The story of "Frank Burns" and the chipped sink porcelain

-

67Dart273

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Messages
62,697
Reaction score
37,143
Location
Idaho
Many of ya know I was stationed at NAS Miramar, 70-74. We had a "cozy crew" out way out on the W end of the field, the building is no longer there, the shop was roughly where the X is here

Miramar.jpg


Anyway this E6 shows up is the spittin' image of "Frank Burns" on MASH. Guy was a real live lifer, named "Charles R Bxxxxxx"

We normally worked "24 on 48 off" duty, and there were a certain number on the day crew. so the previous section and the day crew were expected to clean up after themselves, and the "24 on" crew had to clean the shop and sleep over. If you left your coffee cup out you might not find it when you came back

DOH!!! might be in the freezer

So, Charlie comes in, gets mad, can't find, finally gets it out of the freezer, and gets madder and throws it into the deep "kitchen" sink and CHIPS THE SINK

So for about TWO YEARS, you would..........

Upend a chair to "swab" the office and there would be "Charlie chipped the sink" lettered on the bottom of the chair in grease pen

Open an empty towel rack, "Char................."

Go down to TACAN, open the door turn on the lights (big frosted globes) and "flying chips" lettered backwards inside the globes so when they lit up............

and on and ON!!


We had two nearly identical Chev pickups, and one time one of them had to go over to the garage for service. We had a loaner, a 67 stepside. So Dave and I are "on" after work, and the "garage" called "it was ready" meaning, we would tell the morning crew as we left, and they would pick up the shop truck.

SO DAVE (and I) get out the DIY put together brass stencil kit and on the rear bumper, nice and neat, we stencil "FLYING CHIPS"

AND THEN forgot about it.......................until.............one time Dave and I are on duty WITH CHARLIE. And we would do ANYTHING to "go do" something after shop hours to get away. So we devised...........Let's go to the "linen locker" (clean linen for the overnight racks)

CHARLIE WANTS TO GO. ****!!!! So Charlie drives, Dave in the middle, I'm over on the pass end. And we are driving through the base, and we roll up to a stop sign AND THERE AHEAD OF US is the "FLYING CHIPS" truck!!!! I glanced over at Charlie and THOUGHT HE WAS HAVING A STROKE!!!

So Charlie ALSO liked to eff with my buddy Dave, who by the way I JUST tracked down and called up the other day after all this time!!!!

Charlie LOVED to wait till Dave was happily seated, eating his lunch, and grab Dave's chips and mash 'em all up into crumbs.

Charlie showed up with a brand new Toyota, this was early 70's. I forget how we got "on this" but he went on a big rant about how "theftproof" the damn thing was, because the hood was cable release. So one afternoon, Charlie was up at the tower, and I got under the front with needle nose, reached up in, and undid the hood!! We pulled the coil wire, wrapped it neatly, and installed it INSIDE the air filter cover. And wrote on the air cleaner, "Look in here Stupid."

Charlie came back, was gonna go home, AND OPENED THE HOOD AND COULD NOT SEE A THING IN THERE!!!! WE FINALLY HAD TO TELL HIM!!!!!

So Dave was gonna be transferred, and the last few days he was there, he "scored" a used lunch bag JUST LIKE CHARLIES

Charlie ALWAYS had a nice "wife made" lunch with tupperware, spoon, pie for dessert. So Dave just calmly takes Charlies lunch out of the fridge, goes out and RUNS OVER IT with the truck, and re-installs it back into the fridge in the new bag!!!
 
Last edited:

-
Back
Top Bottom