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- Joe_D

They sure cleaned up the place, Last time I was there it still had the carcasses of some M60's down range and the grass sure wasn't manicured like that.
Joe D

Tell it, Brother....
Back "in the day", it was totally unmanicured and there was a pretty good pond going there in the low spot where the Porter River tended to innundate the left half of the range from 1/3 to 1/2 way down. And it was downright reedy and overgrown over most of it's 1875 meter length. I recall one or two hard targets that we never used...being as we always shot at 9' x 9' burlap panels with circles for statistical measurements during testing.

Dontos explained to me that they keep the ranges better manicured because it maximizes training time when they don't have to put out range fires due to live fire ignitions, which makes sense.

Back during the AN/VSS-1(2) searchlight test, I spent a few hours all the way downrange in a jeep awaiting a slow drive back (trying to evade detection) when the fog set in....and it could get downright spooky down there in foggy pitch blackness...and I was not long back from running night ambushes in Vietnam. Maybe it was being unarmed that done it, but you could see Sasquatch creeping around after a while in the MFO wilderness with nothing to do....

hey y'all! hello don, mark, doug. we had a great time. thank you to all of those who extended their hospitality and made us feel welcome.
i enjoyed everything, even the heat, it seems to have followed me back home. to gunny i give a big "semper fi, mac!", i enjoyed meeting you and all but #$%%^........... no sweat, couldnt have asked for more.
hopefully no harm done.

mark, i see you posted the pic. the man even saluted me, nice salute too, but i dont think so, i guess he will salute anybody.
don, i see you posted the evidence!

Hi Folks!

- SHAWN

mark, i see you posted the pic. the man even saluted me, nice salute too, but i dont think so, i guess he will salute anybody.
don, i see you posted the evidence!

Hey Shawn! Don't be so hard on the Gunny. R. Lee Ermey is a REAL Marine.

He did 11 years with the Corps and was medically retired in 1971 as a Staff Sergeant. Did one tour in Vietnam and one tour as a Drill Instructor. While some of his actions on Mail Call are a bit over the top, a lot of that is the way Drill Instructors were back in my day (13 weeks May-July 1964). He used his G.I. bill to go to acting school and has been at that ever sense. He has been in a lot of movies and TV shows during the passed 25 years.

As to why he calls himself a Gunnery Sergeant on Mail Call. As I understand it, R. Lee does a lot of things to promote the Corps and help individual Marines. Because of that, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (that would be the number one, top ranking general in the Marines) appointed him a Honorary Gunnery Sergeant.

Sure wished I could have joined you all. I for one would love to meet R. Lee. I like the way he supports all the military branchs on his show.
USMC May 1964 to May 1968, Pvt E-1 to Sgt E-5, SEMPER FI!
Sgt, Scouts Out!

hello roy,
yes, i know. sorry, if i sounded so negative. i can remember seeing him way back in that movie that was called "the boys of company c" (???). he had bee a drill instructor. he was promoting every chance he got while talking to the public there at the patton museum.
(as far as acting, he could have passed on the "texas chainsaw massacre"...)
it was nice to meet him.

I thought he got his start in one of the 'Big' Vietnam movies. As I remember it he was supposed to be helping an actor who was supposed to play the DI and when the director saw him 'instructing' a recruit decided to use the actor in another role and cast Ermey in the role.

I can't remember the name of the movie but I can see the scene in my head right now.

So Don - you let him get in your Ontos?

- bsmart

I thought he got his start in one of the 'Big' Vietnam movies. As I remember it he was supposed to be helping an actor who was supposed to play the DI and when the director saw him 'instructing' a recruit decided to use the actor in another role and cast Ermey in the role.

I can't remember the name of the movie but I can see the scene in my head right now.

"Full Metal Jacket", not his start but the role is most famous for.

IMDB link with his film credits and biography.

www.imdb.com/name/nm0000388/bio

I was trying to get a picture of this cherry WC24 and these two rubberneckers kept getting in my shot. I didn't catch their names, but there was a lot of drawl about a "dontos" and "tumbleweed" that kept spilling out of their mouths like so many grits....



I did solve one mystery, Don...sort of...the story of the FT-17 and which one was in front of the old museum in '71. The turrets of these two obviously match because of the pock marks on the left side that the other one doesn't have. BUT....suddenly, one of the driver's hatch handles has gone missing and I think those wheels are different. If I had to guess, I'd say there has been some parts swapping going on to fit them out for display...(the other current exhibit has it's drivers' hatch doors open and there IS a handle on the left side one...the right side out of view in my pics)





Here's one for the old timers.....

An exhibit that's fallen on "hard times"....

Nice composition, Dontos.

Only about 50-60 years separate these photos....