Any Gear Pagers in the military?

[thirstypirate]

What brach? What do you do? How bad does it affect your guitar playing?

I'm an ET in the Navy. There are a few guys who play onboard and right now we have a pretty good setup going in one of the spaces with some great jams taking place. It's nice to have some avenue for creativity out here in no mans land.

What are your experiences?

[semore butts]

Army Aviator,

It was tough in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A year boots on ground each place...So much to do? Where do I start?:jo

Not!

I don't know how the pe0ple who didn't jam got by?

When you think you may die, you don't geive a shit about buying gear!

When your "Tax Free" you got more money for gear!

In Iraq I bought a Texas Fat Strat (ebay), a Satriani J-100, and when I got home, an Alvarez Yari.

Within a year I was "Boots on ground" in Afghanistan.
Bought a Boss 1600 Digital Recorder and a Samich Greg Bennet (In Bucharest).

The best aprt is my brother worked for SLM music and they sent me Amps each time I deployed. (Add Bosmia 1996 in there as well)

Keep in mind, I'm a senior Warrant Officer, I lived well compared to most.

The Tactical map is not Classified unless you write on it. This is Afghanistan, hanging the guitars up might have been "dicey" in Iraq because of the concusion from "incoming".

Still can't work the recorder for sh!t!

Thats enough, this was probably the most important thing I've ever done (Yeah Yeah, I know getting married, having kids Blah, Blah,Blah,)

Keep in mind, I turned 50 years old there, there were alot of us old geezers there.

I have a million pictures and kept a journal as well. Wrote some good songs and practiced my ass off. Still have never made a dollar playing music. Someday!

http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp289/bear_dog_leader/AfghanStudio1.jpg

[thirstypirate]

That's a great pic Warrant. Fly swatter and all!

I used my reenlistment bonus last year to buy a Mesa Lonestar and a nice Strat and the extra tax-free from the cruise I'm on now to buy a Guild D-25 from apalazzolo on the emporium that will be arriving shortly after I get home.

I also wonder how the people who don't play music get by. All we talk and think about out here is the music we are making, gear, technique, etc. and all the rest of these people are bitching about how bad lunch was all day until dinner comes and then they bitch about that til morning.

[Rock Johnson]

I used to be an Army Infantry officer. I took my '72 tele deluxe RI with me to Bosnia... got to jam with Danni Leigh and her band when she came through on a USO tour.

[semore butts]

In Iraq and Afghanistan the flies are badass!

They land on you and start to bite, you smack em! They fly about 3 feet and turn right around and come back!:BITCH

I kid you not! You really have to administer a karate chop if you wanna get em on the first whack!

[BIGGERSTAFF]

I took an acoustic guitar with me to Iraq, so I was able to keep my hands in pretty good shape. I imagine being on board a ship would create some problems too. I get to play pretty regularly, when at home.

[Drew68]

What brach? What do you do? How bad does it affect your guitar playing?

I'm an ET in the Navy. There are a few guys who play onboard and right now we have a pretty good setup going in one of the spaces with some great jams taking place. It's nice to have some avenue for creativity out here in no mans land.

What are your experiences?

I'm currently an AO2 in the navy (hopefully AO1 after the results come out).

I've done two carrier cruises and multiple dets, also on carriers. When I go to the boat, I bring my cheap Samick electric and leave the Gibsons and Fenders at home. So my Samick is my "Boat Guitar" (it's actually pretty nice).

On my last cruise, our squadron had a LCDR who set up a little jam room in his office and we made a bunch of noise there. Great fun! Lots of guitar players on a carrier. We had a "steel beach picnic" on one of our "no-fly" days and a couple of bands set up and played. They also had open mic nights down in the hanger bay.

