Author Topic: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread  (Read 145122 times)

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Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #500: February 18, 2016, 09:40:28 PM »
We need a story thread.   I bet there are a few head shakin' stories in this crew.

Offline tomterp

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #501: February 19, 2016, 08:27:14 AM »
We need a story thread.   I bet there are a few head shakin' stories in this crew.

Some that are a little too fresh to be told yet.  Like only 35 years old in some cases.

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #502: February 19, 2016, 08:44:46 AM »
I have no stories. It's a little pathetic.

Offline houston-nat

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #503: February 19, 2016, 10:40:19 AM »
We need a story thread.   I bet there are a few head shakin' stories in this crew.
There was a good "your craziest ex" thread in the Uncensored section. http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=28431.0 I remember Ali's story of the psycho chick who chased him around South Africa with a knife.

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #504: February 19, 2016, 12:28:36 PM »
There was a good "your craziest ex" thread in the Uncensored section. http://www.wnff.net/index.php?topic=28431.0 I remember Ali's story of the psycho chick who chased him around South Africa with a knife.

I'm not allowed in uncensored.    :)

BTW    Sounds like a woman I dated in the early 80s.

Offline wj73

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #505: February 19, 2016, 03:25:31 PM »
I'm not allowed in uncensored.    :)


Me either - I'm not old enough.

One of my better travel stories - I was in college in the 70's and spring breaking in Jamaica.  On the beach, a couple of my girl friends and I started talking to some American guys.  Turned out they were sailors from a nuclear sub who were getting some beach time after their sub had been at Guantanamo Bay.  We could see the sub floating some distance off the shore.  Somehow, one of the guys managed to talk his commanding officer into allowing three cute American girls onto the sub for a tour.  It was amazing - we didn't get to see the whole sub, but we got to see some of it, including the main area with all the controls.  No one checked our passports or otherwise ran any check on us - all the guys asked was that we please not start speaking Russian in front of the commander.

Can you imagine that happening in this day and age??????

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #506: February 19, 2016, 03:27:35 PM »
when I lived in bethesda, one of the good sledding hills near me was the naval hospital- I can't even imagine that in this day and age let alone random girls being allowed on a sub

Offline wj73

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #507: February 19, 2016, 03:44:20 PM »
Well, I was cute as a button back in those days, in a Farrah Fawcett hair kind of way.  :mg:

Online Natsinpwc

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #508: February 19, 2016, 03:57:43 PM »
Me either - I'm not old enough.

One of my better travel stories - I was in college in the 70's and spring breaking in Jamaica.  On the beach, a couple of my girl friends and I started talking to some American guys.  Turned out they were sailors from a nuclear sub who were getting some beach time after their sub had been at Guantanamo Bay.  We could see the sub floating some distance off the shore.  Somehow, one of the guys managed to talk his commanding officer into allowing three cute American girls onto the sub for a tour.  It was amazing - we didn't get to see the whole sub, but we got to see some of it, including the main area with all the controls.  No one checked our passports or otherwise ran any check on us - all the guys asked was that we please not start speaking Russian in front of the commander.

Can you imagine that happening in this day and age??????
If the ladies are pretty enough, yes.

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #509: February 19, 2016, 04:04:01 PM »
If the ladies are pretty enough, yes.

Some things are eternal truths.

Online Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #510: February 19, 2016, 06:38:01 PM »
That is amazing.  My parents had a similar experience in the 70s with a US submarine in Thailand, but it was an old diesel-electric pig that was soon to be retired, not a nuke.
       

Offline GburgNatsFan

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #511: February 19, 2016, 09:05:04 PM »
And truth is relative when you've been underwater for months on end.
Some things are eternal truths.

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #512: February 20, 2016, 08:46:46 AM »
And truth is relative when you've been underwater for months on end.

I can't imagine the life of a submariner.

Online Ali the Baseball Cat

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #513: February 22, 2016, 06:11:24 PM »
Ever see 'Das Boot'?  The new subs are probably a bit nicer to be in, but it's still a lot of people in a very confined space with crappy air. 

Offline tomterp

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #514: February 22, 2016, 09:36:50 PM »
Ever see 'Das Boot'?  The new subs are probably a bit nicer to be in, but it's still a lot of people in a very confined space with crappy air.

No, the new nuclear subs are a LOT nicer to be in.  My father-in-law is 6'4" and he commanded the Whale for a while, as well as serving on a number of other nuclear subs.  He had no complaints about the living quarters, though he was an officer so a nicer standard.

