Due to a children's show (1987-1991), it is nearly impossible for a UH-60 landing to impress me.
(AH-64s and OH-6s tend to pick up the slack, though)

Actually, I'm only assuming it was a children's show because I watched it when I was like... four.

I hear ya, brother! I've been on 15 Air Assault operations on UH-1 and one on a UH-60. All training Ops. I once watched a pair of AH-64s and an OH-58D shoot up some targets in a Capabilities Life Fire Exercise (CALFEX).

I forgot to mention. One time I did a STABO insertion/Extraction training/familiarization event that was pretty fun. That was beneath a UH-60. The pilots dunked us in the Chattahoochee River for fun. LOL

Watch this video. STABO is the second half of the video (0:50).

I'm more a fan of the McGuire rig, myself... at least for emergency through-canopy extractions of entire fireteams.

It's not the safest way to lift a person, but sometimes it's better than waiting for something perfect to show up in the form of a box.

I'm more a fan of the McGuire rig, myself... at least for emergency through-canopy extractions of entire fireteams.

It's not the safest way to lift a person, but sometimes it's better than waiting for something perfect to show up in the form of a box.

Can't say I've ever seen the McGuire rig before. We had this nylon webbed harness that went over the shoulders and between the legs with a belted piece around the mid section with a chest harness. Two D-rings were mounted on the shoulder portion. The 100' length of rope dangling off the Blackhawk was split as a Y at the bottom. Each end of that Y-shaped portion had a snap hook, which was then tied into the D-rings on our shoulders. Additionally we had a length of rope that tied all four of us together. In case one man's rope was cut, the other three would pick up his weight. Since it happened about 30 years ago, I have no idea what the name of the harness. The only suggestion we were given was to stuff a towel inside our trousers between our legs because the weight of the world rests on your nuts. It was true and even though with the towel between our legs it was not comfortable, but I'm sure it was better than having just the nylon webbing down there.

I read your second link about the LRRSD NCO going on an Aerial recon with the Bird Dog pilot. That was a good read. Best line in that article is right here, "I squeezed my testicles out of my boots and back into place as he came around for a landing." I laughed when I read that.

I'm sure the SF community still uses the STABO rig I used 30 years ago, but they tend to use the fast rope more often than the ladder as described in that article. If you have watched, "Blackhawk Down", that was the technique the Rangers used to insert at their Cordon points. PFC Blackburn exited his Helo without touching the rope. Hard to believe he survived that op.

In the video below, a detachment of green beanies execute a fast rope insertion from the back of a CH-47 "Shit Hook" at an elevation of 10' during the daytime (3:45) and at night (5:50) then again from a UH-60 at night (7:00)



I have never done fast roping from a helicopter.

I currently feel like I'm dying due to this cold I have.

@Gunther Personally, the closest thing I've used was the rescue-hitch of 1940's design from scouting (yes, it's still taught to this day)... fitted for a larger/smaller person because people were too lazy to re-adjust the knot for each person...

Which meant that rather than distributed evenly along 4 points like a STABO, it either crushed you nuts, squeezed your ribcage, janked your armpits, or chaffed your thighs... Oh, and you usually had the running-end of the rope literally in your face to the point strands of oily manilla were getting caught in your teeth.

Properly fitted, it wears quite a bit like a normal climbing/zipline harness (albeit the hitch itself is nearly fifteen pounds of rope with not much besides friction holding it up when not being lifted; and again, if the loops are too big, it's like wearing trousers fifteen sizes too big, filled with rocks).

If you can't tell, I hate this particular hitch with a burning passion, as it is needlessly complicated for what it does (3 non-slip loops, easily adjustable, from a single strand of rope) and there are a multitude of alternatives that have since been developed. Many of which I find quite a lot more comfortable and/or harder to make it so it doesn't fit.
^{For example, sitting in a single bowline loop is by far more comfortable than getting yanked by the ribcage alone with the thigh loops dangling loose by your ankles}

@Foster I know we have met before; chatted in some RP OOC thread. I just can't recall what it was about or when. :/

@Gunther Probably some mercenary RP. Be it eccentric half-breed Tolkien-verse lancer, chinese fighter-pilot, or something involving mechas.
-Possibly zombies.

