When we took an reentry system apart for testing, we had to tag even the screws and washers as to where they went. Every electrical component was tested before we packed it for shipment. We flew from Wyoming to California on a KC-135 for my first test. It was exciting to me, I was a 2-striper and we got to see F-111s and F-4s refueling. We started rebuilding our bird, it was picked up and it seems to me that it launched about 5 days after we got back to Cheyenne. While at Vandenberg, however, I got to see two other Minuteman launches, a couple of Agenas and a really large Titan...that was an enormous rocket. My trip as crew chief in 1976 was really neat. We flew out on a C-141 and came back on a KC-10. We saw several launches out there, including a strange lift body of some sort..it was also the first time I ever saw an F-15, I had no idea what it was....but that sucker went straight up and was accelerating....
"I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
They train very much like my regiment but we do not parachute. I see the demonstration of the anti terrorist on the bus. we did this sometimes at the show for the publics to watch.
I just wanted to post these cool photos of a Norwegian Navy Special forces soldiers (MJK). The first one is the reflection of a soldier and the unit emblem. The faces of marinejegers are always obscured or hidden on photos:
Members of MJK training Afghan Police Crisis Resonse Unit 222 in anti-terror operations:
Training on the Norwegian coast:
Anti-terror training on an oil platform:
Sabotage operations training:
The last hurdle on their obstacle coarse in Ramsund naval station, the northernmost special forces base in the world. The Ramsund base is further north than Iceland. The marinejegers tackle the obstacle coarce every morning, followed by a refreshing swim. :
these are good photos. I like the one with the helicopter and the explosion, it look like a James Bond film!
The water must be very cold there to swim! I think they wear special suit under the uniform?
I said before that my regiment does a lot of training in the water and the swimming also but it is not so much cold to be careful but the predators. we swim were the crocodile and the tiger fish live and they will attack. The hippo can attack the boat also and kill. it is always interesting to swim in lakes and rivers!
Back to the photo i mention. the men under the helicopter i think are sitting around a field gun yes? I can not see this properly but the way it is held by the helicopter and the shape looks as this?
No, there isn't a field gun in the photo. I think it's a technique to lift a group of soldiers away quickly by helicopter. The heli drops a rope or two, the troops attach themselves to it and they fly away. Here is a photo of American troops doing this:
The MJK are combat divers, but most of the time I think they use gore-tex uniforms and thermal underwear.
While the MJK are probably second to none in arctic special operations, I think your unit is far better in jungle operations
The things you tell from the excersises are impressive!
Thank you number 24. I see with the photograph better. We use these also but we call them 'hot extraction harness'. they are to be used to lift the commando soldiers from places under fire or other danger where a helicopter cannot land. We wore them all times when on exercises or operation. For infiltration, the rope from the helicopter to the ground when the helicopter can not land.
I must say, my unit does not train in the jungle, no jungles in my country! I put these photographs here which I take from the internet to show the country. Our training and selection takes place in this type of country, the bush country which is hard country.
These is the type of places we do the 120km route march. no food allowed, empty stomach before and only little water. 48 hours to do the march. as you see this is hard country to cross. navigate as the patrol while looking for wild animal who will attack. Many trainees have been killed or injured in selection.
Also if you watch the video of the Zambian commando regiment on part two and three you see also soldiers from my country training with them. you can see them by the camouflage pattern of the uniform is different to the Zambian uniforms. much training is done with the special units of our countries.
Thank you number 24. I see with the photograph better. We use these also but we call them 'hot extraction harness'. they are to be used to lift the commando soldiers from places under fire or other danger where a helicopter cannot land. We wore them all times when on exercises or operation. For infiltration, the rope from the helicopter to the ground when the helicopter can not land.
I must say, my unit does not train in the jungle, no jungles in my country! I put these photographs here which I take from the internet to show the country. Our training and selection takes place in this type of country, the bush country which is hard country.
