Veterans...Get the hell in here now!

GreatwhiteNorth

GreatwhiteNorth

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Was talking to an old friend of my parents yesterday when I noticed he was wearing a USS Forrestal cap & during a lull in the conversation I asked if he served aboard her - as during my training we were required to watch a fire fighting training film that showed the horrific fire that the crew fought in 1967.

"Yes son, and that damn fire nearly killed me" he says, I was taken aback, I've known him for close to 20 years & never had an inkling he was even in the military. Long story short they removed multiple chunks of shrapnel from him, the most life threatening was a piece about the size of your thumb from his liver.

He said that his present doctor was astounded that he lived through it with 50+ year old medical knowledge/procedures.

134 men died aboard her that day.


We lived in the Phillipines at that time & Dad took us to Subic bay to watched her pull in with very close to mortal damage.
 
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
GreatwhiteNorth said:
Was talking to an old friend of my parents yesterday when I noticed he was wearing a USS Forrestal cap & during a lull in the conversation I asked if he served aboard her - as during my training we were required to watch a fire fighting training film that showed the horrific fire that the crew fought in 1967.

"Yes son, and that damn fire nearly killed me" he says, I was taken aback, I've known him for close to 20 years & never had an inkling he was even in the military. Long story short they removed multiple chunks of shrapnel from him, the most life threatening was a piece about the size of your thumb from his liver.

He said that his present doctor was astounded that he lived through it with 50+ year old medical knowledge/procedures.

134 men died aboard her that day.

We lived in the Phillipines at that time & Dad took us to Subic bay to watched her pull in with very close to mortal damage.
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Looks like even though the Navy eventially cleared Captain Beling of any wrongdoing, Higher (as they are wont to do) continued to hold it against him and he never held active command at sea again although he was later promoted to RADM. The Forrestal fire and those of Oriskany and Enterprise about the same time changed the Navy's firefighting approach. "...the “lessons learned” in the 60’s resulted in improved policies, procedures, and equipment that have been largely effective at preventing a repeat."
 
smokinrav

smokinrav

Well-Known Member
curious2garden

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
GreatwhiteNorth said:
Was talking to an old friend of my parents yesterday when I noticed he was wearing a USS Forrestal cap & during a lull in the conversation I asked if he served aboard her - as during my training we were required to watch a fire fighting training film that showed the horrific fire that the crew fought in 1967.

"Yes son, and that damn fire nearly killed me" he says, I was taken aback, I've known him for close to 20 years & never had an inkling he was even in the military. Long story short they removed multiple chunks of shrapnel from him, the most life threatening was a piece about the size of your thumb from his liver.

He said that his present doctor was astounded that he lived through it with 50+ year old medical knowledge/procedures.

134 men died aboard her that day.


We lived in the Phillipines at that time & Dad took us to Subic bay to watched her pull in with very close to mortal damage.
Click to expand...
Me too! We dreaded liver trauma. That's why I was so excited about the plasma bovie.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
www.military.com

How WWII Soldiers Used Their Downtime to Make Spectacular Trench Art

The National WWII Museum in New Orleans has launched a fascinating new exhibition about the arts and crafts soldiers created during the war.
www.military.com www.military.com

My Mom's brother was a WW2 B-24 nose gunner. He made a letter opener for Mom out of the perspex/plexiglas after a AA round blew a section out right next to him :shock:. I still have it...somewhere.
 
doublejj

doublejj

Well-Known Member
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
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The Warrior Dog Foundation provides a last-resort sanctuary for retired working dogs slated to be euthanized. Many of these dogs spend the rest of their lives in the organization’s care.
warriordogfoundation.org

Donation - The Warrior Dog Foundation

Looking to make dog charity donations and support retired veterans? That's what you can do when you donate to The Warrior Dog Foundation! Learn more.
warriordogfoundation.org warriordogfoundation.org
 
smokinrav

smokinrav

Well-Known Member
I had a Vietnam era zippo! Got it a Goodwill, I think. It said, "Yey tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because I am the evilest (baddest?) motherfucker in the valley"
I loved that lighter. Ended up giving it to a Vietnam vet on his birthday.
 
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BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:
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On March 16, 1968, a platoon of American soldiers brutally kills as many as 500 unarmed civilians at My Lai, one of a cluster of small villages located near the northern coast of South Vietnam. The crime, which was kept secret for nearly two years, later became known as the My Lai Massacre.

In March 1968, a platoon of soldiers from Charlie Company received word that Viet Cong guerrillas had taken cover in the Quang Ngai village of Son My. The platoon entered one of the village’s four hamlets, My Lai 4, on a search-and-destroy mission on the morning of March 16. Instead of guerrilla fighters, they found unarmed villagers, most of them women, children and old men.

