Author Topic: things were different... (Read 1090 times)

Skuzzy · « **Reply #30 on:** June 25, 2005, 06:51:18 PM »

I have had that happen to me eagl. I have gotten to where I type long posts in Notepad/Wordpad and then copy into the BB just to be sure they actually get here.

culero · « **Reply #31 on:** June 25, 2005, 06:55:32 PM »

eagl FWIW I'd really like to see the SERE story, too.

culero

Nilsen · « **Reply #32 on:** June 25, 2005, 07:03:57 PM »

come on eagl, we know you are dying to tell us.

eagl · « **Reply #33 on:** June 25, 2005, 07:36:08 PM »

Heh, here's the short version.

A bunch of SERE instructors got to debating evasion techniques, and the subject of how best to hop a train came up. If you know the language, you just dress like a hobo and blend in, don't say much. Otherwise, how to do it best?

Two of them try it out, and hop a freight train, trying out various hiding places and taking notes on where the train slows down enough to get on or off, etc. In the middle of a very long mountain tunnel, they realize they're gonna pass out from carbon monoxide if they don't move fwd, so they do. As you'd expect though, one dude slips, falls under the train, and his leg gets whacked off at the knee.

After lying between the tracks as the train whooshed by overhead with hanging heavy pneumatic lines whacking him on the head and shoulders, he puts on a tournequet and rolls over to the access pathway. He crawls towards the exit about a mile away. Sleepy inspector drives inspection truck past once, doesn't stop. Second time by, SERE instructor fires .45 at him to get his attention, and this time he stops. Memo to self - if you don't tie your survival gear to yourself, you lose it the first time you fall. His .45 was tied to his belt.

Inspector gives him a ride to the tunnel exit. He waits for medics. The show up, strap him to stretcher, plug in IV, then waste 20 min trying to figure out how to get him down 15 ft tall rock/gravel mound that the tracks are on. He gets impatient, hops off stretcher, hops down 15 ft mound on one leg, and hops to the ambulance before the shocked paramedics can stop him. Or maybe they were fascinated and afraid that if they tried to stop him, they'd really hurt him worse than he already was.

I think they determined it was "in the line of duty" and medically retired him.

Gunslinger · « **Reply #34 on:** June 25, 2005, 07:43:06 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Skuzzy
I have had that happen to me eagl. I have gotten to where I type long posts in Notepad/Wordpad and then copy into the BB just to be sure they actually get here.

Skuzzy sometimes I get the blank IE screen saying server not found after hitting "submit reply" but fortunatly more often then not I can hit the back button and my text is still there.

Usually the lack of server response is due to my shotty router but I can indeed sympothize with you and eagl

BTW good story Eagl.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #35 on:** June 25, 2005, 08:03:00 PM »

Yep, that is a SERE instructor allright.

One day my son was out training some pilots in the mountain. Simple exercise. The pilots were to be dropped from helicopter, then once on the ground, make thier way back to base camp without being captured.

Well, one of the pilots chute lines gets fouled and he cannot control his descent. He drifts into trees and get hung up about 45 feet in the air.
The guy loses it. He is screaming and tossing about like a lunatic. The SERE instructors are on the ground yelling at him, when they notice my son climbing up the tree.

As my son approaches the rattle pilot, he is telling him to settle down. The pilot gets worse. And he tries to reach out and grab at my son. Well, my son takes the butt of his knife and bops the pilot in the back of the head.
Stuns the pilot long enough for him to get a hold of him. Now the limbs of the tree start cracking. My son looks around, grabs a wad of chute lines, then cuts the pilot free as the limbs give way.

So they are hanging from the chute lines, no limbs to stand on and my son starts trying to swing back towards the tree trunk. In the meantime the pilot has come too and really loses it.
My son struggles to hang on to him, but with only one hand, he cannot control the paniced pilot.
The pilot hits a limb about 10 feet below my son and stops, but is still panicky. My sons cuts the chute lines, and as he falls past the pilot, he grabs him. The limbs give way, and they fall. another 10 or 15 feet. Now at this time, they are about 15 feet from the ground and the other SERE instructors are climbing up to help.

