So Im back from Australia with the Marines, LOTS of pics

[fallguy]

I went to Australia for Talisman Sabre . Good site with lots of pics already, and made for the 07' version. Its gone every other year for the past several years.

I do have to say that this trip killed the illusion of hot dry weather for me for Australia however. I realize it was their winter, but it rained almost nonstop. They are supposed to be in a 7 year drought. One that is very bad. Yet we go, and it rains almost every day. They said its the most rain they have had in a single month in the past 10 years. Certainly not what I was expecting. :/

Overall was pretty fun though. Aside from sleeping in fighting holes that filled up with rain, and waking up in standing water, in a wet sleeping system, it was pretty fun. Got to meet a lot of people, see a lot of nice military vehicles, and have some libo to get out and about.

We bussed from Knox. TN down to Atlanta. Took a flight up to Cleveland and picked up about 200 other Marines. From there went to Cali, then to Hawaii, then to Australia. On the way back, we went from Austalia to American Smoa (where I had a great steak and lobster) to Hawaii, to Cleveland and then bussed down to Knox. TN. Got back in yesterday morning around 8:30am after leaving to come home about 4pm Wed, EST. Lots of jet lag, but oh well. Ive got a ton of pics, so here it goes. (there are much better pics in the link I left though) Ill have to make several posts to get all the pics in, about 60 I think.

Me in Cleveland while waiting to go to Hawaii. One of the many "hurry up and wait" situations. Anyone who knows much about the Corps, is that you do this all the time.

More waiting, before we get checked by the Aussies.

Getting quarantined making sure we didnt have any seeds, dirt on our boots, etc. They tore everything apart, so that we didnt bring any unwanted items in the Country. Such as beef jerky. Took all morning long.

Our sleeping quarters before we went out into the field. Thats about half of the tent.

Shot of the Staff NCO's tents in Camp Rocky, same place as the above pic.

 

[fallguy]

Shot of our chow hall. Pretty good food actually. Had an "Aussie burger", that had red beets on it. Took them off, and was pretty good. They did have one of the worst things I have ever had though, vegimite (sp?). Ugh, so nasty. One Aussie tried to tell me is was better than a pb&j sammich. Not even close!

What they used instead of Hummers, Land Rovers. I would love to have one back home.

BAS station.

Lots and lots of MRE's. Each box has 12 in them, and you can see thousands of them. There were many more caches than that. Its what we had for our two weeks in the field every day, I think I gained about 5 pounds. 6000+ calories a day will do that to you. It wasnt my intention to do so.. but when you're wet and waiting so much, you eat out of bordom and misery I guess.

Yet, more waiting. Imagine that! Staging area before we went out in the field. That was at Camp Growl.

Another pic of our stay over at Camp Growl.

 

[fallguy]

Pic of myself there.

Lots of vehicles staged there. LAV's, 7 tons, hummers, armored and one with 50 cals, Tows, and MK19's, tanks staged as well. Pretty much a cool place to see.

More of the same.

More of the same.

Myself in a amrored HumV. Very heavy door. And very annoying to open. They were brand new, and not broken in. We always got stuck inside, arg!

On the way to route red and violet, or roads to defend.

 

[fallguy]

First night out, slept under that tree. Reminds me of something from Lion King? Only tree I saw look like that, most trees are skinny, straight up, and no branches that go out to the sides. As you can see in other pics. Also our convoy out there behind us.

One of a billion roos I saw.

One of the places I stayed. We had tents for a few days, until the "war" started. Then we slepts in fighting holes, so we could move quickly if needed. Which never happened, because we owned the MUE and Aussies.

Me and my M240G, 7.62mm medium machine gun. Fairly heavy, fairly annoying, but pretty cool non the less. I had a M16 issued as well, and NVG's. When you get a 240, you're supposed to get a M9 pistol instead of a M16. Yet I got screwed because I got issued a M16 before we left, then the 240 when I got there. Saw gunners only had the saw. SO lucky. So when patrolling and going out on recon, I had to carry the M240, M16, NVGS, 600 rounds for my 240, and 60 rounds for my M16. Not to mention my flak, kevlar, attack pack with everything we needed in it for the day (poncho, gortex, food, etc.) Decently heavy load, but not that bad really. Except humping 6 miles with it wasnt that fun to be honest.

Myself again, with my NVGs. Not nearly as fun to play with in the daylight as they are int he dark. Sitting still and people walking up to you, then you jumping at them was a fun hobby of mine when on firewatch, gate guard or some of the other crap we had to do.

What we came to do, slow down, and stop the enemy. Making log obstacles and abatis'. Which was pretty fun. Using a 7 ton to pull out fallen trees (couldnt cut down our own, enviromentalist and all). I have to say, pretty impressed with the power of a 7 ton. I knew it was a beast, but that thing has some serious power.

 

[fallguy]

More of the same.

In action shots of it. Thats a smaller tree, yet its digging in the dirt, and he is barely past idle. Pulling it with ease. Ive got a few videos of it moving some trees, maybe post later.

One of our biggest trees we moved. You cant see how large it is really in the pic, very long. Little not for the MUE coming in a few days on it.

Tons of ant hills we found, threw various bugs in to see how they faired. Spiders balled up and died almost instantly. This centipeds lasted a bit, but gave way as well. Scorpions owned the ands, and always got out. Got pics of the scorpions as well.

