dstraito
TB Fanatic
Stories best told with a cool beverage and a warm fire.
OT/MISC What was THE most unusual thing that ever happened to you?
- Thread starter Walrus Whisperer
- Start date
Stories best told with a cool beverage and a warm fire.
lisa
Veteran Member
Ok this one happened back around 2006. I was living in Panama City at the time and was in a taxi with my two teen daughters when we came across a horrific accident. There was blood and guts everywhere! I seriously thought a bomb had exploded or something! The traffic was all backed up and we were just inching along and pulled up alongside the accident. There was a pickup truck and it was covered in blood and guts. The truck windows were down and I could see a man sitting behind the steering wheel not moving, just staring straight ahead in shock and he was covered in blood and guts. I looked at the vehicle in front of him and it all suddenly made sense. He had rear ended a dump truck that was full ...I mean really full...of loose chicken guts! (Who just fills a dump truck with loose chicken guts?!) Anyway, when he hit the dumptruck the tailgate opened and poured guts out all over his little pickup and into his windows and all over him! The look on his face! Poor guy...but yeah, we couldn't help laughing.
Marseydoats
Veteran Member
Stuart Woods had a home in Maine, along with places in NYC, Santa Fe, and Florida...
Major Kira Nerys: What do Klingons dream about?
Worf: Things that would send cold chills down your spine, and wake you in the middle of the night. It is better you do not know. Excuse me.
[leaves]
Major Kira Nerys: I can never tell when he's joking.
ssbn642blue
Veteran Member
AHH, Steven King?????
Profit of Doom
Dismember
Winner winner chicken dinner
Flashyzipp
Veteran Member
I’ve met a bunch of famous people if that counts but for privacy reasons I’m not sharing names.
Siskiyoumom
Veteran Member
A friend of mine also took the jump there. He left behind a dear wife and two young children. Very sad for his survivors. Depression and hopelessness is truly a battle some folks face. Sincere condolences on the loss of your family member.
Wait, what? Since no one knows who YOU are, naming celeb names has exactly zero impact on their privacy. So how ‘bout it?
SurvivalRing
Rich Fleetwood - Founder - author/coder/podcaster
This story reminds me of another lightning strike in my life…
I was around 13 or 14, at my parent’s home. I was standing there, looking out the sliding glass door back door, during a fairly energetic Texas thunderstorm.
My uncle (dad’s cousin) lived four streets over., the same number of houses down from the corner.
As I stood there, a large lightning bolt hit a tv antenna. Whoa!
I turned to my dad, and said “I think lightning just hit uncle Bill’s house”…
He called…no answer. We hopped in the car and drove over. Bill answered the door, holding his ear and the side of his head.
He’d been on the phone when it hit. His neighbor across the alley saw it hit, saw the bolt get the antenna, follow the wires down the roof, under the fascia, in thru the hole to the inside the house, and to the back of the tv…which then exploded in sparks. He was on a wired phone, and she saw the sparks come out of that and hit the side of his face.
When we got there minutes later, the storm had mostly subsided. Dad and bro helped me get on the roof, and I climbed up to see what the roof looked like. There was a hole I could put my head through.
I helped put down a couple of layers of trash bags to cover the hole, until it could get repaired.
The OTHER bolt in our life.
Very similar to the hole in the porch of our hundred year old home in Alabama when lightning hit our “uninstalled” recently purchased used tv antenna. It was leaning on the wrap around porch
Here’s the house, two weeks after we moved in, and a a week and a half after the storm of the century. Left of center is the Dutch doors that led into the dining room, which became my computer room. The 4x4” post just right of those doors is where the antenna was leaning, helped the bolt go to ground.
The 1/2” sheathing got blown apart, and ONE layer of it shot across the porch and stuck into the siding trim around the front door…kind of like a deadly buzz saw event.
The remnants of the 4x4 still holding up the porch brace was about the size of a quarter. Billions of new toothpicks covered the ground all around.
I was on the computer, about 10 feet away, from the bolt. No wiring was involved…just a large shat brick in my computer chair…
That’s physically the CLOSEST I’ve ever been to a real honest to god bolt from the blue. Never again.
