I'm caught between two.

The first was a trip to the Hoover Dam. I wasn't really all that impressed at first, but during the tour, we went down to the bottom and looked up at the dam. That's absolutely the most impressive sight I've ever seen.

The second is diving on a submarine. Thousands have done it, but in view of the size of the population of the world, we are less than 1%. Having the chance to be on top the sail at night while surfaced, nothing around for 100 miles, how beautiful the stars are... Surfaced during the day, watching the dolphins dance in front of the bow...Then going deep, 800 ft of water above your head, knowing that one wrong turn of a valve is death...That's why submarines are so close, anyone at anytime could screw up and kill us all...It's a bond of trust deeper than I've ever felt...

 

I'd have to say the coolest thing I got to do was being catapulted off the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.. now that's a freaking rush... 0 to 120ish in under two seconds... suck the eyeballs right out of your head... cause of course you're facing the rear of the plane. Then there's that moment that the gear leave the deck and the aircraft kind of "settles" down before gaining altitude... amazing...

Other than that I'd have to say wasting tons of ammo during M-60, M-16, and Beretta shoots.. but the 60's are the best. That and the .50 cal's onboard the ships... those things freaking rock, and LOUD.. man they're loud.

Also, and this is probably better than the above two would be pulling into Pearl Harbor on our way back to the states from a 6 month deployment and pulling right into Pearl Harbor, and docking right across the harbor from where the Arizona rests on the bottom. Everyone in their whites, manning the rails rendering honors to those still inside... That was an emotional feeling, makes you really feel like a part of history.. Then having my dad meet me there in Pearl Harbor and having him sail on to San Diego with me onboard the carrier. Now that's cool.. the first and only time I think I've seen my dads face light up like a little kids when he got to shoot the .50 cal or watch a jet land at night... or have a tomcat break the sound barrier right on the water... there's no way to re-create that boom... if you haven't heard it in real life you have no idea how powerful that is..

98lariet.. sorry bro.. just never could get into that whole bubblehead thing... never wanted to be that far under water LOL...

 

A spring break ski trip to Keystone, My friend's grandfather was one of the initial investors so we ski'd all week for free. And his uncle has a cabin at the base of the mountain so we stayed there free. Just had to pay for ski rental, food, and gas!

Other then that, I road a camel around the pyramids in Giza

 

Yeah, I must admit; raking off 400 rounds (on the same barrell) of an M-60, is pretty damn-cool... We'd been to Wildflecken, Germany; qualifying on the M-60, and we had like 5,000 extra rounds of ammo. There was maybe 12 M-60 gunners in the Battallion, along with maybe 24 SAW guys. But, the SAW's were light weight, and they didn't roll with the big dogs; not on our range anyway; they went to a different one. (Qualifying with a 60 isn't easy; but I did it; and became an expert- that T & E device is a real PITA, but- if you have that kind of time in a real fire fight; it'll improe your pinpoint accuracy 10 fold. Pop-ups are more fun; engaging human-sized targets that are 1,000 meters out. (0.62 miles) with no scope. What a rush!)

The NCO's told us to burn it up (the excess ammo), or next time they wouldn't be able to draw as much. A few gunners didn't want to fire, but I was like eff it. We have to spend the next 2-3 days cleaning the M-60 anyway; we might as well have some fun.

When rocking & rolling, they recommend changing the barrell every 200 rounds. We fired over 1,000 rounds through the same barrell (My assistant gunner fired 400 and the range NCO rocked 200). My barrell went from being black, to being gray, to almost white... You could probably have lit a cigarette off that barrell.

Then, watching it turn back to a normal color was cool too. It never really got black again, sort of a greenish gray was the best it returned to. I was scared *****less, handing my weapon back to the armorer; I figured she'd notice the discolored barrell, after her stern warning before we left, to change the barrell every 200 rounds (rock 7 roll) 500 reounds normal fire.)

Looking back, blasting away like that was pretty stupid. That barrell coudl have warped and killed whomever would have been behind the trigger. But, you can shoot all the M-16's, Desert Eagle's, 30.06's, bolt-action 50 cals, and shot-gun's you want... Until you have held an M-60, and rattled off 200 - 400 rounds of 7.62mm ammo; there's nothing that'll top that... (Unless that hand-held mini-gun from Predator is a real gun! (Hoooooooweeeee!)

7.62 mm, crew-served, gas powered, air fed, machine gun that fires from the open-bolt position.

Loved the 60, hated cleaning that SOB.

