Captain Dad

[chilidog]

Does anybody else remember CptDad? Vet_31?

He had some really good stories.


Chilidog

[chilidog]

Posted on4/17/01 07:08 AM

For those who don?t know, here is a description of a: gui?don 1. A small flag or pennant carried as a standard by a military unit. 2. A soldier bearing such a flag or pennant. [French, from Old French, from Old Italian guidone, from guidare, to guide, from Old Proven?al guidar. The person who carries the guidon walks to the commanders right and back a couple of paces. A normal position while marching is with the guidon held close to the side of the guidon bearer and perpendicular to the ground. Commands given by the unit commander are sometime hard to hear at the rear of the formation. The guidon is essentially an extention of the commanders voice. When the guidon goes high in the air it indicates a command is about to be given and when it drops, the command has been given. As you can imagine, the responsibility of the guidon bearer is an awsome task.(Grin) As the Company Commanders driver I had the duty of Guidon bearer. Every other Saturday we had a Battalion Parade. We marched to the parade field in a 12 man front. Our pathway led between two buildings and just as soon as the front ranks cleared the buildings, we executed a right turn. When the CO gave the command , ?Company, right turn?, I raised the guidon to the high position. On his command of ?March?, I pulled it back down to the carry. It didn?t come down. Being the good troop I was, I was looking straight to the front. Had I looked up I would have seen the commo wire the guidon caught on and I could have avoided it. Anyway, it caught on the spearlike head of the guidon, came down until it could come no farther and decided to return to it?s original position plus two feet. It yanked the guidon out of my grip and launched it into the air and to the rear. It was my good fortune that one of the NCO?s on the outside rank caught it and ran it up to me. We continued on and stood formation for the parade. Now, it is time to pass in review. The CO has called us to attention and I am now standing there at the carry when the wind whips up and the flag begins whipping like a snake and knocks off my overseas cap. The CO sees what happened and says?Leave it.? We march off and get to the point where we do the eyes right bit. I executed my portion flawlessly for the eyes right part. When the command ?Ready? was given, the guidon went up. Now it happens. The command ?Front? is given and down come the guidon. Right into my right pocket and out the bottom, right down my pants leg. I said, ?Sir, I got a problem?. He cut his eyes back at me and said , ?Well sh*t? and we went on our way off the parade field, him mumbling something I couldn?t understand and me walking with one leg straight as a guidon shaft. That was the last day I participated in a parade as the guidon bearer. Fine by me. I had had enough. I had lost a good hat, thanks to 120 guys marching over it and ruined a good pair of trousers.

[Seascamp]

I remember Captain Dad. For a while I believe he went by the name of ?Baron Von Dumbkoff? as well as Vet31. He was quite the philosopher and jokester as I recall. He is missed.

Scamp

[MORTARDUDE]

Yes, there was Captain Dad, Jungle.Work, bits, rhodesian, Dogpatch, 101pfdr, jrj, Deerhunter, Get_Back_Rat, Sp4LittleJohn, jolley, and who could forget -- Gary Holland....!!!

Larry

[frisco-kid]

Now there was a haunted man. Jeez, he sure generated some discussion. I honestly hope he's doing well.

SCAMP: Have you seen or heard anything of jrj? I hooked up with him 2-3yrs. ago in Reno, then he just kinda' faded away. Now there was a dinky dau tank jockey. I hope he, also, is doing well.

[catman]

sp4little john is our own Stick. Seems like he had computer trouble or something and had to change his handle.

Trav

[chilidog]