[Mello Larry]

USN, Helo driver. I brought a mini-martin with me, everybody called it my ukelele. On the amphib ship there was a Gunny (USMC E7) who played mandolin and sang, the CIC officer played banjo and some skinny Lance Corporal grunt who could flat-pick...I swear he must have been a "Nashville Cat." Needless to say we played a lot of blue-grass tunes, all of which was new to me, and a real challenge to keep up with those dudes. Lot of fun though!!!

[thirstypirate]

In Iraq and Afghanistan the flies are badass!

They land on you and start to bite, you smack em! They fly about 3 feet and turn right around and come back!:BITCH

I kid you not! You really have to administer a karate chop if you wanna get em on the first whack!

Ha ha... so I've heard. There are a bunch of guys here who have done ground tours in Iraq. The one story they all share in common is the fly battles... and the camel spiders. One guy told me that the Iraqi that stood gate with him used to put the spiders in plastic bags and throw them into the windows of cars on the highway just to get a rise out of the US guys.

[thirstypirate]

I imagine being on board a ship would create some problems too.

Sometimes it can be a real PITA. I'm on a DDG right now, so space is limited any type of moderate to heavy seas makes jamming hard. I was joking the other day about how I'm practicing for rotating stages and spinning drums kits as much as I'm practing my skills.

These stories are great. It seems like we all have similar experieinces overcoming BS in order to keep the tunes flowing.

I wonder how much Hendrix played when he was in?

[Glenn D.]

Army Aviator,


Keep in mind, I'm a senior Warrant Officer, I lived well compared to most.


No sh*t, Chief. I remember the supply warrant in my last battalion. He was a crusty old CW4 (this was before CW5) who didn't even bother to salute second lieutenants. When you're the PBO for the post, you have a bit more power than any butter bar, and they had better learn it fast.

Thanks for your service.

Glenn D.

[leofenderbender]

Lieutenant Colonel US Army, Retired.

Infantry basic branch
Armor advanced branch

I was the maintenance inspector nobody hoped they would get; I rewrote several regulations; I was good at it - sometimes I miss it...

[dstinkyb]

STG2 here, serving on the same ship as thirstypirate up there. We definitely got it good here because we play, it definitely seems sometimes while everyone else has nothing to look forward too, we got the guitars.

[Drew68]

Sometimes it can be a real PITA. I'm on a DDG right now, so space is limited any type of moderate to heavy seas makes jamming hard. Even on a carrier, space is pretty limited. On Eisenhower my work center wasn't much bigger than a walk in closet. Of course, we had to share it with other guys who wanted to watch TV and play video games during downtime. The only thing we don't have to deal with are heavy seas. Carriers are so damn big you feel like you're on land most of the time. Only the worst seas are noticeable.

[Drew68]

There's gotta be more TGP'ers serving.

Here's a bump for night check.

[The Golden Boy]

Just manning the post at Fort Living Room.

[Frankee]

I was in the USAF. Stationed at an RAF base in the UK. Good times! There were plenty of guitars floating around, and plenty of guys around to jam with.....even though we were in a very rural area. I think the relative isolation of the base made it so that everybody really looked forward to our little off-duty sessions. We regularly took over the the pub on both sides of the gate. Being the only muso among the handfull of Yanks on base made it doubly fun for me, as the Limeys would always seek me out.......

[dstinkyb]

To this day, I am still not sure what a Limey is.

[Rik]

To this day, I am still not sure what a Limey is.


As it turns out, the term (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entries/37/l0173700.html) "limey" originally applied to British sailors. In the 17th and 18th centuries, sailors suffered terribly from scurvy (http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2073.htm), a condition caused by a lack of vitamin C. Vitamin C (http://www.becomehealthynow.com/glossary/vitamin_cbh.htm) comes mainly from fresh fruits and vegetables, but these foods aren't exactly easy to come by when you're at sea for months at a time. So the Royal Navy prescribed lime juice (http://askabiologist.asu.edu/research/scurvy/) for all sailors to help ward off scurvy -- hence the appellation "limeys (http://www.coolname.com/pipermail/maplepost-mirror/2004-January/019016.html)." As often happens, the term eventually lost its original context and was applied to all British, whether sailors or landlubbers.