We moved out on October 15th, 2000, to move to Wyoming. House was in perfect shape. When I returned to Birmingham in 2008 for a visit with Annie and her mom, the house had burned down a few years before.
It was a grand old house, but not very well insulated.
cleobc
Veteran Member
We were working in Kansas at a feedlot and got jobs on the owners' Montana ranch. Just before we moved, a feedlot coworker said she was going to go to Montana sometime, maybe she would see us there. We said yeah, right! Huge state. Six months after we moved we got time off and were heading to an event halfway across the state, when we stopped at a random convenience store for gas. Met our friend coming out of the store. She said, "I knew I'd see you here!" No explanation for the coincidence of seeing her in the middle of nowhere.
PghPanther
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Had tickets to a Nascar race in Chicago. My seat was the end of pit wall leading onto the track, across from the ambulance.
They are called "Hot Passes" and you need to submit to a background check 2 months prior to the race to get them. We were the "Guests" of a lady working for Nascar doing the timing on cars leaving the pits. She, and the 4 tickets we had were the only ones allowed past the pits into this area. What a great vantage point for the cup race.
Ok that was just fun. The only thing that "happened" to me, didn't.
I was scheduled to fly US Air from O'Hare Int'l to Pittsburgh on Flt 427, Sept 8, 1994.
Decided to change flights to leaving from Midway Airport, 15 minutes later(Was closer to my work) about a week before.
This is what happened to Flight 427:
How USAir Flight 427 Became Pennsylvania's Deadliest Air Disaster
A rudder malfunction was to blame for the crash of USAir flight 427.simpleflying.com
Your story reminded me of a story regarding that situation...........first I'm from Pgh, PA and was living there at the time of that crash and had some connections to that and a strange premonition.
1) On the day of the plane crash just about an hour before the crash happened I turned to someone and said out of the clear blue, "you know to my memory we've never had a major airline crash in the Pgh area and I find it odd we haven't had one by now"
2) The person I told that to we ended up discussing that for a while and I ended the conversation with "watch when one does crash it will have my lucky number of 427 as the flight number.
An hour later I'm in the car and hear about the crash and go numb so did my friend when he called me about that.
3) My uncle is the fire chief of Hopewell Twp where the plane went down and he was the first person of official capacity to reach the crash site.
5) The 5 members of the Weaver family who all died on the flight I knew....they only lives a few miles away.
4 years later I moved to Charlotte, NC and had a job that saw me flight twice a week all over the country..........I had so many frequent flyer miles it was ridiculous..............after I left that job in 2001 I never flew again and frankly don't care to as my world now is very small and I like it that way.
2001..........it reminds me of another strange sad story........see my next post.
PghPanther
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I mentioned about flying a lot in my previous post about the flight 427 crash in Pgh back in 1994.
Fast forward to 2001...........Its late August and I'm at the Newark, NJ airport terminal ready to go home (Charlotte) from a business meeting......I had many meetings across the country for a large network integrator and as I was waiting to board this flight I looked across at NYC's Manhattan sky line and said to myself.........."It should be interesting to come back up here in about a week or two and meet with the NY folks in the World trade center."
I talked to two reps who worked remotely from home but their regional office was in the North Tower on the 89th floor. We had arranged for a meeting there. Our plan was to meet in the lower below street level floors and have breakfast at 6am then they were going to take me up to the observation towers around 8-8:30am before our going to our meeting on the 89th floor.
We set the date for the meeting on ............Tues Sept 11.
When I touched down in Charlotte from my August flight out of Newark I had a voice mail on my cell phone......it was my wife at the time who told me that we closed on a house we were looking to purchase..........When I called her and asked what day is closing she said "Saturday Sept 8th"..............I said, "great then what I will do is cancel all the meetings for that week and stay at my local office to work........that way I can help with furniture set up in the evenings all week"............as a result, I called my contacts in NY and cancelled the meeting on 9-11...............they said no problem but since they reserved the office space in the tower they'd probably go in and stick to the plan we had set up originally for themselves to do work out of the office in the tower that day.