OK, It is I, vet_31 as my alter ego. If Garth Brooks can do it, so can I. Besides I got tired of seeing my name up there so often. New tale. At Bragg in the early 60's, every unit on post was participating in the Bond a Month drive. The 82nd had decided to give each unit that hit 100% participation a \"Minute Man\" flag to put in front of their unit HQ. Our Battle Group was the 1st to hit 100% and a big ceremony was laid on for the presentation of the flag. The BG Commander called me in and informed me I was to round up a new flagpole. I informed him there wasn't time to get one before the presentation. I was the S&T Plt. Ldr and worked with the S4. The Colonel also knew somewhat of my rep as a kleptomaniac. He said, \"Lt., I don't think you understood me. I want a flagpole and I want it set in concrete and ready for that flag when the General hands it to me.\" \"Yes sir, understood.\" I saluted and left. I had two Pathfinder NCO's that made me look like a novice when it come to theft of miscellaneous articles. I am relatively sure they could have established a new division supply point had they so chosen. I got with them and explained the situation. SSG Floatum took it in stride but SSG Whitney had a question. \"Sir, I know you need this but it's sort of short fused. The flag deal is Saturday and todays Tuesday. We gotta get it and get it in the ground by Friday. How in the hell are we gonna do it.?\" Floatum said, \"Come on, I already got a plan and we need to get it going.\" The details of their escapade are something I wasn't privy to. Thursday afternoon SSG Floatum came to me and ask me if I knew exactally where the new flagpole was to go. I ask him if they already had it. He just said they were working on it. I took him to the HQ building and pointed out the location. Friday morning came and went. No flagpole. The Colonel wanted to know what was going on. Und aunted and trusting SSG's Floatum and Whitney with my career I assured the Colonel his pole would be there in the morning. We already had one pole that we flew the Colors and our Regimental Colors on. The Colonel informed me I would hang below the Regimental Colors if that post wasn't there Saturday morning. I couldn't find my two SSG's. I was really in a state and finally at 0200 hours that night, I went home. I didn't sleep a wink. At 0700 hours Saturday morning, I was standing in front of the CO. We had our flagpole. It was in the ground, set in concrete(a bit damp yet) and he was as pleased as punch. He asked where I got it. I said the only thing I could say. \"Sir, you just said, Get it. You didn't say where.\" Outside, I was checking the new pole when my two SSG's came up. \"Whaddaya think sir.\" \"I'm not even gonna ask where you guys got this thing, but thanks. Thanks a lot\" \"It's OK sir, you owe us one.\" I told them let me know what and when. Our ceremony went off without a hitch. We got our \"Minuteman Flag\" it had it's own pole and everyone was happy. That is every one in our immediate area. The Battalion Commander of an Artillery Battalion at the north end of the post was not. It seems they were missing a brand new flagpole. As I later found out, the pole had been laying up against the building at the Bn Hq awaiting installation day. My guys spotted it and as Paul Harvey says,\"And now, you know the rest of the story\" We were never found out.The Colonel never brought it up. divide et impera----divide and rule

[MORTARDUDE]

Thanks for posting these. I was able to get to the old site today, at www.veterans.com, and the response was faster than I had ever seen it. Might be worthwhile to try to save the whole lot of posts somehow. We got in some real donnybrooks over there.

Larry

[chilidog]

Posted on4/18/01 09:46 AM Cpt Dad "Surviving Stupidity"

A friend of mine who was a professional PFC and I found what we took to be a DUD on the range in Hohenfels, Germany. We were both drivers and had been sent out together to recon a training area. At this time I was a SP4 and because Roy was a Korean War Vet, he was infallible. He said the round must not have hit the ground at the right angle so it didn't explode. It was a 3.5" Rocket round. For those who don't know, it has a warhead shaped like a double ended shaped charge. The impact end is in fact a shaped charge. There is a rocket body attached to the warhead and on that body is the fin system. The rocket is intact. Roy decides we should blow it up so no one will get hurt. The procedure was to mark duds in some fashion and report their location to EOD. We figured we'd just save everybody a lot of time. Roy set the dud up on its fin assembly and wiggled it around to make sure it was well seated. It looked like a minature V2 sitting on it's launch pad. Both of us had M1 Rifles and good old Roy always had live ammo. We backed off about 200 yards and took aim. The object was to hit the warhead and explode the rocket. Roy shot, I shot. Roy shot, I shot. I hit the GD thing but not the warhead. I hit the rocket body. It knocked the rocket down, warhead pointing our direction. The rocket WAS NOT a dud. Someone had disposed of a live round that had never been fired. It fired it when I hit it. It took off like a bat out of hell, scooting across the ground and coming right at us. It is a good thing the ground was soft. The nose of the rocket managed to dig in a little now and then and that slowed it down a little. Roy and I are GETTING hat. Knowing we out of the so called line of attack we stoped and looked back. The rocket came to rest under MY jeep unexploded. I told Roy this was his mess, to move my jeep. I wasn't getting in it. I never did anything quite so stupid in my entire life. To this day I wonder if it would have had enough impact at that point to have exploded if it hit my jeep and how would I have explained that. divide et impera----divide and rule

[1CAVCCO15MED]

If I remember correctly, Captain Dad either got very sick or died. I tell you another guy I miss is Butch Jolley who was known as Capmarine. And while I am thinking of him, Dogpatch.