How did you entertain yourselves in Vietnam/Desert Storm/Beruit, etc

[greybeard]

We all had our bad times, doin what we had to do, but most of us had a lot of hurry up & wait situations too. I slept every chance I got, drank a few cold ones Can't beat that warm falstaf. Waiting for flight orders, we played a card game called smoke. A liars game. For cockroach races, we dug the speedsters out of the sandbag blast walls. What did you guys do to pass the time, when you had some off? (keep it clean folks-what happened in dogpatch stays in dogpatch) :)
:evilgrin:

[thedrifter]

When I was on Base, I spent a lot of time getting much needed supplies..........Traded with the Army and SeaBees.............Did spent a lot of nights in the Army's NCO Club.........Could get my JD...

[greensideout]

Down time?

Played cards, drank beer, had knife throwing contests, drank beer, sang songs, drank beer, shot various weapons, drank beer.

Next moment, back to the work.

[Sparrowhawk]

Humm,

Mud fights

Traded or exchanged captured weapons

Threw grenades into river to splash Marines walking the catwalk under the bridge.

I guess we entertained ourselves by practicing shooting our weapons at branches or floating objects in the water.

Trying to single shoot the M-60, shooting four rounds at a flare in the sky, then the fifth round (tracer round) into the water, so the higher ups wouldn't know we were having fun trying to shoot the flares out of the sky.




Buying banana rum from the local villagers

Played "Black alley"
Wish I could remember how to play that card game.

We were always up to something, scheming to get things or pull stunts that brought us a lot of laughter and entertainment.

Humm, that also seemed to have gotten us in trouble...LOL

We may have done a lot of fighting, but we also did a lot of laughing.

I think that's what kept us sane....

[ivalis]

Back Alley, uf da, brings back memories. Essentially the same as "spades".

We smoked a lot of dope. Cheaper than beer.

[LONEEAGLE]

Drank two cold beers gettin' off chopper after patrol. Some beer in a bronze can, yuk. Went to tent got out of gear. Headed for the cold shower, jet fuel tank end of co. row. Shaved. Played poker. Got into fist fights over who won. If it happened to be Sat. night, listened to the grand ol' opry. Some of us country boys. Didn't sleep much, didn't have time. Had to get ready for next patrol. Cleaned weapons, fixed gear. Got gear for my team from an army supply SSgt., as our Bn., wouldn't give us any. Went to army clubs to drink. All you wanted. When the evenin' came, played more cards, got drunk, wrote letters, still wound up from patrol. Read letter's, opened care pkg's from home, if they weren't already opened and someone stole what they wanted. Made stew out of c-rats. Ate p-nuts, tater chips-bologna we stole from the mess. Tried to sleep but rocket's, mortar's, kept us awake. Don't miss it. That's fo sho!!!

[CPL-Mac]

Y'all forgot a Marines favorite pastime:

"Aquired" things we needed from the Army.

[Sparrowhawk]

Didn't even know we were suppose to get a weekly two beer allotment of beer. <br />
<br />
Still want to know who drank my beer. <br />
<br />
We once were given cold beer after a major operation. <br />
<br />
I wonder who I can...

[greensideout]

Cold Beer?

I DIDN'T know that beer was supposed to be cold till I got to Japan! LMAO

We got 1 beer per man per day.

The way that it really worked was that it came in chunks, case at a time, but not often. LOL

[richgitz]

You can say that again about cold or hot beer. The Beer we got
was from Korea, boy that was some Sh***y brew. Our beer came
on pallets and was banded, the Army and The Air Force was in
Conex Boxes with locks on them. Hell half our beer was stolen
before it got to us. As for entertainment, we had a L/CPL who
had a BIG A** SNAKE. he was from N.J. He named the damn th-
ing "TIMEFUSE", I guess because we were Engr's.

[sgtfowler]

Does anyone know why beer seems to just go through you??














It doesn't have to stop to change color

[MillRatUSMC]

It's testing my mind!
What did we do to entertain ourselves.
All, I remember was being dog tired most of the time.
Spend a great deal of time cleaning our weapons.
Getting supplies back to snuff.
After that we tried to get a little shut eye.
You couldn't let your guard down.
Someone would be waiting to take you out.
We would drink some, on a day that we had security of the arty battary, that we were assign to guard.
Must be getting OLD!!!

Semper Fi
Ricardo

[Sophora]

sgtfowler Does anyone know why beer seems to just go through you??

Because it doesn't have to change color :D

[Apache]

Acquired items from the Army!!
My C.O. made the comment that it would be "nice" to dress up our area with flagstones,picnic table,Etc. I told him Aye-Aye.
Commendered a duce,6 privates,and a CLIPBOARD.Went to the Army officers club and began ordering this/that/everything loaded.NOBODY questioned a clipboard!!!
When C.O. asked for ownership I became very dumb.

[Sparrowhawk]

Originally posted by Sophora


Because it doesn't have to change color :D LMAO, good one little sis

[leroy8541]

For Fun? anything to take your mind off the desert. Playing chicken with a K-Bar, playin Spades, Sleep, more sleep, fist fights, doggin the boots, aquiring beer from the Brits, they had Johns courage nasty but drinkable. Finding ways to make the MRE more palatable was a favorite past time. Gathering at the wagon wheel for "coffee".

[CPL-Mac]

Originally posted by gehrij
[B]Acquired items from the Army!!
NOBODY questioned a clipboard!!!
When C.O. asked for ownership I became very dumb.


I can't say enough about the power of a Clipboard :yes: :D

It's strange hypnotic powers are akin to the Jedi Mind Trick.

"These aren't the droids we're looking for......move along"

[2091351]

W T F was a MRE? In '65 no one had ever heard of them!!! We dined on WWII/Korean War C's if we had too. Most of the time we had a wonderful field kitchen (Kerosene Stoves) dinner. Still can pick up the smell of burning K or JP4-5 at 500 yards.

Steve :idea:

[greybeard]

Steve-re MRE's-I did ask for inputs from the younger Marines too. I don't know which would be worse. Eatin something that has been dried out and 'reconstituted', or eatin those gelatinous canned 20+ yr old ham pucks. I just never would look too close at those things. Not sure some of the white things in there weren't chopped up pig's eyes.
What was the name of that danged Vietnamese beer?
Stealin from the Army was always fair game-they had plenty anyway. Cokes I could usually get-something to mix with them was hard to find. During monsoon, I swapped an Army sgt a poncho liner for a bottle of vodka once, had to mix it with orange bug juice. It wuz better than warm Falsaff. I tried it again a few years ago-tasted like crap. Must be gettin old.

[Dvan]

[QUOTE] We dined on WWII/Korean War C's if we had too. [QUOTE]

Ah yes, c-rats. I was in from 81-87, during the transition from c's to mre's. Both leave MUCH to be desired, but I've noticed, the hungrier you are, the less you care about the taste.

We were in the field once, finishing off a case of c rations, when one 18 yr old Marine got to looking at the can his 'main course' had come in. He got a funny look on his face as he gargled, "I just ate a turkey that's older than me!"

Moral of the story:
DON'T READ THE LABEL!!!