Interesting thread on Eham.

Started by gil, September 08, 2013, 01:26:35 PM

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Archangel320420

She spoke russian, KF5. She is a good girl. She still speaks well of the Army for the most part and I see her still thinking and talking like a soldier though years after her seperation.

RichardSinFWTX

My team leader in Germany was a Russian linguist.  That's what I wanted too; but the Army in it's infinite wisdom gave me German.  I can still speak it reasonably well.  I was down in Dealey Plaza in Dallas about a year ago and help some German tourists get where they needed to go while my stunned in-laws sat back in awe.  :)

All things considered, I thoroughly enjoyed my active duty time.  I loved going to the field.  Out of an 8 week span 6 of it would be out at Hohenfels, Grafenwoehr or doing border ops, 1 week was spent "recovering" and the last week getting ready to go back out.

When I went out to Field Day this year my wife asked me, "Aren't you going to take a change of clothes?"  I told her, "I'm only going out for the weekend!"  When we started moving forward in the Sand Box I wore the same uniform for 6 weeks so a weekend n a tent is nothing!


Archangel320420

FD is a pc of cake compared to military ops.

RichardSinFWTX

Yeah, I was truly amazed at the amount of junk people brought out to the site.  It's like they tried to pack up their entire house.  I had my weapons bag that holds my tent, a sleeping bag and my backpack radio...and an Igloo cooler full of water because it was about 100 degrees outside!


KK0G


Quote from: KF5RHI on September 09, 2013, 11:44:07 AM
Yeah, I was truly amazed at the amount of junk people brought out to the site.  It's like they tried to pack up their entire house.  I had my weapons bag that holds my tent, a sleeping bag and my backpack radio...and an Igloo cooler full of water because it was about 100 degrees outside!

Some folks idea of "camping" is radically different than mine. I have several friends with large RV's, when they tell me they're going "camping" at the lake this weekend what I hear in my mind is that they're going to move the miniature version of their air conditioned house to a location different than their driveway and live there for a few days LOL. To each their own.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

RichardSinFWTX

Yeah, my wife's idea of roughing it is having to use the regular DVD player and not the BlueRay!   ;D

gil

#36
I know a Blue-Ray on contest week-ends; blue in the face!  ;D

Gil.

WA4STO

Quote from: Archangel320420 on September 08, 2013, 10:38:54 PMWhile at "A" school in Pensacola,

Aha!  What year were you at Correy Field?  Me, it was '66

I never made it over to WA4ECY, mostly because I spent most of time at the Slot car track.  It dawned on me, after taking a miserable train ride all the way from P'cola to Beantown (home), that I could take my model cars (1/25th scale) and plop them down on slot car chassis and have a ball.

Couple years later, I found myself stationed at NSA and trying to figure out how somebody managed to string up a dipole between the two buildings of the barracks, what with it being SO close to you-know-where.  In later life, I wondered how many lists I was on all those years ago...

73

Luck, WA4STO

Archangel320420

I was delayed enlistment Feb 1968. When I got out of NTC Great lakes it was ummm  August 68 I think. So Pensacola was August, did not get my clearance right away and never did hear what went wrong with that, so my class went on to duty stations while I remained at NTTC Corry for my clearance. Through the winter into 1969 I was a main gate guard and shore patrol. My first duty station was Edzell, Scotland, TAD trips to Rota, Med cruises, Black Sea, and once got assigned to a submarine but the mission was cancelled prior to my orders being finalized. I then went to Alaska. All collection except for Alaska where I was in a DF net. 1966 was the old navy with wooden boats and iron men! haha  By the way, most of barracks at Corry in 1968 were named after those killed aboard the U.S.S Liberty. I worked a W1 a few months ago. He was CT and POW from U.S.S. Pueblo. He and the other crew want the US to take the ship back or sink it were it is now in North Korea on public display. I think that is a worthy endeavor. I say sink her and give her a correct end. Interesting people you find on amateur radio. We used Destroyers not Liberty ship after the Pueblo. No one messed with us much. Two destroyers one with CTs aboard.

