By way of Chap, here’s (in Chap’s words) “
a gorgeous food blog.”
That it is.
The pictures tend to make me drool…Lord, but they are loverly!
I find it interesting that a guy in
Guam writes a food blog…
And here comes a brief war story… I spent two years over a ten-day period of time on Guam back in the ‘70s. I wasn’t impressed. World-class bugs, heat, and humidity are the things I remember most about Guam. Five other guys and I from the Engineering and Installation (E&I) division of the 1956th Communications Group deployed to Guam in 1975 to change out the bull-gear on an FPS-60 series search radar, which was an adventure in and of itself. The bull gear is a huge, and I mean huge, gear that turns the search antenna. Changing out the
bull-gear means jacking the entire antenna (which weighs a couple of tons) about three feet into the air, crawling underneath the antenna, unbolting the old bull gear, sliding it out on one side of the antenna and sliding the new gear into place from the other side. It’s hot, difficult, dangerous and messy work, given that the gear weighs a few hundred pounds and you “slide” the old and new gears into place on 4x4s laid over 55 gallon drums, using LOTS of grease. The picture (courtesy of the On-line Air Defense Museum) gives you an idea of the size of the antenna inside the radome. And keep in mind: we were working on Guam, in temps that exceeded 90 degrees and in 90% relative humidity. There was little or no air circulation inside that radome… Fun, fun, fun!
The best part about that TDY? The return flight to Japan. We flew back to Tokyo on a Pan Am 747. The plane was SO empty that the crew outnumbered the passengers, of which there were maybe ten. The chief steward relieved half the crew, who promptly raided the liquor supply and joined our little USAF team in the back of the plane for an impromptu party that lasted all the way back to Tokyo. My buddies Ed and Barry had brought their guitars along and they broke them out. We sang (badly) and drank (gloriously and well) all the way back to Tokyo. To use an old saying: “they poured us off the plane.” Now that was fun!
I have a few more stories from that TDY but I can’t tell you about them, given (a) the PG-rating of this blog and (b) the fact that at least one of the chief protagonists in those stories reads this blog occasionally. I wouldn’t want to live out the rest of my days as a marked man…
Not much on memeorandum today that piques my interest. It all seems to be the same ol’, same ol’. And I’m growing weary of the same ol’. Just sayin’.
bull-gear means jacking the entire antenna (which weighs a couple of tons) about three feet into the air, crawling underneath the antenna, unbolting the old bull gear, sliding it out on one side of the antenna and sliding the new gear into place from the other side. It’s hot, difficult, dangerous and messy work, given that the gear weighs a few hundred pounds and you “slide” the old and new gears into place on 4x4s laid over 55 gallon drums, using LOTS of grease. The picture (courtesy of the On-line Air Defense Museum) gives you an idea of the size of the antenna inside the radome. And keep in mind: we were working on
Some of our stories will have to be taken to the grave.
ReplyDeleteAt least ONE that will go to the grave comes to mind. :-)
ReplyDeleteNO one, aside from you and I (and one other person who's (a) probably dead and (b) doesn't speak English) knows about that one. Not even The Second Mrs. Pennington knows, and I told that girl nearly everything...
Ah yes, THE story. To the grave, to the grave. What a great time that was.:-)
ReplyDelete