Sunfish, when did you work on Neptunes???
Hubby flew SP2Hs in Townsville from early 1973 until mid 1977. Beautiful aeroplanes!!!
Cheers
LynnH
Current/ex-military types...
- Thread starter Perp
- Start date
Sunfish, when did you work on Neptunes???
Hubby flew SP2Hs in Townsville from early 1973 until mid 1977. Beautiful aeroplanes!!!
Cheers
LynnH
Ah, those were the days... you're making me all nostalgic again.All the same to me. Bunch of raafies sitting around miles behind the lines eating pizzas and complaining about their allowances. Running to the medical centre when a fingernail gets chipped
I do recall going from Shoalwater Bay to Rockhampton on a Caribou for a pizza run. We got the pizzas delivered to the back ramp whilst we sat on the tarmac in Rocky with the engines still running - got the pizzas back still hot! The higher ups were happy to turn a blind eye when the run was proposed, but when the pilot took off using the callsign "Pizza One" they weren't so amused ... apparently they thought we should at least pretend that we were taking the whole "gone bush and pretending we're at war" thing seriously.
You're right, the RAAF is not like the Army at all... "OK, let's all practise bleeding, shall we?"
Bunch of sado-masochists!Being a RAAFie, I was much more into cyclone drill. (For the civvies: it's where you practise holding your bed down in case of a cyclone
)
Dam bears no one likes em, you guys are not a part of the real RASIG CORP lol
Been in the Army 4 years as an Operator (signals), one tour in Iraq last year, seen a few IED's and EFP's targeting the yank convoys. Also got the random IDF attacks. Ask Cougar_01 about that lol
All the same to me. Bunch of raafies sitting around miles behind the lines eating pizzas and complaining about their allowances. Running to the medical centre when a fingernail gets chipped
Yep that's us RAAFies. We usually sleep under the stars you know. Preferably 5 stars ***** (Hilton, Sheraton etc)
Bless you, burty, and I'm glad you're home safe. Look forward to hearing from Cougar_01 as well...
I wonder how many military/ex-military people (and RAAFies
) there are on SS? I can think of at least a couple who haven't outed themselves yet. Raaf - 1983-1989.
Trained at Point Cook as an Indonesian Linguist for 12 months. Graduated as a Corporal much to the disgust of the Army students.
DSD Melb for the rest of the time. Pretty cushy job - Work hours 8-4 , rostered day off a month, no parades or military-type activities. Those grunts we worked with hated us.
I didn't really feel like I was in the military at all.
Dose
Trained at Point Cook as an Indonesian Linguist for 12 months. Graduated as a Corporal much to the disgust of the Army students.
DSD Melb for the rest of the time. Pretty cushy job - Work hours 8-4 , rostered day off a month, no parades or military-type activities. Those grunts we worked with hated us.
I didn't really feel like I was in the military at all.
Dose
British Territorial Army - Royal Green Jackets 1979-83
3 RAR 1984-1985.
SASR - 1986-1995
16 years of training and being part of the green machine; lots of great times, but decided to get out and have a go at the civvi world - went into private security and ended up in South America for about 6 years, and from 2004-2007 had an interesting time in Iraq.
War stories....none....never been to war.
Lacasa
3 RAR 1984-1985.
SASR - 1986-1995
16 years of training and being part of the green machine; lots of great times, but decided to get out and have a go at the civvi world - went into private security and ended up in South America for about 6 years, and from 2004-2007 had an interesting time in Iraq.
War stories....none....never been to war.
Lacasa
OK, now I'm 'outed'....not really an 'Amy'
In a past life, over 40 years ago, spent a year with 3RAR as a rifleman section commander in South Vietnam.
Regards
Amy (or should that be Army?)
No disrespect was intended, Lacasa, from this peacetime military person. Of course I meant "war stories" in the slang, euphemistic sense of amusing anecdotes from time in the service, and apologise if I caused any offence.
Us groundies never rubbed shoulders with the Gentlemen, especially as we worked in the Brick Sh1thouse. Besides I was out by then.
Re-reading that it looks a little resentful. It is not meant to be.... we just did our own jobs.
For a Rad Tech (A) the old Neppy was the ultimate challenge. It carried tons weight of (largely valve driven) radio/radar gear.
But I would never call them beautiful. Unless you can see beauty in a VW beetle, of course.
