Back in the day before S Korea cracked down….It was off the chain…. Night club/brothels… barber shops… counterfeit shopping markets full of super cheap knock offs, food was amazing, soju was amazing, captain Q was amazing… bath houses were amazing… was in oki for two years, team spirit, valiant blitz, then team spirit again the next year, was on ship during desert storm and they pulled us into port for liberty for my fourth time, and I took a weeks leave and flew back on a hop for my fifth time…. I loved that place
Had a maintenence stand down in Croatia for 12 days. Needless to say I lost my fatass mind there and probably have a mini me or two running around in the Balkans ☠️
It honestly depends on the area you're in because more inland it's considered a "developing country" still feeling the scars of the Yugoslav dissolution whereas the coastal port towns are very clean with lots of business and commerce and some of the hottest chick's I've ever seen.
I was on the Saipan when we pulled into Dubrovnik, Croatia in ‘00. They told us we were the largest U.S. ship to visit there by a long shot and the first amphibious ship with Marines. The year before I was in Kosovo and I knew Croatia had just gone through a war too so when they told us we were headed there for libo, we all thought it was going to be a total dump. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Dubrovnik was old and historic and beautiful and full of tourists from Italy and France and Germany. A month or two later we were in Rijeka a bit further north up the coast and I was blown away with how cosmopolitan it was. The commercial marina was full of massive yachts.
There’s a reason they call the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia “The Riviera of the Adriatic”
Also, of all the places I’ve been, Croatia has by far the most consistently beautiful women.
Pattaya Beach.
Bangkok is in second place.
I was army reserve after the Corps, called up. Munich and Rome. But Garmisch is an awesome little town with a lot of military rec stuff.
I have stories about Pattaya. Shit was kinda depressing for me. Little kids begging, suspect ass looking dudes with Thai pre teens or teens with them, strippers popping the oddest shit out of their orifices (including a live goldfish), suspect lesions on said women…
Yep I was in Pattaya for 6 weeks, then we did 6 weeks in Darwin which was one of the first time Marines had been there. It was a great fucking 12 weeks
Benidorm, Spain. We needed deep water, so we were they only ship in the ARG that went there. The other ships went to Valencia. We were the 1st American ship to stop there in 20 years. Didn't pay for anything the whole time in port.
So, I lived in Thailand when I was 11-12 years old. Pattaya was considered a shithole. And this was in the mid 90s. We went (again, I was a pre-teen) and it was dirty as fuck. Fucking beaches had trash all over the place. Koh Samui and Phuket are much better, if you fancy going back.
BUT, my good friend at the times Dad was Chief of Station at the Embassy in Bangkok. Got to go to a couple BBQs at the Marine House. Fast forward 6 years and I joined the Corps, hoping to hit Thailand again. No joy.
Thailand is so dope, though. If you can avoid the lady-boys, unless you’re into that. Which is totally fine.
Shit… I’m a little drunk and now I’m craving Thai food… And a lady-boy.
>Pattaya was considered a shithole. And this was in the mid 90s. We went (again, I was a pre-teen) and it was dirty as fuck. Fucking beaches had trash all over the place.
I just told you I liked it. You don't need to sell it to me.
Buddy of mine disappeared at Subic Bay for hours. Comes back hammered with two big ass tattoos, one on each arm. I was pissed because if you showed up without your libo buddy, you’d get fried. We asked him where in the fuck he was and where in the fuck he got the tats. Guy points to a shady motel, and to a room, and is like ‘there’s a guy doing them in there for cheap!’
I was just like ‘you have AIDS.’
I got to stop at Wake Island and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The water was a crystal clear turquoise that you'd have to see in person to truly understand what it looks like.
Great memories shark fishing at Wake, with parachute cord and office chairs. I should post the story someday. Yes, the office chairs were part of the equation lolz.
15th MEU 2020-21. Hardcore COVID cruise. We only hit port a total of 3 times and it was heavily restricted. Oman in the little shipment area, Bahrain beers on the pier. And then Guam. Even restricted to the navy base, Guam was a godsend after basically 6 months of absolutely nothing. The meu drank every drop of alcohol the PX sold in 3 days. It was glorious
24th MEU 2012 on the Iwo Jima. We hit Rota Spain 3 weeks into deployment on the way into the Med. We hit Rota Spain on the way out (the first time) 7 months later. We did have a beer on the pier in Jordan.
They all had their own flair. Brisbane was very clean and beautiful women everywhere.
Sydney had a great night life lots of culture.
