• There seems to be an uptick in Political comments in recent months. Those of us who are long time members of the site know that Political and Religious content has been banned for years. Nothing has changed. Please leave all political and religious comments out of the forums.

    If you recently joined the forums you were not presented with this restriction in the terms of service. This was due to a conversion error when we went from vBulletin to Xenforo. We have updated our terms of service to reflect these corrections.

    Please note any post refering to a politician will be considered political even if it is intended to be humor. Our experience is these topics have a way of dividing the forums and causing deep resentment among members. It is a poison to the community. We appreciate compliance with the rules.

    The Staff of SOH

  • Server side Maintenance is done. We still have an update to the forum software to run but that one will have to wait for a better time.

Invitation to all veterans here at the Outhouse.

rdaniell

rdaniell

SOH-CM-2013
Panther's thread about Danang got me to thinking about a photo thread. I think it would be interesting if veterans from all the different branches of service and countries represented here at the Outhouse would post a photo of their time in the military. I'll start by posting a photo of me as a 17 year old Airman Basic taken at Lackland AFB, Texas, in June of 1963.

RD
 
Demonstrating how to "stack arms" to a group of "Rats" (aka: Plebes) at Kentucky Military Institute, Lyndon, KY 1966 as a newly commissioned Cadet 2LT U.S. Army ROTC, while Cadet Company Commander and the other two cadet platoon leaders observe.
View attachment 70389

Fresh out of U.S. Army Signal School, Ft. Gordon, GA 1968, and ready to head off to OCS.
View attachment 70388
 
My ex destroyed all of my old pics. The only pic that I have left of me in uniform is on my Navy retired ID card.
 
Old photos

Darn Willy. Those ex wives can sure be rough on a guy.

Most of my old photos went missing during a PCS (change of station) move in the mid 80s. Just got'a love those military contract movers. It's amazing that we have any usable furnature left. I've been a lot more careful from the mid-90s on when digital photography became the norm. It's a lot easier to store digits. Unfortunately, almost all of my VN and Central America photos are history, much like those campaigns.

I looked around and found the following photos on digits.
 
Last day of basic training Ft. Jackson, SC;
Home before AIT at Ft. Monmouth, NJ;
Viet Nam August '67
 
rdaniell said:
Was that photo taken at the conclusion of his jump training? I noticed the jump wings on his chest.

RD
Click to expand...

RD,

Yes, it was! The new paratrooper got real "blood wings" on Eubanks Field that day.

It was old home week for me at Fort Benning. Ran into three old comrades at the ceremony from days gone by and had a real gab fest catching up on all our airborne brothers in arms from over the years.

Great photos guys. A very enjoyable thread.

For all of you "Airborne" guys or anyone else for that matter, here's a great link to a day in the office for a Para in the US Army.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DZPIGhL3bY
 
I was in the USAF Feb 1969- Feb-1973. Worked in munitions maintainance, (bomb dump.) My overseas assignment was Kadena AB, Okinawa, PACAF, 18 months. Everything the USAF TAC used in 'Nam went thru us, both in and out. I spent my first 12 months in the 20MM shed, inspecting and relinking the 20MM rounds that had been fed thru the M61A1 guns, but not fired, had to be inspected, sorted by lot#s, then relinked for the slower firing guns, usually on the Spads and Navy A-4s. My last six months were spent working with EOD section destroying out of date/damaged munitions. We had a big, very thick heater drum, like asphalt plants use, to blow smaller stuff, up to anti-tank mines.
the bigger stuff we would take out to a large area on the Marine base where we would bury it and blow with DET cord and squibs. (Blasting caps.)

The only pics I can find were from when I came home on leave after initial training at Lowery AFB in Denver, Colo., and a pic taken for our squadron yearbook at George AFB, 479th FMS, TAC. just before I went overseas. Don't have any in my fatigues, as we did not wear them when off duty, and cameras were not allowed in our work areas. That good looking woman in the second pic is my proud mom. I was 19 at the time.
 
Cool idea for a thread. I don't have very many pics of me, but I like these two. The fisrt is 1982 or 83, on the flight deck of USS Enterprise, when I was in VA-94. The second is 1991, on Nimitz, when I was in VFA-147. This was the "Tiger Cruise" from Hawaii to Bremerton, and that's my brother beside me.
 
The only one I could find for the moment. Fort Lewis, July 1969 during first summer active duty training. 2nd flight in the OV-1.

If you were "ER" or "NG" you weren't issued NOMEX during training. Your home unit was responsible for that issue. AIT at Ft. Huachuca. AZ, Jan - Jun '70, same thing!

View attachment 70432
 
1954..22yrs old.....Ft. Bliss Texas.. was a .D.I. First 8 weeks basic...




IMG2.jpg


<tbody>
</tbody>
 
In order to keep this thread open for a little while longer, I'm posting another photo. This photo was taken at Moody AFB, Georgia, in 1967. The occasion was my being presented the Distinguished Flying Cross by the base commander.

RD
 
These are two pictures from my last day in the Navy, 28 AUG 78. I was a QM2 on the USS Wabash AOR-5. I'm taking navigation bearings on the starboard bridge wing. It's a tradition to throw your cap over the side when it's your last time under the Golden Gate. If the cap floats into the harbor, it's your last time to sea. If the cap floats out to sea, you'll return to sea. I put a big bolt inside my cap and it sunk right away.

View attachment 70447
 
Here are a few pix from my archive of my days in the US Navy.
I went off to boot camp in July of 1959 and was discharged
in December of 1967. During that time I served aboard the
USS Dewey, DLG-14. Cmdr. Elmo Zumwalt was the skipper when
I reported aboard.

Later I attended ET'B' School for 52 weeks on Treasure Island
and after that I was an instructor at ET'C' School on T.I.

When my shore duty tour was up I volunteered for duty with
OASU, which later was re-named VX-8, out of Pax River,MD.

I did two 6-month TDY tours in VietNam, flying out of Tan Son Nhut
in 1966 and out of DaNang in 1967.

First pix of several:
My boot camp graduation photo
The Dewey
Me in dress blues somewhere in the world
Me preparing for a picture
Now I am ready...by 3" mount on the Dewey
Tossing '3 coins in the fountain'...Rome
Me on the beach in Cannes, France
 
Continuing with my pix, this time of my OASU/VX-8 period:

The 'Blue Eagles' sign outside out flight line 'shack' Tan Son Nhut
'444' 'Blue Eagle 2' The aircraft I crewed on the most of our 5 'Connies'
Me and '444' and those R-3350's
Me at my video controller station 'Tiny Tim' behind at the audio controls
At the video console during an afternoon pre-flight
'627' Blue Eagle 1 and crew - DaNang - I am front row - 4th from right...or left :)
My Dewey cap with various pins from my 8 1/2 years of service
The VX-8 patch
 
And here I was thinking I was the only "black shoe" here. Still haven't seen any more snipes.

Willy
ENC(SW), USN, (Ret.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top