Tomorrow is another Friday the 13th !!!! (Anything to avoid more crap about the market and the virus!)
I got engaged on a Friday the 13th in 1980. Married on a 13th. But the following is my somewhat long winded tale of quite another 13th.
On August 13, 1982, at Fort Drum, I sent out a crew of one of my six Army Reserve howitzers for what was then called a roving gun. They would recon, select, occupy and establish a position (RSOP) away from our main battery location and fire a mission from there. As they pulled away, my mechanic comes walking over to tell me that he had just totaled my jeep by running into the back of a water buffalo (trailer for you guys who never played for Uncle.) Thirty minutes later my Fire Direction Officer comes running over to tell me that battalion claims the roving gun fired out, beyond the safety limits imposed for the impact area, a definitely bad thing. No one hurt, the round impacted on the border, but I decided, with Range control clearance, to recall the roving gun, which promptly flips in the loose shale and turtles on its return to our location. I hop in the Executive Officer's (XO) jeep (our last one) along with the first sergeant and XO, to get to the flipped over howitzer. Despite it only being a 105(mm), the crew could not flip it back onto its wheels so the three of us added our weight and got it back over. My XO looks at me and asks me what time it is. I looked at him funny as he definitely already knew. It was almost one fifteen, or '1313' funny time. He then prompted me to count how many of us there were out there and of course, there were 13 of us on site, my having sent a few extras to do the roving gun exercise.
and no, it was not a "career-ender" but I will always take note of this date. August 13, 1982 was a Friday.
anyone else with tales of triskaidekaphobia ?
I got engaged on a Friday the 13th in 1980. Married on a 13th. But the following is my somewhat long winded tale of quite another 13th.
On August 13, 1982, at Fort Drum, I sent out a crew of one of my six Army Reserve howitzers for what was then called a roving gun. They would recon, select, occupy and establish a position (RSOP) away from our main battery location and fire a mission from there. As they pulled away, my mechanic comes walking over to tell me that he had just totaled my jeep by running into the back of a water buffalo (trailer for you guys who never played for Uncle.) Thirty minutes later my Fire Direction Officer comes running over to tell me that battalion claims the roving gun fired out, beyond the safety limits imposed for the impact area, a definitely bad thing. No one hurt, the round impacted on the border, but I decided, with Range control clearance, to recall the roving gun, which promptly flips in the loose shale and turtles on its return to our location. I hop in the Executive Officer's (XO) jeep (our last one) along with the first sergeant and XO, to get to the flipped over howitzer. Despite it only being a 105(mm), the crew could not flip it back onto its wheels so the three of us added our weight and got it back over. My XO looks at me and asks me what time it is. I looked at him funny as he definitely already knew. It was almost one fifteen, or '1313' funny time. He then prompted me to count how many of us there were out there and of course, there were 13 of us on site, my having sent a few extras to do the roving gun exercise.
and no, it was not a "career-ender" but I will always take note of this date. August 13, 1982 was a Friday.
anyone else with tales of triskaidekaphobia ?