[devilrob1979]

Just manning the post at Fort Living Room.

I'm manning the Marine Detatchment in Fort Living Room, Camp Couch.

[dstinkyb]

Thanks Rik for the info, are you prior military? I could see myself having a conversation with someone on my ship and they would just happen to know that fact. If I wasn't in the Navy, the amount of odd information I have heard would be close to nothing I think.

[thirstypirate]

Of course, we had to share it with other guys who wanted to watch TV and play video games during downtime.

I know what you mean, we always seem to be competeing with people who want to watch "Bad Boys 2" for the 30th time in the space. Most of the time the other guys in the division are pretty cool about letting us take over the space and do our thing. A lot of them have taken up learing and instrument and hang out and try to pick up on stuff. It's been a really good musical learning environment this whole cruise.

On my first deployment I was the only guitar player and people would bitch like crazy that they couldn't play Xbox when I was practicing. Not a good learning environment. The Xbox has been lonely this time around and I've gotten quite a bit better in my playing.

[unoguitar]

Former Navy here: Brought my Les Paul along on a couple of Med deployments, but not usually on the shorter cruises. I was a Div-O so I had plenty of personal space (stateroom) but I jammed with the younger guys, the deck sailors who were able to keep their gear in one of my divisional work spaces. I taught them some dinosaur rock and they showed me some metal, which I learned an appreciation for through them.
We spent some maintenance time in Marseille for a couple of weeks pre-Persian Gulf. One of the guys, an EM, was able to find a set of drums for sale through a local's classified ad , went to make the purchase and brought them back to ship via a train and public bus ride! Incidentally the CO was very supportive of "the band" and had them (w/o me) play at the "steel beach" picnics.

[dstinkyb]

I wish me and thirstypirate we're lucky enough to find a drummer, but I think if it's meant to be, we'll find one.

[Alvis]

I was an ET,but that was about 15 years ago

[thirstypirate]

I was an ET,but that was about 15 years ago

IMO It's not a bad gig compared to some other rates. I'm a Radar ET. What type were you?

[Heritage]

I used to be an Army Infantry officer. I took my '72 tele deluxe RI with me to Bosnia... got to jam with Danni Leigh and her band when she came through on a USO tour.

Small world! I lived with Danni and her band from January to March this year. I was playing lead guitar. I met them 2 years ago in Europe while the country band I was in toured the EU.

Thanks for the service guys!

Scott

[Alvis]

IMO It's not a bad gig compared to some other rates. I'm a Radar ET. What type were you?

I was in the USCG for 7 years .Most of my time as an ET was spent workin on 10k watt tube radio transmitters.I got to know what a plate ,grid & bias meant ,pretty well

[Kingbeegtrs]

www.guitarsforvets.org

[thirstypirate]

I was in the USCG for 7 years .Most of my time as an ET was spent workin on 10k watt tube radio transmitters.I got to know what a plate ,grid & bias meant ,pretty well

I don't work on radios very often but my other guitar player friend on a different ship never gets away from those things.

I remember a lot of the concepts I was learing back in ET school were easier to grasp since I was a guitar player. Most of our gear has very simple designs when you compare it to some of the other stuff you run into in the miltary.

I also goes the other way. A good chunk of the stuff I've learned here has taken some of the mysteries out of how my gear works. Being an ET is great for a musician.

[Rock Johnson]

Small world! I lived with Danni and her band from January to March this year. I was playing lead guitar. I met them 2 years ago in Europe while the country band I was in toured the EU.

Thanks for the service guys!

Scott

Thanks for comin' over to see us. Turns out Danni grew up not far from me in Virginia. She's way cool.

[thirstypirate]

www.guitarsforvets.org (http://www.guitarsforvets.org)


Just got a tee-shirt and made a donation.