what is you most memorable moment (something that was over quickly) mine, left Long Beech, Ca. steamed to Ha. at the exact moment they were raising the flag over the Ar. we steamed past, all at the rail, dress whites, saluting, made a lump in my throat that I still remember every time the Star Spangled banner is played

Ever hear about Pearl Harbor?

Task Group 4.2 Forward
The best little Task Group in the Caribbean

This one

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arch...ea/0560a4f6-b353-4a5a-bdc1-7e21bc8ab17d/

Operation Just Cause

and this provided a few moments of excitement

https://www.osan.af.mil/News/Articl...ers-those-fallen-in-1986-fuel-explosion/

Quick is relative in the military.
Setting a Guinness Book documented World Record for the heaviest drop from an aircraft.
We dropped 120K pounds from a C5 in a single pass. 2 60k platforms dropped sequentially.
I designed and built the electrical system that adapted a C-130 LAPES (Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System) to the C5 for the testing.
The data gained was direct input to the C-17 program.

A few years later they started testing again and went to 160K using 2 80k platforms. Still using my design and system but with equipment designed for the C-5.

For a true quick moment. It would have to be riding in a CH-53. Super Stallion around Mt. Etna in Sicily while it was erupting.

1983 - I was stationed at Taegu AB Korea when the Soviets shot down that Korean Air passenger plane. Immediate recall to the base and just knew we were going to war.

Nearly colliding with a Soviet submarine in the Mediterranean. We were so close we recorded the Soviet captain ordering emergency surface to get out of our way on our sonar tape recorder. Dumb azz Soviet skipper turned into us.

Bringing back the bodies of the soldiers who died at Lockerbie Scotland when the plane went down from a bomb. That hurt my heart.

I was part of operation urgent fury.

Stepping off of the LCU in Morehead City, NC in 2003 to the first American soil I'd been on in months after going to Iraq. The landing ramp was right next to the beach so we were disembarking amongst a bunch of people enjoying a weekend. It made for an odd mix, but they were smiling and waving.

just rememered, we were steaming behind the Coral Sea, as rescue duty, USS JAMES E KYES,. two jets collided in med air, we watched as the chutes opened, one pilot pulled the pin for his seat to drop away, (I was abord the Coral Sea for instrucitons to get pilots out, thats how I know about the pin) the other pilot was either dear or unconscious, his seat never dropped. I was cox swain of the rescue boat (motor whale boat) we got the pilot to the ship then transferred to the air craft carrier, was quite an ordeal, we lost a couple of pilots during these exercise's

Early summer of 83, just arrived at Taegu AB, S. Korea. My spot wasn't open yet so I was sent TDY to help inventory a remote WRM location on the southern coast. Only had 6-8 guys stationed there so I had to stay at a hotel in town. One day we all went to the local remote beach for the day. I went exploring the area and ran smack into a S Korean machine gun placement. Was waved off and I went back to my party. Later that night the lady running the hotel excitedly came to my room and turned the TV on. Now mind you, she spoke very little English and me being new in country spoke no Korean. So showing on tv was footage of 2 N. Korean frogmen in custody after their mini sub was blown out of the water...at the very beach we had just been at. Apparently, there was a nuclear power plant in the vicinity. For the next few nights, they would show those guys being interrogated and every night they seemingly had more bruises. We didn't go back to that beach.

I just finished Longest Day. The fiddler played while Rome burned. Hitler slept while France was liberated.

We were pulling into New York for a week of liberty and that was the first time I had seen the Statue of Liberty in person. I was so disappointed to see that ugly green statue as in all my text books it was a bright pretty copper color.