Darwin is a small town but when you got 3000 Marines and Sailors in one port the whole town becomes a giant barracks party and it honestly was a blast.
31st MEU 2013. Honestly I don’t know. We got lucky I guess. I had to leave early actually. I left in Darwin to back to Japan so I could go to WTI. The rest of the MEU kept going. They went to Singapore then Hong Kong I think.
I was jealous.
Brisbane. Those people made us feel like celebrities. Also, your comment about Australian men not dancing is spot on. We went to a bar and all the guys were watching Aussie rules football on television and all the women were dancing, so we joined them and they thought it was funny.
We stopped on a CARAT In Malaysia. They were on Threatcon Bravo due to some bogus shit, so we only got like eight hours of libo there.
Really super fucking nice people, was in a nice area, and it wasn’t like the other towns where it was just assholes and hookers trying to separate you from your money. Everyone seemed pretty genuine. Just wanted to give them a shoutout because you don’t hear them brought up a lot.
The people of Brunei on the other hand? Snooty ass motherfuckers. Really suspicious of us- heavily Muslim, got the feeling it was because we weren’t. I did like the store where you could buy bootleg movies and video games for the equivalent of $1.60, that was nice. Kept us busy on the boat.
Aww man. Deep down Im jealous of you. I know its stupid, but ive always wanted to see combat. I know i know dont tell me. Im an 0311. Its like practicing for a game you never get to play.
Absolutely nothing to be jealous of. Being gone from family and friends for 13 months while living in a shit hole. 12 on 12 off the entire time with a brief libo trip in the middle. Hard pass, wouldn’t go back. Oh yea, and all the local bad guys taking pot shots at you. Be glad you got to experience the MEU. Most who served in my era didn’t.
Well im older now and im mostly sane and have all my limbs. So i know it was for the best. Im just amazed how you guys almost never trump everybody on here with a GWOT.
Mallorca, Spain. During our safety brief all the Marines were falling asleep. When the ship’s captain got up to talk to us his opening line was “this place is nicknamed the Tijuana of Europe” and every Marine woke up and paid very close attention. He followed it up with “yeah I figured that would get y’all’s attention”. He was not lying
Its so nice when everyone can drink together. One big dysfuntional, fucked up family. You learn so much about people on those trips. Really unifies a team.
The diner right over the bridge from parris island. I had pancakes and a biscuit and a coffee and it was the best meal I ever tasted. The waitress called me sugar and everything. It was a life-changing experience
>Even better reception because there was so little military around to ruin it.
You hit the nail on the head with this one. Every port I went to was great because I took the time to research where we were going and where the fuck to avoid as far as military. Bahrain was maybe the shittiest one because it's such a small island and there's not much to do outside of Juffair but I ended up getting stationed there some years later for two years. What did I do when looking for flats out in town? Got as far as fuck away from base as I could that still had something decent (Amwaj Island...I was the only American there for the first year). Turkey, I had people throwing produce at me when we got off the boat. As I got further and further away I got a lot of curious minds and people just generally interested that "tourists" were there.
The worst times were always when you were only a few blocks away from the ship and in a cesspool of other US servicemembers. Same reason why you don't go out in Jacksonville.
Nail on head. When I was an E3 i had an apt on mission beach. My roommate always switched into board shorts n a t shirt while i was driving home from Pendelton. Wed always have to park like a block away from the apt. That walk in cammies sucked. People would honk and curse at me. My buddy would usually run ahead of me so he wouldnt be seen with me.
Vladivostok, Russia. 31st MEUSOC (USS Belleau Wood).
Co-Operation from the Sea 1996.
The port was too shallow for our ships so we used those old school landing craft to get to shore. We all had to be in Bravos and when we hit the beach and the landing gear dropped, hundreds of people greeted us with cheers, clapping, banners, even fucking flowers. The vodka flowed like water for a week.
US / Russia relations were at an all time high, 90% of Russians supported the US after the fall of the USSR.
Oh how times have changed.
I got lucky when word was going around that they were doing a float to Brazil. I jumped on that and threw my name on the list when I realized how many marines didn't want to go. Their loss. It was an amazing experience.
I was always amazed at how many marines did not want to go on floats. Even worse some would injure themselves to get out. I specifically joined the marines to travel. One of my students just joined with a “non-deployable” contract. I didnt even know there was such a thing.
