67 SWB Crewcab....Building the Beast, aka Donkey!

[rstrick]

Rob,

Are you up for an O-6 promotion? I think I read that you were a Navy squadron commander. Is that an O-5 billet in the Navy. That was the norm when I was in the Air Force. Most of the O-6s I was familiar with in the Air Force were promoted from squadron command slots.

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by rstrick

Rob,

Are you up for an O-6 promotion? I think I read that you were a Navy squadron commander. Is that an O-5 billet in the Navy. That was the norm when I was in the Air Force. Most of the O-6s I was familiar with in the Air Force were promoted from squadron command slots.

I'm up for O5. It's an O5 billet (Navy Operational Support Center Commander), but I got lucky enough to get it as an O4. Hopefully, the results will be out next week.

[rstrick]

Good luck.

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by rstrick

Good luck.

Thanks!!! Still waiting...........

[hgs_notes]

I'm having a hard time picturing an O-ganger as a hands on mechanical type. It just won't work in my head. I knew officers that had nice cars, even older ones, but none of them were gearheads of any kind. If you tell me there are others like you, I won't believe it without pictures of a bunch of grimy officers working on some greasy piece of machinery. No MM's around either.

Good luck on the promotion.

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I'm having a hard time picturing an O-ganger as a hands on mechanical type. It just won't work in my head. I knew officers that had nice cars, even older ones, but none of them were gearheads of any kind. If you tell me there are others like you, I won't believe it without pictures of a bunch of grimy officers working on some greasy piece of machinery. No MM's around either.

Good luck on the promotion.

, I grew up in rural SE Oklahoma and you had to learn to work on your own stuff or walk, . Plus, I spent 5 years as an E before switching to the green side ($$$). I learned never to ask anyone to do anything that I wasn't willing to do myself. I've got a few buddies that are Officers and Gearheads. They were either prior or grew up on farms. Thanks for the best wishes.

R/

[msgross]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

I'm having a hard time picturing an O-ganger as a hands on mechanical type. ...If you tell me there are others like you, I won't believe it without pictures of a bunch of grimy officers working on some greasy piece of machinery.

click on my build thread then! Of course I usually don't get too dirty at work anymore,

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

...I've got a few buddies that are Officers and Gearheads. They were either prior or grew up on farms. Thanks for the best wishes.

R/

and there's the answer... I grew up on a farm in Indiana, spent 6 years enlisted and am an O-3 now...

[hgs_notes]

You guys are the exceptions and the rest of the world is better for it.

[msgross]

thanks, im just always trying to improve my family's lives...

[rstrick]

Since I started this by asking Hart_Rod about his promotion I will have to say that a number of the gear-heads I knew in the Air Force were officers. I was enlisted and spent most of my time in a flying squadron. Our crews were three officers and two or three enlisted. It tends to give a different perspective for both officer and enlisted working in that type of environment.

I've been off-topic here way too much.

I am waiting to see how the project turns out. I'll never be able to build one for physical reasons so I live vicariously through seeing others make these trucks shine.

[danny's 72 superchey]

Rob, i see you finally got retirement papers in. Welcome back out west. I was also really glad you were able to sell your 52. Keep me posted on the progress, of your latest build. Do you live out in your shop? On a sadder note, i just lost the 2nd athlete that i've coached, in Iraq. He was only in country for 2 months. Later, and enjoy retirement. Dan in Battle Ground, Wa e-mail danlinquist@gmail.com

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by danny's 72 superchey

Rob, i see you finally got retirement papers in. Welcome back out west. I was also really glad you were able to sell your 52. Keep me posted on the progress, of your latest build. Do you live out in your shop? On a sadder note, i just lost the 2nd athlete that i've coached, in Iraq. He was only in country for 2 months. Later, and enjoy retirement. Dan in Battle Ground, Wa e-mail danlinquist@gmail.com

Don't have them in just yet........still waiting on the board results. Selling 52 came in handy while trying to take care of 2 households. Sorry to hear about you losing one of your students.......that's always tough regardless of the reason. Take care.

R/

[ElGracho]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

...I've got a few buddies that are Officers and Gearheads. They were either prior or grew up on farms. Thanks for the best wishes.

