Some of my Navy stuff

[river rat]

Here are a few photo's one is the last school's the Navy sent me to the Marine Corps combat skill course at Camp Pendleton my buddy is shooting the MK-19 the tough looking Marine was Sargent Howard who was dam good training us I am the other guy just waiting for my turn to shoot the MK-19.


This one was the last det I was in at SBU XI before they were decommissioned and I went to a Cargo Handling Battalion 3 for a few years before I went to MIUW 103 and retired with 22 years of service 4 of those years were active duty. I was seating under the US flag. We were taking the photo on a MATC mini armored troop carrier for river assault.

[JimF4M1s (Deceased)]

Late to the party here, but I have some input.

Mare Island shut down the Swift Boat units in 1995. I live a few miles away. You would see them once in a while running the delta there.

I just got back from a red ball run to my old unit on Coronado.
The Seal Team is right next to my old unit. They have SBT 12. Their new boats are a lot different then the Vietnam era.

That's the Coronado golf course in the background.





My old unit has gotten new boats recently as well. My VN buddy came out from Massachusetts. The unit commander had a crew take us out on a four hour run anywhere we wanted around the bay. He said they don't get many combat vets visiting the unit. What a thrill for us and our wives. Our new boats do 52 knots and can turn at full speed. The wives didn't care for that maneuver as much as we did.

Again the golf course across the harbor.





Along the Midway at the water line, not many see it from that angle.



My buddy's wife was a bit nervous.



Two old guys with a 47 year friendship reliving our younger days.

[browningautorifle]

I always thought it was neat that you found your boat...not one like it...yours. What are the odds of it surviving so long?

[Sarge]

I was above all that brown water stuff. In fact water in general.
I crewed P2V Neptunes. we spent our time chasing subs in the north Pacific.
Sarge

[river rat]

Jim I am also a little late getting back to this thread. Does make you feel old when you see the better boats they use now. Looks like you had a good trip to San Diego. There is a small Museum on Mare Island and one of the guys from SBU XI set up a display there with a few things and a little history of SBU XI we had one of our reunions there once. There is also a WW2 small craft not far from the museum that was used for fire support on beach landings in WW2 cool to check out and probably the only WW2 era craft with the water trough set up with toilet seat set up my dad told me about they would put news paper set it on fire and let it go down the trough to get newbies when using the head did not believe the sea story until I saw this trough set up.
USS LCS 102 Mare Island Museum

---------- Post added at 03:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:09 AM ----------

I was above all that brown water stuff. In fact water in general.
I crewed P2V Neptunes. we spent our time chasing subs in the north Pacific.
Sarge

My Brother was on P-3 Orion and I guess the Navy now replacing those with a jet engine type ones the end of propeller type aircraft for sub chasing

[Sarge]

Almost got to crew all the big recips. we were waiting for a P3 to start crew transitional training when I left so I only got to crew the PB4Y-2 and P2V.
I think the jet A/C is a version or either the 727 or 737, don't remember what I heard.
Sarge