Old Military Photos from Hunttalkers

TheGrayRider

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Thanks to all who served. Please post a few of your old military photographs. I enjoy looking at them. FYI - Less than 7.3% of Americans served.

Fort Benning, Georgia, June 1991 before heading to Germany.34AFC92B-6B4E-4290-B0B2-485AF112DC23.jpeg
 
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It was monsoon season; the South China Sea shore of Vietnam was socked-in with clouds hugging the coastline. Three Army troops from my company had a flight out of Cam Ranh Bay scheduled to take them home after a long year’s tour in a place they were pleased to leave. They pleaded with me to fly them down the coast to meet their flight departure time. Familiar with that coastline, I reluctantly agreed and we cranked up the UH-1 Huey, Big Kahuna 590, appropriately named by the young Hawaiian crew chief.

The ceiling was at several hundred feet so we could make our way along the shore with adequate visibility. However, the miles long peninsula north of Nha Trang was covered with a dense cloud with a “sucker hole” clear opening through the saddle where it connected to the mainland, with jungle slopes on both sides. I instructed the young warrant officer at the controls to “take the short-cut” through the saddle opening in the clouds ... big mistake! Midway though the saddle, the exclamation of “incoming!” from the crew chief was not welcome to any of us. The explosion under the aircraft tail boom was deafening and rocked the helicopter tail-up and nose-down. The young warrant froze and I yelled, “I got it!” I took the controls, bottomed the pitch and began a series of diving s-turns down to the beach beyond the saddle. I set the Huey down facing out to the sea and told the warrant officer to depart quickly if I went down as I inspected the damage. The crew chief described the explosion of an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) and expressed relief that his Big Kahuna still had an intact tail boom. Amazingly, the aircraft sustained no obvious damage.

The troops who were headed to their departing flight were almost hysterical and kept saying, “Now we know we gotta get outa this place!”

The remainder of the flight to Cam Ranh Bay and back to Qui Nhon was uneventful and included a long diversion around the peninsula and a flight path out over the South China Sea, low level with the skids just above the waves. You can understand why, to this day, I don’t take short-cuts!
 
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Kandahar, 2004. I was an Engineer Captain attached to a Civil Affairs team based at the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team. We used to ride with about 25 locals, Afghan Militia Force. All the Army sent me over with was a 9mm so had to improvise with some of Colonel Kalashnikov's handiwork. 416th ENCOM, my facility engineer team was supposed to a REMF base public works dept. We got farmed out all over the country for special work instead. I have a few stories at the link in my profile. RPG guy, don't leave home without him. War generally doesn't work out as planned...
 
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Having a friend with an RPG. Cant say I have one of those types of firends yet. But if I was there I would make friends with him if all they gave me was a 9mm. lol
 
Me trying to get a M113a4 stuck for the recovery team to recover. Sometimes being the BN Track Master Driver has its fun moments.

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Found a place to finally shave.

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My twin brothers stationed in Seoul South Korea,"Forward Observers"
on the DMZ. Though it would be fun to try to jump a Hummer.They did it!
Almost 2 inches of air.Not tellin AFG,if your not tellin DMZ.Ha!Ha!
M113a4 doesn't look like a happy box to hide in...🔥
 
M113a4 doesn't look like a happy box to hide in...🔥

We only ran buttoned up when we had to for training or were off trail driving over / thru the trees. The risk of a widow maker hurting some was too high. Otherwise with all those hatches open it wasn’t bad.

We had this beast too, nothing in the Army’s fleet that it won’t pull out of the worst situation.635837F1-72B8-4227-B428-F3118CF1EA45.jpeg
 

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