Service pics anyone?

[313 Mike]

Greetings fellow veterans. I thought it might be a cool idea to start a thread here where we can post pics of ourselves from our time in service. I think it would fun to see the different eras, uniforms, etc.
Here's me at the Port in Mogadishu, Dec '92, not sure why I don't have a cover on my head. ... probably 'cause it was Africa and it always hotter than hell.

[jerryd6818]

Outside without your cover? You should be ashamed of yourself Marine. Now get down and give me 30.

Good idea Mike. This one is me (in the white skivvy shirt) and Steve Kjentvet when we were promoted to Corporal a month before we rotated home from Viet Nam. We wore our chevrons on our cover over there.

A few of my buddies.

I was also the battery barber.

[fergusontd]

This is me After Engine Room Throttle Watch (controls engine speed) West Pac 1968. ftd.

[jerryd6818]

Dang Ferg. What happened? You were a handsome lad.

[fergusontd]

Dang Ferg. What happened? You were a handsome lad.

When I graduated from High school I weighed 325. Decided not to go thru life fat, dull, and stupid so I lost 110 pounds and enlisted. Since then life has a way of biting you in the A$$! ftd

[jerryd6818]

Dang Ferg. What happened? You were a handsome lad.

When I graduated from High school I weighed 325. Decided not to go thru life fat, dull, and stupid so I lost 110 pounds and enlisted. Since then life has a way of biting you in the A$$! ftd

325!! Holy cats! You was a biggun. I joined the Corps right straight out of High School (didn't graduate) at 140 lbs or there about. Came out of boot camp at 170. Went home on boot leave, came down with the flu and laid in bed for a week sweating like a hog. Got out of bed at, you guessed it, 140 lbs. Stayed in the 140-150 range until I quit smoking in 1995. Then the balloon showed it's ugly face. It was 240 for a while and eventually made it into the 280's. I'm back down in the 240's now. Probably will be buried at that weight.

[fergusontd]

Dang Ferg. What happened? You were a handsome lad.

When I graduated from High school I weighed 325. Decided not to go thru life fat, dull, and stupid so I lost 110 pounds and enlisted. Since then life has a way of biting you in the A$$! ftd

325!! Holy cats! You was a biggun. I joined the Corps right straight out of High School (didn't graduate) at 140 lbs or there about. Came out of boot camp at 170. Went home on boot leave, came down with the flu and laid in bed for a week sweating like a hog. Got out of bed at, you guessed it, 140 lbs. Stayed in the 140-150 range until I quit smoking in 1995. Then the balloon showed it's ugly face. It was 240 for a while and eventually made it into the 280's. I'm back down in the 240's now. Probably will be buried at that weight.

Right now I'm at 275, been that for several years. It's hard to lose weight at our age. ftd

[jerryd6818]

When I graduated from High school I weighed 325. Decided not to go thru life fat, dull, and stupid so I lost 110 pounds and enlisted. Since then life has a way of biting you in the A$$! ftd

325!! Holy cats! You was a biggun. I joined the Corps right straight out of High School (didn't graduate) at 140 lbs or there about. Came out of boot camp at 170. Went home on boot leave, came down with the flu and laid in bed for a week sweating like a hog. Got out of bed at, you guessed it, 140 lbs. Stayed in the 140-150 range until I quit smoking in 1995. Then the balloon showed it's ugly face. It was 240 for a while and eventually made it into the 280's. I'm back down in the 240's now. Probably will be buried at that weight.

Right now I'm at 275, been that for several years. It's hard to lose weight at our age. ftd

Ain't that God's own truth.

[Madmarco]

Outside without your cover? You should be ashamed of yourself Marine. Now get down and give me 30.

Good idea Mike. This one is me (in the white skivvy shirt) and Steve Kjentvet when we were promoted to Corporal a month before we rotated home from Viet Nam. We wore our chevrons on our cover over there.

Jerry Downen & Steve Kjentvet Aug66 L.jpg

A few of my buddies.
Steve Kjentvet-Jerry Downen-Neil Handel-Dennis Hollis-'66.jpg

I was also the battery barber.
Jerry Downen cutting Dennis Hollis's hair late '65.jpg

Jeez Jerry, I didn't know men use to grab their crotches(middle picture)way back in 66', I thought that came in with hip-hop music! LOL!

[jerryd6818]

Jeez Jerry, I didn't know men use to grab their crotches(middle picture)way back in 66', I thought that came in with hip-hop music! LOL!

Keep in mind that I'm an idiot but was much worse back then.

[philco]

Jeez Jerry, I didn't know men use to grab their crotches(middle picture)way back in 66', I thought that came in with hip-hop music! LOL!

Keep in mind that I'm an idiot but was much worse back then.

[TPK]

Cool thread Mike. I'll have to look around & see what I can come up with on military pictures.

[fergusontd]

Jeez Jerry, I didn't know men use to grab their crotches(middle picture)way back in 66', I thought that came in with hip-hop music! LOL!

