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Post by sparky on Apr 30, 2010 20:03:54 GMT
Forestfox, that is really cool. I know Sean will take care of the "blade" for you. I'm jealous of you and Tom...... getting to wear swords at work. Liam, good luck with quitting. For what it's worth you still seem to be cheerful to me. Tom, did I ever mention my Grandpa? He was in the Coast Guard in WWII and the only one of 9 brothers who was injured in the war. His brothers were in all of the other branches of the military and a Coasty got hurt by a torpedo....... who'd figure. ;D Oh dang they were escorting the convoys to Europe.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2010 20:33:19 GMT
Bladed weapons are making a comeback in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least among units that have to do any building clearance missions. It's one thing to run out of ammo or have a jam at the same time the bad guy in front of you does and have to race to see who gets a functional weapon first (butt stroke with an M4? You kidding?). It's something else entirely to run out of ammo or have a jam at the same time the bad guy does and cut his ass down with your short sword or fighting knife and Then worry about fixing your gun. I know they are, building clearance was my main reason for wanting one back then. Every convoy had to have a mechanic with it, and we got used same as the infantry guys for the missions. The 240 is just too unwieldy for much work, and M4's crumble to dust when you look at them cross eyed. (They were just coming into use when I was in the service.) A machete type blade from ground forces has multiple practical uses, plus a D handle makes a nice impact weapon. Cutlasses just makes sense for shipboard and are in keeping with a long and noble tradition. Plus, I'll agree with Tom - swords in uniform would just rock. P.S. save the karma for my attempt at quitting smoking for a few days. I'm back on regular smokes until I can replace me e-cig, I'll have to work on stepping down my nicotine levels after that.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2010 22:56:19 GMT
Ah, E-Cigs Several of my cousins are using those. Not that there is a safe way to get nicotine, but the E-Cig is probably the safest, since you aren't inhaling that awful toxic smoke
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 1:09:37 GMT
That's why I'm trying them out. The plus being I can control the nicotine level of the cartridges I buy until I can work my way to the zero nicotine ones. Then I'll just being inhaling warm, flavored, water vapor.
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 3:58:23 GMT
Oh, I did mention I was trying to quit smoking again, right? Apologies in advance for any perceived grumps, rants, tirades, or other unpleasantness from my posting over the next few days. Just think of all the taxes you're not paying anymore... ...er, Won't be paying anymore...
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Post by shadowhowler on May 1, 2010 4:07:33 GMT
Tom, did I ever mention my Grandpa? He was in the Coast Guard in WWII and the only one of 9 brothers who was injured in the war. His brothers were in all of the other branches of the military and a Coasty got hurt by a torpedo....... who'd figure. ;D Oh dang they were escorting the convoys to Europe. As Tom will tell ya, the Coasties did some good work durring WW2... to bad they have been sitting on their butts getting fat since then. Heh Heh Tom... I can see him bubbling up with frustration now... hehehehehe.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on May 1, 2010 5:27:52 GMT
Tom, did I ever mention my Grandpa? He was in the Coast Guard in WWII and the only one of 9 brothers who was injured in the war. His brothers were in all of the other branches of the military and a Coasty got hurt by a torpedo....... who'd figure. ;D Oh dang they were escorting the convoys to Europe. As Tom will tell ya, the Coasties did some good work durring WW2... to bad they have been sitting on their butts getting fat since then. Heh Heh Tom... I can see him bubbling up with frustration now... hehehehehe. yup we were quite the sub-killing service in those days, did some crazy cool stuff too in those old wood hulls. in some ways I agree with you Sean, I wish we'd never gotten rid of our sonar and anti submarine capabilities, seems like an odd choice since subs are really the shizz-nit in naval warfair these days. as far as doing good work in these modern days just let me ask you this: what was the ONE and ONLY armed service to come out of 9/11 not only without a black eye, but looking good? which service was it that really was ready when our country was attacked? hint: I'm bragging about it. . . not to say the Navy isn't a good service or important to our country, heck the bad guys need SOMETHING to shoot at out on the water might as well be you guys. also seems to me that I remember a time when during Naval training excercises the CGC Hamilton was asked to play the part of an attacking force. our mission was to launch our Helicopter and have it attempt to bomb a certain ship in the Navy's fleet with water ballons while the Navy battle group would try to defend that ship by resolving an electronicly simulated firing resolution on our helo before we could unload the balloons. I thought it was a dumb idea. I thought there was no chance we could do it. I mean the Coast Guard's Dolphin helicopter is BRIGHT ORANGE, not real fast, and makes a very distinct whistling noise that can be heard for a good distance. well dispite my misgivings the operation went ahead as planned. I watched as our pilot took off the flight deck and took his "whistling semprini-can" down to an altitude of about ten FEET above the waves tilted that sucker forward and whistled along towards the unsuspecting battle group at about 90 knots. ten feet above the surface. a very short time later OLD ORANGEY came whistling back to us with no water balloons left, stories of a very wet Navy lookout and a message from the battle group saying the only squid to ever lay eyeball on our bird was the lookout we bombed and only after he was hit in the head. no radar ever picked us up, no gun ever stirred towards our attack chopper either in or out bound. (ok the message was transmitted later through the normal channels and not actually carried by the helo but I think you get my point.) I gained new respect for our pilots that day. but yeah us fat coasties . . . you know. . .
