Famous Quotations of the Fighting 511th
24 January 2011 • by Bob • Military
In part 3 of this series about the 511th MI Company, we'll take a look at some common quotes that were said by several members of the 511th, although this list is obviously not exhaustive. These particular phrases were compiled by members of the EW platoons during one of our field problems, although it's been so many years I don't recall which one. ;-]
- "Not!" - J.J. Simmons
- (Anything J.J. says) - Dave Dodge
- "Figure the odds..." - Tim "Sarge" Meador
- "Easy Psycho" - Scott Smith
- "I've gotta go get the mail" - Frank "Skip" Walker (Whenever work needs to be done)
- "Want to hear a joke? Skip." - James Leamon
- "Well, back on the farm..." - Steve Myers
- "Why is everybody always picking on me?" - Bryant Whitfield (and Charlie Brown)
- "Fred, why haven't you made the coffee yet?" - SGT Morris or SGT Alexander
- "But I don't know my telephone number..." - Rich Aylward
- "This ain't Puerto Rico, Mother @#$%!" - Daniel Nadalaliciea
- "Questions? Comments? War stories?" - LTC Harry K. Lesser
- "Hey Stud!" - CPT MacDonald
- "Punky, you're a failure!" - Duncan Habberly
- "You're right." - James "Punky" Brewster
- "Sup wi dat?" - Larry Blanco
- "Hey Guys!" - Tom Haldeman
- "What's up?" - Alvin Heggie
- "Son of a biscuit eater!" - Dave Paski
- "Listen Geek..." - Bob "Fred" McMurray
- "Word" - J.J. Simmons
- "Did you ever see...(any war movie)?" - SGT D.A. Morris
- "Hey, hey, hey." - Breck Tarr
- "C'mere" - Danny Browning
- "Good stuff." - 1LT Stahl
- "Listen Specialist..." - Bill "SGT" Magan
- "That's special." - Ray Neuharth
- "Thank you, Luigi." - Jerome Robinson
- "Omygod! Omygod! Omygod!" - 1LT Babakan
- "Easy..." - Van Cleave
- "Listen buttface..." - Dave Paski
- "Grow up guys!" - Scott Smith
- "Where's chow?" - SGT Alexander
- "Holy Cow!" - Steve Myers
- "What's up?" - Raul Villareal
- "Don't ask ME!" - Anyone who can get away with it
- "Cool points." - 1LT Stahl
- "But SGT Morris..." - 1LT Innocenti
- "What? Huh?" - Larry Blanco
- "Why?" - Johann "Bahn" Hoff
- "More Follows..." - CPT Quinn
For the future, I have some great lists of famous moments in 511th history, and famous quotations from Hohenfels 1990.
Famous Nicknames of the Fighting 511th
23 January 2011 • by Bob • Military
In part 2 of my series on the 511th MI Company, we'll take a look at some of the nicknames from the 511th that I managed to write down; although I need to stick to my disclaimer that I did not come up with these nicknames - I just took the time to write them down. ;-]
- Captain Caveman - Tim Leavitt
- 10 Pin - Bobby Thanepohn
- Sleazer - Jim Leamon
- Punky - Jim Brewster
- Shaggy, Eugene, and J.J. Not - John Simmons
- Ichabod and Felix - Steve Myers
- Tick - Jim Titkemeyer
- Sarge - Tim Meador
- Schone Frau - Dave Young
- Witless and Grimmace - Bryant Whitfield
- Honkytonk Man - D.A. Morris
- The Duke - Danny Browning
- Heave - Steve Maurer
- Maull and Knoore - Terry Knaul and Tim Moore
- J.D. - John Davis
- Fred and Ernie - Bob McMurray
- Eggdod - Dave Dodge
- Skip - Frank Walker
- Lick and Snaggle Tooth - Rick Irvine
- Van Cheese - Kyle Van Cleave
- Michelin Man, Uncle Fester, Bleu Cheese, and Sta-Puf - Steve Terry
- Degrudge - Dave Degrood
- Mr. Peabody and Mr. Maturity - Scott Smith
- Buffalo Bill - Bill Magan
- The Pegster and Heggster - Alvin Heggie
- Burt - Ramon Ortiz
- Oreo Cookie Man, Roly-Poly and Karlik - Dan Onstead
- Splugie - Eudy
- Hanker - Kent Hawks
- Spaski - Dave Paski
- Nada - Daniel Nadalalicea
- Bhudda - Jeff Morris
- Snorris - Jeff Norris
- Roj - Roger Jordan
- Haystacks - Steve Calhoun
- Bahn - Johann Hoff
- Beaver - 1LT Innocenti
- Uncle Martin - Ken Martin
- Dork - Heath Duerksen
- The Three Amigos - Paski, Fred, and J.J.
