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drop your socks...

Submitted by Esker on Wed, 2017-01-18 17:32

scorcher day
humid mists
hub bub on Luck-Up
base
Snake Eyes
that bitch
she took two fifty hits
small arms
and thirty cali
crew chief says
'never say never'
I volunteer with the
bucket and rags
cause my uncle
was a priest
call me "Father Shimmy"
always got my gear polished
reminds me of the world
the bike under the parachute
of my father from
landing in Greece in the C-130
'join the marines..see the world'
so far its been a nice tour of hell
'hell Tito..' second gen newbie
fifteen hundred feet over loas
Straight down..we could be
over Central Park
'luck ups loaded with ARA's
and looking for action'
captian was a cabbie outta
new amsterdam
flies 'luck up' like a limo
rib him about the skids
'you worried cap about getting
the white walls dirty'
screams over the rotor wash
'get your sorry ass outta my
ship or im dumping your
hippy ass in the tree line'
gives me a peace sign
sixty cal gunners give me
that worried look
he did it once...dumped
a shakey grunt out at twenty
brass was pissed
but he got skills...dude gets
respect
Painted Bullwinkle on his
helmet
hated the cue ball white
..
'central park' newbie
nudges my ribs with the
supressor
..give him a gnarly grin
'yah at midnite in the yukon'
got my tattered copy of
White Fang in my breast
pocket...traded it for rolling
paper to the wire watchers
..
suck lead charley
..
'luck up' will take a rocket
round...flaming wreck to
the jesters court on a milk
run turned sour
by then i quit joking the
newbies
short timer jitters
but today
the machine shakes us
and our packs into a
more lassie fair drone
mode...
got the nicest weapon
on board..
and i still aint got me
an AK
97% humidity
fresh batteries on the
transistor
white fang
twenty going on
fifty
'mother mary full of grace'
its hot here..
but its hell where
we are going
..
central park
..
what i wouldnt give
to see pigeons
shitting on a statue....

Editing stage: 
Editing - rough draft

Comments

Esker

Wed, 2017-01-18 17:48

Esker's picture

snake eyes was the huey..
luck-up was the base
a flip on look up
for all the incoming
from the hills
rocket round...hueys carried
rockets...ara...
stinger missles...
radar controlled
anti aircraft
soviet and chinese made
just getting in country
then
c-130's didnt do drops in greece
d-c's did
at night...germans shot them out of
the sky in droves
bike was a triumph
not mine....all memories of people
i knew on the road
second gen stories too
snake eyes...
mud guppy
..whatever worked
ships were magnesium
light with refined kerosene
sweeter smell..varosol
and coal oil...beneath
a rotor wash it smelled
warm...comforting
exotic..
magnesium burned hotter
then napalm

not my memories
i was eleven when it was
at its peak
but my mother forced us
to watch the newsclips
and documentaries
dan rathers
wallter conkite
i mention some of the
survivors arriving home
and the toronto americans
in a craft store for a hundred
twenty dollars the kids wanted
to buy me a grenade launcher
m-15...plastic and metal but
non firing...i declined
during hunting season
the men would extract the
copper jackets from the deer
and moose...give it to us
boys in training...fresh from
the kill..a deadly pretty blossom
wound with muscle bone chips
and clots....
i write these stories to rid some
of the ghosts and fear..worry of
those days....

thank u..

mr wolf..

author comment

Esker

Wed, 2017-01-18 18:08

Esker's picture

camera crews...advisors...eighteen most weighed about
one fifty to two ten pounds...field packs were sixty super
light...ammo..ammo...ammo..weapons..pushed them to
eighty and up average mass
a gunship didnt have to room to carry ground troops
save the small teams into insertion in hostile non
demarcated ground....those wore no insignias..no
rings...crosses..nothing...flight run fuel and battle
circling....drop picks ups burnt that up to minutes
often....i spent three whole summers reading up
on this shit to appease my mothers fear that we would
have gone had it escalated further into the seventies
and eighties...
Pilots hopped in and memorized the whole pre flight
routine...had too..had to lift off in less then five minutes
most had basic instruments...only ambulance and the
specialists had full night time instruments and beacon
radio training
truck drivers...most..
one of our air ambulance pilots up here before retirement
was ex vietnam vet....
war is the shits but people served
cant take that credit from them
met isreali girls lately
smart ones....they outfitted f-16's
not the typical grunts
only after they did basic
and upgrading...pretty too..
my cabbies served
in intel in germany
late eighties..

dust offs were ambulance
but they shot them down too
gunships were the guns
c-130s had side mount
gatlings and more...
in iraq and more now
they have full female
crews flying
like the A-10's

maybe my mom could have
just let us watch cartoons
spared us..
but im glad she was aware
and hated war...
she was a good mother
even if she was out there...

helped out at some crash
sites..got people moving
directed em
shock freezes people
im good...though
maybe the training in horror
from the technicolor helped

ghost day today
..
thank u....

author comment

themoonman

Sat, 2017-01-21 07:17

themoonman's picture
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All I can do is doff my hat and bow ...

thanks!

Roscoe Lane

Mon, 2017-01-23 00:29

Roscoe Lane's picture

Excellent, really enjoyed the rush. Regards Roscoe...

Roscoe Llane,

Religion will rip your faith off, and return
for the mask of disbelief that's left.