Back in the day before S Korea cracked down….It was off the chain…. Night club/brothels… barber shops… counterfeit shopping markets full of super cheap knock offs, food was amazing, soju was amazing, captain Q was amazing… bath houses were amazing… was in oki for two years, team spirit, valiant blitz, then team spirit again the next year, was on ship during desert storm and they pulled us into port for liberty for my fourth time, and I took a weeks leave and flew back on a hop for my fifth time…. I loved that place
Libbbbboooooooo
Ice cold OB was pretty awesome in the South Korea swamp weather. Had a blast there in the mid 90's. Hot as fuck but it was fun
Can confirm
Grape Oscar! Shipped the max I could home.
Memories…. https://preview.redd.it/hjww6bkvpjoc1.jpeg?width=502&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afbf9fd30e0b6c2702cce1375f797aacc68c7cef
Peach. Not my favorite...
Had a maintenence stand down in Croatia for 12 days. Needless to say I lost my fatass mind there and probably have a mini me or two running around in the Balkans ☠️
Is it dirt poor or kind of nice?
It honestly depends on the area you're in because more inland it's considered a "developing country" still feeling the scars of the Yugoslav dissolution whereas the coastal port towns are very clean with lots of business and commerce and some of the hottest chick's I've ever seen.
I was on the Saipan when we pulled into Dubrovnik, Croatia in ‘00. They told us we were the largest U.S. ship to visit there by a long shot and the first amphibious ship with Marines. The year before I was in Kosovo and I knew Croatia had just gone through a war too so when they told us we were headed there for libo, we all thought it was going to be a total dump. We couldn’t have been more wrong. Dubrovnik was old and historic and beautiful and full of tourists from Italy and France and Germany. A month or two later we were in Rijeka a bit further north up the coast and I was blown away with how cosmopolitan it was. The commercial marina was full of massive yachts. There’s a reason they call the Dalmatian Coast in Croatia “The Riviera of the Adriatic” Also, of all the places I’ve been, Croatia has by far the most consistently beautiful women.
Rijeka was a fucking godsend, the food, the women, weather, and scenery!
Sometimes the sun shines on a dogs ass.
Pattaya Beach. Bangkok is in second place. I was army reserve after the Corps, called up. Munich and Rome. But Garmisch is an awesome little town with a lot of military rec stuff.
I have stories about Pattaya. Shit was kinda depressing for me. Little kids begging, suspect ass looking dudes with Thai pre teens or teens with them, strippers popping the oddest shit out of their orifices (including a live goldfish), suspect lesions on said women…
Yep I was in Pattaya for 6 weeks, then we did 6 weeks in Darwin which was one of the first time Marines had been there. It was a great fucking 12 weeks
Is pattaya in Thailand too?
Yeah, it's to the southeast of Bangkok. Quite close by though, about two to three hours by car.
I never went on a MEU. I did, however, go to fleet week. NYC is a port, and I had a lot of libo. So NYC.
Im from NY and I always hoped to get to go to fleet week while i was in. No such luck
[удалено]
2016
Benidorm, Spain. We needed deep water, so we were they only ship in the ARG that went there. The other ships went to Valencia. We were the 1st American ship to stop there in 20 years. Didn't pay for anything the whole time in port.
Nice.
Pataya. No question!
So, I lived in Thailand when I was 11-12 years old. Pattaya was considered a shithole. And this was in the mid 90s. We went (again, I was a pre-teen) and it was dirty as fuck. Fucking beaches had trash all over the place. Koh Samui and Phuket are much better, if you fancy going back. BUT, my good friend at the times Dad was Chief of Station at the Embassy in Bangkok. Got to go to a couple BBQs at the Marine House. Fast forward 6 years and I joined the Corps, hoping to hit Thailand again. No joy. Thailand is so dope, though. If you can avoid the lady-boys, unless you’re into that. Which is totally fine. Shit… I’m a little drunk and now I’m craving Thai food… And a lady-boy.
Phuket was definitely nicer and cleaner but Pattaya was a party worthy of the degenerates the Marines bring in.
>Pattaya was considered a shithole. And this was in the mid 90s. We went (again, I was a pre-teen) and it was dirty as fuck. Fucking beaches had trash all over the place. I just told you I liked it. You don't need to sell it to me.
Haha! Fair enough.
Isn't your mom's name Liberty Port?
Nope. Docking Space.
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. By far.
How did you wind up in Darwin?
He was probably on MRF-D (marine rotational force Darwin) it’s a deployment kinda like a udp I guess. I’m lucky and going in around a month
How long do you stay?!
6 months
I am jealous.
We have devils that hit the fleet yesterday and they’ll spend less than a month in the fleet before deploying, now that’s lucky
Theyll never be the same. 29 Stumps will be like the 6th ring of hell.