RadioRay

#39
The Liberty - Gee , I wonder why no Hollywood movie about that back stabbing attack on a U.S vessel in the Med by "our best friend in the region"? Despite all knowledge that this was a U.S. (friendly) ship including the huge parade flag draped out for the Israeli aircraft to see to stop their attack and intercepted radio traffic confirming that the pilots saw the US Flag on their many strafing runs and asked for guidance (HQ said to sink her regardless). The aircraft and torpedo boats machine gunning lifeboats and etc. is a war crime - yet, never given for an international court to decide.  Could there be a conflict of interests? Due to the 'failure' to send her to the bottom with no survivors, there was still the '67 war right after this savage attack, but LBJ did not have his excuse to go to war in the middle east, because the ship did not sink and soon drew attention.  I've listened to some interviews with survivors who -when asked why they didn't come forward - said: "They brought us in and told us - 'if you EVER say ANYTHING, we will kill YOU and kill your FAMILIES." Considering how many Kennedy assassination >witness< died when they came forward with testimony different from the established line, I'd tend to believe this could be true. .

Hmmmm, when did LBJ's "escalation" in South East Asia occur? Evidently, there had to be at least a certain level of carnage in the world, or someone becomes hungry. Evidently there really ARE 'zombies' in Washington DC!   :o

// Other then that, I have no strong opinion. //

de RadioRay ..._ ._

Ps. Then there are the 'bag boy' at my Dad's PX - a survivor of the Bataan Death March and Korean War ; bagging groceries to feed his family after being laid-off in the FIRST string of civil service employees because he was a "retired" veteran.  Not being able to collect retirement yet, did not matter.  Union rules, biased against vets. I still remember what he said as we left:

"Another 'Thanks!' from a grateful government."
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

WA4STO

Quote from: RadioRay on September 09, 2013, 05:26:20 PM"They brought us in and told us - 'if you EVER say ANYTHING, we will kill YOU and kill your FAMILIES."

Yup.  I often wondered if it was just teenaged memories from back then or if it was true that, of the three military security groups, the Naval Security Group was -- by far -- the most fear-mongering toward their members. 

When I first got to NSA, I was all worried about what kind of horrific stuff I was going to be subjected to.  Turned out that it was nothing like what the NSG put me through prior to that. 

Heck, they didn't even put us through polygraphs like they did with the civilians.  'Course, they surely learned their stupid little lesson there in the aftermath of the Walker family give-aways.  Or was that "sell-aways" ? 

Hey, there was one good thing that came of my time as a radio snoop.  I was so frustrated at not being able to talk back to the folks I was listening in on, that it took me like a week after I got out before I went and passed my Novice test.  Heh.

73

LH

Archangel320420

Yes, Ray. I heard about the Isreali attack aircraft. The flight leader called off the first attack and radio'd that the ship was US. He wanted his orders confirmed. He was then ordered to continue the attack. It is very puzzeling to me.

Similarly, The Pueblo was in international waters unescorted, but the US could have quickly dispatched aircraft there from Japan and Korea. There was an aircraft carrier within a couple hundred miles to boot. I mean, why wasn't that done. The Pueblo was under attack for a couple of hours. Everyone knew they were under attack. These things just do not make sense. Why wasn't a destroyer called in to take the ship back before the bandit pirates from North Korean got it to port? It is all just goofy plain and simple.

Well anyway, I was with a squadron of destroyers and if they pulled that on us, they would at least get a bloody nose. We never got harassed. The then Soviet Navy would shine spot lights on us at night and try to play electronic tricks on us, even buzz us with aircraft, but that was about it. I like the russian navy. I think they are, or were, a pretty good bunch, but you know,  the games we all had to play at that time.

Veterans can take heart that they did the best they could for the Country and the service they were assigned. They represented the USA all over the world and I think made a difference. I don't care what the stupid politicans think of me or any other vet. As a Legion member I try to keep the politicians feet to the fire for wounded and disabled vets.

