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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Military / I Normally Avoid These Things

I Normally Avoid These Things

by John Cole|  May 27, 20139:06 pm| 48 Comments

This post is in: Military

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But I think I am going to head to Fort Knox this weekend for a military reunion with my old friends. It’s been twenty years, and I really want to see them all before any more die off.

Kind of curious to check out Ft. Knox, too, because I was just dazed and confused and out of it the last time I was there for OSUT.

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48Comments

  1. 1.

    JWL

    May 27, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    Before they “die off”?

    Shit, Cole, you make it sound like you’re pushing 80.

    Cheer the fuck up while there’s still time.

  2. 2.

    mouse tolliver

    May 27, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    Convenient cover story. But I know what this is really about. Operation Grand Slam.

  3. 3.

    pat

    May 27, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    Will you be off the grid then? Just wondering…

    (I love your posts. They keep this place going.)

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 27, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    Are you going to go off the grid when you go there? Cause that would be high-lair-ee-us.

  5. 5.

    Doug Milhous J

    May 27, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    What if Nick Cage bursts in and tries to steal all the gold?

    I just hope everyone is armed.

  6. 6.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 27, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    Damn, looks like I owe Pat a beverage.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 27, 2013 at 9:15 pm

    @Doug Milhous J: Does he still have that IRS “problem”?

  8. 8.

    David Koch

    May 27, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    be on the look out for Puzzy Galore

  9. 9.

    Doug Milhous J

    May 27, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yes, he was singled out by the IRS because of his Paultard activities. Chicago style politics.

  10. 10.

    Crusty Dem

    May 27, 2013 at 9:21 pm

    @mouse tolliver:

    I’m not clicking, because I assume its a Denny’s commercial.

  11. 11.

    Comrade Jake

    May 27, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    WTF Cole? How many have died so far?

  12. 12.

    Yatsuno

    May 27, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    @Doug Milhous J: Trust me, the sucky acting was reason enough.

  13. 13.

    pat

    May 27, 2013 at 9:25 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Any good red wine will do, thanks.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:27 pm

    @Crusty Dem: Goldfinger.

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 27, 2013 at 9:33 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s one Bond movie I have seen.

  16. 16.

    pattonbt

    May 27, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    I was probably there at the same time as you and in the same training (tanks – 19K), yet I have no desire to ever go back. The Army did me a whole hell of a lot of good (and I was safely ensconced at Ft Carson in Colorado Springs for Desert Storm), but I like it as it is for me now; a semi-fond-ish memory of yore. No need to re-visit and remember the actual sucky bits. I like my slightly revisionist happy memories as they are.

    And, seriously, “before any more die off’? WTF?

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: It is a classic.

  18. 18.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    Went to the 45th reunion of my outfit a couple of weeks back. It was good.

  19. 19.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:35 pm

    @pattonbt: I was in the Disney barracks in 1967.

  20. 20.

    Citizen_X

    May 27, 2013 at 9:36 pm

    @mouse tolliver: First he posts a picture of himself looking suspiciously like Auric Goldfinger, now he announces a “reunion” (of trained combat vets) at Fort Knox. Connect the dots, sheeple!

  21. 21.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:37 pm

    @raven: I did Basic at Knox before I went to OCS. I was in lovely WWII “temporary” barracks.

  22. 22.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yep, I volunteered to be a “fireman”. Little did I know that it meant I had to be on a detail that kept the coal furnaces burning in them during the insane blizzard of 67. That was an object lesson in not volunteering for shit.

  23. 23.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:42 pm

    Here’s what a bunch of dogfaces look like 45 years after.

  24. 24.

    mouse tolliver

    May 27, 2013 at 9:43 pm

    @Citizen_X: And we hardly ever see his face. But a picture of that big white cat is posted right at the top of the page. OK, so Blofeld has the cat, not Goldfinger. But still fits the Bond villain profile.

  25. 25.

    John Cole

    May 27, 2013 at 9:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Those barracks were where Stripes was filmed. The big hall where ll the Stripes cast went and we had the iconic “How’s it going Eisenhower” from John Candy to John Larroquette was in the same building where all the new recruits went for orientation before waiting a week or two to be put in basic training units at Disney Barracks. I remember laughing when I went there.

  26. 26.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    @raven: I was there Dec 87 – Feb 88. They had upgraded the furnaces by then. We only had coal stoves in the warming tents out at the range.

  27. 27.

    John Cole

    May 27, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was there in 1990.