Sparrow

Mon, 2017-01-23 04:25

Sparrow's picture
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A trip down memory lane, war zones and just being military.
C130's to DC3's and 4's Bless them all they did a great job, the magnesium alloy clad our Wessex choppers and as you say would burn hotter than napalm.
In South Africa we had a fleet of 36 DC3's from all over and I have worked on them many times.
Remember an Officer came into our section one day, the daft T wanted us to consider moving the radio compartment five feet aft so that the centre of Gravity on the aircraft was moved back a bit to make it fly better. as he wanted 300LB's moved back.
I told him that it would be a stupid thing to even think of and told him to get a Gerry can that would hold 30 gallons of water and put it in the toilet section, he left scratching his tiny head.
There were many things that applied logic could have fixed but they had a problem with that.
We used the Puma chopper as the main aircraft, and I had many years on them beaut chopper.
I was on the Communications side, one problem they had was that in SA they had stopped using the top aerial for the radio so all the aerials were at the bottom of the aircraft, main problem was that they had put the HF on the secondary bus bar which meant if they crashed anywhere the only radio they had to use to any effect was the HF but it needed the engines running, took me ages to get them to change it over to the main battery bus bar so they could use it at any time engines or not, a design fault or someone not thinking.
I will talk of these things, and other at a later date young Wolf.
You take care and enjoy each day as they are a gift..
Yours, Sparrow..

.
Give critique to help keep Neopoet great.
Unconditional love to you all.
"Learn to love yourself first"
Yours as always, Ian.T, Sparrow, and Yenti

Esker

Mon, 2017-01-23 22:26

Esker's picture

thirty gallons portable was the answer...stupid thick as bricks eh..
all about us...
Loved your idea of the radio masts..
oh yah..hard landings everythings toast...then what...
then....
glad you took time to hard wire adapt a rooftop housing....i know
its a hard thing...thats custom work...but in event of UN use or
extraction..if crew and important passengers arent wiped out
in foreball of high octane kerosene or g forces....
a battery link not running off rotating jennies on turbine motors
which are lighter...dont use the batteries during flight for
shit load of other stuff...
think I knew a few techs in my time eh. ha..I did.
classified still..
DC threes were cheap...good design..parts..
galore.....fit in..no one would think in a clandestine op
to see a dc three landing beat up..etc...but something
new...all eyes up and alert..
dc good spy ship...

love radio....tubes...power up transformer kick down
with transistor old heavy.sucked up power..
new lightweight shit is great...but finicky...
large means u can work on em...
adapt..small means fixed.as in if it breaks
its fixed all right...
and stuck on only latest apps modes...
many clandestine countries still use tube
sets..basic telegraph...short wave..
no one thinks of basics...
ha ha...

not thinking..no not that..
meant crew was expendable
..
glad you were a radio chief
not a door gunner or pick up
load ops chief...

thanks Ian...always enjoy
talking to your brilliant tech
mind...
Mr wolf
!

author comment

Candlewitch

Wed, 2017-01-25 11:39

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first of all the poem is amazing and blew me away! (also, thanks for defining some of the lingo) second, I am very impressed with the storytelling. last of all, I've discovered a deeper respect for both of you men!!!

*hugs, Cat

*
When someone reads your work
And responds, please be courteous
And reply in kind, thanks.

Sparrow

Wed, 2017-01-25 19:25

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I think that Esker and myself have journeyed far,
we have watched from different hills the times gone by, this gives us a space where we both have views and thoughts from differing angles.
Two life styles that had we been as twins our writing may have been similar.
But as luck would have it there is a world between our view points, and we write from our own line of sight.
Thank you cat for your deeper sight of us both, it is to me an honour to know you and of you, yours as always Ian. xx

.
Give critique to help keep Neopoet great.
Unconditional love to you all.
"Learn to love yourself first"
Yours as always, Ian.T, Sparrow, and Yenti

Esker

Thu, 2017-01-26 01:12

Esker's picture

there is no descript....for landing in a hot lz.....or running river boat back up..
fire captian first on scene with burning building....protocol sets up your men...
equipment..captian protects his men..instinct says run into building
but random..like fire..or variables set up by those who set fire who might
be in building below...must be considered..
nothing is what it seems..
true..run in......come out hero
of get lost in there with variables
and lose more trying to save sorry ass
from throwing protocol to the wind..
sometimes people are just meant to
go ...a hard one......

didnt want to but worked a few crash
sites...people all busted up....
takes time for planes to fly in
ambulance..they gotta factor
nearest place....take off
landing....they have too....
load up patient..and it get shots
down from a too hot lz or
plane clips trees from lake
from being heavy..
hollywood is not like real
life at all..
been there..dragged people
from burning smashed car
had man with massive head
injury..broke ribs..he didnt
make it..lift off whatever
we all did our best..
fell out of tree.no crash
tourist camp that one fellow....
car crash man survived...
how i dont know..
dude who was hero...questioned
his skills..duty...just needed a pat
on the back........sometimes u just
lose people...was a kid...those ones
are the hard ones..

a good man....
hope he saved more...

see.....more then just a pretty face
here.......long before i got on to neopoet
i was busy on the road of life
helping..not bitching..not complaining
of sewing circles...
i was a giver.....not a taker..
the heros remember....

way it was and still is.....

thank U

Mr Wolf

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