2555 HST Cab Jeep rocker switches....

[dickfoster]

Yeah, I was threatened with a court marshal once. When that didn't happen, the first shirt swore "Pilgrim, I'm going to get you." He never did, the CO saw to that.

So that's where the Pilgrim comes from?

They threatened me once too hoping I'd take an article 15. However, I knew the regs were on my side so I almost begged them to proceed. The matter was dropped. 1st of all no LC rates a flag, 2nd I was in a work area and you don't salute staff cars (a jeep) in work areas, especially when you're carrying something. He was just another one of those chickenshit LC types. I was really hoping we could do the CM thing so they'd bust his A $ $ since he was a stinkin reserve officer. I think the 1st shirt advised him to lay low and forget about it because he was up against a wall of regs. To sport a plate you had to be a full bull at least, even then you had to be the base CO to have it. I had a real weakness for that kind of clown and I knew the regs well. It was so easy to mess with them because they'd hang themselves. A short time later I made staff with minimum time in grade which was hard to do in the AF. For you Army types I think they must have given you your stripes with velcro to make taking them off and putting them back on easier but for us it was hard to get them and harder to loose them.

 

[dickfoster]

We had to do Charge of Quarters and KP by roster.. never saw anyone put on it by pissing someone off. But I'm sure it happened. Think I had it twice in Basic at Little Korea, once or twice at school, and once or twice in Germany. When I first was stationed in Nam, I was on a Navy base and ate good, second tour there was no mess hall. We bought stuff from the PX by the case [ remember sterno cans ] when we got somewhere that had one, bought stuff local, or ate C rations. We had a roster for burning krap with diesel that everyone got to enjoy every so often.....

My KP was in basic, I pulled CQ a few times but I only burned crap once in Jungle Survival School. Then some dumb captain volunteered to do it for his permanent duty for the rest of the course so that let the rest of us off from that wonderful little chore. I never could figure out why he did that but I wasn't looking any gift horses in the mouth. I know he didn't like the school because when we were done he burned all of his uniforms that he'd worn. LOL

 

[oldpilgrim]

The 1SGT had it in for me and I got KP and CQ something like 8 times in 10 weeks. When I complained to the 1sgt, he laughed. Then I told him I needed to see Major X, the CO. He said what For? I said a 'personal issue'. He took me into the CO and stood beside the Majors desk, all big and proud. When the Major asked what my problem was, I told him about my excessive duties. He asked me how often duty usually came up, which was about once every 8 weeks. He looked at the first shirt and said there must be some mistake. I said there 'there's no mistake, Major, the 1Sgt told me "Pilgrim, I'm going to get you." It was comical the look the 1sgt had on his face when the Major looked at him. The major said, I'll take care of it.

Never had duty again for the next 2 years. The 1SGT was always very pleasant to me after that as well.



BTW, I made E5 in 23 months in service. I worked with AF guys who never got past E3 in the 4 years they were in.

 

[dickfoster]

The 1SGT had it in for me and I got KP and CQ something like 8 times in 10 weeks. When I complained to the 1sgt, he laughed. Then I told him I needed to see Major X, the CO. He said what For? I said a 'personal issue'. He took me into the CO and stood beside the Majors desk, all big and proud. When the Major asked what my problem was, I told him about my excessive duties. He asked me how often duty usually came up, which was about once every 8 weeks. He looked at the first shirt and said there must be some mistake. I said there 'there's no mistake, Major, the 1Sgt told me "Pilgrim, I'm going to get you." It was comical the look the 1sgt had on his face when the Major looked at him. The major said, I'll take care of it.

Never had duty again for the next 2 years. The 1SGT was always very pleasant to me after that as well.



BTW, I made E5 in 23 months in service. I worked with AF guys who never got past E3 in the 4 years they were in.

Yeah I guess aholes came in all ranks, either the old fart lifers or the chickenshit reserve officer types going nowhere fast. I guess the officer types got hammered by the rings knockers so they tried to pass their pain down the ranks and the ahole lifer NCO types were hammered by them so they passed it on along and the buck stopped with us transients and first termers. Thing is you could almost always beat them up with the rule book they loved so much. All you had to do was know what you were doing, have some patience and a little backbone and wait for the right moment. Since that kind usually never had any backbone and were typically all bluff they were easy pickings.

Yeah like I said, making rank in the AF was hard but I still managed to make all of mine with minimum time in grade somehow. Maybe it was my bad attitude and complete lack of respect for all the BS and chickenshit. I was all about the mission and getting something useful accomplished so I showed a lot of personal initiative and drive. Something most of the lifers just didn't understand at all.