There was a nation-RP where everyone caught Ender trying to get bypass the game-rules with mercenaries that didn't exist.

Oh, right... random facts...

Star Trek: The Final Frontier hadn't come out yet when I was born and the Cold War wasn't over until 1998.
(Fall of Soviet Union was NOT the end... in '93 the Russians were still blowing up their own capitol... the chances of someone making a hasty move with a nuclear payload were high; it was only in hindsight do we realize all the General Rippers of the Soviet Union were sent to gulag)

I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1987. Were you alive then, @Foster?

@Gunther I was born that Septmber.

Fun fact: If you're born before the ambulance arrives, the newborn counts as a second eleven pound occupant on you bill.

Then they put you into quarantine until your parents can find a nurse willing to bust you out.
^{That sorta made news headlines... it was a slow day... still, the details managed to fill-out 3 columns}

-Not so much a fact about myself, but a longtime next door nieghbor was apparently part of the 32nd div sent to New Guinea (contracted malaria sometime around early 1943, but at least he wasn't part of the Janesville tank detachment)... In fact... a lot of my next door nieghbors were either veterans, teachers, or both.
^{This is what happens when you grow up ten blocks from the VFW. _{Not quite an army-brat, but close.}}

I think of my dogs as my little siblings. The one time that someone told them, "You be good for your daddy!" when referring to me, my initial reaction was (in my head), "Lady, that's my baby brother and baby sister."

@Gunther I was born that Septmber.

September, 1987, I was a brand new Rifle Platoon Leader, A Company, 2nd Battalion, 104th Infantry. If you live near 32nd Infantry Division veterans from WWII, then you must live in Wisconsin. ;)

<Snipped quote by Foster>September, 1987, I was a brand new Rifle Platoon Leader, A Company, 2nd Battalion, 104th Infantry. If you live near 32nd Infantry Division veterans from WWII, then you must live in Wisconsin. ;)

Darn-skippy I do!

They were the first Nat'l Gaurd unit to be issued tactical nuclear artillery back when the launch codes (if there was one) was "00000000" and two blank keys (could substitute a flathead screwdriver or pocket-knife in an emergency).
^{Okay, the part about the keys being blanks I made up, but it kinda sounds like something they'd have done}

>Been to Ft McCoy once or twice.

I like socks.

I have an awesome villain line that'll become mine despite originally being Mad King Ryan Haywood's line... I'll probably work for Achievement Hunter soon so I might get a pass...

I like socks.

Due to its plurality, "socks" is spelled with five letters.

I generally prefer to write my characters, where possible, as anti-villains; individuals who have positive if not outright good ends and or ideals but achieve them in less than noble regards. They are considered antagonists for the reason that they still do terrible things, often to the frustrations of the protagonists, as to be expected, all while having a sense of morality, dignity, and honor. They retain that element that makes them noble. For myself, usually this manifests as characters who are generally neither good nor evil, just somewhere dangerously nebulous in between. Contrarily, I have very difficult time writing traditionally heroic or even just protagonist characters who are regarded as traditionally "good".

oh man! I have so many fleas on my bed. I've tried everything. flea traps (using heat lamps). diatomaceous earth powder (supposed to kill fleas by dehydrating them)… didn't work. I've tried sleeping elsewhere for a couple of weeks, but when I come back to where I normally sleep, the fleas return.
I also tried washing my bed sheets, but the fleas return (but in fewer numbers)

the only thing I haven't tried is washing my bed sheets every single week. I think i'm going to do that
and if that doesn't work... i'll try boric acid powder, which is supposed to be another type of flea powder.
and if none of this works... then i'm gonna go hire a professional

My second toe is longer than my big toe, and I find it weird-looking.

I think about my ongoing roleplays during the day way more than I should.