- The Fat Boys - Duncan, Skip, and Leamon
- The Three Stooges - Felix, Blanco, and Whitfield
- Bullseye Babbs - 1LT Babakan
- Alfalfa - Rich Aylward
- Spanky - 1LT McNeil
- Darla - Some female 1LT from the 108th that 1LT McNeil was chasing
- LT Stahl and D.A.T. - CPT Stahl
- Don Knots - 1SG Hall
- Smelvin - 1SG Ross
- Chief - CW2 Klebo
- Harry K. - LTC Lesser
- Neily D. - MAJ Bute
- Quinn the Eskimo - MAJ Quinn
- Frank or Bob - Richard Lebron
And my personal favorite:
- The Evil Lord Torak - CW2 Torak
There is one nickname that I wrote down that I didn't post here, and that was for Bill McCollum. I didn't add his nickname to this list because it might not be fit for the public. If you remember his nickname, you can smile about it now. If you don't, that'll remain a secret between the rest of us.
Who did I miss?
10/21/2014 Update - Bullseye Babbs was a 1LT who took over one of the EW platoons. He earned his nickname on one of the M-60 ranges when he failed to understand how his weapon's scopes worked, so instead of throwing rounds 1km downrange like everyone else, he was thoroughly pulverizing the ground about 5-10 feet in front of us; huge amounts of debris were being thrown into the air as everyone was screaming at him to cease fire. (It probably would have been funny if it hadn't been so dangerous.)
03/14/2018 Update - Terry Knaul dropped me a line to let me know that I had his name listed incorrectly; my apologies, and that has been fixed.
Famous Callsigns of the Fighting 511th
22 January 2011 • by Bob • Military
Over the 3.5 years that I spent in the Fulda Gap with the 511th MI Company, I collected and saved a lot of the stories and lists that the EW and TCAE teams put together. All of this nostalgic trivia is twenty years old now, but it still makes me laugh when I think about the people and times that it represents. Of course, this is mostly a collection of inside jokes with the people that were there.
So this will be part one of a series, and I should point out that I did not create this information - I just took the time to write it down. ;-]
- Bleu Cheese - Steve Terry
- Red Chief - Chief Klebo
- Red Stool - Alvin Heggie (With a case of local sickness in Turkey)
- White Spank - Lt. McNiel
- Blue Babs - Lt. Babakan
- Blue Lips - Dan Nadalalicea (aka Davy Crockett)
- Blue Popeye - David Alexander
- Snow White - Dave Paski
- Black Sheep, Blue Honk, or Blue Mustang - D.A. Morris
- The D.J. - Mike Tabbert
- Blue Grimmace - Bryant Whitfield
- Blue Shag - J.J. Simmons
- White Duke - Danny Browning
- Blue Ears - Dave Degrood
- Blue Alf - Rich Aylward
- Blue Geek - Bob "Fred" McMurray
- White Whine - Scott Smith
- Red Whine - Jeff Norris
- The Wacky World of Cartoon Characters - The 511th Jammers
- Blue Bahn - Johan Hoff
- Blue Beaver - 1LT Innocenti
UPDATE: While these were not entirely unique, we often used the following color-coded generic callsigns when we were on recon assignments where only one radio entity was present from each of the different platoons:
- Whitesnake
- Black Sabbath
- Red Rider
- Blue Oyster Cult
Replacing a Military Radio - The Hard Way
04 January 2011 • by Bob • Humor, Military
Many years ago - more years than I would care to admit - I spent eight years in the Army as a 98G Voice Intercept Operator, which is a long title for someone that spends a lot of time listening to what other people are saying, taking notes, and then telling someone else what was being said. I won't go into any more details about what I did for a living, but for several years I was stationed in Fulda, Germany, where I was a member of the 511th Military Intelligence Company, which was attached to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
My fellow soldiers and I spent a lot of time hiding in the forests along what was then the border between East and West Germany, which is where the conditions were generally the best for our line of work. During the day we used an AN/TRQ-32(V) Radio Receiving Set, which we affectionately called the "Turkey 32."