I don't know what the disparity was between the services but I think it was as hard to make grades in the Marines too, a little easier in the Navy and easiest of all in the Army. However from what I understand they'd rip your stripes off at the drop of a hat in the Army.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I don't know what the disparity was between the services but I think it was as hard to make grades in the Marines too, a little easier in the Navy and easiest of all in the Army. However from what I understand they'd rip your stripes off at the drop of a hat in the Army.

The way i understand it, there were so many of each rank allowed in each branch of service, eg 100,000 e1's, 200,000 e2's etc. The Army had the biggest presence in Vietnam and the most casualties, so the most slots for rank opened up.

And yes, the stripes could and did change quite often.

When I was at the replacement station in Germany, everyone who came to Germany stopped there and got processed in and then shipped out to their new duty station. I saw one old PFC who had 8 service stripes on his sleeve. For those who don't know what that is, each stripe represented 3 years in the Army.

I'm guessing he must have lost/gained stripes a few times in 24+ years of service.

 

[dickfoster]

The way i understand it, there were so many of each rank allowed in each branch of service, eg 100,000 e1's, 200,000 e2's etc. The Army had the biggest presence in Vietnam and the most casualties, so the most slots for rank opened up.

And yes, the stripes could and did change quite often.

When I was at the replacement station in Germany, everyone who came to Germany stopped there and got processed in and then shipped out to their new duty station. I saw one old PFC who had 8 service stripes on his sleeve. For those who don't know what that is, each stripe represented 3 years in the Army.

I'm guessing he must have lost/gained stripes a few times in 24+ years of service.

Yeah I worked with a staff sergeant early on that had previously been in the Army Signal Corps. I guess he figured he'd try his luck in another branch. All those years and still an E5 or E5 again maybe. A lot of the old guys had a drinking problem and he was one of them. He'd gotten into deep dodo in the Army drunk driving in Germany and killing a civilian I think it was. He'd been an orphan as a kid so was institutionalized early on and didn't know any life but something like the military. For him I guess the choices were either the military or a prison somewhere. He was good to me though and kinda took me under his wing so to speak. He said I had a real knack for electronics and tried to pass what he knew along. A good guy but still kinda messed up.

 

[bluefin650]

Relocated the stock wiper/work lamp control up on the pillar, and added room for 5 ARB/Carling Jeep type rocker switches. Top switch turns on the dome lamp [ lazy, don't have to lean forward/reach up to turn on ] which now contain a bright LED COB light. Middle switch turns on both front and rear work lamps. Bottom switch controls the rotary beacon. The wires you see in between are grounds and power for future switches. Have blank covers coming to fill those spots for now. Wired up the switches so the bottom LED's light up when the ignition sw is ON. And each large LED light switch logo is lite when that function is on. Have most of the wiring done, but still need to mount 4 amber 18 watt LED floods which will work with the hazard flashers or turns.... Retain the stock switch assy to control wiper/washer functions.. old F/R work lights switches only turn on/off the little green LED's next to them.... if you feel like it...

Were you able to steal a power source in that pillar or did you have to run a new source of power for your rocker switches?

 

[JerryK]

I took some power from the stock push button panel that I relocated up on the column. That power is hot when the key is ON and I used it to power the LED's within the switches that light up the switch lettering/icon and some of the other LED's in various positions. And the new LED work lamps are still powered from this stock circuit, just like the removed stock work lamps were. I ran a #8 wire straight off the battery with a 10 amp fuse [ can go bigger if needed ] in an inline fuse holder tyraped right to the right of the battery. Ran this wire in black corrugated split loom from there up thru the stock rubber wire gasket right beside the stock wiring up into the new switch area. I made a new ground point just above the switch area to hook all grounds onto the cab frame. On the left rear cab rubber mount, I bridged the frame of the cab to the axle steel with one of those old timey flexible copper grounds that they used to use on hoods, from body to frame, etc. It is just about a 8-10" of woven copper mesh that has a heavy duty stakon on each end. Put another piece of that loom over it, and bolted down to the cab steel and rear end steel with stainless bolts. With a shot of semigloss black paint to make it look stock. That way I know the cab is well grounded. The beacon and new led overhead light [ stock dome light with LED panels added ] is powered straight from the battery just like the stock warning flashers. That way I can turn the overhead cab light on even with the key off via the top new rocker switch. I left the wiper control alone in the stock control pad that I relocated up higher.