The soldiers had been advised before the attack by army command that all who were found in My Lai could be considered VC or active VC sympathizers, and were told to destroy the village. They acted with extraordinary brutality, raping and torturing villagers before killing them and dragging dozens of people, including young children and babies, into a ditch and executing them with automatic weapons. The massacre reportedly ended when an Army helicopter pilot, Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed his aircraft between the soldiers and the retreating villagers and threatened to open fire if they continued their attacks.

The events at My Lai were covered up by high-ranking army officers until investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story. Soon, My Lai was front-page news and an international scandal.
 
doublejj

doublejj

Well-Known Member
smokinrav

smokinrav

Well-Known Member
doublejj said:
Congressman calls for service members, veterans who stormed the Capitol to be stripped of benefits
www.stripes.com

Congressman calls for service members, veterans who stormed the Capitol to be stripped of benefits

In January, an NPR investigation found that roughly 20% of the people charged so far in connection in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol had some form of military connection — including individuals currently serving in the armed forces.
www.stripes.com www.stripes.com
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Sounds like it falls under this code, and, yeah, they committed treason against their country and oath...

Title 38 of the U.S. code governs VA benefits for veterans and their dependents, according to a brief from the Congressional Research Service.

"Under Sections 6104 and 6105, veterans and other individuals receiving VA benefits who commit mutiny or treason or who are convicted of ‘subversive activities,’ as listed in Section 6105(b), forfeit their right to VA benefits,” according to the CRS report.
 
raratt

raratt

Well-Known Member
doublejj said:
Congressman calls for service members, veterans who stormed the Capitol to be stripped of benefits
www.stripes.com

Congressman calls for service members, veterans who stormed the Capitol to be stripped of benefits

In January, an NPR investigation found that roughly 20% of the people charged so far in connection in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol had some form of military connection — including individuals currently serving in the armed forces.
www.stripes.com www.stripes.com
Click to expand...
The Major that Trump pardoned is not going to get his medals back or Special Forces tab.
 
BarnBuster

BarnBuster

Virtually Unknown Member
Today in Military History:
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On March 21, 1918, near the Somme River in France, the German army launches its first major offensive on the Western Front in two years.

At the beginning of 1918, Germany’s position on the battlefields of Europe looked extremely strong. German armies occupied virtually all of Belgium and much of northern France. With Romania, Russia and Serbia out of the war by the end of 1917, conflict in the east was drawing to a close, leaving the Central Powers free to focus on combating the British and French in the west. Indeed, by March 21, 1918, Russia’s exit had allowed Germany to shift no fewer than 44 divisions of men to the Western Front.

German commander Erich Ludendorff saw this as a crucial opportunity to launch a new offensive–he hoped to strike a decisive blow to the Allies and convince them to negotiate for peace before fresh troops from the United States could arrive. In November, he submitted his plan for the offensive that what would become known as Kaiserschlacht, or the kaiser’s battle; Ludendorff code-named the opening operation Michael. Morale in the German army rose in reaction to the planned offensive. Many of the soldiers believed, along with their commanders, that the only way to go home was to push ahead.

Michael began in the early morning hours of March 21, 1918. The attack came as a relative surprise to the Allies, as the Germans had moved quietly into position just days before the bombardment began. From the beginning, it was more intense than anything yet seen on the Western Front. Ludendorff had worked with experts in artillery to create an innovative, lethal ground attack, featuring a quick, intense artillery bombardment followed by the use of various gases, first tear gas, then lethal phosgene and chlorine gases. He also coordinated with the German Air Service or Luftstreitkrafte, to maximize the force of the offensive. Over 3,500,000 shells were fired in five hours, hitting targets over an area of 400 km2 (150 sq mi) in the biggest barrage of the war,

Winston Churchill, at the front at the time as the British minister of munitions, wrote of his experience on March 21: There was a rumble of artillery fire, mostly distant, and the thudding explosions of aeroplane raids. And then, exactly as a pianist runs his hands across a keyboard from treble to bass, there rose in less than one minute the most tremendous cannonade I shall ever hear. It swept around us in a wide curve of red flame

By the end of the first day, German troops had advanced more than four miles and inflicted almost 30,000 British casualties. As panic swept up and down the British lines of command over the next few days, the Germans gained even more territory. By the time the Allies hardened their defense at the end of the month, Ludendorff’s army had crossed the Somme River and broken through enemy lines near the juncture between the British and French trenches. By the time Ludendorff called off the first stage of the offensive in early April, German guns were trained on Paris, and their final, desperate attempt to win World War I was in full swing.
 
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