  28. 28.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    @John Cole: Disney was two or three story block right?

    yep, here it is

    https://worldoftanks.com/dcont/fb/imagesforarticles/chieftains_hatch/knoxghosts/old46in.jpg

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    May 27, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    Ask your formerly married comrades for contact info on their exes. You’re in the age range where “stable job, owns his own home, has pets he dotes on, willing to deal with teenagers” starts to look better than “hot bod, bad attitude, and it will tee people off”. Take advantage while you can!

    Of course some of the exes will turn out to be genuinely crazy/destructive, but the way you’ve been whinging lately, a little upheaval in your routine might be useful.

  30. 30.

    Chris

    May 27, 2013 at 9:46 pm

    @mouse tolliver:

    I have never been to Fort Knox, but I’ve made a resolution that if I ever do, I’ll buy the Goldfinger soundtrack first and blast it as I drive through.

  31. 31.

    John Cole

    May 27, 2013 at 9:48 pm

    @raven: That made me cringe.

  32. 32.

    burnspbesq

    May 27, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    My grandfather lived in those barracks during WW2. He was already in his 30s with four kids when the war started, and he was a cop in real life, so they made him an MP and assigned him to Fort Knox instead of putting him in-theater.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    @John Cole: Yeah, every time I see that movie, it brings back memories. I spent a few days in the lovely reception center barracks as well. IIRC it was where we were issued uniforms and taught how to line up in formation, etc.

  34. 34.

    Tokyokie

    May 27, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    So let us know whether Odd Job’s derby is still stuck in the bars of the vault door.

  35. 35.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Not those diesel things we had in Korea huh?

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 27, 2013 at 9:56 pm

    @raven: We had something like that in Germany, but my NCOs had enough sense to keep me away from them. They just made the interior of the tent warm enough that the ground turned to mud but did nothing to warm people.

  37. 37.

    raven

    May 27, 2013 at 9:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And they didn’t last all night so someone had to get up and restart the damn thing.You put a little piece of burning paper on the plate inside and pumped the thing on the side of the jerry can. Diesel smell will haunt me forever.

  38. 38.

    cyntax

    May 27, 2013 at 9:59 pm

    I Normally Avoid These Things…

    Really? Social gatherings? People? That’s so surprising.

  39. 39.

    Lolis

    May 27, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    That is incredibly rude.

  40. 40.

    Crusty Dem

    May 27, 2013 at 10:27 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Playing it straight? I am disappointed…

  41. 41.

    Narcissus

    May 27, 2013 at 11:06 pm

    So after 007 converted Pussy Galore back to the baloney-pony, what happened to her elite cadre of lesbian pilots?

  42. 42.

    mclaren

    May 27, 2013 at 11:12 pm

    Were you at Fort Knox when that guy with the funny name tried to blow it up with an atomic bomb?

    Just curious.

  43. 43.

    Redshirt

    May 27, 2013 at 11:37 pm

    I was at Fort Knox like 10 years or ago – the vault itself does not seem impressive from the outside. The base itself is very nice.

    Don’t take pictures! I saw the MP’s busing some Japanese tourists.

  44. 44.

    M. Bouffant

    May 28, 2013 at 4:41 am

    @mouse tolliver: Just saw Goldfinger last night, or Saturday night, whatever. First thing I thought of when I saw “Ft.Knox.”

  45. 45.

    M. Bouffant

    May 28, 2013 at 4:45 am

    @raven:
    Why do those guys grow the Aryan Brotherhood/Fu Manchu ‘staches? Seriously, I only see those on cons, ex-cons, ‘Nam vets & David Crosby.

  46. 46.

    Tern

    May 28, 2013 at 6:36 am

    You will find that Ft Knox has really changed. Since the Armor School eas moved to Ft Benning and HRC moved in, the whole mentality has changed. Many upgrades made on post, lots of old buildings tore down and new buildings put in place, all in the last 5 years or so. The post will be largely unrecognizeable to you.

  47. 47.

    Redleg

    May 28, 2013 at 11:58 am

    John,
    I was at Ft. Knox back in 1985 for Basic Training. I’m sure I wouldn’t recognize the place because I pretty much kept my head down for the 8 weeks I was there.

  48. 48.

    pseudonymous in nc

    May 28, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    I passed by Ft Knox ages back when driving out of Louisville by the “scenic” route: yeah, because of Goldfinger. I remember a lot of strip malls on 31W, check-cashing and payday loans, and it gave me an insight into the parasitical shit that hangs out beside military bases.

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