These is the type of places we do the 120km route march. no food allowed, empty stomach before and only little water. 48 hours to do the march. as you see this is hard country to cross. navigate as the patrol while looking for wild animal who will attack. Many trainees have been killed or injured in selection.
I'm sorry, but many of us Europeans know too little about Africa and African nations. When I read about crocodiles and hippos, we tend to think of jungles. But believe it or not, Norwegian Special Forces have in the last few years started training in jungles and in the desert! I would never have have expected that. Here they are:
I spend only four years in the US Navy, but went through two months of basic training so when you described barracks life I got flashbacks. The men training us were in our faces during all waking hours (most of the time yelling) having us do constant physical exercises and drilling and making sure all our personal gear was shined and in it's place and without one fold out of place or one wrinkle. God help you if that happened! I tell civilians it was basically like being in a maximum security prison (and the food was probably the same quality). We had one instance where we went out for drills and came back to find the barracks in a shambles. The trainers had found a couple of mistakes in some of the way gear was put away or a bunk was made so they tore apart EVERY man's cot and scattered everyone's gear around them. Then they gave us x amount of time to get it back in place and do it right for another inspection. It was all just a way to stress test us of course, but it certainly worked!
I was very fortunate in my service posting - I was placed on the Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) NATO base in Naples, Italy for my entire enlistment. I was supposed to be there only two years, but I was found to be a good enough asset in the time I spent there that they decided it was better to keep me on rather than having to train someone else. I had almost a civilian like office job working weekdays with the weekends off. Having a Top Secret security clearance I got to work among high ranking officers from the US, Italy, UK, Greece and Turkey. I was a Draftsman-Illustrator and was one of a few men who designed the charts, graphs and other graphic material for the plans developed for the military defense of the Meditarranean. I got to be present during top secret NATO briefings (we had to run the slideshows and make sure charts and maps were in place) and I got to have great working relationships with outstanding officers from the different countries involved. One of the many friends I made while there was a Navy SEAL who would be there on occasion officially and we still keep in touch to this day. I decided not to make this a career because I just got fed up with the bureaucratic politics that institutions of this size seemed to be infested with. I wanted a career where I was able to make my own decisions and I'm still glad I made that choice, though I have never regretted my service or the great life experiences it provided me.
I spent 4 years in the regular Air Force building nuclear weapons for the Minuteman III from 1972-1976. In 1986 I joined the Missouri Air National Guard at St Louis and built bombs, missiles and rockets, and strung ammo for the F-4E and F-15A fighters...In 1992 I transferred to the Tennessee Air Guard at Memphis, (my hometown) and spent 18 years working in supply and training. I retired in early 2011. I was deployed to the UK, Germany, and the Middle East...
If the good Lord would let me go around again, I would do it again...
A long time ago in a city, far, far away....
I can't imagine having a job that closely linked to...... well, third world war. I wouldn't want your job. I can (sort of) relate to knowing that if I saw active war service it would be the last war, since if USSR invaded northern Norway it would be to take on the entire NATO. We wpuld simply be the some of the Western forces closest to the USSR. I know that my job in case WWII started would be to lay minefields around Bodø Air Base and defend it as long as posible while the Americans and other forces few in.
Are there anyone else who know what and where their jobs would be in case the Soviets attacked?
CmdrAtticus i enjoyed reading your post. Yes the training times were hard! I think i said in another post that the NCO could strike the recruit in my army and this made think more worse even. Also on the room inspection or parade if you had any small thing not correct then you name would be put in a book. if your name was in the book twice then you got punished.many times this would be 1 hour extra PT, in the evening, running in the square with full kit. this made you tired and late to do your other jobs of cleaning your kit and boots. we always slept on the floor by the beds so they were made up for inspection in the early morning, with the kit laid on them.
