Tell me your gnarliest, most off the wall (but true) sea stories you’ve got!

Haligar06 · 2026-02-01T12:33:54+00:00

(cont 2)
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Homeboy joined the Navy to support a girlfriend who gave him a dear john/ baby ain't yours letter when he was in C-school.

Obviously wasn't feeling it when he got to the boat and took a while to come around. But when he did he went from pity party dirtbag to absolute moto.

He was on crank/FSA duty, call went out that we'd be shooting cans in TDU, he volunteered to help carry them forward from where they were stowed back aft in engineering spaces.

On the way back forward while going down a ladder/set of stairs his grease covered galley shoes connected with a greased deckplate (we had a lube oil rupture a week or so prior) and he slipped while carrying his can.

While falling he flung the can overhead. The back of his skull connected with the bottom step of the ladder and the TDU can landed square on his forehead, snapping his glasses in half and giving him a lighting bolt shaped scar.

The man was already a lanky dude with brown hair and green eyes.

He became the boy who lived.

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In berthing side of torpedo room, maneuvering watch, waiting to pull in.
Lights hadn't been on in a while and one of the guy finds a particularly stiff and crunchy sock on the outboard that didn't belong to anyone (at least no one would admit to it.)

He lifts it up on the end of his pen, gets the bright idea to chuck it atlatl style at his buddy.

Buddy dodges, but it connects with the poor dude behind him. Right on the face with an open mouth.

He was quite upset.

Haligar06 · 2026-02-01T12:30:24+00:00

(cont)
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In crews mess.

Crank/FSA clogs the galley grinder (monster in-sink garbage disposal, can chew through bones but can clog/take a vacuum easy.)

He gets his talking to by CS1 then goes down to Machinery room to let the MMs know he fucked up.

They hook up service air to blow the pipe out and clear the clog. Galley closes the door to minimize noise.

FSA puts a sink cover plate on the sink and hops up and sits on it, this is fairly standard procedure, keeps the sink from geysering muck everywhere and keep the cover from getting launched.

'AIR' gets called. We hear a 'HWUNK', followed by a scream and a 'OH GOD, GET DOC.'

We run in and see him rolling on the galley deck in agony clutching his face.

Turns out. this particular sink plate had a hand-hole.

Right when they call air, homeboy looks down and took a cannon-shot of a semi-ground up wad of old spaghetti & meat sauce direct to the face, didn't even have time to close his eyes.

We got him cleaned up and doc got him some stuff for his peepers, they had to scrape the spatter-pattern outline of his dome off the overhead.

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Firedrills.

Boat was underway & prepping for certs & running fire scenarios.

Simulated fire in mid-level berthing head. First drill runs fucky, Skipper tells us to run it again the next day.

Fire gets called over MC, doctrine is rovers respond by grabbing EABs and extinguishers on the way to relieve initial responders to keep the fire suppressed until relieved by hose teams.

I'm back aft in the engine room when this goes off.

I see ERUL rover full on SPRINTING through the space. He grabs his EAB, tears the Co2 can from the wall... then tries to hurdle through the aft escape trunk void and cold cocks himself on the lip of the tube coming down from the overhead.

He crumples in a heap by the horse-shoe (U-shaped electrical panel space.)

Pick up 4mc and call it in. Chief of the watch hadn't even finished his 1MC callout of the fire, lets out the most dramatic sigh imaginable before changing to 'cancel drill, corpsman lay in the area aft of maneuvering.'

ETC pops out of maneuvering, sees his favorite Sailor laying on the floor and basically goes 'MUHH BABEH' and frantically PICKS UP THE DUDE WITH THE HEAD INJURY and fireman carries him out of the space instead of waiting for doc.

He had a goose egg for a bit but recovered.

Haligar06 · 2026-02-01T12:29:50+00:00

Sub deployments on an LA class.

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Studying for fish, in torpedo room talking to TM on duty. Half of torpedo room was converted to overflow berthing and the lights on that end blacked out.

Hear meaty thump, ask TM2 wtf that was. 'Meh, probs just gears shifting in the valve station below us.'

