Posted by Joe C., but Dave D. wrote:
Damn, when the ships come into the harbor, all of them come in!!!!
I was contacted by Carl Nielsen about 4 weeks ago. You remember SSGT Nielsen - one mistake and THUMP on the chest! Taught us well, tho. Been in contact with Wild Bill Hammack awahile back, too. Need to give him another shout - he's the lead instructir for Business & Industry/Continuing Education at Albany Technical College.
I remember Joe - I think he came on board in 82. One of the young pups we had to whip into shape.... :-)
It's true Joe - Me, Bob and flipper took the bell. DJ Barnett was supposed to be there but he chickened out, and we had some guy from another organization too - remember that Bob? Where I parked the VW van the night we borrowed the bell - that building was where he worked. Can't remember his name or the org, tho....
Of course, you wouldn't remember - you were playing D&D that night and "was sipping your suds!" All I could do was shake my head and thank Chesty SSGT Nielsen wasn't there to see you and Flipper show up for a night operation in white pants and brand new white sneaks, respectively!
I skated out of having to polish the bell for a month - I had orders to Iwakuni. But, under the Carter Administration, it wasn't politically correct to have recruits polish things, so the damn thing was tarnished as hell (as you'll see in the attached pictures). I had the honor of the first cleansing - it was a nightmare until I decided I needed more Brasso - a LOT more brasso, and went to the PX annex to get some, and low and behold, what did my wandering eyes see, but a pack of coarse, medium and fine steel wool. I steel wool pad hidden under the rag (the Battalion Commanders office had a perfect view of the bell - and he was checking up on us) - anyway, the steel wool under the rag with the brasso turned a nightmare into something that actually was fun.
I was embarassed as hell to be there shining it when everyone on base drove by to look (Joe, we were famous all over the Corps as soon as it became known it was us). But then I thought to myself - "Damn - we did it!" and held my head high as I proudly shined away.
Bob - was it you or flipper who had to shine the inside? I know I had to do the outside and remember passing the word about the steel wool.
I've attached some scanned pictures as proof to the doubting Thomas's.....
Have another pic in there too - stopped at PISC last March when I went to Florida for Disaster Recovery certification. Even bought rags and brasso in case the bell wasn't shiny (didn't care who saw me - I was prepared to shine it again!). It was shiny, but dusty. Had an overwhelming flood of emotions come out as I stood there wiping the dust off. The flagpole is different now (see the photos and compare them), and LST-1154 is harder to read, but "our baby" is still there!
Also attached a photo of the front of our old data center. This is the door we opened to bring the bell in. Programmers were working on Sunday, and I went to see my wife (it was a ploy - I snuck into the WM head off the break room (which was off the microfiche room - you guys remember this?) and unlocked the window). We checked out the window before we swiped the bell to make sure it was still open, and send flipper in after we had the bell to open the front door.
Glen Rock in PA, above Baltimore. I get down to Quantico every now and then. We have a good friend whose father is retired Army and every now and she and her mom will head down to Q for a PX run (still the only place to get decent PT gear). Due to head down soon to hook up with Carl and head to the museum.
Anyway, more later. I'm still working mainframes (don't believe they died - anything but true) and am in the middle of a storage virtualization and internal BC project.
Damn good to have heard from you two - keep in touch!
Dave
