Phantom 309,,

montanajoe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCeVP9WuA6I

Ray B

THAT is a song I TRULY HATE. Not that there's anything wrong with it- it's just that when I was stationed in Vietnam I'd have "radio watch" in a bunker that I shared with a switchboard operator. One of the wiremen that stood watch had a cassette player and for the four hours of duty in the bunker the Phantom 309 played- over and over and over- non-stop, 4 hours. I'd check the schedule and if I was scheduled for radio watch when whatever his name was, was assigned to switchboard, I'd volunteer for any detail that would get me out of that duty: night ambush, listening post, TDY to an operation- it didn't matter how suicidal it was- anything was better than to be stuck in a small bunker and four hours of the Phantom 309.[xx(][xx(][xx(]

montanajoe

LOL,Sorry Ray.[:D][:D] Thank you for serving.[:)][:)][:)]

fishkiller41

The ride...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1IoLMqpRY4

CapnMidnight

Ray,
That means you where a R.E.M.F..
Had to give you grief.[;)]
W.D.

Ray B

quote:Originally posted by CapnMidnight
Ray,
That means you where a R.E.M.F..
Had to give you grief.[;)]
W.D.


What it means is that I was assigned to a firebase (a battery of 105, battery of 155 How, platoon of 155 gun, and platoon of 8" guns. The firebase had the various guns and for security we had a couple companies of 5th Marines. The 5th had more casualties than the cannon cockers so there was a free flow of personnel between the units. Having been on the receiving end of a firemission request in the Fire Direction Control Center, volunteers from the firing battery were greatly appreciated by the infantry. We had specific places in th patrol, generally standing behind the patrol leader (staff sgt to 1st Lt). The officer wanted to have the radio close so that he could call for help, however the radio operator knew precisely the information and the order of the information that needed to be sent back to the battery so that the battery could get their guns going as quickly and as accurately as possible so unless the platoon leader had a security complex, once he saw the RO was doing things correctly and quicker than he could, they let the RO run with it., the other reason I preferred to be outside the wire was the farther on got away from the flagpole, the more human they were treated. Had I known the full implications of that, rather than having my tour end and return the Camp Pendleton and Parris Island; I would have extended so that when I got off the plane that touched down in California, I'd have walked away a free man,

USN_Airdale

i know what you mean about "Phantom 309"

back in 1972, i was aboard the USS Kitty Hawk CVA-63, i was sent on a special ops training mission, a mosquito bit me, i got Malaria, i was hauled to sick bay when a shipmate found me lying naked on the cold steel deck, my temp was 107.3*, i was dunked into a bath of ice water with ice and 5 gallons of alcohol to bring my temp to at least 100*, that was done twice, i spent 9 days in the ships sick bay getting Intravenous (IV) (two of them) medications plus quinine pills twice a day, at that time "American Pie" was the tune of the time, it seemed when my temp. spiked over 100* that song was played, i hated that song, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/donmclean/americanpie.html for a long time, now i like listening to it's long version and have in my i-Tunes.

that was a time i will never forget, it was 9 days of pure hell. [:D] ... [:D]