But the most beautiful flight I ever did was sitting in the nose-cone from Canberra to T'vlle, following the coastline, at 100ft.
Hey, Sunfish - nothing wrong with VW Beetles - have driven one of them too!!!
Valves!! Geez, some of the current crop of RADTECHs won't believe they were ever even part of a radio, according to hubby!
The old Neppy certainly had it challenges - climbing over the wingspar was interesting (for WRAAFs at least!). And the toilet arrangements - well, the less said about them, the better!!!!!
And I am truly jealous - have been in the nose for a couple of hundred kilometres up through the Whitsundays, but from CBR to TVL at 100 feet would have been absolutely awesome!!
Cheers
LynnH
Valves!! Geez, some of the current crop of RADTECHs won't believe they were ever even part of a radio, according to hubby!
The old Neppy certainly had it challenges - climbing over the wingspar was interesting (for WRAAFs at least!). And the toilet arrangements - well, the less said about them, the better!!!!!
And I am truly jealous - have been in the nose for a couple of hundred kilometres up through the Whitsundays, but from CBR to TVL at 100 feet would have been absolutely awesome!!
Cheers
LynnH
30m off the water for all that distance? Those pilots must have had nerves of steel!
I always knew them as P2V-5s but googling SP2H led me to the website so both must be OK.
On the site I found this:
"Truculent" Turtle
P2V-1 Turtle in 1946
The third production P2V-1 was chosen for a record-setting mission, ostensibly to test crew endurance and long-range navigation but also for publicity purposes; to display the capabilities of the Navy's latest patrol bomber. Loaded with fuel in extra tanks fitted in practically every spare space in the aircraft, the Turtle set out from Perth, Australia to the United States. With time, the aircraft has come to be called "Truculent Turtle" but, in fact, its nickname was simply "The Turtle"; which was painted on the aircraft's nose (along with a cartoon of a turtle smoking a pipe pedaling a device attached to a propeller). With a crew of four (and a nine-month-old gray kangaroo, a gift from Australia for the Washington, D.C zoo) the plane set off on September 9, 1946, with a RATO rocket-assisted takeoff. Two and a half days later, the Turtle touched down in Columbus, Ohio, 11,236.6 miles (18,083.6 km) from its starting point. It was the longest unrefuelled flight made to that point—4,000 miles (6,400 km) longer than the USAF's B-29 Superfortress record. This would stand as the absolute unrefueled distance record until 1962 (beaten by a USAF B-52 Stratofortress), and would remain as a piston-engined record until 1986 when Dick Rutan's Voyager would break it in the process of circumnavigating the globe
...................
Clearly, they were not setting any speed records. Two and a half days to cross the Pacific and mainland USA. Wow.
ps The term "War Stories" within the service is generic, can just as easily apply to the escapades of the "singlies" after the weekend as any "tin hat" experiences. The old "marriedies", by contrast told "homies" which the fore-mentioned group thought quite disgusting.
Sorry Simon, wasn't thinking. They would cruise about 1,000ft. (Where did that "zero" go?) but would go below that operationally. Once they went real low they would start the jets and leave them idling in case one of the "fans" quit. Operating at that hight they were busy with other things. LOL
Hence the term "Two turnin', Two burnin'".
1000ft is nothing - I have parachuted from lower. They didn't give us reserves as we didn't have time to deploy them if needed. Luckily none of us needed them
Sunfish
I think the P2V-5s were an earlier model of the Neptune - 11SQN flew them when that squadron was based at Richmond (before moving to Edinburgh when the P3B Orion was introduced). The SP2Hs were flown by 10SQN when that squadron was based in Townsville - they subsequently moved to Edinburgh when the P3C Orion was introduced into service in 1978. (Though the memory is a bit like the hearing and the sight these days - ain't what it used to be!)
Cheers
LynnH
A Lifer
Joined the Navy in 1968 at Cerberus...20 years later joined Defence as a Civvie, did some reserve service off and on as a Defence civvie including 4 months in Bougainville. 40 years later here I am...I think I am a lifer
Liverpool St
Joined the Navy in 1968 at Cerberus...20 years later joined Defence as a Civvie, did some reserve service off and on as a Defence civvie including 4 months in Bougainville. 40 years later here I am...I think I am a lifer
Liverpool St
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