 

Took a helicopter ride up the Niagara Gorge from the Whirlpool Rapids and hovered over the Horseshoe Falls about 1500 ft. on a sunny day about 25
years ago.
The chopper was one of those old bubble dome type.
You could see the Toronto skyline about 60 miles away.

 

Sharing a Sprite with Jerry Garcia at my job in NYC, 8 months prior to his death. We talked about movies & guitars.

 

Going to Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium last summer was really sweet. The coolest cities I went to were Berlin and Amsterdam. The Berlin Wall and Anne Frank's house were pretty awesome.
But the coolest thing I saw while I was there was Cologne Cathedral. That is probably one of the most amazing buildings in the world. The pictures don't do it justice. It really is an amazing sight. The sheer size of the place will floor you. At one time it was the tallest building in the world.

 

Summer of 2001, Mopar Mile High Nationals in Denver. I stood next to the starter, between the cars, at the start line of the top fuel NHRA race between Kenny Bernstein (Budweiser) and Larry Dixon (Miller Lite). Buddy who was a DM with a tool company hooked me up with race tickets for the weekend, hotel room in the Hilton where all the racers stayed. If youthink those beasts are loud when they run down the track on tv, you ought to stand between a pair of them as they do their burnouts, then try to breathe with all the nitro fumes.

Second on the list would be the first night jump in paratrooper school...

third on the list of "most exciting experiences" would be this bar girl in Okinawa....

 

third on the list of "most exciting experiences" would be this bar girl in Okinawa....




you talkin bout the bananagirl or the coin girl. How about the infamous "whisper alley"


been there, done that..........well some of that

 

Neatest thing I have ever seen/done was go to Aberdeen Proving Grounds on Memorial day weekend right after Desert Storm. They had live fire demos. They started with M16 and M60 and worked up from there. They fired M2 .50, 20mm gatling gun, 60mm mortar, 25mm Bushmaster on a Bradley, 75mm howitzer, 105mm howitzer, 105mm tank gun on an M60, 120mm tank gun on an M1A1, 155mm howitzer on an M109 Paladin, and an 8" howitzer on an M110 self propelled gun.
They also showed the test facilities on how they test ammo packaging for temerature and vibration and they showed th test track used to test all military vehicle. This included the 60% grade hill. They climbed this with an M1. When it reached th top and flopped down to go down the other side, we were about 2 feet away. The ground just vibrated from it passing.
They neatest thing though was when they fired the 120mm tank gun on the M1A1. I was sitting about 30 yds behind it, and every time it fired, you could feel the back blast from it. Just a big pressure wave, and this was from behind. I can't imagine what it would have felt like from the front and to the side. The didn't even use the regular tungsten/depleted uranium sabot rounds. These were steel practice rounds, and the still went thru the armor plate the had positioned at about 1000 yds. You could see the round going down range, thru the target, and out the other side.
They also had a Cobra helicopter firing rockets (HVARs) and it's 20mm gatling gun.
They also jumped the M1A1 on a small track in front of the grandstands. Had it about 1 1/2' of the ground. All 67 tons of it.
I would love to see that again, but with the world situation, I doubt that will happen.

 

this is a tough question

everyone has the "coolest" thing category
but..everything you do in real life is cool in itself

i rebuilt the wifes falcon that was cool
built race cars and parts..thats cool
been to way to many drag strips ..nat. events whatever...thats cool
was on the road drumming in rock bands for 10yrs ..that was cool

look....everyday that you get up and do what you do should be cool..
the fact in the matter is that you get up at all...

so be cool











...zap!

 

I think it's sad that you cannot say c0ckpit, but anyways, the coolest thing I have done (in my 18 years) has been whitewater rafting. It was fun as hell, and i am planning on doing a more "extreme" one sometime in the near future. Also, I'm trying to convince my dad to go skydiving with me.

 

It's gotta be Hawaii for me. Seeing Diamond Head outside my window every morning. Visiting Pearl Harbor was so awesome. Seeing the turret of the ship above the water. So surreal.

 

Coolest place I've ever been is without a doubt Alaska. The absolute stunning beauty of the place awes me every time.

Coolest thing I've ever done, that's a little more difficult as I lead a very average life. I've seen. . .Carlsbad Caverns, awesome. . .Crater Lake, very pretty. . .Mount Rushmore, the pictures don't do it justice. . .Yellowstone National Park, interesting place. . .Mardi Gras, soooo much fun!. . .Mt St Helens, scary what happened there. . .And I've driven the entire length of the Alcan Highway, what a lot of work, through some incredible terrain, those guys did so very long ago.

 

Munich, Prague, Innsbrook, Northern Italy, and Salzburg on New Years in
2004.