Then when 911 happened I didn't think initially of my contacts and their fate because the one plane that crashed in PA crashed a mile from my inlaws.........in fact my father in law at the time was out in the woods and was thrown off his feet from the impact...................it was such a little town that if a commercial airliner crashed there it would wipe half the town out......as it was, we didn't know it hit in a field, because all the cell phone lines where jammed and news was hard to find out that day of course.
Later when we found out her family was okay only then did it hit me about the people I was to meet in the tower...........and if they did go in that day.
About a month later I found out they did and perished in the collapse..........
I still have their business cards from a previous meeting in my card folder and still don't know how to think about that day................a closing on a house timed out to save me life...........and a meeting we set up cost theirs.
As as post script on flying..................I took off from Tampa once working this job and our plane was hit by lighting twice before we got up to cruising altitude...........it was wild and a bit scary which we figured out that is what happened before we were told that later...............
Just east of Tampa is Lakeland, FL where a training center was I had to attend down there and it is known for having the most lightening strikes in the world.............once when I was there in a classroom over looking the parking lot during a thunderstorm we saw lighting strike a tree .......split it in half and it fell on a car...........thank goodness it wasn't on my rental.
I guess over the years I've had a lot of strange, funny, weird and sometime tragic unusual situations.......and I can't believe I'm still here to talk about it.
Fast forward to 2001...........Its late August and I'm at the Newark, NJ airport terminal ready to go home (Charlotte) from a business meeting......I had many meetings across the country for a large network integrator and as I was waiting to board this flight I looked across at NYC's Manhattan sky line and said to myself.........."It should be interesting to come back up here in about a week or two and meet with the NY folks in the World trade center."
I talked to two reps who worked remotely from home but their regional office was in the North Tower on the 89th floor. We had arranged for a meeting there. Our plan was to meet in the lower below street level floors and have breakfast at 6am then they were going to take me up to the observation towers around 8-8:30am before our going to our meeting on the 89th floor.
We set the date for the meeting on ............Tues Sept 11.
When I touched down in Charlotte from my August flight out of Newark I had a voice mail on my cell phone......it was my wife at the time who told me that we closed on a house we were looking to purchase..........When I called her and asked what day is closing she said "Saturday Sept 8th"..............I said, "great then what I will do is cancel all the meetings for that week and stay at my local office to work........that way I can help with furniture set up in the evenings all week"............as a result, I called my contacts in NY and cancelled the meeting on 9-11...............they said no problem but since they reserved the office space in the tower they'd probably go in and stick to the plan we had set up originally for themselves to do work out of the office in the tower that day.
Then when 911 happened I didn't think initially of my contacts and their fate because the one plane that crashed in PA crashed a mile from my inlaws.........in fact my father in law at the time was out in the woods and was thrown off his feet from the impact...................it was such a little town that if a commercial airliner crashed there it would wipe half the town out......as it was, we didn't know it hit in a field, because all the cell phone lines where jammed and news was hard to find out that day of course.
Later when we found out her family was okay only then did it hit me about the people I was to meet in the tower...........and if they did go in that day.
About a month later I found out they did and perished in the collapse..........
I still have their business cards from a previous meeting in my card folder and still don't know how to think about that day................a closing on a house timed out to save me life...........and a meeting we set up cost theirs.
As as post script on flying..................I took off from Tampa once working this job and our plane was hit by lighting twice before we got up to cruising altitude...........it was wild and a bit scary which we figured out that is what happened before we were told that later...............
Just east of Tampa is Lakeland, FL where a training center was I had to attend down there and it is known for having the most lightening strikes in the world.............once when I was there in a classroom over looking the parking lot during a thunderstorm we saw lighting strike a tree .......split it in half and it fell on a car...........thank goodness it wasn't on my rental.
I guess over the years I've had a lot of strange, funny, weird and sometime tragic unusual situations.......and I can't believe I'm still here to talk about it.