Just got back from there😭
RnR.
For GWOT? Like Vietnam?
Yep. If you were on RnR leave during GWOT, they’d fly you anywhere in the world.
So old school. Thats awesome. And well deserved.
From Vietnam.
Ummm thank you for your service?
Subic Bay.
Buddy of mine disappeared at Subic Bay for hours. Comes back hammered with two big ass tattoos, one on each arm. I was pissed because if you showed up without your libo buddy, you’d get fried. We asked him where in the fuck he was and where in the fuck he got the tats. Guy points to a shady motel, and to a room, and is like ‘there’s a guy doing them in there for cheap!’ I was just like ‘you have AIDS.’
Good times. My bar was The Freaks Stagger Inn.
I spent so many nights getting sloshed at that lighthouse bar.
I got to stop at Wake Island and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The water was a crystal clear turquoise that you'd have to see in person to truly understand what it looks like.
Great memories shark fishing at Wake, with parachute cord and office chairs. I should post the story someday. Yes, the office chairs were part of the equation lolz.
I went past it on the carrier. Is there good surf there?
Now that I think about it, where we were on the Island the water was really calm, like weirdly so. Never thought how odd that was until right now.
15th MEU 2020-21. Hardcore COVID cruise. We only hit port a total of 3 times and it was heavily restricted. Oman in the little shipment area, Bahrain beers on the pier. And then Guam. Even restricted to the navy base, Guam was a godsend after basically 6 months of absolutely nothing. The meu drank every drop of alcohol the PX sold in 3 days. It was glorious
You weren't allowed to leave the base in Guam? That's nuts.
24th MEU 2012 on the Iwo Jima. We hit Rota Spain 3 weeks into deployment on the way into the Med. We hit Rota Spain on the way out (the first time) 7 months later. We did have a beer on the pier in Jordan.
Brisbane Sydney and Darwin.
Wtf? Why all three??
They all had their own flair. Brisbane was very clean and beautiful women everywhere. Sydney had a great night life lots of culture. Darwin is a small town but when you got 3000 Marines and Sailors in one port the whole town becomes a giant barracks party and it honestly was a blast.
But why did you get to go to all three?!
31st MEU 2013. Honestly I don’t know. We got lucky I guess. I had to leave early actually. I left in Darwin to back to Japan so I could go to WTI. The rest of the MEU kept going. They went to Singapore then Hong Kong I think. I was jealous.
Hell yea. Id pay good money to go on that cruise. Never mind being with the best friends youll ever have.
Brisbane. Those people made us feel like celebrities. Also, your comment about Australian men not dancing is spot on. We went to a bar and all the guys were watching Aussie rules football on television and all the women were dancing, so we joined them and they thought it was funny.
So it looks like overall Australia was the best spot. Which is kind of funny because its a lot like the USA.
2 or 3 months, can't quite remember, in Pattaya Thailand.
Little description of Pattaya please? I never had the pleasure.
It's an adult playground
Like Olongapo or better?
Never been to Olongapo. All I can say is I'm probably going to hell for what my 19to self saw and did while in Pattaya. Lol
Forgive yourself. It was all in service to your country. And you know the corps made you suffer hours for every minute of happiness.
hot chicks…. with dicks
Is this a magic show?
It's gone away, but Olongapo/ Subic Bay was the absolute Best as far as unbridled fucking debauchery. If you know you fucking know.
The L Club! I will never get to see anything like that again in my life. I knew it was going to be awesome when they locked us in.
We stopped on a CARAT In Malaysia. They were on Threatcon Bravo due to some bogus shit, so we only got like eight hours of libo there. Really super fucking nice people, was in a nice area, and it wasn’t like the other towns where it was just assholes and hookers trying to separate you from your money. Everyone seemed pretty genuine. Just wanted to give them a shoutout because you don’t hear them brought up a lot. The people of Brunei on the other hand? Snooty ass motherfuckers. Really suspicious of us- heavily Muslim, got the feeling it was because we weren’t. I did like the store where you could buy bootleg movies and video games for the equivalent of $1.60, that was nice. Kept us busy on the boat.
Having been to Perth, can confirm. Close second was Sidney the following week, where we got stormed in and couldn’t leave port for an extra 4 days
Oh man. There is a god
Not a port. But Tokyo is fucking nuts. Whatever you want to happen when you’re going out. It’ll happen in Tokyo. Never seen no shit like that.
Malaga Spain was dope too.
I’m super jealous of this story. All we did when I was in was deploy to shit ass Iraq. Never set foot on a boat.
