I was the com/nav shop head at the time, and a Staff Sergeant. We walked into the hangars on the second of August, and there wasn’t a sound from the flight line or the shops. It was very weird, because normally it was buzzing and clanging. And then we were told to get our troops and muster on the hangar deck.
There, the skipper told the entire squadron that Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait that morning, and we would all be packing up to head back to El Toro in anticipation of something big going down, in line with precisely why we were there to begin with.
Everyone had half an hour to get to the barracks to get their gear and get back, because we had planes to launch and gear to embark as soon as they could scramble the 130s to come get us.
All the troops took off, but the SgtMaj held us shop heads back and said,
‘I don’t know HOW she did it, or got the number, but the phone rang on the CO’s desk first this morning, and it was LCpl Schmuckatelli’s wife. FROM EL TORO. She called to tell the Skipper that she was very sorry about the deployment to Saudi Arabia (!), but LCpl Schmuckatelli couldn’t go, because she has three children and doesn’t drive.’
4 Replies to ““I am sorry you miss your sailor daughter, but I also think you’ve missed the point. “”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
l gotta say, as a literal and figurative student of history with emphasis 20th century, and a degree in poli sci and minors in economics, l kinda got it covered with a broad range of the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ and very important ‘whys’.
it is my considered opinion that the modern American armed forces are the *single* best equipped, motivated and EFFECTIVE military in all history of civilization.
migawd, those folks can sit at a console state side, fly a drone other side of the world, lay down ordnance accurate enough to ‘thread a needle’, and do it again the next day.
gadgetry in the books we cant even imagine, more nuke carriers than the rest of the world combined, and a long history of very successful hardass commanders.
my all time fav? WW I’s Arthur Currie. 2nd place Georgie S Patton.
As I told the wife … the Navy whiners and complainers are JUNIOR … very young … very non-combative sailors. I suggested these girls most likely are assigned to toilet-cleaning duty, or they microwave the frozen dinners.
The Navy wouldn’t trust these kind of volunteers with anything more consequential.
Sorry. But they took the IQ tests … they had a chance to demonstrate their gifts and talents … so KP duty and janitorial services for the lot of em.
Our father was stationed in northern Ireland, on the west coast and flew over the North Atlantic, protecting the merchant marine ships and transports from the German wolf packs. He signed up just after war was declared, he was 19.5 years old and sent to officer training at UBC in Vancouver. After various courses and training, he was sent to northern Ireland for the balance of the war.
I am reminded of the Tom Hanks character in “A League of Their Own”, there is no crying (substitute complaining) in baseball!
Spouse’s uncle spent his war in the engine rooms of merchant ships crossing the Atlantic. He and the rest of the crew would have been much relieved when your father’s plane was spotted overhead.