Number24, no hippos in the jungle I think! We were always taught to watch for the predator, the hippo is very aggressive and can run faster than a man on the land. As can also the crocodile for the short distance but not as fast as the hippo. The hippo will attack the boat and the peoples if they get too close.
I see your special unit to train in the jungles. Many predators there also I think but not the big game.
On the exercise sometimes as trained commando we would be dropped in the helicopter by the rope, in the middle of the bush on the self or two or three men. The only things we had is a compass and a knife, no food or water, and we would have to go the 50 or 60 kilometers through the bush to the rendezvous. the distance was the straight line but this was through the very hard country and many obstacles to go round so this distance might be 20 kilometers extra to that.
This training was because we operated in the enemy territory and to train us to be able to survive if we were alone and to try to get back to safety. This i think were some of the harder training but i think that we never lost one soldier in this during my service, but selection there were many recruits who got killed or hurt by the wild animal or the accident.
We were getting a briefing one night about what to do after an attack, as though there would be an after. We all decided that if it happened we were going out on the lawn and drink a beer and have a cigarette and watch the RVs come in....they're quite pretty.....
"I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
Our job was to deploy to a bridge in Germany hold it while those in front evacuated over it and then blow it and go partisan against our Ruski invaders. Years later I found out they would have gone full Blirtzkreig on us and bypassed us straight for the Channel, returning later to mop us up from the rear.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss
Cheers :007)
My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
Back n the Eighties nothing so glamourous I was PBI spent most NATO exercises digging in trenches around German bridges (usually too close and below the water table so they just filled up over time so we constantly bailed them out). But we thought we were taking one for the team and the greater good
Funny thing was a pattern emerged and we never cottoned on. We would arrive spend days digging in, then die in an Arty barrage and then be extracted as casualties. Only to then return days later as the victors (mainly I think to make us feel Victory was a remote possibility or we would all sack it).
Like I said funny thing was years later meeting Russians and getting their take on it. We were poles apart in our thinking (or maybe not based on our scenarios that we played out on those numerous exercises)
But in retrospect life seemed so much simpler then compared to the Asymmetric warfare of modern times.
Cheers :007)
My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
I had the opportunity to talk to some Russians who were in their military at the same time I was serving...they had no great desire to be part of an invasion of Western Europe...one of them told me that he wasn't too sure they could trust their allies for very long...
We call infantry "grunts".
"I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
I had the opportunity to talk to some Russians who were in their military at the same time I was serving...they had no great desire to be part of an invasion of Western Europe...one of them told me that he wasn't too sure they could trust their allies for very long...
We call infantry "grunts".
It's funny when you talk to those in Russia who served the same period we were both sitting on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain with basically the same idea. Preparing for the worst from the opposite side, but neither with the real appetite to attack the other. Still the Cold War forced a global stalemate we could certain do with now! (never had all the conflicts in the world we have today)
Grunts - Yeah they tried that here as well (seemingly most things that start stateside head this way eventually). But last person who did that in an Orders Group was not Infantry and got a smack in the gob for his error in judgement )
Still as a REMF they only make that mistake once!
Cheers :007)
My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
Something I'm tired of is our military, et al, using the word warrior.....I wasn't a warrior, I was a soldier....we worked as a unit...not as individuals..."warriors" always eventually lose out to soldiers...
"I don't know if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or imbeciles who mean it."-Mark Twain
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
Conscription will be for both sexes. It seems they are modeling the new conscription military on the Norwegian model, with a mixture of conscripts for some types of service (infantry etc.) and professionals for service abroad and jobs that requires a lot of training.
The problem was a too small population base to attract enough volunteers aspecially now that a more aggressive Russia requires a larger military.
I had the opportunity to talk to some Russians who were in their military at the same time I was serving...they had no great desire to be part of an invasion of Western Europe...one of them told me that he wasn't too sure they could trust their allies for very long...
We call infantry "grunts".
What happened in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary certainly shows that Russians would not have been able to rely on their "allies" - they were simply not allied countries, but subjugated countries.
