THE Random Chat Thread - AKA "The RCT" - No shirt or shoes required - Open 24 / 7

[pepperj]

Morning Rook

 

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[Rookster]

Morning AARC, pepper, WD , bill and all on the show.

 

[Blak bart]

Wow! What an experience! Please pass on our "Thank You for your service!"


“Launched in a rubber boat at dusk by a Vietnamese junk, the SEAL patrol paddled toward the beach in the gathering darkness. About a mile offshore, the men left their small boat and swam to shore. Then they moved inland, passing silently beside numerous enemy encampments. They patrolled all through the night, gathering important intelligence. As daybreak approached, seeing no identifiable landmarks, they realized that they had come ashore too far north; in fact, they were in North Vietnam. As they moved back toward the beach, Lt. Norris established radio contact with the fleet. However, they were soon spotted by the enemy and began to draw fire. More than 50 enemy soldiers attacked, closing to within five yards.”
Michael Thornton’s Medal of Honor citation reads:
“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while participating in a daring operation against enemy forces.
“PO Thornton, as Assistant U.S. Navy Advisor, along with a U.S. Navy lieutenant serving as Senior Advisor, accompanied a three-man Vietnamese Navy SEAL patrol on an intelligence gathering and prisoner capture operation against an enemy-occupied naval river base. Launched from a Vietnamese Navy junk in a rubber boat, the patrol reached land and was continuing on foot toward its objective when it suddenly came under heavy fire from a numerically superior force.
“The patrol called in naval gunfire support and then engaged the enemy in a fierce firefight, accounting for many enemy casualties before moving back to the waterline to prevent encirclement.


“Upon learning that the Senior Advisor had been hit by enemy fire and was believed to be dead, PO Thornton returned through a hail of fire to the lieutenant’s last position; quickly disposed of two enemy soldiers about to overrun the position, and succeeded in removing the seriously wounded and unconscious Senior Naval Advisor to the water’s edge. He then inflated the lieutenant’s lifejacket and towed him seaward for approximately two hours until picked up by support craft.
“By his extraordinary courage and perseverance, PO Thornton was directly responsible for saving the life of his superior officer and enabling the safe extraction of all patrol members, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.”
Collier provides more detail of the engagement and rescue:
“During the five-hour firefight, Thornton was wounded in his back. Norris ordered Thornton and two of the South Vietnamese SEALs to fall back to a sand dune to the north and provide covering fire. Not long after, the Vietnamese SEAL who had stayed behind arrived at Thornton’s position and told him that Norris had been killed. Thornton charged back over 500 yards of open terrain to Norris. When he got there, he killed two enemy soldiers standing over the lieutenant’s body. He lifted Norris, barely alive and with a shattered skull, and began to run back toward the beach, enemy fire kicking up all around him.
“The blast from an incoming round fired by the USS Newport News blew both men into the air. Thornton picked up Norris again and raced for a sand dune and then retreated 300 yards to the water. As he plunged into the surf, Thornton lashed his life vest to the unconscious officer’s body. When another SEAL was hit in the hip and couldn’t swim, Thornton grabbed him and slowly and painfully swam both men out to sea. Despite his wounds, Thornton swam for more than two hours. All three wounded men were rescued by the same junk that had dropped them off 16 hours earlier.
“On Oct. 5, 1973, Michael Thornton was on his way to the White House to receive the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon. Lt. Norris, still a patient at Bethesda Naval Hospital, had been forbidden by his doctors to go to the ceremony, but Thornton spirited him out the back door of the facility and took him along. Almost three years later, Norris himself received the medal, with Thornton looking on.”

We fished the navy seal tournament.....we had another seal on board and we took second place honors.....well.....it seems now that we will share the second place honors with another boat who protested our second place finish....a second set of trophies will be made to honor both teams....we missed first place by 2 pounds. The highlight was having michel thornton at our banquet table....it was an incredible honor to sit and talk personally with this legendary man !! What a great event WD....not quite the same as the wounded warriors project your involved with, but its growing each year.....I forgot to take a pic with my second most favorite SEAL....her name was brandy and she is a German sheperd SEAL.

 

[Blak bart]

Have a peek...

Hey its fizz....carl has been in my corner and has encouraged me tremendously. He's been very kind to me and has a place in tavernier.

 

[Blak bart]

Might go down to the old ball feild today ARC. Got some scouting to do.....need to find a boatramp thats close enough to coupon bight. Also see a kyak launching spot from google....need to go in person and confirm this...at the same time I can put the coil to the soil on some new ground down there. Only thing holding me back is thunderstorms right now.

 

[Blak bart]

My wife all of a sudden is more interested in my hunts. She did a bunch of local research for me yesterday....I think she likes all the attention from last months finds.

 

[ARC]

My wife all of a sudden is more interested in my hunts. She did a bunch of local research for me yesterday....I think she likes all the attention from last months finds.

My girl would kick my arse if I went detecting without her. heh

Research... not so much... I can hear her now... "why would i research... i have YOU"... :/

 

[Blak bart]

I can't believe this but on sat I went to a new random off the beaten path spot....I got 5 more pieces of plated flatware !! Im gonna have to count them all but in the last couple months I've accumulated at least 2 dozen pieces of plated forks and spoons. I purposely moved away from the other areas I was finding them, and my first target 15 miles away was a plated spoon !! Also found a 35 pound bronze chain plate from a sailing ship....it still had massive hull bolts !! Ill take a pic...its a pretty cool piece...took me about an hour to haul it back to my kyak wading through rocks in the shallow water. My trip was cut short when my partner took a spill and fileted his shin on the rocks. Had to leave and get him to the emergency room. Had to paddle for an hour while he was bleeding pretty bad. this photo is back at the dock...by then the bleeding had stopped for the main part....took 16 stitches to get him back on his feet.