Keep in mind that I'm an idiot but was much worse back then.

Jerry! Now a response to that post would be like shooting fish in a barrel! ftd

[Madmarco]

Jeez Jerry, I didn't know men use to grab their crotches(middle picture)way back in 66', I thought that came in with hip-hop music! LOL!

Keep in mind that I'm an idiot but was much worse back then.

Now now Jerry, let's not be too hard on ourselves, after-all we're just doin' the best we can with what we got to work with! I don't feel like shootin' any fish just now!

[jerryd6818]

Thanks Madmarco.

[313 Mike]

You guys are a bunch of goofballs! !
I was 190 going into boot camp, 165 coming out. Got all the way up to 237 in the ensuing years but am back down to about 190 ish now. Trying to keep it under 200. Lots of heart issues in my family and I hope to avoid that route if I can...
Here's another pic from early '93 in Mogadishu. The more sniper fire we took inside the perimeter the higher we had to raise our sandbags around our hooches. That pissed us off more than the sniper fire itself!
Marine Corps being the Marine Corps they made us do PT weekly even though we were in the middle of a combat zone in the African desert. Gotta love running laps around the motor pool in combat boots carrying your M16....

[Old Hunter]

Me at Fort Knox KY in the summer of 1973 (about late August) as a young EM just after BCT but before starting AIT.
Me at Fort Bragg NC in the summer of 2004, one year before retiring in July 2005.

[bighomer]

[Ridgegrass]

Guessing this was Feb. or March, 1968. Somewhere near Chu Lai or Chun Yung, an R.O.K. base south of Chu Lai. (I may have posted this somewhere before} . That's a WWII era Ithica "Grease" gun, 45 cal.. We issued them to our Vietnamese "PF's". A monster to handle, nothing like the movies, hard as h*** to hold steady in sustained fire. Wow, almost 55 years ago!!! J.O'.

[jerryd6818]

Guessing this was Feb. or March, 1968. Somewhere near Chu Lai or Chun Yung, an R.O.K. base south of Chu Lai. (I may have posted this somewhere before} . That's a WWII era Ithica "Grease" gun, 45 cal.. We issued them to our Vietnamese "PF's". A monster to handle, nothing like the movies, hard as h*** to hold steady in sustained fire. Wow, almost 55 years ago!!! J.O'.

You were a SP-4? Am I seeing that correctly? What was your MOS?

[Ridgegrass]

Jerry,
My MOS was 82C20, Artillery Surveyor. Our batteries were semi-permanently in place, so most of the headquarters survey section was TDY'd to other operations. I was sent to a MACV advisory team called Ly Tin subsector. There were about 8 or 9 of us and I was the liaison to any nearby artillery and/or infantry mortar units that we may need if a fire situation arose, kind of a roving F.O. (I was also attached for a couple weeks to a U.S. Marine F.O. team that directed naval gunfire for a Korean R.O.K. marine base at Chun Yung). The MACV team also supported local Popular Forces and Regional Forces, a kind of national guard who were supposed to protect villages and local government facilities.Those "RF/PF" units were issued old WWII and Korean war era weapons like Garands, M-1 and M-2 carbines, BAR's, Tommy's, Grease guns, etc. So, I guess in deference to our locals, we carried the same weapons.
The duty was interesting. We got out into places where the average G.I. would not have been. We met everyday folks and got to know them in a different way. Just as an example, on the afternoon before the 1968 Tet offensive, my Major commanding, his XO and I were visiting some families in a small village south of Chu Lai. It was similar to the way we visit here on holidays. They fed us and welcomed us to their homes. Everything seemed festive. We had been warned that something might be in the offing, radio chatter, etc. That night all hell broke loose as you know.
Anyway, that's what I did. I often wonder what happened to the Vietnamese who worked with us. We trusted them and they seemed to trust us. I'm sure after the takeover many of them must have paid for their associations.
Merry Christmas. J.O'.

[jerryd6818]

For all you old Jarheads, I found this for you! ftdSmartSelect_20221226-234129_Chrome.jpg

That's a recent dig at The Corps. Hadn't seen it (the eating crayons reference) until a couple of years ago. Those who wish they had been Marines are using the hey out of it.

[fergusontd]

For all you old Jarheads, I found this for
That's a recent dig at The Corps. Hadn't seen it (the eating crayons reference) until a couple of years ago. Those who wish they had been Marines are using the hey out of it.

Deleted post! ftd

[Owd Wullie]

Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 1972. AO2, VA-82, CAG-8, USS AMERICA, CVA-66, Task Force 77.

[steve99f]

Crossing the Equator ritual aboard the USS Bausell, a DD I transferred to temporarily to go to Bangkok, Singapore and Australia. Well, it didn't do the first two stops but we did get down under. I'm not in the picture in this case but I did go through the line and was granted shellback status.