JClark

BTW, I worked on virtually every ship ever stationed at Mayport NS since 1980...including the old Navy yard tugs, and the YD: Yard crane (floating barge crane). Boats

Damn, Doc, you and I probably crossed paths over the years. I've worked on both the Gallery and the Montgomery. Worked for Atlantic Marine at the time, and probably saw you when we were doing SRAs. Small world Boats

http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/ Boats

Neptunus Lex has a little place for some of his favorite commenters (including yours truly) to post up stuff in our very own blog. Nose is a former Naval Aviator who flew E2Cs. Now, I know this isn't as gaudy as a Tomcat or Hornet driver, but the danger and the principle of taking off from a carrier are the same. If you want to know what it's like to take off from a carrier, from start to cat shot, read this article. It's simply the best recounting I've ever read. Feel free to add your comments, I'm sure Nose will appreciate a big BZ from his readers. I know for fact that Nose's typing skills rank right up there with a one fingered epilectic three toed sloth, so this meant a hell of a lot of work for him. Event Four Enjoy Boats

Head over to the Foc'sl in the Harpoon section for a very interesting article (courtesy of CDR Salamander) on what's happening to the US Navy. Feel free to add your remarks. It's a crappy situation, and I encourage everyone to vent some spleen. And while you're there, feel free to drop by the CDRs blog..it has some very interesting views on current events, including some really good shots at political figures. Boats

I spent the weekend in Savannah, Ga. with the wife. It's a short drive for us down in Jacksonville, a little less than two hours. Savannah is simply a great place to have some fun and eat really good food. The best place (of many!) is down by the waterfront on River St. It's about 10 long blocks of old buildings, two stories high on the river side, and three on the back side. There's a 20 foot deep area between the main part of town and the buildings that front the river. There's interesting shops, restaurants and hotels built into these buildings. Here's a couple of pics for you: Front side of River St. Back side of River St. River Boat passes the Boat Lady (real person who waved a towel at literally thousands of ships over several decades) Savannah is also the home of the lady who founded the Girl Scouts (and you can tour Judith Lowes home) as well as the locale for the book, "Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil", which re-told the events of an actual murder. Way cool place to go, and if you're heading north or south down 95, well worth stopping for a day to rest and enjoy yourself. Boats

Maybe someone in the PRC has been reading Donnies posts, and decided to give him a head up? Boats

After the butchery done to Harpoon4 by UBI, I'm more than reluctant to send them a penny of my money. Boats

Speaking of smilies, where the hell did they all go? Boats

That's debatable Boats

Damn, that's wrong, Doc! Boats

I was at the race that prompted the green white checker, Daytona 400, 4 years ago. You never saw such a rain of trach thrown at the track at the victory lap. Boats, who thinks it ain't perfect, just better than what they had.

Sigh...that's "Owwyuh do-win" you cheese head Boats, who thought all Marines had an Alabama accent

Shep, as much as it pains me to say it, I don't think Busch got Tony loose. Tony got REAL loose in that corner, and had to get out of it...and Busch just couldn't react in time. All he had to do, was take a bit of air off the read end of Smokes car, and that was all she wrote. All the real experts have come out real plain and said it was not Kurts fault. As for Mark, well, ya got a point there. My son-in-law was a Mark fan, till Mark pulled his in and out thing. Still, helluva race, don't ya think? Boats

Sure, it's boring, mate, right up until they kark their knickers Montoya will figure it out. He's a good driver. But he's got a few things to unlearn,and a few to learn.

Even though Mark Martin did not win...again, this race was a testament to how much NASCAR respects and admires Mark. Kyle Bush, who has spun more than one opponent out of the way, was very careful to not spin Mark out, even when it was apparent that the only thing that kept Kyle from a win was Mark Martin. Even Kevin was "respectful" in the way he got around Mark, and raced him to the finish. My whole house was cheering for Mark, and sad when he came in a very close second. Like Mark said, "I didn't ask for a win...all I asked for was a chance". Everyone who raced Mark at the end did just that. Helluva race, one of the best I've seen in years. Looks like an exciting season ahead of us...just 35 more races till the Championship Oh...Toyota didn't fare well. I didn't think they would. It took them a couple of years to start getting even in the truck races, it'll take them the same in Cup. And ole Juan Pablo? I bet the first thing he had to do was go change his racing suit Like Darrel Waltrip said, "This ain't like F1, where you got these light little cars with a few tons of downforce gluing it to the track, and you get right next to another fellow once in a while...this is NASCAR, where the cars weigh 3400 pds, are a hair away from going airborne, and the cars six inches away from you will be there for the whole races" Juan Pablo gots him a lotta learning to do Boats

It was worse than I thought...Mike could have been kicked off the track, and his team suspended for four weeks...he got caught TWICE with an additive in his intake: CHEATER Boats

Gunny, this is a restrictor plate race. A plate is put between the intake manifold, and the carb that restricts the amount of air(oxygen) into the engine, to cut down on the top speeds (for safety) Someone thought they could get one more horsepower worth of energy. When you consider that the margin between first, and tenth, was 7/10ths of a second, and lap time of 48.411 and 49.085, even a couple of horsepower can be the difference between night and day. It's especially important for getting a good spot in the starting lineup, given superspeedways propensity for big furballs in the opening laps. You do NOT want to be in the "Big One". I don't think Mike knew about. Mike has far too much to lose with his new team, and his relationship with Toyota. Putting that crap not only into the intake, but all throughout the fuel system was just plain stupid. It's an old trick, and not something new that NASCAR would have to figure out. That's partly why NASCAR was so pissed off. It was like a slap in the face to them. My money says that Mike is already looking for a new crew chief, because the one that got the $100,000 fine is going to be unemployed. What I DON'T get, is how Jeff Gordons issue is un-punishable. A similar situation happened with Matt Kenseths car, where holes in his rear wheel wells were found during pre-race inspection, and his crew taped them closed, and by the end of the race, at post race inspection, the holes were back. Robby Reiser tried to tell NASCAR that the tape must have blown off, because the officicials clearly saw the highly adhesive tape going on. Robby is currently under suspension. Why didn't the same thing happen to Jeff Gordon, when discrepencies were found to his rear shocks? Boats, who is still scratching his head on this mess.

I'll bet he got the windows fixed on that truck Boats

Damn....talk about conflicting emotions... Boats

Hey, Gunny, don't forget to wax your 'gator, and trim the palm trees today! Boats

Awesome...thanks, Twitch! Cross posted to The Flight Deck Boats

This was out a year ago...but I watched the whole thing again. It's one of my favorite videos from the war, simply because it is so damn funny. Kinda gives you a glimpse into the mindset of combat soldiers, that they can go to this much trouble to do a video, while getting their asses shot at. Complete, utter contempt for their enemies, and good on them. Boats

Canuck, I hope your bomb shelter is buried real deep. The Gunny is going to bring the whole can of whoop ass with him when he sees this Boats

Doug, you can play EA NASCAR 2006 at full reality...but keeping the car on the track is damn near impossible at full speed. You have to do your own set-ups, too: trackbar, springs, wedge gear ratio, rear end, tire pressure... But bangin' and beatin'...oh my! Boats