G'day Marty,
Yeah not bad hey. The best thing about these exercises were 4 weeks of camping. That was about it. Every now and then we would have a stand to do. Brass up a patrol, or pretend to be just a normal village. I had done 2 exercises like this before. So much fun trying to keep the "Australian enemy "awake at night.
Cheers Jason

heres another from last month whilst on exersize in Germany happy chap eh!

Mike,
I have a picture with that damn camel too. Damn thing spit at my friend PFC Giest. Did you see my picture futher up, recognize me or my Section SGT?

Good Ole Damam Port, fun times.

Can't see my face but I'm setting base charge on some 4.2" mortar rounds at Curry Mortar North, Ft Hood, TX in '88:


Probably spared a shot of me in my birth control glasses.

Paul

Sorry, Pete. I don't remember your face. There were so many people that I met while in 324 and I mostly remember the females.

Question...Weren't we in 3rd Brigade, 24th ID Mech?

I had thought that 1st and 2nd were in Ft. Stuart.

Mike, your right!!! DOGH!!!!!!!! I just updated my signature and I must of been thinking of the other brigades here in Texas.

3rd Brigade "SLEDGHAMMER BRIGADE" FIRST TO FIGHT - VICTORY SIR!!!!!!!!!!

This is me and mah shootin' stick. Chinese POS copy of the SVD. I could still reach out and touch things to about 600 meters with, so not too bad. Just wish I had my M24 instead. This was taken in Ar-Ramadi wher I was the NCOIC of the Quick Reaction Force. The building behind me or what is left of it, is one of SH's smaller palaces. The towers in the background are a glass factory. From this vantage point I had plenty of "Opportunistic Targets" I'll see If I can dig up some more from the early days of "Q" later. "Q"

me my first time in iraq, guy on the far left is my buddy who was KIA a couple weeks ago, guy in the middle another buddy of myne http://www.pbase.com/image/30720207

I offer my condolences to you and your friends family. I would also like to express my gratitude to you all for doing a job to protect us that most people do not have the fortitude to attempt. Godspeed.

This is me on the doorstep of one Saddam's palace's at Al Hillah.

Those are ruins of Babylon behind me w/ a mock up surrounding them.

I know a lad who "aquired/found" some of Saddams gold platted bathroom sink taps now residing in a house in the UK

Yours truly behind the helm of an M113 ambulance in Croatia in 1992. The building behind me is the Hospital in Lipik. It was absolutely destroyed in the fighting.

Dave - what a cool thread! I have to bore you with photos I can show of my most favorite TDY while in the Air Force. I haven't even shown my wife these photos - looking back through the book brought back a lot of memories. I picked out what I thought I could safely show without getting in trouble...

This is TDY - Air Force style baby! No guns or weapons - all about brains and technical skills here. This assignment was in 1990 and was a satellite launch support for a DoD mission. We travelled in civilian clothes with passports. The USAF satellite operators on this missing were myself and my supervisor. We also had the squadron commander with us - and a CIA escort who stayed pretty close to the Major. We never really interacted with him on the trip - sadly. There was a technical spacecraft representative from Lockheed and a tech-rep for other classified systems that rounded out the team.

We had our own C-130 to cross the Pacific - and packed all of our own gear. We toyed briefly with the idea of packing the GEO Metro I had at that time (it would have fit on the A/C Pallet easily - we drove it up on it and had the room) but decided to pack 10-speed mountain bikes instead. If you've never had the joy of crossing the Pacific in a C-130 - I can't recommend it highly enough!



Above is one of the better parts of the first leg of the trip. Assignment to Maui as part of microwave communications link during USAF SDI Testing. Naturally, I can't show any of that, but I can show the downtime between orbits and test runs. The photographer dolphin's name is classified - as are the rest of the photos from the nude beach on Maui. You'll just have to use you imagination to fill in the blanks. I got one serious tan in a couple of weeks on Maui...



Next leg had us venture to Canberra and Sydney, Australia. I picked this photo out of all the "geeky travel log" tourist photos I took. I happened upon this chap at the Opera House. He was quite bemused by the sight of me walking around with my mouth hanging open and taking pictures. Why, afterall, would anyone want to take pictures of the 'old Opera House anyway?!? He asked if I was a Yank. I grinned and asked if he was an Aussie - thinking that T-Shirt was cool. He held his beer up and replied - what do you think?!? I had to get a picture. He took one of me too. Then - he showed me and the Major some spots to go to have some fun in Sydney.

To this day, Sydney has to be one of the all-time coolest places I've ever been. The Australians were a delight to be around. The next day we drove down to Canberra to get creds through the US Embassy. I made a mistake in answering a question posed to me by our contact there that I will never forget. When someone asks you if you can identify the types of antennas and electrical equipment setup in our own compound and a foreign compound within line-of-sight - DONT! They shouldn't let young troops outta their cribs on trips like this...



Having embarrassed myself and invoked the gentle ire of the Major, we jumped on our gallant C-130 and headed out. He wasn't too mad at me though - I was dead on with my assessment of the equipment and purpose I identified - both ours and theirs. He'd later elevate me to more high-profile assignments before I got out of the USAF.

Next stop was a brief layover at Kwajalein Atoll. A bit of engine trouble extended our stay and I got to walk around and take pictures. Not much to expand on though - lots of rusted wrecks forming breakwaters now and the occasional sea turtle...