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PghPanther
Has No Life - Lives on TB
A tip to everyone in regards to swimming in a pool .................when guards tell you to get out of a pool if they hear thunder or a lightening strike far away you best get out....some lighting bolts can travel up to 9 miles off the horizon and hit a pool and you'd never know it.....
....although what is the deal in the ocean?..........say you are wading in the water on teh shore line and you see lighten strike the water off in the horizon......is it just too much volume of water that insulates you from electrocution?..........or so what is the radius of safety to be in the ocean if lightening strikes the water surface?
foreverkeeps
Veteran Member
You have amazing testimonies! I sent you a private message. Thanks for sharing!
Jackpine Savage
Veteran Member
Ha, your story dredged up a memory. I riding with an Uncle on a freeway somewhere around Denver. Traffic started slowing down and then went to a crawl. And then the smell started. Soon one lane appeared to be covered in something. Then we could make out animal parts, guts, a pig, a cow, etc. Then we saw the semi parked on the shoulder with the back doors to the trailer sitting open. It was on a rendering truck. Man did it smell bad.
PghPanther
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Another thing I can remember..........................I mentioned it before once on TB2000.
I can remember being in the crib as a newborn and not being able to talk or say a word at that time and spent most of my time sleeping. I remember this very well.................so that's weird enough but its this I recall as being the really strange part........
I kept having this reoccurring dream as I fell asleep. .........it was a dark place that moved or pulsed back and forth........it scared me as it was like being suspended in some void and because it seemed like I was floating I worried about falling with having no bottom to it.
Many years later I now think I was dreaming of when I was in the womb.
I can remember being in the crib as a newborn and not being able to talk or say a word at that time and spent most of my time sleeping. I remember this very well.................so that's weird enough but its this I recall as being the really strange part........
I kept having this reoccurring dream as I fell asleep. .........it was a dark place that moved or pulsed back and forth........it scared me as it was like being suspended in some void and because it seemed like I was floating I worried about falling with having no bottom to it.
Many years later I now think I was dreaming of when I was in the womb.
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Terriannie
Has No Life - Lives on TB
This happened today.
After the mail passed, DH came in puzzled with a package addressed to him but it wasn't an order and he didn't immediately recognize the sender. Opening it up, he shockingly discovered it was his 1969 HS Class Ring with a short note from an x girlfriend (with her married name) that he gave to a little while after he went into the Navy 52 years ago! (And later, meeting me.)
Explaining, she said she always thought she gave it back to him and after rediscovering it she gave the adage of being better late than never in the return. (Trying it on, it still fit!!)
Of course you know we revisited that time when we first met which was absolutely, smack dab, flat-out in love right off the bat!!! He knew he had to break it off with her and did so in a phone call because we were in Calif. and she, back home in Louisiana. To be honest, he no more thought about getting his ring back because he was already thinking of another ring. Wedding ring.
This was in July and 3 months later in September were married by the Justice of the Peace. (Later we had our vows blessed in a Church ceremony.) We have been happily married for 50 years as of last September.
I said a mental prayer of hope that her marriage was just as happy as ours when he wrote the thank you note.
After the mail passed, DH came in puzzled with a package addressed to him but it wasn't an order and he didn't immediately recognize the sender. Opening it up, he shockingly discovered it was his 1969 HS Class Ring with a short note from an x girlfriend (with her married name) that he gave to a little while after he went into the Navy 52 years ago! (And later, meeting me.)
Explaining, she said she always thought she gave it back to him and after rediscovering it she gave the adage of being better late than never in the return. (Trying it on, it still fit!!)
Of course you know we revisited that time when we first met which was absolutely, smack dab, flat-out in love right off the bat!!! He knew he had to break it off with her and did so in a phone call because we were in Calif. and she, back home in Louisiana. To be honest, he no more thought about getting his ring back because he was already thinking of another ring. Wedding ring.
This was in July and 3 months later in September were married by the Justice of the Peace. (Later we had our vows blessed in a Church ceremony.) We have been happily married for 50 years as of last September.
