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A Cool old Photo from Military Service

2017
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Big Gun​


Army Staff Sgt. Qujuan Baptiste fires an M2 .50 caliber machine gun during a weapons qualification range at Camp Atterbury, Ind., July 18, 2017, during Army Materiel Command's Best Warrior Competition. Baptiste is assigned to the Army Sustainment Command. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Teddy Wade
 
That is an amazing quality looking picture if taken in 1966, it looks recent

Copy that.

The "secret" to all my old pics is that they were all taken with my old Minolta SRT101, an old film SLR camera shooting both Kodachrome and Ektachrome slide film. I take the slides and scan them in my dedicated Epson 4990 slide scanner and convert them to digital format that I can post, send email, etc.

When we were deployed to SE Asia/RVN, I sent my film via FPO to the Kodak processing lab and got them back a couple of weeks later at mail call. I'm sitting on about 2,000 color slides from my time over there.

Talking about 'big stuff', here's shots taken on beaches we landed both Armored Cav units and Marines on in RVN building up for the Vietmanese Offensive that year.





Not everything was 'combat related'. Troops must have hootch building material, and some fun too.....



If you've ever wondered how all that heavy armor got onto the beaches and into the bush there, here's the answer:



Our mothership, USS Tulare (AKA-112). Amphibious Attack, and my home for four years. It was determined we had the best chow in our squadron, Amphibious Squadron 3 (PHIBRON 3). Here we're tied up at a jungle pier on a river I can't remember the name of now. I do remember though, that there was a neat little bar at the end of that pier that had (amazingly) ice-cold San Miguel beer:



The pics may appear 'fresh' even though it all happened a long time ago, but some of those memories seem like they happened last month to me and others that experienced it. Thanks for the encouraging comments; most appreciated.
 
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Copy that.

The "secret" to all my old pics is that they were all taken with my old Minolta SRT101, an old film SLR camera shooting both Kodachrome and Ectachrome slide film. I take the slides and scan them in my dedicated Epson 4990 slide scanner and convert them to digital format that I can post, send email, etc.

When we were deployed to SE Asia/RVN, I sent my film via FPO to the Kodak processing lab and got them back a couple of weeks later at mail call. I'm sitting on about 2,000 color slides from my time over there.

Talking about 'big stuff', here's shots taken on beaches we landed both Armored Cav units and Marines on in RVN building up for the Vietmanese Offensive that year.





Not everything was 'combat related'. Troops must have hootch building material, and some fun too.....



If you've ever wondered how all that heavy armor got onto the beaches and into the bush there, here's the answer:



Our mothership, USS Tulare (AKA-112). Amphibious Attack, and my home for four years. It was determined we had the best chow in our squadron, Amphibious Squadron 3 (PHIBRON 3). Here we're tied up at a jungle pier on a river I can't remember the name of now. I do remember though, that there was a neat little bar at the end of that pier that had (amazingly) ice-cold San Miguel beer:



The pics may appear 'fresh' even though it all happened a long time ago, but some of those memories seem like they happened last month to me and others that experienced it. Thanks for the encouraging comments; most appreciated.
Now, At the time your camera was the cat's meow. It was introduced in 1966. Great pics!
 
Copy that.

The "secret" to all my old pics is that they were all taken with my old Minolta SRT101, an old film SLR camera shooting both Kodachrome and Ectachrome slide film. I take the slides and scan them in my dedicated Epson 4990 slide scanner and convert them to digital format that I can post, send email, etc.
Amazing what a quality SLR, lenses, and film was capable of. Canon man myself, an A1, F1, and a "new" F1 right after it was released. Pony Camera just outside the main gate at Yokota had a single body on display. I coerced the manager in selling to me just weeks prior to returning stateside after 3yrs at Yokota AB. Kept my beloved original F1, a birthday (or was it anniversary?) gift from my wife, a few favorite lenses and sold the rest including my Mamiya 645 and darkroom several years ago.
 
Kurz....a bit confused here. You re-posted one of my pics (Post #30) without any commentary related to it.
What's up? Recognize something in the pic?

A few more from RVN in 1966...
Friendly reminder at the Swift Boat base in Chu Lai:





And just for fun, our beloved mascot Gator buddy "Pogo":



Now, At the time your camera was the cat's meow. It was introduced in 1966. Great pics!

Butch, thanks buddy. That old Minolta was a treasure at the time. The only downside back then was waiting for the developed film to arrive back at my ship, and wondering how many shots were okay, and how many were bogus. Not the case today with instant confirmation via digital images on our DSLR's we have today. My how times are a changin'.
 
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Setting up for insertion to “Hot LZ” to secure perimeter and defend following Birds with additional Troops. Military Police Academy, Ft. McClellan, AL.
Ours was first chopper in; all smiles until our Pilot came in a bit too hot, and while we thought the skids were nearly touching the ground, the “grass” was 4’ tall.
Rolled us like a spilled basket of eggs. Add to that, the “enemy” opened up on us with multiple MGs and the Door Gunners answered with “suppressive” fire with blanks. Took us a few minutes to get our wits and scoop up the few that (dare I say) froze up. The sudden cacophony of intense noise, tumbling head over heels upon impact, screaming to get us organized and directed to advance and secure was both exciting and terrifying. First two squads in were all annihilated on first exercise, 1/2 of us were neutralized on second run, but 2/3s survived the third run.
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Copy that.

The "secret" to all my old pics is that they were all taken with my old Minolta SRT101, an old film SLR camera shooting both Kodachrome and Ectachrome slide film. I take the slides and scan them in my dedicated Epson 4990 slide scanner and convert them to digital format that I can post, send email, etc.

When we were deployed to SE Asia/RVN, I sent my film via FPO to the Kodak processing lab and got them back a couple of weeks later at mail call. I'm sitting on about 2,000 color slides from my time over there.
That's the camera I had as well and using that same film. I had almost 2000 slides from my time over there (over almost 2 years). After a couple decades, went through them an culled out those that were repetitive and when digital became "the thing" I scanned them with a Nikon CoolScan. A lot of those Kodachrome and Ektachrome slides were fading, and thanks to good software, was able to restore the pictures back to the original color. And the scanner worked great on 35mm negatives as well.

Great minds think alike. :cool: ;)
 
Wow awesome pic
I never had the misfortune to use her in anger, but in the very early days of proving her capability I did make a hit at 5800M while on the move. Now that was awesome. TOF is quite wile even at close to 5000 FPS MV on a sabot round. My hats off to those that in just a few years after I got out really proved her capability in the real world.
 

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