Special Opps or Nutt Job

[Dave M.]

Navy pilot that were stationed on a carrier.

Holy crap am I embarrassed after looking it up. I really should have known that considering my father was a mechanic and firefighter aboard the USS Forrestal during the huge fire in July 1967. His crew of 7-8 mechanics took care and maintained a single plane, he said they knew every scratch, nut and bolt on that plane. I think he told me that each plane was typically flown by 3 or 4 pilots/captains. The very plane him and his crew managed happened to be the same plane flown by John McCain, among other pilots. He told me that in his entire time on the ship, he never met McCain in person, but he knew his F-4 plane like the back of his hand with his eyes closed.
His stories from the fire are absolutely terrifying and still to this day he can’t eat in BBQ restaurants or stand the smell of smoking meats on the grill, because he says it’s like reliving the entire nightmare over again.
The idea that people make up stories about being someone they weren’t or doing things that they didn’t do, is disgusting.

Dave Monette

 

[TIMO]

I`d say he was being unnecessarily critical of his service. Vets are anyone who wore the uniform and served.

Yes, I agree 100% with the statement that he was being unnecessarily critical of his service.

But, not all vets served Honorably.

Tim

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

I've worked with 2, one was my boss and the other was a co-worker across the hall.

The boss would lie about stuff that didn't even matter, like where he went for lunch. You name it, he'd lie about it.

The guy across the hall didn't know what was believable. One story was about how he spent his weekend training a DEVGRU guy about long range shooting. Another time it was how awesome of a cyclist he was. I was a pretty strong cyclist at the time and suggested he bring his stuff to work, we'd ride after. He didn't bite.

A friend used to say 'he will lie when the truth suits him better.' I always liked that saying. My hat's off to those men and women who served. Competently and honorably, is pretty damn good.

 

[KMart]

Holy crap am I embarrassed after looking it up. I really should have known that considering my father was a mechanic and firefighter aboard the USS Forrestal during the huge fire in July 1967. His crew of 7-8 mechanics took care and maintained a single plane, he said they knew every scratch, nut and bolt on that plane. I think he told me that each plane was typically flown by 3 or 4 pilots/captains. The very plane him and his crew managed happened to be the same plane flown by John McCain, among other pilots. He told me that in his entire time on the ship, he never met McCain in person, but he knew his F-4 plane like the back of his hand with his eyes closed.
His stories from the fire are absolutely terrifying and still to this day he can’t eat in BBQ restaurants or stand the smell of smoking meats on the grill, because he says it’s like reliving the entire nightmare over again.
The idea that people make up stories about being someone they weren’t or doing things that they didn’t do, is disgusting.

Dave Monette

Minor correction.. McCain flew and was shot down in an A-4 Skyhawk.

 

[Kalitrazescapee]

Anyone know of someone who can fly a chopper upside down? I'm no pilot so I'm just checking.
Maybe lt commander curly q...all hand on deck

 

[jimmymac]

I have a Navy Seal that shoots regularly at the club I belong to. I've always been very impressed listening to the same bullshit stories.

 

[BobT]

I used to work with a guy that was ex Army. This clown had all kinds of war stories even claiming to be a "Scout Sniper" when I asked him what his MOS was. The Army has snipers for sure but the Scout Sniper designation is associated with the USMC MOS 0317. It's usually not hard to spot these clowns especially for someone with a military background.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

My grandpa served in WWII. Passed away in '97. I remember asking him what the war was like(age 12 or so). I got a pretty brisk answer, which was very out of character for him. Grandma took us aside and told us that he didn't like to talk about it, and that his partner and close friend had been killed, and grandpa should have been, too.

Meanwhile buddy's grandpa would go on and on with lurid tales of hiding in barns and machinegunning Germans.
I just remember thinking that one of them was the real deal, and it wasn't the big talker.

 

[Eagle Six]

I used to work with a guy that was ex Army. This clown had all kinds of war stories even claiming to be a "Scout Sniper" when I asked him what his MOS was. The Army has snipers for sure but the Scout Sniper designation is associated with the USMC MOS 0317. It's usually not hard to spot these clowns especially for someone with a military background.

While using a very popular range in the southwest back in the 2000's I couldn't count using all my fingers, toes, and thumbs twice how many Scout Sniper I would meet in a season. It was hugely popular back then. My favorite was a 'Sniper Scout' in the Air Force in Vietnam, who was also about ten years shy of age to have served in Vietnam.

 

[smokinghole]

At my range I shoot with suppressors a lot. I get all kinds of questions, strange comments, and grand stories about Top Secret jibber jabber. I’m a GWOT veteran and I tend to just let them go knowing they’re just flapping their lips trying to impress someone on the range. Suppressors are a magnet for weird in my experience because the purchase and ownership of them is not well known/understood.

I don’t understand the need to embellish service especially for guys my age that were in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of them have probably been shot at unlike me on my deployment. I used lots of C4 and cleaned up lots of excess munitions, but was kept safe and cozy with roof mounted machine guns all around where we worked.