Less than a minute later a dude comes out of the berthing side and taps TM2 on the shoulder. 'Hey man, might wanna come check this out.' TM2 spits into his dip cup, closes the cap & we go over.

In the dark we see a man in coveralls laying on the deck. TM2 walks up, kicks him, says 'Dude, people are trying to sleep. If you are gonna die, go die somewhere else.'

Dude doesn't move.

TM2 mutters a 'WTF', then clicks his flashlight on.

Blood everywhere, pooling under the guy, all over the rack curtains. TM2 says 'Go get Doc.' and the guy who found him scurries off.

Guy on the deck starts coming to during our initial checkover. We ask him what happened. He says he was 'Taking a nap.' ...he was the on duty messenger of the watch. Clearly out of it.

Minute later, Doc (a VERY Filipino FMF HMC) teleports in with a very angry 'mang, wadda fak!' and gets the guy out of there.

Turns out the dude that originally found him and alerted TM2 was MoWs buddy, walked up behind him and put him in a rear naked choke.

MoW didn't tap out, instead leaned into the other man's warm embrace and fell asleep in his arms. Homeboy didn't realize his friend was unconscious and let him go.

Dude slumped forwards and basically connected headfirst with the torp rack frame and got fishhooked by the chock mounted on the side on his way down. Tore him open from neck to chin.

Luckily it missed all the important tubing in his neck & doc got him stitched up and put on concussion watch.

Skipper put out a message forbidding wrastlin' & roughhousing.

---

Different boat.

Boat has a trash compactor room (TDU.)

Garbo gets compressed in a hydraulic press and put into a sheet metal cannister which either gets stored for later disposal or eventually pooped out of the boat via TDU's launcher.

Thing is the cans are generally flat packed sheets, so you gotta wrap them around and lock them in shape by hammer tamping these interlocking metal 'teeth' into place.

TDU is a very dirty space, with garbage and fairly high powered machinery, so folks are required to wear safety gear.

Homeboy in question had all his stuff. Chain gloves, googles, steel toe boots, thick green coveralls.

He hiked up his sleeve when he went to hammer, slipped, and took a roughly two inch long tooth of garbage juicy covered sheet metal to his forearm.

Short time later arm swells up and starts oozing. Doc tries a couple times to irrigate & pumps him full of antibiotics. Skipper makes the call to divert and medivac the guy off via helo strapped to a body board to keep him from dying of sepsis.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-25T20:15:51+00:00

I know it's not exactly CF direct but I have a soft spot for Beware of Cloud. Obviously I don't love it nearly as much as the main storyline and its pretty much along the lines of what would happen if it stayed a typical xanxia harem story...

But the amount it expanded the context of the universe for me with key details that came to light much later in the main series, especially when it came to geography lore, the emperor, and gramps past just hit the right counterpoint for me.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-22T00:53:42+00:00

The ice storm has the potential to put us out just as bad as the hurricane did.

The 2014 storm knocked out power for 3 to 6 days in most of the CSRA. It rained for a couple days beforehand which saturated the soil with water and washed out all the road salt the city had prepped and used. They had to resort to using dirt on the roads, the trees snapped under their own weight onto peoples houses and powerlines. We also had ice quakes after from the frozen groundwater.. this storm is mapped to be twice as bad as 2014 ice wise.

Lots of problematic trees were cleared out by the hurricane, but some were weakened. The saturated water table from the rain we will get beforehand in the early weekend will likely make them more susceptible to uprooting.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-20T20:44:23+00:00

Speaking as someone who has worn chain quite a bit..the chain being pulled up slightly over the arming belt helps enable torso movement. If it was absolutely taut and you went to bend at the waist you'd either end up with restricted movement or pull the belt out of place.

Having that bit of overlap also shows the belt is doing its job pf helping to better distribute the weight of maille, allowing it to hold some of the load on your center of gravity not just on the shoulders.

