Wildman
Over Analyzer Extraordinaire & Attention Whore
Original poster
Staff Member
Supporting Member
Can one of you Squids maybe explain what was being done to the main guns on the ships? Or what those smaller boats are doing near the sides?
This is only a guess, but it looks like maintenance is being performed on the main battery. It's a never ending chore on a ship. Those gun tubes need to be cleaned and oiled just like your M-16 does. In almost the same way. The deck crew gets really pissed when you drip gun oil on their wood decks. Hence, the barrels are swung out so it drips into the water.
The boats are liberty boats. They're are on booms, port and starboard, that are swung out to tie the bowline of the liberty boats to. That way, you don't have to hoist the boats on deck and nest them all the time.
This is all really old school Navy stuff.
I've still got the scar from a hot .45 shell that got stuck under my t-shirt.
I had a .45 get stuck between the bow of my safety glasses and my temple, was not a fun day.
The worst part was figuring out what was going on it wasn't immediately evident a casing got stuck there but I could feel it.
Once, which emphasis on ONCE, had a 9mm shell get between my glasses and my cheek. That was the last time I fired a weapon without wearing a cap of some kind!
You learned the same lesson I did and I almost always where a hat.
Yup, although I WEAR a hat, but you do you...![]()
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oops wasn't paying enough attention
For those who don't know.....
That is/was a mine clearing vehicle... The stuff in front was suppose to roll over mines and it'd blow up and was mounted on a hinge.. But this rig drove over the IED 3 times that day before it finally blew...
I was lucky I guess since I didn't do a lot of convoys so never delt with IED's but did with VBIED's and getting shot at.... Rockets & mortars aren't any fun either.
Reminds me of my brother's Husky that he got blown up in. He was doing route clearance and hit a homemade ampho IED. It blew the whole front off, rolled the armor plating back like tin foil, launched the vehicle into the air and landed on it's side. He was lucky to walk away with only a severe concussion.
In Afghanistan, I was attached to the engineers who were assigned to Route Clearing. They we're definitely built to more or less protect the individual inside.
Those Husky's were pretty innovative though. We towed the replacement front and rear axles with us to replace on the road for when they did hit something and get blasted. Glad he was able to walk away from the blast!