R/

I got out as an O3 Submarine Officer. I went straight from high school to NROTC and then nuclear power school and the boat. I didn't grow up on a farm, but I guess it was kinda close since my dad was an Agricultural Engineer and I spent a lot of time in the labs and shops on campus.

I know plenty of gearhead officers. We had plenty of academic wool jacket types but we also had plenty of people who had no problem getting their hands dirty. I agree with you that stereotyping usually doesn't work very well...

[Hart_Rod]

Well it looks like I'm keeping the Beast, . I'm getting it ready to go in storage so I went ahead and mounted the EFI gas tank that I got from FuelCellGuy, via BowTieOgre.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Sweet its even autographed

[68GMC454]

glad you are keeping it....looks great

[70LonghornCST]

What a find! Nice truck!

[Number98]

Originally Posted by Hart_Rod

Well it looks like I'm keeping the Beast

Good Deal, hate to see hard work go out the door you know!

[Frizzle Fry]

Glad you're keeping it!

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by FRENCHBLUE72

Sweet its even autographed

I'm guessing Mark does that on all of them.

Originally Posted by 68GMC454

glad you are keeping it....looks great

Thanks!

Originally Posted by 70LonghornCST

What a find! Nice truck!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Frizzle Fry

Glad you're keeping it!

It's going to suck having to put it in storage for a year or so, but I should be able to finish it in about 6 months when I finally pull it out.

Originally Posted by Number98

Good Deal, hate to see hard work go out the door you know!

It's definitely a truck that would not be easy to replace..............

R/

[Hart_Rod]

Well..............since I'm keeping the truck, I figured I might as well finish buying the parts I need to finish it, . I picked up SWB project that's got nearly everthing I need:

a nice 67 hood, take off tailgate, new set of tri-plus outer rockers............. It came with a lot of other parts that I'm not going to use and I'll list on here once I get them inventoried, but as starters:

virtually rust free cab and doors (clean title), 2 rust free 68 fenders, 2 rust free 68 grilles, 2 rust free inner fenders, rust free 67/68 core support, new cab bushings, SWB chassis with 5 lug posi-rearend, 5 lug disc front end with all new components including ECE dropped spindles, 2/4 lowering springs, sway bar, 72 402 big block , turbo 350.......... thats all I can think of right now. Here's some pictures of the tailgate and hood........

[msgross]

wow, nice parts...

Are all these gonna be located in FL or NM? I would like some if they are n FL....

Glad to hear the things will work out to keep the truck, any news on the promotion? I'm still waiting on results for an O4 job where I work...

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by msgross

wow, nice parts...

Are all these gonna be located in FL or NM? I would like some if they are n FL....

Glad to hear the things will work out to keep the truck, any news on the promotion? I'm still waiting on results for an O4 job where I work...

Mike,

The parts are in NM, but I'll be making several trips to OKC and probably one to Pensacola sometime this fall. If you're interested in something, shoot me a PM.

As far as the promotion, I didn't make it. The numbers were really bad this year, only 41 people promoted. Of those, 17 were above zone and only 24 in zone actually promoted (most of those guys had bosses with a few more stripes than me,). It worked out to about 29% promotion rate for the in zone guys and if you break it down further, only about an 18% promotion rate for aviators, . No worries, though, I'll be at 20 in a year. I guess I'll just have to take my MBA and figure out something else to do.......

[rstrick]

Rob,

Too bad about the promotion. But with the MBA and your experience you should not have a problem finding a good job. The one I finally settled on was teaching business at a community college. Pretty good gig, for me at least. Spent 15 years at it and retired - again.

[Hart_Rod]

Originally Posted by rstrick

Rob,

Too bad about the promotion. But with the MBA and your experience you should not have a problem finding a good job. The one I finally settled on was teaching business at a community college. Pretty good gig, for me at least. Spent 15 years at it and retired - again.

Thanks for the words of the encouragement. I was a little bit disappointed as the type A person in me always wants to succeed, . But I'm actually looking forward to moving on. Don't get me wrong, the Navy has been very good to me and my family. I entered boot camp as an E1 and very little direction in my life. I got to go through some of the Navy's best schools (Nuclear Power and Navy Flight School), got both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees paid for and will be retiring as a Commanding Officer. Not to bad for a poor orphan country boy from SE Oklahoma.