By the time my son gets to the ground, he has 4 broken ribs, 3 bones in his hand broken, and a busted collarbone, but the pilot is fine. My son walks over the pilot and gets in his face, "You are going home, *******!" and turns around and walks off.

Of course the pilot washed out.

eagl · « **Reply #36 on:** June 26, 2005, 04:59:27 AM »

Heh. Not supposed to lose our cool, but lots of trainees are already 90% gone the second they realize they're in the woods. It's just too foreign to most people nowadays. I grew up doing low-budget "real" camping so I'm very confident and comfortable out in wilderness areas, but with newer restrictions on camping and outdoor activities it's harder to give kids the experiences I had growing up.

I had one student who just wouldn't play. He wouldn't build his shelter right, wouldn't pay attention to the lessons, couldn't build a fire, didn't listen to the navigation lessons, basically a lot of attitude. He had been an "upperclassman" for 3 whole weeks, and no other cadets were going to tell him what to do.

So we put him in a scenario where he was dumped on the backside of a hill and left there for an hour as if he'd just ejected into enemy territory. In that hour, he had to do his initial concealment, orient himself to his location, sort through his gear, prepare to depart with what he'd need to evade and survive, and come up with a navigation plan.

The kid melted. He didn't go loony or anything, but as the hour progressed he realized he had spent a week in training and still had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do. It scared the crap out of him. After the scenario debrief, for the last 2 days of the survival phase of training he was our most avid student. I honestly think that we may have changed his life around, or at least given him a couple skills and a change in attitude that could potentially save his life in any one of a gazillion scenarios, from an auto accident to a real combat situation.

That's cool.

Roscoroo · « **Reply #37 on:** June 26, 2005, 05:14:59 AM »

we / i used too hang out at the ole midnight drags slammin 1/2 racks w/ the tunes cranked ... 750+ hp Pontiac . the hood barely covering the 2 660's ... waiting up near the front for the next match race ... 100 + cars i'd hang and wait ... very few would wanna run or have the $$$, id finally say "the hell with it , lets make a pass " and go up to the line solo and do a snarly, drooly burn out then knock off a 10 sec pass ... just knowing they were all counting off the sec's ...
(Tapping off the brake lights late )
Running out the back door when the cops showed up .. ....

Orgasm ... ah those were the days

(Too frelling bad so many Friends Died back then)

AWMac · « **Reply #38 on:** June 26, 2005, 05:53:30 AM »

Man I feel at home here... SERE.

butterin Camp McCall, NC...Outside of Fort Fuggin Bragg...Hell I volunteered many times supporting SF Training, 3rd Phase, Partisan Link up just to have something to do...1976.

Ahhh the memories... just graduated from 82nd Recondo Course, had my watermelon in for Ranger Course...BIG BALLS!!! 18 years old and Bullet proof...

Thanks Guys, I needed to read this...Brings back alot. Still have my "Drive on Rag". LOL loosin gear? Idiot cords.

Good training...still live it and teach it...Heh my Son get's hurt and when I think he's gonna cry he'll look at me and say "Recon Pops, Nuthin but a Thing" and want to do the fist to fist thingy. 6 year old Lil Booger. Proud.

mac

lazs2 · « **Reply #39 on:** June 26, 2005, 10:05:27 AM »

beet... I know way too many 50 year olds like I described. I wasn't even thinking about you when I brought it up...

I am not saying that what I did was right I am only speaking of the freedom and opportunity... high paying jobs for construction and such... Room for individuals to be... individuals... More of a mind your own business attitude and a "go ahead, it's your butt attitude"

I think it is great waht skuzzy and eagle are talking about but... not for everyone. I realized early that the military was a pretty good place for someone like me to avoid if I wanted to stay out of levenworth. Never was a team player and there is that "lack of impulse control thing".

