Happy Independence Day!

[randy]

AKA the 1776 Brexit

I remember all the hoopla during the Bicentennial, but the most memorable 4th I ever had was in the COM Club at Survival School wetting down my captain's bars 2 days late (the previous 2 days having been spent in "the camp" and letting those MF's know I just hit my Date of Rank was contraindicated)

Bought a keg for my class compatriots and ended up splitting a pitcher of it with one of my instructors from the night before while watching the fireworks over the newly renovated Statue of Liberty on TV. Got an unofficial debrief from him on my performance (not nearly as bad as I had thought I did, much better than several others).

[First Shirt]

Spent the Bicentennial 4th in Korea, where the locals tried to make sure that we didn't miss being home! Since it was also the annual Chin Muk fundraiser for the local orphanages, we got away with stealing an SP jeep, and a fire truck, and parking them up on The Hill (in a secure area, so they couldn't just come in and take them back), to be ransomed off, as well as *acquiring* the front plate off the 314th Air Division commander's staff car (we got $500 dollars for that one), and had the local AFN radio station playing "Thunder Road" for 17 hours out of 24.

The only down side to it was that The Darlin' Daughter was only five months old, and she and her mother (Ex #1) were living in Alabama, with my parents.

[randy]

Never try to top war stories with an NCO.

ETA: Chin Muk. That brings back some memories.

[First Shirt]

Sorry!

Got the same line from Old NFO at Libertycon. He said that I'm the only person he knows who could make a story about a ruptured eardrum hilarious.

ETA: Yeah, Chin Muk was basically a license to commit all manner of mayhem, since you were doing it for a good cause.

[Netpackrat]

In honor of July 4th, I kicked a bunch of British car parts out of AlaskaTRX's hangar.