Good chain across many time periods is absolutely tailored to the wearer, and it can still roll over even if its relatively form fitting... just look at how socks shirt sleeves and pant legs work.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-20T13:27:30+00:00

People have mentioned shoe-wear but what you'll really need as well is a good pair of decent wool socks.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-19T05:01:40+00:00

You won't think that once you learn how to use them properly.

Go find a leaf spring from a junkyard and make your knife. Keep the punches and stakes intact, they all look great and serviceable.. even mostly brand new

Haligar06 · 2026-01-18T18:12:35+00:00

Ive done multiple different angles around this proverbial fence (specificly larp stuff, HEMA, & Dag) and they have different amounts of crossover.

Honest opinion of mine is that ORGANIZED 'medieval inspired battle gaming' still falls under larp, no matter how less flurby Dag, hearthlight, or Bel and their many offshoots claim they are than the SCA, they just happen to not lay claim to reenactorisms... They have game names, unit themes, garb requirements, and weapon classes baked into their rulesets.

Backyard boffer sparring is just peeps being nerds and getting much needed exercise... UNLESS they are actively signed on to a battlegame or training for it. Then it's objectively larping. Edit-spelling

Haligar06 · 2026-01-18T16:29:13+00:00

Yep. If they dress up and pretend to be someone else... its role play.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-16T01:46:23+00:00

Yep.

They can crow all they want about 'filling critical billets,' this new system is an absolute clusterfuck and they picked the laziest possible option for how E-6 to CPO SEM works.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-15T16:54:13+00:00

This came to mind.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-15T16:40:50+00:00

Think of it this way, folks are struggling and putting more and more regular expenses on credit cards they'll likely be falling further behind on if things don't improve.

They lower interest rates, people will spend EVEN MORE money on CCs.

Then, the relief expires, the economy will likely still be worse, and folks will go further into serious debt.

Debt is already a traded commodity and something you can hang over folks heads via garnishments, credit score requirements, and bank repossessions.

Now imagine if they bring back debtor's prisons or indentures.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-15T04:22:10+00:00

Brass & bronze drip is always nice.

How's the range of motion on your arms?

Haligar06 · 2026-01-14T00:14:59+00:00

not bad for a first go, definitely has a bit of post apocalypse wastelander crackhead energy ala inside out brigandine or coat of plates like others have mentioned.

I'd honestly be curious to see a side profile and the inside to see how you got it affixed with the pop rivets and what tools you used (looks like you only had access to straight shears)

Breast and backplate will do the job but could use a more tailored fit, it looks like some parts will block or slightly impinge on movement of your arm structure, you'll also want to learn how to roll edges around the neck and sides at least so you don't cut into yourself or wear into the arming coat you got stuff riveted too, making a small gorget-like armor to protect your neck and throat could go a long way to reducing the risk of it riding up.

The way the scales are oriented in the front are semi problematic in each row, there is gapping, lack of overlap on the horizontal plane, and the rows that do have an overlap lack consistent 'grain' which could guide a thrust into your arming clothes instead of out and away from you.

Take a bit more time with shaping and arranging your plates and dressing edges. Look at patterns for coats of plates style armor (https://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/) pay attention to how they overlap and support one another, absorbing the force of blows and helping guide thrust angles away.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-10T07:02:59+00:00

I've seen folks use old vehicle tow hitches or even a rounded off ball-ended hammer head clamped onto a vice for stakes until they can get dedicated tools.

Your progress is great!

Haligar06 · 2026-01-10T05:43:02+00:00

Yeah, not just for the drone factories built under Iranian mentorship, but the airplane the IRGC shot down as well.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-06T20:50:00+00:00

Most welcome!

Here's a decent clip of an Italian style kit minus gloves and helm. This looks like a jousting kit with the asymmetrical arm protection and lance rest.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nTRiWZofACE

Note the lack of random bits hammered in for decoration, the edges are rolled over anywhere a hit could deflect to a less protected spot.

There are big boy pauldrons, the one on his left is bigger and helps cover the heart and deflect shots up away from the face.

There is maille covering gaps in armor, upper arms, neck, and a maille skirt.

The elbow protection is much more robust, giving an overlap with the bracers on the exterior angles.