I just wonder. If any peoples here deployed operationally? If so did you get more pay? In my army to go on active service the soldier was paid more each day allowance.
I just wonder. If any peoples here deployed operationally? If so did you get more pay? In my army to go on active service the soldier was paid more each day allowance.
I would have said probably - things have been pretty hectic in the world since the Cold War thawed out (1990 onwards). As a guide on finances no extra money you just don't pay for food and lodging back home while you are out the country - thus actually making a saving
Cheers :007)
My name is Bond, Basildon Bond - I have letters after my name!
Thank you Bond44. When I was a soldier we did not pay for food or to stay in barracks. we also got free pass to travel on the buses.
I deployed once on the active service and all soldiers were paid an extra 12 US dollars every day. This will not seem like much more money to many peoples but it was a lot. this was the same for fighting soldiers or soldiers who did only guard duty. I here about some soldiers who were in the support jobs or not fighting who asked to stay in the country because the extra pay made them a good profit. Many were able to buy houses when they came home!
Comments
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dThlBJwpUpo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dThlBJwpUpo
They train very much like my regiment but we do not parachute. I see the demonstration of the anti terrorist on the bus. we did this sometimes at the show for the publics to watch.
Members of MJK training Afghan Police Crisis Resonse Unit 222 in anti-terror operations:
Training on the Norwegian coast:
Anti-terror training on an oil platform:
Sabotage operations training:
The last hurdle on their obstacle coarse in Ramsund naval station, the northernmost special forces base in the world. The Ramsund base is further north than Iceland. The marinejegers tackle the obstacle coarce every morning, followed by a refreshing swim. :
The water must be very cold there to swim! I think they wear special suit under the uniform?
I said before that my regiment does a lot of training in the water and the swimming also but it is not so much cold to be careful but the predators. we swim were the crocodile and the tiger fish live and they will attack. The hippo can attack the boat also and kill. it is always interesting to swim in lakes and rivers!
Back to the photo i mention. the men under the helicopter i think are sitting around a field gun yes? I can not see this properly but the way it is held by the helicopter and the shape looks as this?
The MJK are combat divers, but most of the time I think they use gore-tex uniforms and thermal underwear.
While the MJK are probably second to none in arctic special operations, I think your unit is far better in jungle operations
The things you tell from the excersises are impressive!
I must say, my unit does not train in the jungle, no jungles in my country! I put these photographs here which I take from the internet to show the country. Our training and selection takes place in this type of country, the bush country which is hard country.
These is the type of places we do the 120km route march. no food allowed, empty stomach before and only little water. 48 hours to do the march. as you see this is hard country to cross. navigate as the patrol while looking for wild animal who will attack. Many trainees have been killed or injured in selection.
I'm sorry, but many of us Europeans know too little about Africa and African nations. When I read about crocodiles and hippos, we tend to think of jungles. But believe it or not, Norwegian Special Forces have in the last few years started training in jungles and in the desert! I would never have have expected that. Here they are:
I was very fortunate in my service posting - I was placed on the Allied Forces Southern Europe (AFSOUTH) NATO base in Naples, Italy for my entire enlistment. I was supposed to be there only two years, but I was found to be a good enough asset in the time I spent there that they decided it was better to keep me on rather than having to train someone else. I had almost a civilian like office job working weekdays with the weekends off. Having a Top Secret security clearance I got to work among high ranking officers from the US, Italy, UK, Greece and Turkey. I was a Draftsman-Illustrator and was one of a few men who designed the charts, graphs and other graphic material for the plans developed for the military defense of the Meditarranean. I got to be present during top secret NATO briefings (we had to run the slideshows and make sure charts and maps were in place) and I got to have great working relationships with outstanding officers from the different countries involved. One of the many friends I made while there was a Navy SEAL who would be there on occasion officially and we still keep in touch to this day. I decided not to make this a career because I just got fed up with the bureaucratic politics that institutions of this size seemed to be infested with. I wanted a career where I was able to make my own decisions and I'm still glad I made that choice, though I have never regretted my service or the great life experiences it provided me.