One of my best friend's sons just accepted a commission aboard an attack sub in the Pacific, he was lured to the submarine service by the reportedly much better food.    :hysterical:

Offline wj73

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #515: February 23, 2016, 08:56:37 AM »


One of my best friend's sons just accepted a commission aboard an attack sub in the Pacific, he was lured to the submarine service by the reportedly much better food.    :hysterical:

A few years ago I visited the Manitowoc Maritime Museum in Wisconsin.  Manitowoc is right on Lake Michigan, and they built WWII subs there, figuring it was better to build them in the middle of the country where they'd be safer from German attacks.  (They took the subs from Lake Michigan down the Mississippi to get ocean access).  The museum has a sub from that era you can tour.  At the end of the tour, we got to meet a old fellow who served on that sub during WWII.  It was great - he told some interesting stories, including a harrowing one about the night Germans dropped depth charges for hours as they were on the ocean floor playing possum.  They never knew if the next depth charge was going to be the one to get them, but eventually the Germans gave up and moved on, and all hands were safe.  Someone asked him why he chose to be a submariner, and he said it was because they got the best food.  Some things never change, I guess. 

Offline Mathguy

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #516: February 23, 2016, 02:04:08 PM »
Imagine yourself in a nice Marriott where you have to remain within the hotel at all times for 3 - 6 months at a time.

Ever see 'Das Boot'?  The new subs are probably a bit nicer to be in, but it's still a lot of people in a very confined space with crappy air. 

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #517: February 23, 2016, 02:16:22 PM »
Imagine yourself in a nice Marriott where you have to remain within the hotel at all times for 3 - 6 months at a time.


Are we talking 150 sailors (maybe several % women) with no bar?     Nice Marriot?    Maybe in Riyadh.   We haven't even gotten to the depth under water with the no windows thing.    The food simply can't be that good.

Offline dracnal

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #518: February 23, 2016, 04:36:11 PM »
Are we talking 150 sailors (maybe several % women) with no bar?     Nice Marriot?    Maybe in Riyadh.   We haven't even gotten to the depth under water with the no windows thing.    The food simply can't be that good.

I thought submarines were still 100% men. Did that change in the last few years and I forgot? I thought it was at least up for discussion at some point...

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #519: February 23, 2016, 04:37:31 PM »
I thought submarines were still 100% men. Did that change in the last few years and I forgot? I thought it was at least up for discussion at some point...

I think there are women now.

Offline dracnal

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #520: February 23, 2016, 04:39:07 PM »
I think there are women now.

Works for me. I was never a fan of saying women couldn't serve in any role men could.  Then again, I'd really like to see them make some serious efforts to crack down and punish sexual assault and also make women 18-26 sign up for Selective Service.

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #521: February 23, 2016, 04:39:58 PM »
Works for me. I was never a fan of saying women couldn't serve in any role men could.  Then again, I'd really like to see them make some serious efforts to crack down and punish sexual assault and also make women 18-26 sign up for Selective Service.

I'm all in on the Selective Service.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #522: February 23, 2016, 04:55:03 PM »
I'm all in on the Selective Service.

I think we're fast approaching the point where skills are getting too specialized to train a draftee fast and then get them to the front lines in a timely manner in the kind of war where selective service would actually come into play- I just can't imagine a scenario where the draft is instituted, occurs and actually supplies soldiers to a war zone.

Offline mitlen

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #523: February 23, 2016, 04:56:50 PM »
I think we're fast approaching the point where skills are getting too specialized to train a draftee fast and then get them to the front lines in a timely manner in the kind of war where selective service would actually come into play- I just can't imagine a scenario where the draft is instituted, occurs and actually supplies soldiers to a war zone.

Even in peace time with no draft an unregistered male is exposed to fines/penalties a female isn't.    Might as well break all the glass ceilings.   In the end, all the "skills" in the world don't equate with "boots on the ground".    I'm sure sure boots come in size 5.

From the interwebz:

# CONSEQUENCES FOR NOT REGISTERING
The maximum penalty for failing to register with Selective Service is a $250,000 fine and up to five years in prison. Failure to register will cause ineligibility for a number of federal and state benefits including:

# FEDERAL JOBS
A man must be registered to be eligible for jobs in the Executive Branch of the Federal government and the U.S. Postal Service. This applies only to men born after December 31, 1959.

# STUDENT FINANCIAL AID
Men who are not registered with Selective Service cannot obtain Federal student loans or grants. This includes Pell Grants, College Work Study, Guaranteed Student/Plus Loans, and National Direct Student Loans.

# CITIZENSHIP
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) makes registration with Selective Service a condition for U.S. citizenship, if the man first arrived in the U.S. before his 26th birthday and was required to register.

# FEDERAL JOB TRAINING
The Workforce Investment Act (formerly JTPA) offers important job-training opportunities. This program is only open to those men who register with Selective Service.

# STATE JOBS, LOANS, AND TRAINING
Most states have added additional penalties for those who fail to register with Selective Service.

Offline HalfSmokes

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Re: "Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread
« Reply #524: February 23, 2016, 05:00:54 PM »
Even in peace time with no draft a unregistered male is exposed to fines/penalties a female isn't.    Might as well brake all the glass ceilings.   In the end, all the "skills" in the world don't equate with "boots on the ground".    I'm sure sure boots come in size 5.

politicians will pay retention bonuses, signing bonuses, and stop losses before they would ever consider a draft. The whole apparatus is pointless. Besides, the SSA can easily sort numbers by age- I'm not sure what value separate registration actually adds