 

[bill from lachine]

Bart,

Pretty nasty cut hope he recovers quickly.

 

[Blak bart]

Yup he's tough as nails and said to me let's just stop the bleeding and keep going.....I said no way bud....your going to get stitches....oh I don't need any stitches !! I said yes you do.. at least 10....they gave him 16. He was light hearted on the paddle in, and we made a bet for a dollar on how many stitches he would need....he said none...I said 15. He gave me the dollar yesterday even though I missed it by one stitch !!

 

[Blak bart]

Boy its a total wash out down here right now. Big water coming down. The dry season is over and its tropical rain time !!

 

[pepperj]

I was having a breakfast, then I saw a shin picture-now my tummy isn't sure.
Ouch!

 

[pepperj]

Boy its a total wash out down here right now. Big water coming down. The dry season is over and its tropical rain time !!

I'll take a thunderstorm over this one coming down.

 

[Blak bart]

I was having a breakfast, then I saw a shin picture-now my tummy isn't sure.
Ouch!

Oooops....sorry bout that pepper !

 

[Boatlode]

I can't believe this but on sat I went to a new random off the beaten path spot....I got 5 more pieces of plated flatware !! Im gonna have to count them all but in the last couple months I've accumulated at least 2 dozen pieces of plated forks and spoons. I purposely moved away from the other areas I was finding them, and my first target 15 miles away was a plated spoon !! Also found a 35 pound bronze chain plate from a sailing ship....it still had massive hull bolts !! Ill take a pic...its a pretty cool piece...took me about an hour to haul it back to my kyak wading through rocks in the shallow water. My trip was cut short when my partner took a spill and fileted his shin on the rocks. Had to leave and get him to the emergency room. Had to paddle for an hour while he was bleeding pretty bad. View attachment 1920001 this photo is back at the dock...by then the bleeding had stopped for the main part....took 16 stitches to get him back on his feet.

That looks painful.

Ok, here's my tough guy story. Wading barefoot out to the dive boat in Bonaire one time I stepped on a sea urchin. Didn't even know it until I started gearing up and saw the black dots on my heel when I was pulling on my boot. The divemaster looked at it and said they have to come out. So he pulled some Adolph's Meat Tenderizer and a pair of needle point tweezers out of the first aid kit and started digging around in my foot. I almost passed out (you know when your vision starts to close down like looking out of a tunnel). By the time he was finished my heel looked like hamburger meat and there was a huge puddle of blood on the deck. So I geared up and made the dive. Down about thirty or forty feet I noticed a thin green thing coming from the top of my boot. I thought it was seaweed and brushed it off. Later in the dive I looked and had picked up another piece of seaweed on my boot and brushed it off again. After the dive when I pulled off my boot it was full of blood. The "seaweed" I saw was actually blood seeping out the top of my boot, at forty feet blood is green.

Moral to the story: Always wear your dive boots when wading out to the boat.

 

[bill from lachine]

Boatload,

Yeah those urchins are nasty. Back in my misspent youth and buddy of ours who was engaged to be married did a farewell trip with us to Barbados.

He had broken his arm before the trip and thought he'd have to cancel we told him not to worry about it. We taped a garbage bag around his cast so he could go into the water.

There were heavy waves the night before and guess the sea urchins got washed over the coral closer to inshore. In any event he steps on an urchin and we had to help him into shore.

We get him up to the beach club and ask a waiter what they do to treat it. He comes back with some lemon slices, a candle and a water glass full of over proof rum.

So we ask him how do we proceed...he says light the candle and drop the melted wax on the spines entry point. Pull them out and rub the wounds with the lemon juice. We ask what the rum is for and he says for him because it's gonna hurt like h*ll....

 

[bill from lachine]

On my morning walk most days I pass a blond gal jogging and we always wave and holler out hello to each other.

Well today she decided to stop and do a proper intro. Nice gal probably about 50ish and cute as a button in any event she has 4 kids and drops them of at a nearby private school then drives downtown to her private physio clinic.

And since covid she's been giving vaccinations during the evenings don't know where she finds the energy with a full schedule like that.

 

[RustyRelics]

Just got power back on. I lost it after I came on here this morning.

 

[bill from lachine]

Rusty,

With all the power outages you folks have time to spring for a generator.

 

[Boatlode]

Boatload,

Yeah those urchins are nasty. Back in my misspent youth and buddy of ours who was engaged to be married did a farewell trip with us to Barbados.

He had broken his arm before the trip and thought he'd have to cancel we told him not to worry about it. We taped a garbage bag around his cast so he could go into the water.

There were heavy waves the night before and guess the sea urchins got washed over the coral closer to inshore. In any event he steps on an urchin and we had to help him into shore.

We get him up to the beach club and ask a waiter what they do to treat it. He comes back with some lemon slices, a candle and a water glass full of over proof rum.

So we ask him how do we proceed...he says light the candle and drop the melted wax on the spines entry point. Pull them out and rub the wounds with the lemon juice. We ask what the rum is for and he says for him because it's gonna hurt like h*ll....

Yes, they hurt a lot more coming out than they did going in. Like I said, I didn't even know it when I stepped on it. By the time I had walked out to the boat and climbed aboard, they had worked themselves deep into my heel.

Sea urchins are the most dangerous creature in the ocean.