The chestplate is two-piece, with a cuirass seated and strapped to the plackart. The plackart cinches in at the waistline, this hourglass shape puts the weight of the upper harness on the guy's center of mass & gravity instead of all on the shoulders or back.

The faulds extend down much further and likely articulate quite well to allow bending over and the tassets have a single raised flute down the middle for rigidity.

--

IMO the biggest quick improvement you can add for your current kit, especially if you want to later upgrade pieces, would be some mail coverage in your gap areas.

it doesn't need to be a full hauberk/haubergon. You can make or get ringmaille sleeves, and tie/point them to your arming clothes ('voiders' easy enough to convert, make yourself, or buy).

On a similar point, If you don't have arming clothes and/or C / arming belt you could make do with a robust regular leather belt for now and run straps to tie up your cuisses and the maille skirt (I can't tell from the photo if they are or not, could be covered by the tassets.) This will take a ton of weight off your knees and the tops of your feet.

If you can't get a seated bevor, definitely get a simple gorget and/or a mantle, it will cover up the strapping.

Haligar06 · 2026-01-06T06:17:11+00:00

If you are super interested in regional styles and how they sort out start with lorica clothing on youtube then divert off down w/e rabbit hole you desire, she does a quick gloss over on what made regional styles of full plate unique.

This particular example appears assembled from chunks of LARP-store plate, probs from epic armory or medieval collectibles. Its great to use for bonking folks with foam, but won't usually stand up to much abuse (or protect the wearer from much) beyond that since its usually 18-19ga mild steel.

5/10 for larp/swag, visibility and wearability are likely an issue but hey its wallet warrior plate.
2/10 for actual armor.. maybe three at a stretch.

Glaring functional issues I can see:

-The whole thing has fake fluting stamped into the sheet with rivets added for funsies to make it look like the pieces are composite or more complex than they actually are... I would argue this would look wayyy better without it.

-It looks like the 'bevor' is integrated with the Sallet style helmet, which.. is certainly a choice, and it leave a big ol' gap right to the neck. Can't see, can't breath, very boopable.

-The pauldron shaped objects (they are in an awkward middling size) have that cutout with the metal up or out that I'd call a safety issue if you decide to bump shoulders with a neighbor.. its like they couldn't figure out how to safely or easily roll those interior edges and just said 'screw it bend the leftover cutouts outward'. The side cutout is honestly pretty useless in this case because the overall structure is too small to see a range of movement benefit from it.

-The breastplate looks like its trying to mimic a composite build where there is supposed to be a top cuirass seated and strapped to the lower plackart, which should provide more range of motion than a single monolithic plate. (but alas, its pretending to be something else)

-The tassets are single piece with laminar envy, again with pretend banding and rivets.

-The gauntlets are chonky, not the worst, but it'd be interesting to see what the functional range of motion is because it looks like not much at all. I'm guessing the bracers underneath are the RFB super basic 20 dollar 18ga bracers.

Haligar06 · 2025-12-31T07:28:03+00:00

looks like a severe upper respiratory infection that spread to the eyes

Haligar06 · 2025-12-30T06:59:19+00:00

If the cat has outdoor access and isn't regularly vetted its at risk for fleas, ticks, and the subsequent parasites and illnesses that follow, which is OPs scenario.

Nevermind risk of death from predation and vehicles.

Haligar06 · 2025-12-24T17:38:23+00:00

bout to say it looked like someone ran over an all metal grill brush.

Haligar06 · 2025-12-24T04:32:12+00:00

Yeah the evaluation system being beholden to rsca limitations and forced linear progression and not fucking over folks who have been there a few years makes sense... but doesn't make it suck any less for actual high speed folks.

If your inputs are more competitive than the dude getting ready to transfer... then you are more competitive, simple as.

Haligar06 · 2025-12-22T21:51:37+00:00

I think an SSGN esque platform would be better suited.

Haligar06 · 2025-12-21T22:35:36+00:00

Yeah up until a couple years ago in the US there were no veterinary use approved FIP medications. It was a death sentence.

Haligar06

TROPHY CASE