One of the many, many uses for an Etool. Portable pooper. Dig a hole, bend the handle at the first bend, stick it in the dirt next to a tree for a back rest, sit on it, and poop thru the hole of the handle, into the hole you dug. Wipe, and fill in the hole. Eating MREs, you dont have to go but every 3-4 days though. But when you go, look out. (ouch!)

Chow time. Pork rib, yummy.

 

[fallguy]

Chow time again, yet when the rain started. And didnt stop, until the last two days we were there.

One of the many times we played cards. Lots of Rummy and Spades.

Tusks from a wile bore that we found. Saw a few live ones too.

Matt Damon, and Sly Stalone. This pic doesnt illustrate all that well how much they could look like them.

Pretty cool shot I think. Hummer I was in, with the CAT team. MK19, bad mother.

Myself in the same spot.

 

[fallguy]

Cat team hiding when enemy choppers flying overhead. We were out doing a little recon and got caught in one of the only open places we were at in days. Pretty funy flying thru the roads, coming off the deck a few feet, then hiding. Even though we could have taken them... thats not what they wanted us to do. We had 50 cals, 240's, and small arms. Along with MK19s and Tows, which wouldnt have helped though. Unless they flew really low.

One of the many wet and miserable days, Sly Stalone again.

As I said, during the war, no more tents. But that didnt stop it from raining, oh no. So we had to bulild make shift shelters. My 240, my A gunner, and our sleeping quarters for the night.

Another shot of the same thing.

Different day, same thing. Except that was a river bed, and was not fun to dig at all. As you can see, nothing but rocks. And of course ir rained, and filled up like a pond.

Yet again.. a wet morning. Cammies and bag nice and wet. Slept in a mud hole pretty much.

 

[fallguy]

NCO's and light arms got the hummer tent. And got to sleep inside the hummer. Not that Im bitter or anything...

Patrolling out by the beach.

And... the beach. Probably one of the best times there. Very pretty.

Same.

Again, same.

Some kinda crazy blue crabs they had. There were hundereds of them.

 

[fallguy]

Chow time again!

Abraham rolling down the road.

Myself in front of it.

Thats about it of the field shots. Ive got a lot more, but onto the city of Rockhampton. Which was actually pretty down by the river. One of the few days it was nice, and of course its our last few days there. Not a cloud in the sky.

Driving on the left side of the road? Hmm..

Fairly funny van.

 

[fallguy]

A LOT of vehicles had a brush guard, and most 4x4's did. As well as a snorkle, as you can see both of these do.

 

[fallguy]

Random shots of the downtown Rockmapton area.

Some Aussie money. Brought home one of every bill, and several of the coins. They dont have a bill lower than 5, so you got coins. They had $2 and $1 gold coins. 50, 20, 10, and 5 cent coints. The bigger they are, the less they are worth. Except for the 5cent piece. So the 50c was the biggest, and the $2 was the smallest.

Time to leave, sleep when you can. We had to be at the airport at 2am, 8 hours before our flight left. Some kind of crazy rules where you had to be there 8 hours before you flight leaves. So we didnt sleep at all before, because everything was packed up. So many slept in the airport. I waited till I got on the plane.

Pretty shot from the plane I think, leaving Australia.

In Cleveland last night, finally close to home. 12 hours bus ride left.

Thats about it. I got lots more pics, and a few vids, but thats all Im gonna post. Took two 1gig SD cards, 1 filled up, another 80% or so. Lots of people took pics. Was pretty funny, we'd be rolling down in a 7 ton in a convoy, stop for something, and a dozen cameras would pop out for a photo op. Tons of great shots I didnt get, such as war action shots. Oh well, that site has a lot of better quality pics up. And more to come. Overall, very glad I went.

 

[Ike Turner]

Don't you read the forum rules???

Fallguy can only post pictures of his wife. Nothing else!"

meh..



Ps: That Etool can come in handy...I can see myself not aiming right and shitting on the handle though...

 

[stevem]

Great stuff, marine.

 

[John Reynolds]

Don't you read the forum rules???

You know, I was just about to post something along those lines. . . .

Great pics, though.

 

[HawkeyeGnu]

OMG, you're invading Australia now?

Damn kangaroos and their WMD's......

 

[fallguy]

Sorry.

 

[Skrying]

Awesome pictures fallguy, thanks for sharing!

 

[Sxotty]

I went to Australia for Getting quarantined making sure we didnt have any seeds, dirt on our boots, etc. They tore everything apart, so that we didnt bring any unwanted items in the Country. Such as beef jerky. Took all morning long.

I went to Australia quite some time ago and my cousin had a bag full of snacks b/c he thought there would be nothing to eat there or something. Anyway they took his beef jerky away as well and he had tons of it. So my brothers and he all gorged on it to not waste it and ended up sick

 

[Dresden]

Tusks from a wile bore that we found. Saw a few live ones too.

Did you shoot it from your Blackhawk then take it back to your squad where it was barbequed ala Eric Bana in Blackhawk Down*

I really enjoy your pictures, Fallguy. Thanks for the post.







(*Yes I know in all actuality Bana shot a water buffalo. I needed that additional clause before Tim Technical swept in.)

 

[mito]

nice set of pics marine.

note: do they let you take pictures of military equipment/personell without any restriction?

regards,