Welcome to a special Sunday posting of classic Arlo & Janis, from 1994. You might notice something new on the page. I have added the ubiquitous Facebook paraphernalia. No, this isn’t the drastic remake of the Web site I’ve been promising. It’s just the result of fooling around on a Saturday afternoon. Those of you who are Facebook users can now “like” me with a minimum of effort—a distinct improvement my face-to-face friends assure me.
The Hole Story
By Jimmy Johnson
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115 responses to “The Hole Story”
OK. I don’t see the FB “Like” button. Is that because I’ve already liked you, or because I’ve had two glasses of wine?
Jackie, be glad that you were only immersed in the Vietnam War for eight hours a day. I was on the Gun Line (in Tonkin Gulf) in ’72 and our ship spent most of its time doing shore bombardment. For a while, we were on 12 hours on, 12 off, and for some reason, resupply of food, munitions and other supplies always took place when I was supposed to be off-duty, giving me even less time for sleep.
I remember, once, being supplied by helicopter (not an uncommon thing, btw) and watching an entire pallet of milk come aboard. Our crew was only 285, counting both officers and enlisted, but that shipment of milk only lasted two or three days.
Bill in Paducah: Are you using Ad Blocker Plus? If you’ve asked it to block social media stuff, the “like” button won’t show up. Since Jimmy runs so few ads, I’ve disabled it for this site.
GR6,
When ‘my library’ closes: a few will weep, many will give a sigh of relief, and for me it will be eternal peace. With apologies to aunt Bonnie Parker.
My main concern will be how many overdue books I have out when my “library” closes. 🙂
One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.
Another thing you might like if you use Firefox, TruckerRon is Ghostery. It blocks things like tracking cookies and more often than not, when it updates itself, the updated database contains new cookies that you’ve not run across in your own surfing. Until that Facebook stuff showed up, there were none on this site; now Facebook Connect is the only know cookie here, and it’s blocked.
I only have three tracking cookies unblocked: one is because it’s used by websites I infest to allow reader comments, one because it shows user’s avatars and the last one because I sometimes take surveys from that company and the questions don’t show up properly if I don’t. (I may be able to tell Ghostery that a particular cookie is only allowed through from a specific domain, but I’ve not checked because I’ve never had it cause any problems.)
Here’s a great performance, flash mob style, by the US Air Force Band at the National Air and Space Museum’s “Milestones of Flight” gallery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKE8pyfcZc
GR6,
Don’t worry, that’s why they have probate courts; you can even be a burden in death.
Jackie, you may have read WWII files on some of these guys.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/feb/03/wakes-unheralded-pows/
Once I thought I was going to die, and my life flashed before my eyes. Then I *really* thought I was going to die…from boredom.
Ghost, others, the sad thing about the civilians benefits was that they often did not seem equitable to me, we administered too many laws and acts and countries and rates and percentages. Death and loss was never equal, nor did it act with equality. But sometimes it was all there was to offer.
And yes, these were the types of cases we administered. I used to say everything from the Senators’ aides to the CIA to the Kit Carson scouts fell under our jurisdiction. I am glad to not be a close observer of today’s wars.
Love, Jackie
sideburns, what ship were you on? The OKC was there, too, even has some YouTube footage of it firing on NVA shore positions. But I didn’t arrive on it until 1976 after the Vietnam War was officially over.
TruckerRon, I clicked on your name the other day and read a couple of your posts. The one about drivers not getting close to the line struck a nerve with me. It is in the same league with the ones who stop a car-length or two behind you at the lights, but tail-gate at 70. They need a refresher course in the drivers ed lesson that said to allow a car-length for every 10 mph you are travelling. And close up that formation when sitting still so people can get in the turn lane, for example!
I was on the USS Ouellet, Mark. When I served it was DE 1077, but they later changed the designation from Destroyer Escort to Fast Frigate to fit in with NATO better. Currently she’s serving in the Royal Thai Navy as the Phuttaloetla Naphalai (F-462).
sideburns, at least you had milk. Have a friend who served on the 1967 USS Oriskany cruise. He is always joking it was a hardship cruise, galley was closed four out of every twenty-four and they did not have thirty-one flavors of ice cream. I don’t recall diary products at all. On one R&R (I&I), hotel staff became concerned by the number of milkshakes and chicken salad sandwiches I was ordering.
Do have good memories of battalion stand downs: steaks and beers. One memorable stand down was just after the 1970 Cambodia incurrsion. BBQ ribs and beer. Story goes the refrigeratored ship was crewed by war protesters, contaminated ribs. The stand down turned into a squat down, took almost two weeks before we were went out again.
Dairy products weren’t a problem when we were in and out of port often enough that we didn’t have to worry about it going bad. This, however, was the only time we received a fresh supply at sea. And, it wasn’t in a big cargo chopper, either, as our copter pad wasn’t big enough for them. (It wasn’t quite big enough for the little ones, either, but there was a landing there once in an emergency, to drop off a passenger who couldn’t simply be lowered.) When we did what was called a “vert rep,” or “vertical resupply,” the pallets were wrapped in a cargo net, brought over hanging from the helicopter’s underside then lowered to the pad for us to open up and unload. On another occasion, there was a pallet of Popsicles and the officer in charge personally made sure that one case was damaged because that meant that the unloading crew had to eat them before they melted. (Tonkin Gulf can get rather hot in the summer.)
TruckerRon and sideburns gave me the hints I needed – both AdBlock and Ghostery are installed. Turning off on this site made the difference. Thanks!
sideburns, know what you mean about the heat. Our a/c went out in our berthing space during missile practice off the Phillipines during the hot season. We were so far down inside it was like one of the levels of Dante’s inferno. We had 1200 people on a ship slightly over 600 feet long(when the fleet band was aboard) and it was definitely crowded. On one notable occasion, the fuel oil tanks directly below us overflowed onto our deck. Lots of folks sleeping anywhere else they could till that odor went away!
And look on the bright side, sideburns. At least your ship only got the bad stand(squat)down. You could have had that guy that set fire to the Forrestal!
And I don’t mean John McCain. I meant the one who did it on purpose to delay redeploying after the original damage was repaired.
Once the Club ran out of white wine, and I had to drink red wine with fish. The horror.
I remember the fresh milk running out after just a few days. Then the galley switched to powdered. That was still drinkable. But the stuff in the big 2 gallon cans labeled “sterilized milk” couldn’t be swallowed.
Lying in bed and could not sleep. No ghosts but I started counting and worrying. Is David alright? I know Jerry is back. Is John OK? How is Ghosts mother? And the sister with the kidney transplant, has it gone well? And I always worry about Debbe and the chickens and all the relatives.
So instead of counting sheep, I began to worry and count you all.
I had been so occupied with my own problems, I didn’t worry enough about the rest of you and it hit me all at once!
I can tell my possum has been here, the outside cats’ dish is turned on its side on the bakers rack in office window.
Love, Jackie
Jackie, you might want to check out Lynn’s comments with Sunday’s For Better or For Worse comic:
http://fborfw.com/strip_fix/sunday-december-7-2014/
She talks about creative writers’ problems of stress when loved ones are missing or otherwise away from home.