Well, I've raised a Corpsman..

[Brian Williams]

big grin on you

[Guest]

My kiddo is home for 4 whole days. Woot!

All the Corpsman are doing FMF training after A school now.

[280plus]

Yayyyy,,,

Merry Christmas to you all

[doczinn]

Barbara, if he's doing Field Medical School at Pendleton let me know and I'll buy him a beer.

[Guest]

Will do. He doesn't know yet if he's going to California or Carolina. Sounds like things are changing quickly. I got the impression this is the first time all Corpsman were trained there, but I could be wrong. It just started recently, though.

[Sergeant Bob]

Barbara, tell him he makes me proud to be an American!

[280plus]

Barbara, tell him he makes me proud to be an American!

+1

[Guest]

Wow, that was really nice.

Doc Zinn, odds are 50/50 he'll be there April or so.

Isn't he cute?

[doczinn]

Well, he doesn't turn me on....

[Guest]

Then obviously you're not a real man!

[Sergeant Bob]

He's a real good looking fellow, Barbara.

[doczinn]

I'm glad to see the "pizza stain" is back!

[Guest]

I'd be just as happy if it weren't, eh?

[doczinn]

The "pizza stain" is the National Defense ribbon, given at the end of boot camp. After GW1, they kept giving it out until sometime in late 1995 (just after I went in), somewhat reducing its value as an indicator of wartime service. For a long time it was the only award many of us had, and since at that point it didn't really mean anything, I'd have preferred not to have it.

But it's still a good target for a joke!

Anyway, let me know if he comes to SoCal.

[Guest]

Barbara, Please pass to your son that this old Senior Chief (Ret) is proud of him and wishes him Fair Winds and Following Seas.  For you Jarheads, not all of us non Corpsman or Seabee Sailors are useless to the Corps.  One of the proudest places on my "I Love Me" wall is occupied by a Certificate of Commendation from the Commanding General, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.  I am glad that the torch has been passed to men such as the fine young man we are all talking about here.   I can sleep well knowing he has the watch.

[grampster]

Tegemu,

...And we have ALL slept well since such as yourself have stood long in the breech.

Barbara,
Tell him Godspeed for me and I salute him.

[Skeptic]

I am also recently retired navy (22 years).  I was a Special Boat Team guy and we always were on the look out for a good "Doc".  Tell your son to look into getting into the Special Warfare Combatant Crewman program after he finishes up his tour with the Marines.  If you are going to be in the USN, its rough.... but one helluva good time.

[Gewehr98]

As somebody who has a cluster on his own National Defense Service Medal (first time in the 20 years of my military career I heard it described as a "pizza stain"), I salute the youngster's service.  May he continue standing watch where the older generation left off.

[280plus]

(first time in the 20 years of my military career I heard it described as a "pizza stain"),

I don't have 20 but it's the first time I ever heard it too. Gewher, nice pic you handsome devil but are you AF or Navy. I never knew the AF allowed Mustaches...

Just being nosy

[MillCreek]

And Gewehr 98 is sitting in the cockpit of what fixed-wing aircraft?  I cannot see the throttle cluster so I cannot tell how many engines.  It is clearly an old enough airframe that it does not have a 'glass cockpit', and you can see all the old steam gauges....

[Guest]

Gewehr98  -  Old NAVY called them a Geedunk ribbon.

[Gewehr98]

You guys don't miss much.

Those gauges are steam-driven by 4, count 'em, 4 Pratt & Whitney TF-33-P5's!  How I've wished they were high-bypass turbofans, then I wouldn't have lost so much of my hearing over the 2,000+ hours I accrued.  Those engine compressor stages are loud, even with plugs in and headsets on.  

1961 was a good year, especially if you were Boeing and had a contract for 10 WC-135B weather reconnaissance jets. That's how old USAF WC-135W Constant Phoenix tail number 61-2667 is, from inside above, and from outside below:



I've been associated with the airplane(s) and mission for just over 20 years, and retire in just a couple weeks.  Here's the story of the old girl, and why she'll always have a piece of my heart.  Even my ex-Marine (HMX-1) wife knows better than to go there when I get all sad about it, but bless her heart, she did hold the fire hose on me after my fine' flight like a 5'2" trooper...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WC-135

[Sergeant Bob]

That's a real pretty bird but, where's the boom and how the heck does it get off the ground with a 202,000 lb fuel load without water injection?

[doczinn]

Maybe it's a Marine Corps thing, but it's often a "pizza stain" and often a "firewatch ribbon."

[Gewehr98]

No water injection since the day they left Boeing as a "B" model, we have TF-33's, and enough thrust to get off the ground heavyweight.  No boom, it was never configured as a tanker.  Think Rivet Joint/Combat Sent/Cobra Ball, none of those birds have tail booms, either.  Constant Phoenix does, however, have an air refueling receptacle, and can "swap spit", meaning it can either receive or reverse pump fuel while attached to a tanker's boom.