I said a mental prayer of hope that her marriage was just as happy as ours when he wrote the thank you note.
willowlady
Veteran Member
Great thread with many interesting experiences posted. I have had many "unusual" dreams that were prophetic, or a personal message from God. But I don't really consider them appropriate for this thread. A little too woo.
1983, my then girlfriend took me to dinner at the home of a professor of Russia-US relations, a friend of hers. Another guest was a girl the professor invited, who brought along her friend, who happened to be Carlos Castaneda. No one there but the girl knew Carlos, though we all knew about him. (To this day, I wonder if it really was the "real" Castaneda!) It was a fairly "normal" meal until one of the local TV stations called and wanted to interview the professor about the shooting of KAL 007 (which had just happened--which is why I know the year and month). Castaneda and I and the two girls sat and watched the TV crew do the interview. Later, after Castaneda and his girlfriend left, the professor and I burst out laughing at the situation of the TV crew interviewing him while sitting there watching was perhaps the most famous recluse since Howard Hughes. A pretty bizarre event.
Yet another one....
This was with an ex-boyfriend... Home answering machine - we were both out and came back. Checked my answering machine and got multiple voices talking over each other but like through a cloud. No phone call registered as incoming either. He turned white and said he's got to go home something's wrong. Sure enough he left a candle lit and it was burning to the bottom.
Then came the confession - the prior owner passed away (wanting very much to go home) and it is believed she was still in the house and didn't choose to cross over. Whenever there was a problem in the house where ever he was he would get something like what I had. He knew it was this lady because his ex mother in law without knowing about her named her (first and last name).
I kept bugging him to call a priest to help her cross over but for some reason he enjoyed having the guardian angel.
This was with an ex-boyfriend... Home answering machine - we were both out and came back. Checked my answering machine and got multiple voices talking over each other but like through a cloud. No phone call registered as incoming either. He turned white and said he's got to go home something's wrong. Sure enough he left a candle lit and it was burning to the bottom.
Then came the confession - the prior owner passed away (wanting very much to go home) and it is believed she was still in the house and didn't choose to cross over. Whenever there was a problem in the house where ever he was he would get something like what I had. He knew it was this lady because his ex mother in law without knowing about her named her (first and last name).
I kept bugging him to call a priest to help her cross over but for some reason he enjoyed having the guardian angel.
Perhaps if there was a thread on one of the non-public boards (like Alternate or Chat). I've met more than my share of "famous" people but prefer to not identify them on a public board because it reveals too much of my own past. I'd also be interested in hearing how early in life were folks' earliest memories.
Before there were cell phones and mobile mapping, I wanted to go visit DH while he was at SAC state. I had a paper map, but was totally lost. I randomly pulled over to a left hand turn to some kind of chain restaurant. And his car was just ahead of mine. I was so mad because the passenger had blonde hair and I thought he was dating someone else. Turns out it was one of his roommates. Of course, I had packed a sleeping bag and some pillows....the rest is in your imagination. Radar Love....
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lisa
Veteran Member
When I was first married (19 yrs old) DH and I were living in a little village in Mexico on the coast in Michoacan. The village didn't have electricity or running water. We had one of the few cars..a big old 1966 Belvedeer I think. Anyway...it was one of the few cars in the village and once a week we'd pile all the neighbors dirty laundry into it and Dh would drive it all to the river a couple miles away while we walked there. We'd all get set up at the river to wash our laundry..hoping to get one of the good rocks to pound the clothes on and if we were really lucky there were a couple of spots with shade from a palm frond covering. There were other local folks at the river as well and the men who had carried their laundry would be swimming at a distance in their leopard underwear. 
