Looking Back to when you were 18

[edz]

DONT BE SHY ..
Just a bit of time travel and a fun  look back at a few pics of when you were 18 [ there abouts ] .. Join in and show the way you were .
Oohhh how the image in the mirror has changed .. I even had hair once !!! 
In the first pic A trim 18 yro 12 st me with the girl .
In the Green Machine and a bean pole leaning on the rails after losing 15kg on an exercise around Mudgee / Hill End .
Recruiting display with me and the future Mrs Edz on the left in the pic .

[raider]

I had an Escort panel van the same colour and with the same wheels when I was 18 too.

[edz]

That one belonged to a mate, I'd not long traded my van for a 4 door 2ltr Escort..    

[#jonesy]

Seeing the M60 on the tripod brought back some memories.  I hated carrying the tripod, it was too awkward and heavy.

[edz]

Only ever carried the gun, thank christ ! and that was heavy enough .

[MrCruza]

ASLT PNRS 1979 TO 1987

8yrs.. Got to be a story there. In the day a standard term was 3 or 6yrs ??

[Jeepers Creepers]

Hey Edz,

when you were 18, that would've been a steam powered camera...... yeah? 

[#jonesy]

Only ever carried the gun, thank christ ! and that was heavy enough .

The gun was easy.
I spent a few years in SFMG platoon.
Tripod was carry your SLR and pack with the tripod balanced on top with a leg over each shoulder hoping that that mount didn't smack you in the back of the head when you went to ground.  Plus a few 1000 rounds for the gun.
Even worse when we were carrying the 84's at the same time in the platoon.

[Brisbane Puff]

8yrs.. Got to be a story there. In the day a standard term was 3 or 6yrs ??

Easy enough done.. Maybe two years nasho + 3 + 3

[Metters]

Only ever carried the gun, thank christ ! and that was heavy enough .

If you thought the M60 was heavy then you should have tried one of these.

[edz]

20mm Oerloiken or 30mm Aden cannon ?

[Metters]

20mm Oerloiken or 30mm Aden cannon ?

20 mm Hispano.  You could mistake them for an Oerlikon but the 30 mm Aden or Defa is nothing like them.

[muzza01]

Well not 18, I was 19 in this pic. Me on the left

[edz]

8yrs.. Got to be a story there. In the day a standard term was 3 or 6yrs ??

41 Battalion RNSWR .  A-Res Unit ... Innitial 3 yr sign up 2 x Re-ups and medicaled out .
White truck Muzza is it a " UN " vehicle ? and they look like dixies you guys have got in those  pouches.   
You in the Squiddleys fleet Air Arm, once apon a time Metters ?

[Metters]

You in the Squiddleys fleet Air Arm, once apon a time Metters ?

Whats that?  I started in National Service but only got to work on things like Centurion tanks, Landrovers, Studebakers, Diamond Ts, M543s, Austin Champs and the CO's Humber Super Snipe.

The guns came along when I changed to the RAAF.  The Hispano was at Wagga Wagga and the Oerlikon, Aden and Defa at Richmond. 

I suppose you are wondering what the Air Force was doing with Navy Oerlikons.  They were going to be used for ground defence in Vietnam.  After overhauling and test firing about thirty, I went back to Wagga for more training and didn't return to Richmond.

The Hispano was gas operated, electrically fired, belt fed and cooled by the high speed air passing over the aircraft.  The Oerlikon was recoil operated, manually fired and had a 60 round circular magazine.

The Aden was used in the Sabre fighter and the Defa in the Mirage.  Both were set up on a cradle with a fairly short barrel and a chamber like a revolver. The rounds came in from a belt. I think from memory the chamber held five rounds but they were not all fully in position at the same time.  They were in various stages of being pushed into it as it was spun around by a gas operated sliding mechanism under it in the bottom of the cradle.  The rate of fire was about 1200 per minute for the Aden and 1400 for the Defa.

That was in the late 1960s and all the fine details are fading away now.  Those two Armed Forces were the last things that I expected to be involved in when I left school.

[muzza01]

41 Battalion RNSWR .  A-Res Unit ... Innitial 3 yr sign up 2 x Re-ups and medicaled out .
White truck Muzza is it a " UN " vehicle ? and they look like dixies you guys have got in those  pouches.   
You in the Squiddleys fleet Air Arm, once apon a time Metters ?

Yep 20 years full time then 4 years PT. I was a Loadmaster on C130s

[edz]

Whats that? 

Ahh huh, I  figured you might have done your sevice  in the Navy [ Squiddlys ]   Fleet Air Arm at least into the sixties to have played with Hispano's . On SeaFury's, FireFlys and Venoms, Didnt think about the Airforce Armourers might have played with them ..

[Metters]

Ahh huh, I  figured you might have done your sevice  in the Navy [ Squiddlys ]   Fleet Air Arm at least into the sixties to have played with Hispano's . On SeaFury's, FireFlys and Venoms, Didnt think about the Airforce Armourers might have played with them ..

I was well aware of the Fleet Air Arm but had never heard of the name Squiddleys.  Where did it come from?

The Hispanos were fitted to just about everything that flew in WW2.  The one in the photo was being used as a training aid at the technical training school at Wagga.   The Aden was obsolete and went out with the Sabre but we were still overhauling and testing them at Richmond many years later. 

[edz]

never heard of the name Squiddleys.  Where did it come from?

We did a couple of exercises with the Navy using  landing craft, Some of the crewies must have been new and seemed to have  arms and legs going in all directions like an Octopus, Also had a few social occasions where some navy types overated  themselves on drinking abillity and made pests of them selves  with the ladies    .. So the guys started refering to Navy guys as Squiddly's and its stuck .

[Troopy_03]

The term "squid" is an old US navy term, and is supposed to be where squiddly diddly got his name from.. That's why he wears a navy uniform.

[#jonesy]

The top one is me at about 18. I'm looking back at the camera.
The second is on the gun course as number 2

During the course we fired 100,000's of rounds.
One of the guys counted that he alone fired about 80,000.

Odd looking back at my ARes photos I always had as long a hair as I could get away with.
These days it is #2 on top and #1 back and sides.