gonzalesna 0 #26 March 2, 2009 Quote This fellar Mcfreefall just plains makes me, "Wanna make like a cow and put on a graze". Be careful what you wish for... LisaH might start to stalk you and take excessive quantities of photos of you.Some people refrain from beating a dead horse. Personally, I find a myriad of entertainment value when beating it until it becomes a horse-smoothie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peanut4040 0 #27 March 2, 2009 hopefully she likes pictures of clothes ON.Its a good day to LIVE, why puck up a good thing. There is no reply in aad section for. " hell no i would not put an AAD on my back" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalesna 0 #28 March 3, 2009 Quote hopefully she likes pictures of clothes ON. Only if you're wearing a cow suit.Some people refrain from beating a dead horse. Personally, I find a myriad of entertainment value when beating it until it becomes a horse-smoothie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #29 March 7, 2009 Update on the situation. We got our picks today, and I chose Kodiak. Probably a three year assignment, during which I will be pulling buoys out of the water regularly, doing some law enforcement, hopping around the Aleutian Islands, maybe getting a few weeks in Hawaii, and a few weeks near the North Pole, but we'll see about that. The numbers really worked out in my favor. Despite my impression that several people were doing far better than I was, I ended up being ranked third in the class, or at least third out of the 37 who had to choose new assignments. I never expected that in a million years. I figured I was probably at about 8. Hell of a situation too, because our school chief pre-announced me as "one of our favorites here." If that ain't an ego boost having the school chief call you his favorite in front of your entire class, I don't know what is. I'm humble enough to take it in stride and just keep on kicking ass, but I'm sure a lot of people were pissed off by that. Honestly though, fuck 'em. I earned that shit, I didn't sit on my ass hoping for the best."If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalesna 0 #30 March 7, 2009 Congrats. I hope you like it.Besides, you can always go jump on your vacation time. Some people refrain from beating a dead horse. Personally, I find a myriad of entertainment value when beating it until it becomes a horse-smoothie. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #31 March 7, 2009 Vacation time is going to be sacred, that's for damn sure."If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DavidB 0 #32 March 7, 2009 Good luck & have fun! You can get me up to date, too. This: http://www.uscg.mil/history/webcutters/WLB_Photo_Index.asp is what I was on (WLB 401 & WLB 394). ~EDIT~ The Spar?When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #33 March 7, 2009 Ah, the good old 180's. I know a few people from my first station and instructors I have now who were stationed on 180's and absolutely loved them. The 225's are amazing in their own right, but those 180's had a very good reputation. As for the Spar, she's had a long history, with the first Spar being put into service sometime in the early 1940's. The current one, the 225 I'm being assigned to, was put to sea at the end of 2000 if I remember correctly, commissioned in early 2001."If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DavidB 0 #34 March 7, 2009 I did a little searching & ended up on wiki. I see they're still naming them after trees & shrubs. Yea, the 180's were nice, rugged, simple ships. Too bad they complicated them so in the late 70's & then again around '90. Case in point: The booms were electric powered. A half-assed operator could raise something inches off the buoy deck & move it ANYWHERE without gaining or losing height. When they went to hydraulics in the late 70's refit that was nearly impossible. Then there were the seals constantly blowing out of the capstans... Just what the deckies needed, buoy juice AND hydraulic oil all over the buoy deck! Some other time I'll tell the story about finding the design flaw in one of the hawser storage hatch locations in the steering gear room. That one happened in 1976, somewhere off Long Island, in a full gale. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #35 March 7, 2009 Gotta love sea stories. I can't wait for the hawser storage story, that should be fun! I can see it going all sorts of bad places even without FUBAR'd Wx. I don't have any stories quite that exciting having only been at a single heavy weather station before A-School, but there are some little interesting ones in there, like our 47 almost taking an unplanned trip into Gloucester Harbor after the #1 line snapped a cleat off the pier and took a section of the pier with it. I happened to be wandering down there to do some cleaning in the forward bilge in that boat, and I can't remember ever running so fast from the 47 pier to the comms center. And after we finally got it tied off, the CO ordered us to tie up to the 110-ft Grand Isle in the South Channel for the night. And guess who he picked as the non-rated 47 crewman to stay overnight with the boat? Yours truly. That was fun. Then there was the time we had to pick up a 40-ft fishing boat 15nm offshore in the Stellwagen Bank and Wx was projected as being 4-6 ft with 15-20kts of wind, and that's what it was for the trip out. The trip back it jumped to 30kts and 8-10 ft. 6-man crew with two coxswains, two FN, my lonely SN ass, and an MK3 as our engineer, and we had a 50% seasickness rate. One of the FN got sick first because he was a pansy, the MK3 followed him while on tow watch, and I fought it so hard and lost it just over halfway back to Gloucester Harbor. Needless to say, Joe Fisherman found it very amusing, and I wouldn't blame him in the least, though I do blame him for not checking to make sure his electrical system wasn't going to shit the bed on him in 5-10 ft seas and 30 knots of wind. Dumbass. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #36 March 13, 2009 So, after a series of major fuck-ups resulting in the loss of my assignment to Kodiak, the school chief pulled off a miracle on my behalf and got me Astoria. So it looks like I might not have to give up life outside the Coast Guard after all. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DavidB 0 #37 March 13, 2009 In other words, the "system" is operating normally. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #38 March 13, 2009 Roger that, all systems operating within normal parameters. Thankfully it paid off this time. Next time I'm worried I'll get truly fucked. But next time I'm going to know ahead of time that this is possible and likely, so I'm going to be ready for it ahead of time with Plans B thru Z. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NWFlyer 2 #39 March 14, 2009 Good news about Astoria is that you're roughly equidistant from the two biggest DZs in the PNW - Skydive Kapowsin up in Shelton, WA and Skydive Oregon in Molalla, OR. You're actually closest to Skydive Toledo in Toledo, WA. Not sure what Toledo's jumping these days but the other two have Caravans year-round and K-pow has an Otter most of the year and Oregon has theirs during the summer. "There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrFreefall383 0 #40 March 14, 2009 I was hoping someone would say something like that. I think I'm going to enjoy Oregon a great deal. "If at first you don't succeed... well, so much for skydiving." - aviation cliche Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