As we'd wash the clothes we'd spread the clean ones on the bushes alongside the river to get sun and dry. Pretty soon the whole river was lined with drying clothes of many colors. At lunchtime, one lady would dig a hole along the river bank and scoop out the clean water that was filtered through the riverbank sand and put it in a pot. One lady would porduce an onion...another a piece of fish or meat ...everyone contributing something for the food. When it was discovered that nobody had salt an older woman began digging here and there in the sand along the river until she encountered a little plastic bag with salt that a previous person had left buried. Somebody else had tortillas that we used for spoons and we enjoyed our lunch while resting along the river...I don't think the men were invited...I don't remember them eating with us. I didn't have to contribute anything to the meal as I had provided the car...plus they all new I didn't know how to do anything as they all took turns teaching me how to wash the clothes,carry buckets of water on my head, cook on wood fires etc. After lunch, we went back to finishing up the laundry. When all of the laundry was washed the ladies began removing the clothes they were wearing and washed those as well...a bunch of women in their underwear and for some reason, BRIGHT orange and green bras washing their clothes. (They all thought me rather silly because I refused to take my clothes off and wash them as well) By late afternoon everyones clothes were piled back into the car and we all went back to the village.
As we'd wash the clothes we'd spread the clean ones on the bushes alongside the river to get sun and dry. Pretty soon the whole river was lined with drying clothes of many colors. At lunchtime, one lady would dig a hole along the river bank and scoop out the clean water that was filtered through the riverbank sand and put it in a pot. One lady would porduce an onion...another a piece of fish or meat ...everyone contributing something for the food. When it was discovered that nobody had salt an older woman began digging here and there in the sand along the river until she encountered a little plastic bag with salt that a previous person had left buried. Somebody else had tortillas that we used for spoons and we enjoyed our lunch while resting along the river...I don't think the men were invited...I don't remember them eating with us. I didn't have to contribute anything to the meal as I had provided the car...plus they all new I didn't know how to do anything as they all took turns teaching me how to wash the clothes,carry buckets of water on my head, cook on wood fires etc. After lunch, we went back to finishing up the laundry. When all of the laundry was washed the ladies began removing the clothes they were wearing and washed those as well...a bunch of women in their underwear and for some reason, BRIGHT orange and green bras washing their clothes. (They all thought me rather silly because I refused to take my clothes off and wash them as well) By late afternoon everyones clothes were piled back into the car and we all went back to the village.
33dInd
Veteran Member
Okay
Back in 80 I was dispatched to a dispute at a local store
Pulled in and scanned the store for problems while awaiting backup
Was parked next to a man sitting by himself in his car.
I made eye contact with him as I exited my car.
Woman and man came running outa the store screaming at me
He’s got a gun
Guy in the car leaned out the car window shoved the gun in my belly and pulled the trigger twice. No discharge
I sucked him out the car thru the window
Yeah you can do that.
Not much of a fighter without his gun
Gun was a smith 66 snubbed nose. Six shot. It was loaded. Two rounds showed primer strikes
Department sent gun to range with armorer
No mechanical problems with gun
60 rounds were fired thru gun. Not a single misfire.
Go figure
Back in 80 I was dispatched to a dispute at a local store
Pulled in and scanned the store for problems while awaiting backup
Was parked next to a man sitting by himself in his car.
I made eye contact with him as I exited my car.
Woman and man came running outa the store screaming at me
He’s got a gun
Guy in the car leaned out the car window shoved the gun in my belly and pulled the trigger twice. No discharge
I sucked him out the car thru the window
Yeah you can do that.
Not much of a fighter without his gun
Gun was a smith 66 snubbed nose. Six shot. It was loaded. Two rounds showed primer strikes
Department sent gun to range with armorer
No mechanical problems with gun
60 rounds were fired thru gun. Not a single misfire.
Go figure
Walrus Whisperer
Hope in chains...
Please do!
33dInd
Veteran Member
I did
lisa
Veteran Member
God was watching out for you that day.
FollowTruth
Phantom Lurker
.
Sweetie remembers being born and how much it hurt to take his first breath, said it felt like sharp pins and needles.
.
Great Northwet
Veteran Member
All of this NORAD stuff and jets scrambling got me thinking about something. Somehow nothing really unusual ever happens to me so I didn't have any story to tell. But now I think I do.
My dad was army air corps during WW2, he passed a test and became an officer in the new USAF in the late forties finished college and stayed in the reserves. He achieved the rank of Major. He knew that he would have made the next rank but would have to go to Vietnam to earn it so after 22 years he resigned his commission because he had a growing family and didn't want to go.
