Man, I miss that Thompson machine gun I last had in my hands shooting off the fantail of the U.S.S. Darby, DE, during the 1967/68 period. Transferred t subs from surface division, that ended the fun. But, before the crew was to go to GIMO to join Fleet exercises, they gave us our tetnenus shot in the right arm, them boarded us on buses and sent us to Mac Dill A.F. Base shooting range in Tampa to "burn up" the old ammo stored in the magazine, so we could get "new ammo" issued to us.

We were shooting Garands, 30-06's as you know, and we first qualified, no problem, then, the ammo cases just got stacked higher and higher and the tetenus shot made the shooting shoulder very painful. It got to where we just aimed downrage at the target, squeezed off the rounds till the famous "ping" sounded and grabbed a moment of rest from shooting.

We were so relieved, when the honchos started TRADING 30-06 hard ball for Air Force .45 cal. for pistols. We were glad we didn't have to shoot the rest up. I still recall that day.  Our arms were hamburger, cycling hundreds of rounds out of a Garand isn't pleasant when you have no adrenalin running to make you "not feel the recoil."

Went from the Darby, to the famous U.S.S. SEALION, by then converted to a "Seal Boat." She was a beautiful WWII PIGBOAT that sweated like you wouldn't believe at 300 ft. down, lol. We used to put out coffee cans in the Yeoman's shack to "protect" the IBM Selectric typewriter.

Those were the days....