I forgot about that, for those not knowing it's taking a slice of white breaded from the mornings, usualy the mornings, Hot As out in the field, and if 10 man tents with there Yukon stoves were set up (most of the time they were not set up) one would place the slice on the top of the stove and toast it lol.

 

Yeah the Snowshoes, that was a bitch, one Battalion ftx at Eielson in Nov 82, we humped them around all day, sometimes when going through the bush, walking sideways to get though the trees. later we did a night attack, to get to the objective we climbed up one steep mountain, the mountain was uncharacteristically covered in dense pines, so there was no snow under the trees, just ice, we needed one thing here which we didn't have but did have as gear back home, Crampons, that would of helped immensely.

 

Our snowshoes were left behind finally, we were told we would not need them on this attack, Ah but quess whattt, we are sliping and falling all the way to the crest and beyond, we all found the snow on the top of the mountain, you guessed it, was thigh deep practically ALL THE WAY to the objective, so we needed them after all, even my Company CO was a little irritated and DOGGED OUT, I seen him on the move with his RTOs trailing behind him cursing a Blue Streak :lol:

 

I got load of more foto's bummer,, stay tuned, I,ve been dragging my A.S/S in posting them.

New AK fotos. Here's a foto from this very Nov 82 FTX, we just flew in via the USAF, note the Snowshoes :lol:, and note how beautifully clean our Over White pants are, that would soon change :lol:.

 

post-34986-0-57515700-1475031801.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
The Rooster

This be me back in 1989 at good old Fort McCoy Wisconsin.

1-131st INF 33rd INF Bgde.

Taking a breather. Was a hot dam day.

Please ignore the caption, it was 1989.

Rooster

mr.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Rooster

This a group of pics from the winter of 1989 December. 

We were sent to Desert warfare training at fort Irwin 8 months before Saddam invaded

Kuwait. Our guys had to load our gear onto the civilian plane. This was on the tarmac at Ohare Airport in Chicago.

Was the first and only time I ever carried an automatic weapon aboard a civilian airline.

lol

The last shot is of my feet in the hole I spent the night in a dust storm in.

I almost choked the night before this shot trying to eat a handful of beer nuts.

We were on the side of a hill in the middle of a valley.

All night in a dust storm. We were Opfor.

In the morning, the dust storm let up just as the enemy attacked. After it was over the dust storm started back up again.

Irwin is a strange place.

The entire maneuver was filmed and studied on computers

that recorded our miles gear.

This was a little over a year before the ground war kicked off in Iraq.

And 8 months or so before Saddam Invaded Kuwait.

They knew…..

 

2+.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Rooster

We of course had no idea. We were not thinking about Saddam or Iraq or Kuwait. That came as a surprise

later in August of 1990.

We looked at the trip to irwin as a great opportunity for training.

As the year wore on, our Sergeant Majors demeanor became very serious and intense.

As did the training.

All our gear and had to be at the armory wills had to be updated family support groups

were formed.

We started feeling like something was up... lol lol

A buddy and me hanging out one day saw a long train full of tanks and APC's in April. In May,

Our sergeant Major had a massive Heart attack out in the field during the weekend and died

in the field. Strange times.

We were never sent.

Our troops over there wrapped it up after 4 or 5 mnths of bombing and a 3 day ground war, it was over.

And Old Man Bush, pulled the plug too soon setting us all up for 2003.

We knew it at the time. Every last one of knew he should have finished the job.

And as it turned out, we were right. Unfortunately.

We were all talking about it at the armory and everyone thought old Man Bush Blew it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Rooster
16 minutes ago, patches said:

Nice photos Rooster, thanks for adding them, see you are wearing the Fritz,,when did the Prairie Brigade first get them?

1986.

I kept my M1 !@!! Personally, though it looked cool and we were told it was bullet proof... You couldnt do anything with them. Not even sit on them. You had to not drop them either. And when you ran or jumped, if the chinstrap was not buckled, the thing would bash me on the bridge of the nose. And when you hit the prone, you had to unbuckle it and push it back so you could see the sights. Terrible horrible helmet. Heavier than the M1 Bigger too...I had just gotten my M1 all comfortable with a scrounged nape strap and ewe had to get rid of them !

 

Yea funny how we knew at the time that pulling the plug was a huge mistake and for some reason Bush didnt see it that way.

I distinctly remember feeling and hearing from others this particular sentance...

"We are just going to have to go back in there eventually"

What a wasted opportunity. Our troops delivered. Our leaders were too timid to complete the job.

What a waste. One more thing. At the end of the cold war, I saw dumpsters full of stuff being thrown out.

If I had just one dumpster of that stuff. I could prob retire and spend the rest of my days selling it on ebay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, rooster77 said:

1986.

I kept my M1 !@!! Personally, though it looked cool and we were told it was bullet proof... You couldnt do anything with them. Not even sit on them. You had to not drop them either. And when you ran or jumped, if the chinstrap was not buckled, the thing would bash me on the bridge of the nose. And when you hit the prone, you had to unbuckle it and push it back so you could see the sights. Terrible horrible helmet. Heavier than the M1 Bigger too...I had just gotten my M1 all comfortable with a scrounged nape strap and ewe had to get rid of them !

 

Yea funny how we knew at the time that pulling the plug was a huge mistake and for some reason Bush didnt see it that way.

I distinctly remember feeling and hearing from others this particular sentance...

"We are just going to have to go back in there eventually"

What a wasted opportunity. Our troops delivered. Our leaders were too timid to complete the job.

What a waste. One more thing. At the end of the cold war, I saw dumpsters full of stuff being thrown out.

If I had just one dumpster of that stuff. I could prob retire and spend the rest of my days selling it on ebay.

image.png.55ff9aa761078971f65a132194f2386f.pngimage.png.ec0817a047d3030235afaa996069828a.pngimage.png.fa2d7b4e891fb0958a2295503dd81c8c.png

 

image.png.e50df23892367b9de2e55d5e023a95d7.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Rooster

We just missed the pickle suits with the baseball hats.

We were issued BDU';s but we were issued OD Green field jackets. They didnt have enough yet.

We were also issued the tan summer dress uniform.

One grenade... you guys are all bunched up !!! lol

Love the Duece... Would make a great RV !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's a photo you never see in the recruiting brochures.  Exercise Capstone I, Germany, 1980.

 

So cold.... 

AA 43.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

More Winter fun in Germany.  The only good thing you could say about the MOP Gear was that it added an extra layer of warmth.

KK1.jpg

KK2.jpg

Winter games bright.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...