Hard to believe this was 50 years ago…
Still the best feel good story, I think, out of Vietnam, and probably the ultimate beer run!
Sadly, stuff like that will never happen again due to the ‘changes’ in policy and the zero tolerance mentality…
Personally, I’m glad there weren’t any cellphones and very few with cameras back when I was on active duty. I ‘think’ the statute of limitations is out on everything we did…
I think… 🙂
I think we’re safe. Now.
Why am I not surprised the idea came from a bunch of drunk Irishmen from NYC? I wouldn’t be shocked to find out he related to my mom’s side of the family. Hooligans as my grandma would say but with a smile on her lips.
Sadly, nobody will know about the next great beer run because the weak-at-heart hopliphobes would freak out to find out that, yes, there is alcohol in that supposedly ‘dry’ unit in that supposedly ‘dry’ country.
This keyed up an old recall. In the early sixties (’59 thru ’63)
whenever we/us/them were heading back to NASJAX from Rosy it was
customary to drop back in to the liquor store on St. Thomas (may have been St. John) that was the size of a present day Walmart. Nothing inside but beer, wine and liquor. A fifth of Jack Daniel’s was $2, Crown Royal $5 or $6. Cases filled the fuselage, even the bomb bay was loaded. When back at the flight line in JAX, jeeps and trucks appeared out of nowhere to help us unload our ‘cargo’.
I believe the Navy would call that an UNREP. 🙂 Underway replenishment for you non-swabbies.
Dang, what a crew. There’s always that one crazy guy from the neighborhood that finds a way to do this. Great story.
After the policy changes in the 70s-80s, nothing was the same. Used to be able to buy beer from the building’s vending machines. Bummer.
Rev- Maybe…
Gerry- LOL, possible…
Beans- ‘Things’ happen!
Bob- Oh hell yes, I flew out of NASJAX in the 70s and 80s, we were STILL doing that!
PK- That it is! And yes, we used to have beer machines in the barracks.
Nam was a lifetime ago. I was there from Jan 68 to Jan 69. The world was different back then. What you could say and do was completely different than today. Most of what we did and said would get us fined and probably jailed today. I think that if I had a chance to go back I would jump at the chance. This world we are living in is not as free as it once was. Count this Viet Vet as not happy in this New World Order Dystopia we are heading into.
During my tenure with VP18 out of NASJAX, we (all aircrewmen ) were constantly hammered with the cusswords “50 years”, which meant that you were not allowed to talk about our ASW activities (especially the Cuban Missile Crisis) for 50 years. When my enlistment was up and I’m walking out the hanger doors, the last voice I heard coming out of the intel office was “50 years”. That 50 years was up in 2013.
BC: Spill the beans, man! They can’t do anything to you now. Legally…
Around the end of the 70s (1980-ish? I forget), I walked into my living room to hear Paul Bloom on Channel Two News intone “There is no truth to the rumor of Cuban blah blah” I blurted out “That’s not true! I saw the sat photos myself. Um, nevermind.” Oops. Roomies eyes got kinda big.
You’re right Robert. The media file about the Cuban Missile Crisis is wrong. Even the historians that have that time as a 2 week danger zone are wrong. A few weeks prior to President Kennedy’s TV announcement about the missiles detected, my squadron deployed three aircraft, including mine, down to Boca Chica field in Key West to begin patrolling the Cuban Coast.
That patrol activity continued up to and beyond Kennedy’s disclosure. Castro wanted war with the United States, especially after the Soviets and Cuba began holding hands and he had Krucheve(sp) to fight it for him. That time frame was big ugly. I was in the ECM seat once watching a fire control radar watching us when all at once that radar did a lock on. As you know the next step was for us to turn in on that radar site and take it out. I called flight and told him what was going down, expecting him to turn inland and take it out which would have triggered a nuclear exchange between us and them that would have made earth a dead planet. But that pilot did a smart thing and decided to stay at the 12 mile line off shore. There were many other acts (some committed by us) during those weeks of extreme danger.
The ‘best'(?) such run I personally know of was when the Canadians who were part of a fTX at a certain PNW island that Old may or may not have still been stationed – at decided the weak American beer was undrinkable. They detached a couple of their patrol boats to make the short run to Victoria for ‘necessary’ supplies. Likely not in the same league………….