Now lookat what is going on, Ray. The pres has got the Navy in a fix off the coast of Syria. Holy smokes. The Russians have a surface fleet and subs there now and now China is sending some ships. Russia has one active duty aircraft carrier in the Black Sea fleet and China has one Russian built carrier probably both on the way to the Med. Russia does not have to even have a carrier in the med. they are within a short driving distance from land bses in Russia for their naval air forces and the regular air forces. I sure don't want this to get started!

Well anyway. I guess we should get back to radio, eh?  73

Archangel320420

One last thing. I once heard a shore Soviet naval radio station swoop up the frequency no doubt using some kind of auto antenna tuner and I followed his swoop up the band from 12 Mhz and we ended up up on 14 Mhz calling CQ with a russian ham callsing !!! It was the same station I heard with the military callsign. I DF'd the bugger and recognized his fist.

I always wondered why those russian hams had such powerful signals in the 1960's. He no doubt was running 50 KW. But they were sure great CW ops! I only caught one station doing that so it might not have been an everyday occurence. I'm just saying  :)

RadioRay

#43
Yes - East bloc ops in general were good - if you could get the 'accent' of their staccato code.  I could spot them and anyone they trained by the eastern block fist.  You know the sound - a talented pianist, sending high speed Morse messages in Russian, using a steam powered jack hammer for a key. 

It was amazing to shout

OP: "He's UP! It's my guy , the XXXXXXXXX who we lost when they changed their rota. He's back and hammering away."
TA:  Don't F-up his freq change!
OP:  Hey, you're the @%$@%@ who missed the ROTA change - right?
TA: Ohhhh! #^@#^@ you!
OP: You sound just like your baby sister - and I should know!!! ha ha ha
... and it would all be raging while copying high speed traffic - while simultaneously sipping a grape soda (high sugar) , some guys smoking those awful "Partizanka" Russian cigarettes, jammed into a metal can somewhere in the city of Berlin. It could be freezing outside and it would still be hot in there, due to all the equipment in a confined space.

-...-

You are SO right about the NSG guys needing to enjoy the 'interaction' a little more.   We had some on TDY up at the Field Station to bring them up to speed on some of the stuff were pulling out of the ocean way north of us and transition it to them. You know those guys never laughed, joked, threw things or set each other on fire while working?  What kind of Intelligence operator is that?  We loosened them a little & probably ruined their careers.

By the second enlistment I learned one thing - never, ever trust a politician, regardless of pay grade.  We care of ourselves or we're gone.
// I originally wrote more, but decided to sanitize my post. Erase & Forget //


>de RadioRay ..._ ._
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

Archangel320420

Awww Ray, we played those games at least we did in the UK. Set fire to the paper in the mills. Rubbed carbon on earphones. Put sharp objects on guy's chair while he was changing paper or changing frequenies. Walk by and smack a guy in the upper arm and say "You flinched." Send bogus CW transmissions to a FNG at his position. Punch holes in a guys cigarettes. Punch holes in paper coffee cups. Tighten the lock on an R-390 and spin the dial and see how the guy at that position explained the damage to the Maintenance tech! <~~ Bad scene usually. Yeah You name it, if it made a guy uncomfortable or nervous we did it. It was the only mental thearpy we had other than alcohol. I think I would have felt right at home with you guys, Ray. We got the job done though. We sent a number of Marines to Germany to train in the mobiles along the border with Army. They were also what we called R branchers or mostly Cyrillic intercept ops. I worked in a marine section for a long time they did not have enough people. Lone sailor! They adopted me and let me march with them and that is how I learned some things about ALICE and weapons and such. I was sort of their mascot. They called me a corpsman but I was only a spook. If any of the locals asked, I was to say I was corpsman.  We only had about a platoon of marines at that base and they were all CW ops. But they had to train as grunts also. I felt I should be with em. It's not just a job, it's an adventure.