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Post by shadowhowler on May 1, 2010 5:56:07 GMT
Heh Heh... Well, we all know the pilots and rescue swimmers are the only real bad asses in the CG. ;D I know a certain Ship Capt. who was held hostage by Somali Pirates who is pretty thankful for our NAVY! Some other Somali Pirates have been enjoying us recently as well... heh heh heh.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on May 1, 2010 6:20:01 GMT
Heh Heh... Well, we all know the pilots and rescue swimmers are the only real bad asses in the CG. ;D I know a certain Ship Capt. who was held hostage by Somali Pirates who is pretty thankful for our NAVY! Some other Somali Pirates have been enjoying us recently as well... heh heh heh. Pirates, yeah you guys got the good job on that one for sure, made a bunch of Coasties real jealous. Pirate busting used to be our bread and butter, but that was even longer ago than WWII. speaking of Pirate busting and since this IS the Cutlass thread you know what would be uber cool? getting an original antique model 1860 Cutlass, you know FROM 1860 and using THAT for the old uniform. pretty sweet I'd think. an ATrim would probably still out perform it but who could complain about the real deal?
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Post by shadowhowler on May 1, 2010 6:31:47 GMT
speaking of Pirate busting and since this IS the Cutlass thread you know what would be uber cool? getting an original antique model 1860 Cutlass, you know FROM 1860 and using THAT for the old uniform. pretty sweet I'd think. an ATrim would probably still out perform it but who could complain about the real deal? That would be awesome... ;D
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on May 1, 2010 7:00:46 GMT
yeah wouldn't it? and one more important question: why the hell are we still up this late (or is it early yet)?
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Post by shadowhowler on May 1, 2010 8:27:13 GMT
yeah wouldn't it? and one more important question: why the hell are we still up this late (or is it early yet)? I'm naturally nocturnal... whats your excuse?
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 16:07:23 GMT
Heh Heh... Well, we all know the pilots and rescue swimmers are the only real bad asses in the CG. ;D I know a certain Ship Capt. who was held hostage by Somali Pirates who is pretty thankful for our NAVY! Some other Somali Pirates have been enjoying us recently as well... heh heh heh. Pirates, yeah you guys got the good job on that one for sure, made a bunch of Coasties real jealous. Pirate busting used to be our bread and butter, but that was even longer ago than WWII. speaking of Pirate busting and since this IS the Cutlass thread you know what would be uber cool? getting an original antique model 1860 Cutlass, you know FROM 1860 and using THAT for the old uniform. pretty sweet I'd think. an ATrim would probably still out perform it but who could complain about the real deal? Ah Pirates. Too bad we can't test out cutlass sharpness on pirates like samurai swords were tested on criminals. (sigh) Uniform update: I'll have to do alterations to my coat to accomodate the wearing of the cutlass. Apparently we have to wear it under the coat and the "hook" for the cutlass is suppose to come out from under/through the coat. Look honey! More money I'll need to spend!!! ;D And I'm totally a Foamy fan. He says exactly what I want to say.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on May 1, 2010 16:59:25 GMT
Hey sailor! good to hear from you again. I see you've taught your beach boy how to talk like he's salty good job chief. I'm sure you're going to tell me he was like that already but I'll let you take credit for his charming personality. that's not sarcasm, just in case you (or anyone else) wonder, Sean and I enjoy our conversational sparring, but I have to mention it once in a while. wasn't too long ago we were asked to tone down and be civil during a match. had to explain that we were having fun. Foamy, yeah we love the little quirrel too. my whole family is hooked on the little beast and his buddies. "I've got stigmata; inmyeye!" I totally agree, pirates should be used for tameshigiri. especially the ones that smuggle lots of people from Chine (and other places) by stufing them all down a nasty crap hole (literally) and abuse and enslave them while telling them they are going to America to be free. yeah those guys sure look like tatami to me. as for the Somali pirates, well I'll just let the elite sniper teams continue to tag those guys. hey, gun monkeys need practice too. now wait a minute here, we have to get that big ole' basket hilt UNDER our jackets? (I'm assuming the USCG will have the same rules as the Navy if we do it too), sheesh sounds like I need to lose some more weight. . . and get an alteration. oh well, it still rocks!
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 17:12:11 GMT
Hey sailor! good to hear from you again. I see you've taught your beach boy how to talk like he's salty good job chief. I'm sure you're going to tell me he was like that already but I'll let you take credit for his charming personality. that's not sarcasm, just in case you (or anyone else) wonder, Sean and I enjoy our conversational sparring, but I have to mention it once in a while. wasn't too long ago we were asked to tone down and be civil during a match. had to explain that we were having fun. Foamy, yeah we love the little quirrel too. my whole family is hooked on the little beast and his buddies. "I've got stigmata; inmyeye!" I totally agree, pirates should be used for tameshigiri. especially the ones that smuggle lots of people from Chine (and other places) by stufing them all down a nasty crap hole (literally) and abuse and enslave them while telling them they are going to America to be free. yeah those guys sure look like tatami to me. as for the Somali pirates, well I'll just let the elite sniper teams continue to tag those guys. hey, gun monkeys need practice too. now wait a minute here, we have to get that big ole' basket hilt UNDER our jackets? (I'm assuming the USCG will have the same rules as the Navy if we do it too), sheesh sounds like I need to lose some more weight. . . and get an alteration. oh well, it still rocks! Hey there. Yeah, he's picked up a little Navy pride over the years. He's definately picked up a few choice phrases from me, but I can't talk all the credit Naw, you won't have to wear the basket under the coat, the belt and rigging to hold the cutlass has to go under the coat, so basically, you have to put a hole in the coat to let the hook pop through the coat so you can carry the cutlass/sheath on the outside of said coat. Guess I have to see what the belt and other stuff looks like. . .
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2010 21:35:57 GMT
That makes no sense whatsoever, go figure with military uniform regs.
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on May 2, 2010 13:34:49 GMT
thanks for the clarification sister, much appreciated. that makes a lot more sense.
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Post by Deleted on May 2, 2010 21:35:52 GMT
Yeah, he's picked up a little Navy pride over the years. Another good soldier lost forever... ...sigh...
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