Comical Military Moments (1 Viewer)

[Leadmen]

When I find my old pictures I will post a picture of my "lost radio jeep. " I was the first vehicle in line to drive off a landing craft in North Borneo while we were on an excercise with the British Marines. The Navy UDT (Seals) scouted and picked landing area. The front gate opened and I drove off the ramp about 30 yards from shore when down I went. Radio Jeep and my weapon were sunk in about 20 feet of water. I bobbed up and other jeeps hit the brakes. They spent about 8 hours retreiving the jeep and personal gear.
We were to spend three weeks in jungle for training but after a series of disasters they pulled us out after a week. Thirty snakebites a day, chased by wild water buffalos and we thought we would go into the water at night to cool off and here comes the sharks.Giant spiders and land crabs crawling on us while we slept on beach instead of inland. Oh yeah, I saw a cable break and a radio van slung under a chopper went into the ocean farther out. I don't think they recovered that van.At 117 degrees we had plenty of heat stroke including me. That was a disaster excerise. Leadmen

I found an old photo of them dragging or shoving my radio jeep to shore. J

 

[Leadmen]

Here is the old choppers and you can see the Marston metal matting layed down. J

 

[Leadmen]

Last one-- climbing nets. Prefer amtracs instead but they are hotter inside. J

 

[Currahee Chris]

John-

those are some great shots!! The clarity is amazing- love the old chopper. I am hoping to get a scanner or something someday to share a lot of my shots. Thanks for sharing.

I didn't realize you were in the Corps- no wonder you are so cool!! Thank you for your service to our great nation.

CC

 

[Leadmen]

Thanks CC: I was surprised the scanner works so well. Nothing fancy, just an Epson scanner. I was surprised how much better those old photos looked. Still learning the scanner. I have more photos but might post some other time. John

 

[OzDigger]

Thanks John, some interesting shots there. I never did any military service as our army was wise enough to decline my application I made straight after school. They said I was to young, but I have my doubts

Anyhow, my Grandfather saw plenty of action on Gallipoli and in Egypt during WWI and he recorded his experiences of that time. I have always liked this story of the escaped mountain sheep on Gallipoli:


"There was an Indian mountain-gun battery about half way between Shrapnel Gully and Number One Outpost. They were armed with French seventy-five guns, light artillery, and they had these mules, Mule Gully they called it. They were pretty little things, not like our big ungodly shaped mules you mostly see knocking around, they were really nice, pony mules I’d call them, chestnuts, blacks and beys you know. The Turks used to come and drop bombs on it, killed the mules like, they often flew over and dropped a bomb or two on them, they must have been a thorn in their side.

The Indians used to kill their own sheep and goats and one day a mountain sheep got away from ‘em. We could see from our lines a couple of officers, one Indian and one British, and several others chasing it. It came to our sunken road that was about fourteen feet wide nearly ten feet deep.

Well that bloody sheep leapt that road and came right up to our camp and Dick Cable and I took off after it. It ran up onto this sort of a hog back, a bare clay ridge that ran down to the sea like and up to a ridge in the centre of it.

Anyhow the sheep got on this and there was a track through it. Cable went the other side of the ridge to block it and I climbed up the side the sheep went and I caught it by the leg.

The Turks were shooting at Cable, the dirt was flying up off this ridge you could see all ‘round him, they never hit him but. Anyhow between us we got it back to camp and I cut its throat and skinned it. I reckon that sheep was killed and skinned and cut up quicker than any sheep ever was any time before. We all had a bit of it like, cut the two front legs, the shoulders legs and that, then cut the body of it up and shared it up between the troop, between the squadron actually.

Anyhow I grabbed the skin and took it up to the big incinerator. There was an old shovel there with a long handle on it. I raked a big hole with it in the incinerator, it was always going like, burning all the rubbish up that we left, you couldn’t leave anything about everything had to be burnt. I raked this old ram skin down in and shoveled all the coals over the top of it and just got back to where the rest of ‘em were, meanwhile they had all the other parts of the sheep hidden.

The officers came and said: “Did you see a sheep come through here”? “No we never seen any sheep” they said. Anyhow they went away and they never discovered it, it was the only real fresh meat I had while we were on Gallipoli. That was the only sheep I ever seen on Gallipoli, they never let any more go. They’d have probably met the same fate as the first one, it was good fresh meat I know, I’ve tasted plenty of tenderer ones but it was nice and fresh."

 

[Leadmen]

Thanks for the story OZ. I guess the troops really enjoyed a good meal once and awhile.I don't know if I would risk getting shot at but maybe a fellow that is hungry will take a chance for fresh meat. How about hunting water buffalo with rocket launchers? That will feed the whole battalion. John

 

[OzDigger]

Thanks for the story OZ. I guess the troops really enjoyed a good meal once and awhile.I don't know if I would risk getting shot at but maybe a fellow that is hungry will take a chance for fresh meat. How about hunting water buffalo with rocket launchers? That will feed the whole battalion. John

Hi John, most allied soldiers on Gallipoli existed on tinned meat, hard biscuits and polluted water. My Grandfather said you weren't safe anywhere on Gallilpoli during the ten month battle so I guess you may as well cop one while chasing a some fresh meat as anything else

 

[Leadmen]

Oz : Have you ever heard of the Gallilpoli rifle? I read a story once how the Australian troops rigged up rifles with a string on trigger and a bucket attached which water was allowed to drip into bucket causing the rifle to fire when the weight of the water pulled the trigger. They said they could stay in their trenches with random shots going off day and night John

 

[Currahee Chris]

Thanks for the story OZ. I guess the troops really enjoyed a good meal once and awhile.I don't know if I would risk getting shot at but maybe a fellow that is hungry will take a chance for fresh meat. How about hunting water buffalo with rocket launchers? That will feed the whole battalion. John

You're outta control!! Nothing beats killing and cooking your meat with one shot.

Oz- love the story- it's always extra special when you get it first hand from a relative. I know in Desert Storm, several of my buddies in 3rd Armor would shoot at desert coyotes. When I did my rotation at NTC (National Training Center- desert warfare training site in Southern California), I took some shots at the Coyotes as well- though, admittedly, I aimed away from em- I do have a soft spot for animals and just couldn't shoot em ( I in fact, have never shot an animal in my life). It is certainly a different story for your relative.

 

[OzDigger]

Oz : Have you ever heard of the Gallilpoli rifle? I read a story once how the Australian troops rigged up rifles with a string on trigger and a bucket attached which water was allowed to drip into bucket causing the rifle to fire when the weight of the water pulled the trigger. They said they could stay in their trenches with random shots going off day and night John

That was the self firing rifle invented to fool the Turks whilst Gallipoli was evacuated, see the second last paragraph under the Evacuation heading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gallipoli

It was invented by William Scurry and a mate: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Scurry

 

[Leadmen]

Thanks OZ. That is a interesting link. John