 

[Uthink Uknow]

Wait a minute you haven’t heard my war stories. Oh, wait again, you never will.
It was Bart Sauter who said he and Billy Stevens were chopper pilots in the Gulf and Billy could do barrel rollls.

 

[Dave M.]

Minor correction.. McCain flew and was shot down in an A-4 Skyhawk.

You are 100% correct. I spoke to my dad last night and he said that the plane he manned was indeed an A-4S. He also said the ship had A5 Vigilantes, F4 Phantoms, and E2 B’s (not sure what those are).
My father will share his experiences on the ship and even of the fire, but only if I ask. However, inevitably one or both of us end up in tears. His best friend aboard the ship was a photographer of some sort (no idea if he was actually a navy photographer), and he has a box of actual photos and the majority are stamped in red ink on the back “U.S. Naval Declassified”. I can tell you the pictures are horrifying and if he ever goes to get the box of photos out, I immediately bow out. I have no ambition to see those photos again.
Dave

 

[Eagle Six]

The E2 is a twin turboprop with radar and electronics.

 

[Dave M.]

The E2 is a twin turboprop with radar and electronics.

Just talking about the fire had me reading more about it last night. Amazingly, after limping to the Philippines to make sure the ship was seaworthy, they went out of the way to go back to the sight of the fire to drop a huge wreath for their fallen mates, before sailing home (first to Florida then to Virginia).

 

[Doug Casner]

My uncle served in Europe in ww2 Italy, france, germany wounded twice always said the ones that talked the most did the least. Doug

 

[Hornet37]

Several days ago, I was at our local shooting range playing around with a 223 bolt gun. At the 300 yard range, another guy at the far end and I were the only two shooting. I needed to check several targets down range and walked over to the other shooter. As I approached his table, I notice he was shooting several different hand guns.

I asked him if we could go cold on the range and after I asked the question, we started talking about guns. I told him I was playing around with a 223 but I do have an xc for target competition, and that's when it started to get weird. He starts going off about how he wish he could use his rifle he used when he was in the service. I asked him what rifle he was talking about and he said was part of a special opps sniper team who were trained to capture Saddam Hussein. He tells me this special rifle he used was based off a Russian sniper rifle the U.S. government stole and renamed it the A1 Sniper rifle that was chamber in 7.5 mm and not the 7.62 mm.

He was telling me he went on special missions around the world where he worked as an undercover assassin. He was telling me he could shot anyone in the eye through the scope up to a mile away with that A1. Since the government has retired his A1, he wish he could use the A1 in long range shooting and beat everyone but he can't use a classified weapon. All I said was "Cool," and walked down range.

Just tonight I thought about looking into what that guy said and googled "A1 Sniper Rifle" and was shocked to came across the USMC M40A1 sniper rifle. The M40A1 was built in the 70's and used until the 1999. I then looked up when Saddam Hussein was captured and this was in April 2003. So was I just talking to a hero or a nutt job? Could it be a possibility what he said is true since both time periods are close? I'm bad at guessing age but he looked in his late 60s and was in good health.

 

[Iowa Fox]

Anyone know of someone who can fly a chopper upside down? I'm no pilot so I'm just checking.
Maybe lt commander curly q...all hand on deck

I can tell you this for a fact. The Heuy's would actually fly on their side for a while. I don't ever remember the doors closed or strapping in. Might have but I don't remember it. The wild and crazy Warrant Officers would lay them on their side just to see if they could make the new guys Puke and then make them clean it up.

 

[KMart]

You are 100% correct. I spoke to my dad last night and he said that the plane he manned was indeed an A-4S. He also said the ship had A5 Vigilantes, F4 Phantoms, and E2 B’s (not sure what those are).
My father will share his experiences on the ship and even of the fire, but only if I ask. However, inevitably one or both of us end up in tears. His best friend aboard the ship was a photographer of some sort (no idea if he was actually a navy photographer), and he has a box of actual photos and the majority are stamped in red ink on the back “U.S. Naval Declassified”. I can tell you the pictures are horrifying and if he ever goes to get the box of photos out, I immediately bow out. I have no ambition to see those photos again.
Dave

I was not in the Navy but I was Navy trained (USMC airwinger). The fire on the Forrestal was an absolute disaster. As to the photographer, here is my best guess. The Navy used the A-5's as a photo recon A/C. So that squadron had the ability to take and process all kinds of pictures.
My squadron flew RF-4B's (my MOS) and everybody in the squadron seemed to 35 mm cameras and our buddies in the photo section got us free film and processing.
Plus, an aircraft carrier is a small city. The Navy most likely had a photo section that recorded a lot of day to day operation and major/minor incidents.

 

[jds holler]

I always liked the Seinfeld episode where George was coaching Jerry about taking a polygraph test.

"Just remember, if YOU really believe it -- it's not a lie!"
jd

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

Minor correction.. McCain flew and was shot down in an A-4 Skyhawk.

A4 was one of a very few small jets configured to carry nuclear payload.