... but it bears repeating:
Truth, if there ever was such. Which reminds me of another old joke in this space, sorta:
Truth, if there ever was such. Which reminds me of another old joke in this space, sorta:
Well, it's not a midlife crisis, but here's how things worked out for me. Married 32 years, took a look at my wife one day and said, "Honey, 32 years ago, we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black-and-white TV, but I got to sleep every night with a hot 20-year-old. Now we have a nice house, nice car, big bed and plasma screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 52-year-old woman. You're not holding up your side of things."Badda-da-BOOMP. The h/t for the image goes to My Buddy Ed In Florida, I remembered the joke all on my own.
My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot 20-year-old blond to sleep with and she would make sure that I once again would be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed, and watching a 10-inch black-and-white TV.
LOL on the pics--SO VERY TRUE! (unless one has mega millions, that is. :) ))
ReplyDeleteBTW, OT, but a PS to the Lubbock thing re: Kevin Bacon's famed six degrees of separation. The roommate of my college roommate/fraternity brother at Reese turned out to be the roommate of one of my cousins at Culver Military Academy in HS! What are the odds? Small world indeed!
And the Culver connection "thang" (to use your vernacular, lol) kept on giving..One of the guys in my unit during AFROTC summer camp who became a life-long friend was a Culver grad also and knew my cousin as well. (This guy was the son of a multimillionaire Chicago industrialist and now is one himself as he heads the family corporation. Among other things they own Arlington Race track in Chicago. He got kicked out of Tulane for being a bad, bad boy and graduated from SMU--to which he has donated millions--bet Tulane wishes they had tolerated his hi-jinks now, lol. Although a Distinguished AF cadet @SMU, he switched to the Marines at last minute and ended up with the 1st MAW (1st Marine Air Wing--which sat across the twin runways from us at DaNang and was also equipped w. F-4s) at their secondary A-4 "SkyHawk" base just south of us at Chu Lai in I Corps while I was up @ DaNang w. the 366TFW.
When we moved back to New Orleans from Louisville I met another guy four years my Jr (who has become one of my best friends)who was a Culver grad who was a Freshman at Culver when my cousin was a Sr and remembered him well. And I bumped into one of the main contributers/owners of the old "Winds of Change" site (RIP) in 2008 when I used to comment regularly there who also was a Culver grad and my age, and who knew all the aforementioned others..Kevin Bacon strikes again!
Small world, indeed. Did you hang out with the Jarheads often?
DeleteWhen I was flying F-4s with the 366th the only times I would see them was occasionally the stray guy very late at night at the bar as we had a 24/7 operation while the Marine O-Club shut down early, so they would come over for a late meal, mainly. Same for Marine grunt officers coming in directly from the field at odd hours when the 1st MAW and Marine HQ 1st Inf Div facilities were closed. Would catch them in sweat-stained fatigues with web-belt & gear on at the bar @ 0300 killing time until they could go over to the Marine side, check-in, get a shower and change clothes for an R&R flight, etc.
DeleteWhen I extended my tour to become a FAC with the 20thTASS (Tac Air Support Sq) flying O-1s I was at first temp assigned down in the southern part of I-Corps to Quang Ngai City, Quang Ngai Province working in support of the Army's Americal Div and HQ at the MACV compound surrounded by the Army with only a lone enlisted USAF intell type as AF presence, but later came back to DaNang to fly O-2s covering local Quang Nam province. By that time the USAF DASC (Direct Air Support Center) which was the operational control for all FACS in I-Corps, was a joint AF/USMC operation w.a Marine O-5 Deputy (I-Corps was orginally a Marine-run Corps w. a 3-Star Marine as IIIMAF Cmdr. (Marine Amphibious Force, comprised of the 1st MAW, 1st Div w. HQ@DaNang and 3rd Div along DMZ w. Hq @ Hue) with only one Army Division, the "Americal" Div down in Quang Ngai Province opcon to IIMAF. After TET the forces were beefed up and the Army was given its own Corp (21st Corp with the 101st, 82nd AbN Div, 1st AirCAv Div, & the 1st Regiment of the 5th Mech Inf Div, HQ at Hue Phu Bai in a "power-sharing" arrangement w. the Marines i.e., like two scorpions in a bottle, lol)
At any rate, as a result, we were assigned one Marine Capt as an "embed" FAC and he became my roomie at the AF "FAC House" in downtown DaNang at an old French Estate house & Compound at 31 Phan Boi Chau. Helluva nice guy, so I learned a lot about Marine "ways" from him.
Funny story--The Marines are notoriously under-equipped--as compared to the Army, USAF--and thus stingy as hell as they're always short of everything--hence their reputation as master thieves/scroungers, lol Well, poor Darryl had only two ratty, falling apart Marine khaki flt-suits left and it was his bad luck that they cut the paperwork for his transfer before he could get to Marine supply, so the Marines wouldn't give him any new ones, as they considered since he was no longer on their books and "opcon" to the AF he was the AFs problem and the AF wouldn't issue him any as he was a Marine; so I had to take pity, go down to the PE shop (personal equip) and requisition him three new AF suits (the old pre-Nomex silver grays) off my own account (we were issued 6 new flt-suits/calender yr) so he wouldn't look (or smell) like a bum, LOL!! SOooo.....looongg way around in answering your question, Buck, why yes, yes indeed, after the addition of an O-5 DASC Deputy and Darryl "came aboard" as my roomie I "hung around" Marines quite a lot--just "airdales," tho, not "jarheads" lol.
Those are great stories, Virg... you had interesting times during your VN tours. You really need a blog...
DeletePS: A GREAT jarhead joke/tale that is supposedly "true" that is said to have taken place at the DOOM-Club bar (DaNang Officer's Open Mess) when I was there: It's late in the o-dark thirty one night at the bar when a small gaggle of jocks from the 389th TFS are standing around talking/drinking with their backs to a Marine Capt "jarhead" just in direct from the field in full gear bellied up to the bar starring straight ahead deeply in his own thoughts. Gradually a horrible smell envelopes the group of fighter jocks. Turning around they realize it's emanating from the Marines direction. "Jesus H" said one to the Marine, "Did you just shit your pants?" "Yup" came the short reply, the Marine not turning his head. "Well, for the love of God, do something about it! Go to the bathroom and clean yourself up, for heaven's sake." replied one jock, then, with the rest, turning his back back to the conversation thinking the Marine would take care of the "situation." After several minutes, however, the smell only got worse. Turning around again, the same officer exclaimed: "Man, haven't you taken care of that yet?" "Nope" came the reply. "Then for the love of Christ why the hell not?" the exasperated AF pilot queried. The Marine, still looking straight ahead with a distant gaze, reflectively took a long sip of his drink, sat it down, brought it back up again, paused with the glass in mid-air, and replied, still starring straight ahead: "Still shittin'." LOLOL!!! (And if it's not true it should be! :) )
ReplyDeleteI'll go with "should be." ;-)
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