So that's the back story. Scroll ahead to around the very late '90's. Dad and I would go to the local Commissaries to stock up once in awhile. We usually went to Smokey Point navy commissary, but one time we went down to McChord AFB to stock up.
He had a decal on the windshield which identified him as an officer, so at the gate 3 soldiers would snap up to attention and salute him. He returned the salute and entered the base (20mph speed limit) and immediately pulled his red Porche 944 turbo up to 60mph. Always a calm and collected man but I just loved him for those moments when he would break out of it for a minute.
So we went shopping as usual and then decided to take a tour of the base. This is where things got interesting. We had taken off the sun roof. The old ones where you remove them and put them in the back seat(not the newer ones that roll back electrically).
So off we went to look around. We eventually found the B-52s on a tarmac. There were 17 of them. Some large hoses connecting to some and electrical stuff going on but there was no one there. Not one single person on the tarmac. There were guards who just saluted dad as we drove in. He drove us under the jets back and forth. Since the payload doors were open I could see the loads forty feet overhead. I won't say what I saw there, but I saw the payloads. Very spooky to have seen that; but looking back on the experience, I'm really glad that they are there.
My dad was army air corps during WW2, he passed a test and became an officer in the new USAF in the late forties finished college and stayed in the reserves. He achieved the rank of Major. He knew that he would have made the next rank but would have to go to Vietnam to earn it so after 22 years he resigned his commission because he had a growing family and didn't want to go.
So that's the back story. Scroll ahead to around the very late '90's. Dad and I would go to the local Commissaries to stock up once in awhile. We usually went to Smokey Point navy commissary, but one time we went down to McChord AFB to stock up.
He had a decal on the windshield which identified him as an officer, so at the gate 3 soldiers would snap up to attention and salute him. He returned the salute and entered the base (20mph speed limit) and immediately pulled his red Porche 944 turbo up to 60mph. Always a calm and collected man but I just loved him for those moments when he would break out of it for a minute.
So we went shopping as usual and then decided to take a tour of the base. This is where things got interesting. We had taken off the sun roof. The old ones where you remove them and put them in the back seat(not the newer ones that roll back electrically).
So off we went to look around. We eventually found the B-52s on a tarmac. There were 17 of them. Some large hoses connecting to some and electrical stuff going on but there was no one there. Not one single person on the tarmac. There were guards who just saluted dad as we drove in. He drove us under the jets back and forth. Since the payload doors were open I could see the loads forty feet overhead. I won't say what I saw there, but I saw the payloads. Very spooky to have seen that; but looking back on the experience, I'm really glad that they are there.
33dInd
Veteran Member
Yes. An angel was with meGod was watching out for you that day.
lisa
Veteran Member
I'm so glad.
( I lost my brother in law in '82 ..line of duty, domestic dispute.)
33dInd
Veteran Member
I am so sorryI'm so glad.
It grieves me at the loss of our thin blue line
I read daily on face book line of duty deaths going back to our state hood and before.
God speed and I hope his children,if he had any, have done well in life
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lisa
Veteran Member
My sister was only 25 when he passed (he was 28). He left behind a 3 and 5 yr old. My sister was a founder and first president of COPS (concerns of police survivors) and is still very involved in helping families of fallen officers. She went on to remarry and have 2 more children. His children both grew up and are doing well...though they always felt the impact of losing their daddy. Today would have been his 69th b-day.
Squib
Veteran Member
Wow, the Smith 66 is just about a perfect gun! Perhaps he cleaned his gun loaded, by spraying everything with WD-40 …even the primers!
Id place the model 66 up there with the model 686…with both being better than the average Colt Python…I know, I know, that’s sacrilege !
33dInd
Veteran Member
I agree completely
Several years latter we cleaned out the property room and sold the firearms to an ffl
He offered me the gun at a very reasonable steal
No thanks.
33dInd
Veteran Member
Could you pm me his name and department so I may remember him