Engines all working again - we jumped back on the now-dreaded C-130 and headed for Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. It's still kinda an eerie place. Many gun emplacements still stand on the island pointing out at an enemy long gone. We had lost some time and I didn't get to stay and wander around much...



We crossed the Equator - not the same celebration in the Air Force as it is in the Navy - on route to our destination. I did get smacked on the back of the head - but I'm not sure that's the proper celebratory method for the event.

The Republic of Nauru is a tiny island some 90 miles south of the Equator, out in the middle of the Pacific. The Republic of Nauru is the world's smallest independent republic. Nauru is only some 21 square kilometers in size - a good bike ride. We would be there to provide a communications link for launch and early orbital insertion of a spacecraft - where otherwise there would be no ground control link.



Nauru is a fascinating place - a coral spire that rises from the floor of the Pacific Ocean. The coral spire surrounds a phosphate deposit, like the core of a tube. There are only two other islands in the Pacific like Nauru. I took a lot photos of the arid and desolate interior of the island. Nothing but scrub grows there. These coral spires are huge and are the result of mining the phosphate out of the coral. The interior of the island looks like some strange alien landscape.



Above is a picture of the trusty Land Rover assigned to us while we were on Nauru. It was a lot of fun to drive - though the wooden bench seat was a true pain. I admit I drove it more than I rode my mountain bike because I am truly fascinated with trucks.



Part of our tasking is to go into an unprepared area, setup our camp, erect an equipment shelter, antenna, power, and be ready to go live back with NASA or DoD as quickly as possible after touchdown. We could routinely do this in under 8 hours. Dan and I could erect that antenna and connect the supporting equipment in 2 hours - in the dark. I still remember how to do it some 14 years later. It's just like solders who learn to field-strip a weapon, only mine was the antenna and communications gear. This is also what helped me to model NBC's Bloommobile - I could easily pick out what I saw in that truck and knew what the components did and how they interfaced...



I laugh remembering this picture Dan took because he was always so full of #@$*! Always saying something incredulous! Other than that, that was a real important day. No dress rehearsals, no mock drilling and testing. We went in, went live, and couldn't mess up because the timetable was so tight.

If I sat and thought about it, I would have been scared. I didn't know enough to be scared at that time...



Downtime on Nauru forced you to be pretty creative - else you got really, really, bored. No real television or radio to speak of, and you can only get just so entertained by the idosyncracies of your fellow team members. So, one day we decided we'd split up and become "he-big American fishermen"! The Nauruans got a chuckle out of us, but let us have a couple of boats and volunteered to pilot them - so we wouldn't drown ourselves...

No - I have never been on a litte boat in the ocean before...

Man - I have a serious phobia towards bodies of water where I can't see the bottom! I discovered this snorkeling in Lanai several weeks before this point - but dang! Nauru is a place where you can walk out from the central island onto the shore about 100 yards. Then, the coral abruptly drops off straight down to the floor of the Pacific! That is the scary part. On the boats we took out, you can lean over the edge and see down about 25 feet. Sharks, Manta Ray, assorted foul-tasting fish, all dart about. Every now and then you can see huge shapes darting through the deep blue below the 25 feet - and the imagination begins to wander.

This was our biggest catch that day. We had a blast and the Nauruans must have found us really entertaining - because they joined in too. This fish swims so fast we were amazed. We tried to rig our poles to snag a Tuna but the Nauruans wouldn't really let us get serious about it. Later we learned that the Tuna out there were true monsters. They swam so fast that they'd certainly snap any line we got far enough down to interfere with 'em - or worse yet - they'd capsize the little boats we were messing around on if snagged.

Don't have to tell me twice!

Nearer the evening (I was NOT going to be out there in the dusk or darkness) we came back through the boat tunnel and BBQ'ed the fish we caught on the beach. They were delicious - I remember finishing off two myself...

I will never forget this TDY - it was the best of all of them. Thanks for the opportunity to bore you yet again!

Gunnie

heres a snap of me on an exercise at catterick, north yorkshire a few weeks ago


regards

joe

Me just hanging around when I was a kid in Germany (would be 88 or early 89).

It's funny how one can find laying on road wheels to be comfortable. lol

Great pics guys!

Here's a few I dug up, first one's from 1979. The second two are from the late 80's

Heeeeey Joe, where you goin with that gun in your hand? I hope its not to shoot your old lady, im sure she wouldn't mess around with another man!

:-) :-) :-)
As you fella's say, Hooah!

Look closely, I'm in a hammock hanging from the bustle rack.

Nice pictures all! Here's me sometime during September of '03 at Camp Dogwood Iraq.

You guys are extremelly dangerous with al those guns ! ! ! ! ! !




:-) :-) :-) Guntruck is dangerous with the hook

Ah the Battle of Barracuda, many losses...mostly fish :-)

Well, there I am, most left person. This pic was taken mid December 1994, while on manouvres in Muenster, Germany ( ok, so this was a maintnance day lol, explains why some of us are in cover alls ).

Me during my initial training, pretending to be a soldier..
This was our platoon at the driver school in Venlo.



This is me, on the left..



Cheers
Henk

PS guess the year this photo was taken. The uniform is NOT a hint :-)

This is me and my tankcrew in the beginning of 2004. Picture is taken in England Castle Martin. From left to the right is Bart (Driver), Dimitri (Gunner), Me (Tankcommander), Koen (loader).

Greetz Roel