Subtopic	Posts		Updated
	Archive through December 05, 2023	25		02/04 11:30pm
	Archive through July 21, 2024	25		11/15 04:47pm
	Archive through April 09, 2025	25		07/27 04:05am
	Archive through September 17, 2025	25		09/17 08:47pm

(deleted)

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - 03:46 pm: Edit

If it helps, I had a bad dream a few weeks back that I was stuck in a room with Eduard Shevardnadze.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - 07:24 pm: Edit

---

Quote:

If it helps, I had a bad dream a few weeks back that I was stuck in a room with Eduard Shevardnadze.

---

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - 08:14 pm: Edit

A few weeks ago, I was closing tanks on board ship. (I work at BAE in Norfolk VA.) We had been doing it everyday weekends and all. I was watching some old World War II movies.

I dreamed me and my co-worker were closing tanks under fire. Wearing World War II uniforms and carrying rifles and of course our ratchets. I was diving into the bilges to escape the bullets. My co-worker peeking out from the bilges. I woke up falling out of bed.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 - 08:47 pm: Edit

I had a dream once. I was alone (Leanna was out of town). I dreamed I was on a battlefield. There were explosions and gunfire all over the place. Someone came to me in the trench and said "Sir, you've got to do it. You've got to call artillery fire on our own positions! It's the only way!" I took the radio handset out of his hand and gave the order. At that point, the real-world telephone rang next to the bed. It was my assistant at the gas company, calling to say he was on the way to pick me up for the trip to Oklahoma to check a construction site. All he said was "On the way" which is what the artillery guys say to the front line guys when the cannons have fired. I screamed "hit the dirt!" at the top of my lungs, rolled off the bed, and was trying to crawl under the bed (where I did not fit, but that didn't stop me). I finally woke up hearing my assistant say "Steve? Are you okay?" I told him I was fine, pulled on the clothes I had laid out, shaved, grabbed a Dr Pepper out of the fridge, grabbed my "go bag" and went out the front door just as he drove up the driveway.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, September 18, 2025 - 10:02 am: Edit

So, since we're on the topic.....

When I was in Basic back in 1987, we were called to assemble in the dayroom one fine Monday morning. Our drill sergeant proceeded to convey to us the following (in classic drill-sergeant voice):

"Yesterday, the USS Stark was attacked by two Iraqi aircraft. Iraq is a Soviet ally. This will become a shooting war, and you can expect that this will go nuclear. Prepare for that."

We were then dismissed.

At the time, Basic was under a no-communications rule: no newspapers, no radio, etc. So for the next five weeks, we labored under the belief that we were going to war with the Soviet Union, and that it would likely go nuclear.

Some five of the boots from our squadron were washed on mental health grounds; one went pretty much catatonic. The rest of us were haunted by nightmares of varying sorts...and those few I kept in contact with confirmed that their nightmares persisted.

For me, the recurring one, the one that visited me at least once a week for the next three decades, was that I was in a line in the squadron commander's office. There was a large picture window from which you could see a couple ballfields, a water tower, and base housing. I was looking out the window when I saw the flash, and as the blast approached, the boot behind me in line said, "Well, I guess this is it," as he was skeletonized in front of me. That's generally when I'd wake up in a cold sweat.

Courtesy of alpha blockers the VA started me on a year and a half ago, I no longer have that nightmare.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, September 18, 2025 - 01:58 pm: Edit

Fifty years ago, I was camping with two friends of mine about 50 miles from Amarillo. We were down in a little canyon/valley thing, it was pitch dark, and we were setting up camp after a long hike. I was in charge of the fire, so I put all the wood I gathered by starlight into a proper pile and struck a match. The entire sky lit up bright yellow. David and Gary both said "What did you do?" and we stood up and turned around. After a few seconds the light went away but over the rim to the south of us we could see a huge glow. We grabbed some flashlights just in case and headed up the hill, it took a few minutes to make it. Gary asked me "What do you think it is?" and I said "World War III, I think they nuked Pantex." (that's the nuclear weapons assembly plant just a few miles out of Amarillo). We got to the top and the whole area over the rim was daylight bright. An oil refinery about a mile south of us had blown up. We could see fire trucks and people running all over.

By Eddie E Crutchfield (Librarian101) on Thursday, September 18, 2025 - 07:27 pm: Edit

As a kid we lived about 1/2 mile from a refinery in Detroit, every summer it seemed they had a fire and explosion there, one summer the explosion bounced my little brother out of the upper bunk he was asleep in. When ever it happened everybody on the block would set out on the front porch and watch the fire burn, probably about 1960, no one ever though of evacuating, it was the entertainment for the night I guess.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, September 19, 2025 - 06:35 pm: Edit

Best quote heard on YouTube: "If you're confused, be confused in your head please, and not out loud for everyone to hear you."

I think I want that on a coffee mug.


Garth L. Getgen

By Michael F Guntly (Ares) on Friday, September 19, 2025 - 10:12 pm: Edit

We have not answered your questions.
In fact, your questions have spawned other questions which we are unable to answer.
The result is that we are confused, but we believe that we are confused at a higher level and that we are confused about more important things than we were before you asked your questions.

Therefore...

We thank you.