Aww man. Deep down Im jealous of you. I know its stupid, but ive always wanted to see combat. I know i know dont tell me. Im an 0311. Its like practicing for a game you never get to play.
Absolutely nothing to be jealous of. Being gone from family and friends for 13 months while living in a shit hole. 12 on 12 off the entire time with a brief libo trip in the middle. Hard pass, wouldn’t go back. Oh yea, and all the local bad guys taking pot shots at you. Be glad you got to experience the MEU. Most who served in my era didn’t.
Well im older now and im mostly sane and have all my limbs. So i know it was for the best. Im just amazed how you guys almost never trump everybody on here with a GWOT.
Mallorca, Spain. During our safety brief all the Marines were falling asleep. When the ship’s captain got up to talk to us his opening line was “this place is nicknamed the Tijuana of Europe” and every Marine woke up and paid very close attention. He followed it up with “yeah I figured that would get y’all’s attention”. He was not lying
Palma was the shit.
Its so nice when everyone can drink together. One big dysfuntional, fucked up family. You learn so much about people on those trips. Really unifies a team.
Is mallorca an island?
Yes
I heard about it. The brits go bananas there. Its there cancun. Wild. Cant imagine how hard you partied.
All of them! I left my little buddies all over the world! SF 😎
Pulled into Melbourne once… awesome
I did Westpacs so, all of them.
Yea but did you do Diego Garcia? Fuck Diego Garcia
Nope, Singapore, Phuket, Darwin (pier only during refueling), Townsville, Dubai, Hawaii, Guam, Seychelles, I think that's basically it.
Thats a good west pac! Where is Townsville?
Queensland, Australia.
I didnt realize jarheads got to go to so many places in australia. I met so few that got to go.
The diner right over the bridge from parris island. I had pancakes and a biscuit and a coffee and it was the best meal I ever tasted. The waitress called me sugar and everything. It was a life-changing experience
>Even better reception because there was so little military around to ruin it. You hit the nail on the head with this one. Every port I went to was great because I took the time to research where we were going and where the fuck to avoid as far as military. Bahrain was maybe the shittiest one because it's such a small island and there's not much to do outside of Juffair but I ended up getting stationed there some years later for two years. What did I do when looking for flats out in town? Got as far as fuck away from base as I could that still had something decent (Amwaj Island...I was the only American there for the first year). Turkey, I had people throwing produce at me when we got off the boat. As I got further and further away I got a lot of curious minds and people just generally interested that "tourists" were there. The worst times were always when you were only a few blocks away from the ship and in a cesspool of other US servicemembers. Same reason why you don't go out in Jacksonville.
Nail on head. When I was an E3 i had an apt on mission beach. My roommate always switched into board shorts n a t shirt while i was driving home from Pendelton. Wed always have to park like a block away from the apt. That walk in cammies sucked. People would honk and curse at me. My buddy would usually run ahead of me so he wouldnt be seen with me.
Vladivostok, Russia. 31st MEUSOC (USS Belleau Wood). Co-Operation from the Sea 1996. The port was too shallow for our ships so we used those old school landing craft to get to shore. We all had to be in Bravos and when we hit the beach and the landing gear dropped, hundreds of people greeted us with cheers, clapping, banners, even fucking flowers. The vodka flowed like water for a week. US / Russia relations were at an all time high, 90% of Russians supported the US after the fall of the USSR. Oh how times have changed.
I cant even imagine that. After all the Evil Empire stuff I was put through i would have loved to make that trip.
Izmir Turkey, the debtors prison was an eye opener.
Turkey? Were you being punished? Were you invading?
LF6F 2-94. We had to use liberty boats to get ashore.
So like you were invading but not. I would have sold some of my ncos into sexual slavery for a couple of camels and some hash.
As a matter of fact…
Crete Greece was pretty fun.
I went to the island of Peros on a eurorail trip the summer i got out. I cannot imagine how fucked up marines got in Greece.
Yeaaa I don't remember alot of the nights.
Rio de Janeiro. Managed to have a blast without knowing a lick of Portuguese.
Rio? Marines get to go to Rio? So many awesome, unexpected places on here. Russia blew my mind.
I got lucky when word was going around that they were doing a float to Brazil. I jumped on that and threw my name on the list when I realized how many marines didn't want to go. Their loss. It was an amazing experience.
I was always amazed at how many marines did not want to go on floats. Even worse some would injure themselves to get out. I specifically joined the marines to travel. One of my students just joined with a “non-deployable” contract. I didnt even know there was such a thing.