Uncle Billy was in the navy way back in time. He was there during the Korean war when there was still as many propeller planes as jets.
Uncle Billy was in the first airborne early warning squadron on the U.S.S. Oriskany. The picture above is the old Oriskany and below is one of the first AD-1 early warning planes. Uncle Billy was an aircrew radar operator on one of the old AD-1 planes. During the winter of 1952 the weather was so cold that they had to put all the planes down on the hanger deck to keep them warm enough so they would start the next day. It was so cold the engine oil would freeze the engine up if left on the flight deck. He told me they had to shovel snow several inches deep off the flight deck for air operations.
He sent me the pictures above earlier in the day. It took a few hours before I saw the pictures and by the time I called him he was not very coherent, but I did piece together the story above.
Now uncle Billy likes his beer but on occasion when he is thinking about what he calls the "good old navy days" he gets nostalgic and breaks out the whiskey. He had lost his shot glass and when he was looking for it he found a plastic bathroom cup that looked to be shot glass sized and was using it for his whiskey. What he didn't realize was that while it looked like a shot glass in size, it was actually a 3 ounce container because it didn't have the thick glass bottom on it. He did not realize that until he accidentally tipped it over. When he picked it up he saw the 3 ounce marking embossed on the bottom of the cup. He said that while that was an unfortunate event losing a full container of whiskey, he was at the time, feeling pretty happy about everything.
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
He sent me the pictures above earlier in the day. It took a few hours before I saw the pictures and by the time I called him he was not very coherent, but I did piece together the story above.
Now uncle Billy likes his beer but on occasion when he is thinking about what he calls the "good old navy days" he gets nostalgic and breaks out the whiskey. He had lost his shot glass and when he was looking for it he found a plastic bathroom cup that looked to be shot glass sized and was using it for his whiskey. What he didn't realize was that while it looked like a shot glass in size, it was actually a 3 ounce container because it didn't have the thick glass bottom on it. He did not realize that until he accidentally tipped it over. When he picked it up he saw the 3 ounce marking embossed on the bottom of the cup. He said that while that was an unfortunate event losing a full container of whiskey, he was at the time, feeling pretty happy about everything.
Copyright Bill Weber 2018 and beyond.
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