I never DID manage to steal one of those - I also wanted my very own Boatswains kit with a US NAVY approved Marline Spike
~Should have made it a condition of my retirement, but I told nobody and they jumped me in the shop on CVN-74
(USS John C. Stennis - The BIG JOHN)

I always meant to just fade away and thought I had kept it a secret, and then I got called to the front of the shop - I was just about to ask:

"What the hell did I do now?"

And then I saw the Division Officer standing there with a folded blue triangle....

I made an immediate about face, and yelled: "SCHEISSE! It's an ambush..."

My final words at that private little ceremony were:
"Ya know, I do care about all of you, and this may sound a little bit corny and PC, but I have to say it: FRIENDS do not let FRIENDS drive...
~ Japanese motorcycles"

And I gave them my very best WTF expression!



The ADO cracked up and said: "THAT'S pure Jake!!!"
(As in: AT1 Jacobs)




And that was how I went ashore...
North Island, California 2004


I hopped into my dual-tank F250 diesel flatbed 440 dually with an aftermarket turbo and rode right on out of the gates, with a permanent ID card

Or was it a 420? Who cares....
It was an '85 6.9 with an ATI spinner. Bastard offshoot of an International engine

CALIFORNIA ATE BLACK SMOKE BEHIND ME

I only respect ONE "BOSS"

The ordinary guys and girls​

 

Oh lordy, an airwing guy stealing a bos'un pipe would have caused a riot in the hangar bay. And you'd have been piping away dodging around under the folded wings

That's a good shop farewell, ya' can't get too fancy onboard.
"What the hell did I do now?" ha, busted again.

 

My best friend was a Bosun - James Fryer. If you get up to Port Orchard and see this guy - never call him Jim-
His name is "JAMES"

And tell him I know I still owe him $20 for his bike
I still have it! I will never sell it, because it was an original Schwinn.

I have often thought I should restore it and carry it to Port Orchard to him. I can't ride the damned thing around here because it is too dangerous. If the idiots don't kill you the school bus drivers will run you off the road into the trees

He is a good man.

James taught me a lot that I could never know in my rating. You get people like that from time to time - and it is how you learn more about the world around you. You git fed up on a long cruise and talk to other people, and if you are smart it isn't about stupid things. You learn about a hell of a lot more than the rating manuals can say - and we shared that.

There was someone else that taught me the right way to fire a gun - those are people you remember, you can't forget them

And you treasure the knowledge they passed on to you

"There IS NO recoil, forget it - because it just doesn't matter"
"Recoil is the jet effect after the round has left the barrel"
"The point of aim is all that matters"
"If you try to correct for it, that will throw your point of aim off"
"Study where you want it to go, and don't worry about anything else"

 

I'll tell him if i see him
Yea, bosun mates are a good crowd and a good rating. They gladly got away from the 'deck ape' image and started becoming technical types too since the 70's.

Aren't there Air Force types around here too? I'd like to hear some Air Force stories, got a couple of good ones myself.

 

Our most recent is Air Force - and I really think that at times we make jokes about eachother but we should keep in mind that we are all part of the same thing.

I remember one of us that was absolutely repelled by jokes we told about eachother, and couldn't accept it anymore. Maybe it was on the other site - but I don't want that to happen here

TOGETHER we are people (man or woman) that served for a purpose, and that nobody else was either willing or able to do


I would only ask that as different as our forces are, we respect one another because we were either stupid enough or we cared enough, or we had no other way out of where we were at the time - but we walked through a door that challenged us to be more than we had any idea we were. And we survived that weeding out process.

We are the only ones that made it through it

And what happened after that made us who we are now


From what I can see it made us all a hell of a lot better


Did you really know you could do what you can now, before that?

But now that sits in reserve. You may be retired, or a one tour wonder. But you still have what you were taught

 

Joint Forces and Joint Warfare, that's when we're at our best.

 

That's where it's going - but it relies on excellence in all forces
"Combined might and precision"


We still haven't heard from our newest member





OH! Did you notice that?

 

Times must have changed. On one trip across the pond, we returned from Japan with four Honda 350's in the bomb bay. One of those was mine!

 

WELL DONE!

I'd have picked dual cam 4-V heads for various cars

 

Welcome to the FORD LEGION:
KingRanch01

 

NOTE on Rice Rockets: In about 1999 when the Nimitz pulled in from the world cruise - a whole bunch of young squids bought Café style bikes in Norfolk. Ninjas, Katanas, etc... And where a lot of them ended up was scattered in the tunnel entrances between Whilloughby Spit and Newport News.

I'm not sure how fast you have to be going to leave the pavement on the dips down into the tunnels, but it wasn't the flight that got them, it was the landing

The 350's though, that was a seriously cool dual-sport bike

 

In my humble opinion it was the perfect "all around" bike for Hawaii and Oahu. And, it wasn't that hard to hang one in the bomb bay for a gedunk flight to one of the other Islands. Worked out great for the "Wheels of Fire" military motorcycle club headquartered out of Schofield Barracks and rides around Ka'ena Point on the old WWII railroad bed for the ammo trains. I have a couple of old trophies in a box in the attic from the road rallies we had.

I have always felt there is a big dif between a "crotch rocket" and a Motorcycle! Life expectancy and stupidity are just the starting points.........

 

Welcome James! Fine looking truck. In your gallery i like the "Welcome to South Carolina" sign with the warning under it.
Good to see another Air Force vet, helps balance out amongst all the squids.

 

Thanks, proud and glad to be part of the fam

 

The worlds largest fraternity and sorority!
~and all of the people your Mom warned you about...
Rolled into one.