The Turkey 32 was my favorite piece of equipment, and it's primarily used for direction finding operations. (Which means "locating the bad guys.") The only trouble with the Turkey 32 was - it used a great deal of fuel, and its generator was horribly loud, so at night we would shut down the Turkey 32 and use our AN/TRQ-30 Manpack Radio Receiving Set to continue our listening activities... which we called the "Turkey 30."
These radios were left over from a bygone era in the distant past - like the Korean War, or maybe the Civil War - so they were really starting to show their age. One of our radios was falling apart - literally. The knobs on the face panel kept falling off, the reception was terrible, the tuner barely moved, etc. I knew that my Turkey 30 was on its last legs and was in dire need of some kind of emergency maintenance, so one day I hauled my Turkey 30 to our Circuits & Electronics (C&E) office to see what my options were. (I was secretly hoping that C&E would replace the radio, but I was almost certain that it would simply spend a few weeks in the shop for repairs.) I had a good friend who was working in C&E that day, SP4 Villarreal, and he replied that as long as the radio was working, there was nothing that he could do about it.
So I started to pack up the radio, and I was probably muttering something about the fact that I had no idea how long it would take for the radio to eventually die, when Villarreal stopped me and said, "Perhaps you weren't paying attention, so listen to me very closely this time - we can't fix it, but if it doesn't work then we can replace it."
And suddenly - the light bulb turned on.
I blissfully carried the Turkey 30 back to our platoon office in the 511th building and announced to everyone, "Gentlemen, this radio has to die - today." So we spent the next hour or so having a contest to see who could throw the Turkey 30 the furthest from the 2nd-story window where our platoon office was located. After everyone had made their share of attempts at breaking the previous distance record, we declared the contest winners with the usual pomp and circumstance that is called for in such occasions - which means that several people were undoubtedly punched a few times before heading back to work.
Once that was taken care of, I packed up the Turkey 30 and strolled back to the C&E office, where I announced to Villarreal that, "For some reason my Turkey 30 has stopped working." Villarreal didn't blink as he overlooked the massive dents and broken glass and replied, "Well, we'll just have to order you a replacement."
It's times like that when it's great to have friends in the right places. 
And the walls came tumbling down...
09 November 2009 • by Bob • Military
Today is November 9th - which marks the 20-year anniversary of the re-opening of the borders in Germany, which ultimately resulted in the fall of Soviet Communism. While most of us remember where we were on 9/11/2001, I also remember where I was on 11/9/1989 - I was on the East German border, helping to keep the Russian 8th Guards Army at bay...
For all the hype about the Cold War, Nuclear Proliferation, and Mutually-Assured Destruction that we had way back when, at least we knew who they bad guys were and where they were hiding. I have often said that I loved what I did back then, and that’s still a true statement. That being said, I must admit that I have enough memories to last a dozen lifetimes of sleepless nights in sub-zero temperatures chasing signals through the RF spectrum or standing guard duty in some dark corner of the world where even the evil empire had the good sense to avoid. But the simple fact is - business was good during the Cold War, right up to the time when peace broke out and ruined my life and I had to get a real job. ;-)
In any case, I tip my hat to my fellow members of the Fulda Fighting 511th and the Bat Cave Dwellers of Fort Huachuca. Even though it’s grammatically incorrect to express it this way, it seems appropriate for me to say: "We did good."