I can't imagine having a job that closely linked to...... well, third world war. I wouldn't want your job. I can (sort of) relate to knowing that if I saw active war service it would be the last war, since if USSR invaded northern Norway it would be to take on the entire NATO. We wpuld simply be the some of the Western forces closest to the USSR. I know that my job in case WWII started would be to lay minefields around Bodø Air Base and defend it as long as posible while the Americans and other forces few in.
Are there anyone else who know what and where their jobs would be in case the Soviets attacked?
Number24, no hippos in the jungle I think! We were always taught to watch for the predator, the hippo is very aggressive and can run faster than a man on the land. As can also the crocodile for the short distance but not as fast as the hippo. The hippo will attack the boat and the peoples if they get too close.
I see your special unit to train in the jungles. Many predators there also I think but not the big game.
On the exercise sometimes as trained commando we would be dropped in the helicopter by the rope, in the middle of the bush on the self or two or three men. The only things we had is a compass and a knife, no food or water, and we would have to go the 50 or 60 kilometers through the bush to the rendezvous. the distance was the straight line but this was through the very hard country and many obstacles to go round so this distance might be 20 kilometers extra to that.
This training was because we operated in the enemy territory and to train us to be able to survive if we were alone and to try to get back to safety. This i think were some of the harder training but i think that we never lost one soldier in this during my service, but selection there were many recruits who got killed or hurt by the wild animal or the accident.
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
Sometimes ignorance is bliss
Cheers :007)
I was a combat engineer.
Funny thing was a pattern emerged and we never cottoned on. We would arrive spend days digging in, then die in an Arty barrage and then be extracted as casualties. Only to then return days later as the victors (mainly I think to make us feel Victory was a remote possibility or we would all sack it).
Like I said funny thing was years later meeting Russians and getting their take on it. We were poles apart in our thinking (or maybe not based on our scenarios that we played out on those numerous exercises)
But in retrospect life seemed so much simpler then compared to the Asymmetric warfare of modern times.
Cheers :007)
Poor Bl00dy Infantry
Cheers :007)
We call infantry "grunts".
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
It's funny when you talk to those in Russia who served the same period we were both sitting on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain with basically the same idea. Preparing for the worst from the opposite side, but neither with the real appetite to attack the other. Still the Cold War forced a global stalemate we could certain do with now! (never had all the conflicts in the world we have today)
Grunts - Yeah they tried that here as well (seemingly most things that start stateside head this way eventually). But last person who did that in an Orders Group was not Infantry and got a smack in the gob for his error in judgement
Still as a REMF they only make that mistake once!
Cheers :007)
Something I'm tired of is our military, et al, using the word warrior.....I wasn't a warrior, I was a soldier....we worked as a unit...not as individuals..."warriors" always eventually lose out to soldiers...
'Just because nobody complains doesn't mean all parachutes are perfect.'- Benny Hill (1924-1992)
The problem was a too small population base to attract enough volunteers aspecially now that a more aggressive Russia requires a larger military.
What happened in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary certainly shows that Russians would not have been able to rely on their "allies" - they were simply not allied countries, but subjugated countries.
I would have said probably - things have been pretty hectic in the world since the Cold War thawed out (1990 onwards). As a guide on finances no extra money you just don't pay for food and lodging back home while you are out the country - thus actually making a saving
Cheers :007)
I deployed once on the active service and all soldiers were paid an extra 12 US dollars every day. This will not seem like much more money to many peoples but it was a lot. this was the same for fighting soldiers or soldiers who did only guard duty. I here about some soldiers who were in the support jobs or not fighting who asked to stay in the country because the extra pay made them a good profit. Many were able to buy houses when they came home!
Cheers :007)