Old Military Photos from Hunttalkers

[TheGrayRider]

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.

 

[Straight Arrow]

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!

 

[kylemcintyre67]

I can't find any from my Navy days, this is on a rifle range in Kuwait waiting to head north in July or August 2011. Senior Scout, Red PLT, C Troop 2-13 CAV, 4th BDE, 1AD.

 

[davinski]

.

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...

 

[Big Slick]

Mine are to old for the digital world that we live in....

 

[JLS]

Damned fine thread, keep them coming guys.

 

[TheGrayRider]

Korean War, 1950s, 3rd Infantry Division. My uncle (Infantry) and his buddy (Medical Corps) from the same small town in Louisiana. Met up on the battlefield. Both now gone, but not forgotten!

 

[ZBB]

Me and my bud in Germany after we got our EIB’s 07 I think. I held out as long as I could to the bdu’s. I’ll have to look for some pictures from deployments. Good thread!

 

[Deleted member 38069]

2014 deployment!

 

[dirtclod Az.]

BDU's are standard issue here,20+yrs old.
Getting a little fat,barely fit now and kinda faded.
Thanks for your service.All of you.

 

[Addicting]

Me trying to get a M113a4 stuck for the recovery team to recover. Sometimes being the BN Track Master Driver has its fun moments.



Found a place to finally shave.

 

[Southern Elk]

Thank you all for your service.

 

[noharleyyet]

Addicting, the pic of you in the hatch triggers a claustrophobic shiver...

 

[Mallardsx2]

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

 

[Addicting]

Addicting, the pic of you in the hatch triggers a claustrophobic shiver...

How about this one?

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Not the oldest, but oldest I had handy. Both from AFG in 2004.

Telling some Afghans that that little Etrex GPS can show me where the bad guys are and then lets me drop bombs on them. SShhhh.....dont tell.....



Looks kind of like elk hunting right now...

 

[ignorethefringes]

I love this thread! Thank you all!

 

[Big Slick]

My Dad in the 1952-54 era, Fort Ord California.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Me trying to get a M113a4 stuck for the recovery team to recover. Sometimes being the BN Track Master Driver has its fun moments.

View attachment 118425

Found a place to finally shave.

View attachment 118426

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...

 

[Addicting]

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.