I don't think letting the sensitve PC loafer wearers and women run things is workiong out for the best.

lazs

storch · « **Reply #40 on:** June 26, 2005, 10:48:53 AM »

except for the part of drawing unemployment that sounds about right for me as well. when we registered our oldest kid in the local grade school we were appalled by what was considered P.E. no baseball, football, soccer, basketball nothing!!! jumproping and tinikelling that's it. it took us about one year to decide to homeschool our kids. they usually got their assignments done in three hours, had lots of time to go fishing or get lost in the glades for a few hours and for competetive sports they all took up the martial arts. it has made all the difference.

megadud · « **Reply #41 on:** June 26, 2005, 11:03:47 AM »

today could be like it was back then. I don't know what it was like back then but i hear good things. sounds alot funner then these days. The reason these days suck so much is because your drugs back then messed everyone up and now there is about 5 crazies per block. that and the government let everyone who wanted to come to america in. go look at the most wanted list from the fbi. only 2 american names. they need to crack down on crazies and illegal aliens. this country could be restored. right now it's on it's way to hell.

also it is fun looking at old buildings when traveling. depends on where ya go.

lazs2 · « **Reply #42 on:** June 26, 2005, 11:22:06 AM »

we had boxing in our high school... some broken noses and loose teeth... a concussion or two. no big deal.

I like old buildings as much as the next guy.. when you are young tho... you need to see a little more of the country than that. Course.. when I was young I just went to Mexico and canada and a bunch of states... Old buildings were just old buildings for the most part.

There are even people that believe that competition in school is bad...

lazs

culero · « **Reply #43 on:** June 26, 2005, 01:16:39 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
snip
I think it is great waht skuzzy and eagle are talking about but... not for everyone. I realized early that the military was a pretty good place for someone like me to avoid if I wanted to stay out of levenworth. Never was a team player and there is that "lack of impulse control thing".
lazs

Just for perspective...

I could have easily developed the same conclusion as you did when I was young. Well, I did to some extent, I turned down a military academy appointment offered by my congressman, because I didn't think I'd adapt well to that culture.

But I ended up enlisting, and during my tour I *did* go to Leavenworth. I got in a fight with a SP - he went to the hospital for 4 days, I went to the USDB for 5 months.

I have to say that was a vital and valuable part of me growing up. I was a rowdy, out-of-control problem looking for a place to happen at that age. My short stint in a military prison turned me around in several ways.

More than anything else, I learned how lucky I was. They put me to work there as a classroom instructor teaching GED prep classes. It astounded me that there were that many people in the world who hadn't been given the basics of education I had as a youth. The relationships I developed with the students in my class humbled me, as I began to realize just how privileged I had been up to that point in my life in terms of opportunity.

I came away from my experience there dried up from the wild cycle of drug/alcohol abuse I'd been living in, and ready to approach life with a much more responsible attitude.

I don't want to imagine how my life might have turned out otherwise - I have many friends locally who are dead or in ruination from becoming part of the smuggling culture that exists here, for instance.

I'm glad you didn't have to go that way to end up where you are now

culero

Hangtime · « **Reply #44 on:** June 26, 2005, 01:34:54 PM »

Youth is filled with decision/opportunity cusps.. as a youth they are often 'missed' as such.. as a youth; living the next day just like the one before is a cusp in itself.

As you age, the number of life changing opportunities diminish.. till few if any are viable.

Mine was the day i raised my hand and swore to obey the lawful orders of 'superiors'.. and the three years that followed 'wrote' indelibly in my brain what was 'right & wrong'.. during those years I most often wished I was someplace.. anyplace else, most often just to be doing what my old 'peer group' was doing.

Now, from the distant perspective of two generations I see many things diffrently, but the real 'life' altering changes in my life definitley occured back then... wouldn't trade those expericences, good and bad. I realize now they were crucial in making me who I am today. And I'm happy with who I am.. don't wish for more than I have, don't regeret what I didn't become; especially knowing now the price that would have been paid to be that person.

Author Topic: things were different... (Read 1090 times)

storch