Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Smells that trigger your military service

Oh yeah, armpit sauce. And all of the above, and more.

Semper Fi.

Being a Corpsman, no smell that would be overly pleasant...

As far as sounds....Tanks, Deuce & a 1/2... Choppers, particularly Hueys since
I served on a medevac crew...generators we used in the MASH unit for power..

Canvas tents from being out in the field, particular serving for a time in a MASH unit.
Pup tents and sleeping bags...

Smell of M16s being shot, and time on the range.. either shooting or being med support..
Sound of shooting M203's 40mm Grenade launcher, or the M79 LAW...and the following
smell of that ..

The good smells coming from the Hospital Chow Hall, or the Redondo Pit at Ft Lewis.

The Smell of Bad Hygiene when working in the Troop Medical Clinic....
and especially underwear and socks that hadn't been changed for a week..
and certain people who didn't bath very often at all.. but that would make me a racist saying that...

add alcohol ( medical type, not booze) to the above cleaning wounds, giving shots
or other procedures....

Pride serving around elite troops.... depression and disgust serving around some of the lazy
grunts in every day units...poor hygiene, laziness etc...

the abuse of the concept of 'discrimination' by those of a certain race...predominantly...

Proud to have served, but not always proud to have served around some of the people
I served around....

Gotta be Kiwi.

Kiwi Parade Gloss
Burning Hexamine (solid fuel, for stoves)

Both smells take me right back.

Moth balls
23699
WTR aviation grease
JP4
Burning JP4
JP8
Burning JP8
Brasso
Kiwi
Canvas tents

damp under ground dirt

If I remember correctly, my buddy John said freshly cut pine wood used to give him the willies.

If you've ever seen Band of Brothers--the shelling at Bastogne-- that's what he was into up north of the Bulge. The Germans were using their 88's to fire into the tops of the pines. He was dug in underneath. There was no escape, because the blast was coming straight down. You had the shells themselves to contend with as well as falling trees and getting skewered from broken limbs.

The other thing that he couldn't stand was freshly fallen leaves. I mentioned recently how he managed to walk into a minefield one day. He spent all afternoon retracing his steps.

John usually got squirrely right after Thanksgiving and would disappear until February. He usually ended up in Mexico, where he'd go and play at being a bad hombre until the demons quit. Then he'd go to Sebring and start catching the races.

JP5

JP (or DFM), Every carrier I served on smelled the same and my cruise trunk, still filled with my kit from my last deployment (2002!) that was cleaned and put away, still smells of it and I miss it.

The smell of jet exhaust and the peculiar smell of my Xcelite nut drivers.

Yep.. The smell of a certain oil brings back the memory of the interior of the two submarines I was on.. It never fails..

C-130 fumes and burn pits. The smell of burning feces in Pakistan.

We visited my BIL and sister down there back in the 70's and I remember the smell of the Spanish moss.

A few of mine..

Av gas
Hydraulic oil
Exhaust from a big radial coming to life..don't get to experience that much anymore.
Lingering humidity after a rain
Rubber smell of aircraft tires
4th of July

Many more but the most prized is the smell of perfume laced letters my then to be wife sent me almost daily for two deployments.

I have always noticed that every country has its own smell and when you get a whiff in your nose, all sorts of emotions flood through your mind in a flash. Egypt always smelled of what I can only describe as burnt camel schitt. It smelled like that everywhere you went. Somalia has the burning trash human misery odor. Afghanistan has that nearly identical smell of Egypt but with that horrible bread they cook everyday.

Maybe it is a continental thing or a culture thing but they all have their signature smell.

My Cambodean wife has a bottle of that in the kitchen right now.

JP-4 (jet fuel ) burning ,

Septic system backing up.

that was the sweet smell of money.

i remember the fumes coming off the duece and halfs at the motor pool.

C-4 burning to heat chow on the rare occasions we could heat chow.
.A funky poncho liner after weeks in the bush.

I loved my poncho liner.


mike r