Something different: The Barong

[sweetcostarica]

Alabama! kronchew, I thought you were an English gentleman and now find out you're a Southern gentleman. Thanks from explaining your avatar and signature.
That picture you drew is nice and shows your deep love for you dogs. Millie's and Blue's "silly pajamas" make them look cute. I can see why you love them and they love you, even though Blue is in heaven. My family loves dogs too. I grew up with dogs. We loved them all but my Uncle had a Spider monkey that he loved but he was eccentric. Picture of a Spider monkey below

Good to know your were in the Coast Guard. But that unwritten motto:'you have to go out, you don't have to come back' was too harsh for me so I joined the Navy. D & S Piers, Norfolk, Va. USS Bluefish SSN 675 (1980 - 84).
Wow 20 years in the United Kingdom. Make sure you show 'em how to make Alabama's slow-Cooked food and unbeatable Barbecue ribs. Warning: you may get several marriage proposal after they taste our traditional Southern food :thumbup:.

Left: Banana pudding Right: greens, sweet potatoes, macaroni, fried chicken, corn bread
Note: I was born in Ohio but my father and mother are from North Carolina and we eat Southern food and "Soul food" as often as possible.

 

[Karda]

We loved them all but my Uncle had a Spider monkey that he loved but he was eccentric.......

Did he dress his spider monkey up in silly polka dot pajamas? That pic always makes me giggle for some odd reason.

Because we might've finally found kronchew's long lost twin brother !!! :>) <<< Scroll Here

 

[kronckew]

Did he dress his spider monkey up in silly polka dot pajamas? That pic always makes me giggle for some odd reason.

Because we might've finally found kronchew's long lost twin brother !!! :>) <<< Scroll Here

i personally do not wear PJ's. millie still wears hers during the winter, this last she had a number of people stop their cars (mostly, er - all, wimmen (thanks, god)) who made favourable comments... we all know i am steve ferguson's older twin, older by about 15 years. i've had to grow a beard and give myself a crewcut to differentiate us. we'll have to both examine our dna and the spider monkey's to see if we might actually be triplets.

sweetcostarica, i just noticed the alaska in your details. i was the engr. officer on a cutter, wmec619 'Confidence' in Kodiak for a year and a half after a stint as asst. eo on wagb283 'Burton Island', an icebreaker, which made a few patrols up in the arctic. we drunk a few bars dry in alaska, especially in dutch harbour, point barrow, and a couple other stops. did a special project at elmendorf for a couple weeks related to refueling aircraft. liked alaska, but got tired of eating king crab. been inside a german ww2 sub, a bit cramped, don't think i'd like being under water for months.

 

[ferguson]

Good to see you brother Wayne!
Steve

 

[sweetcostarica]

... i was the engr. officer on a cutter, wmec619 'Confidence' in Kodiak for a year and a half after a stint as asst. eo on wagb283 'Burton Island', an icebreaker, which made a few patrols up in the arctic. we drunk a few bars dry in alaska, especially in dutch harbour, point barrow, and a couple other stops. did a special project at elmendorf for a couple weeks related to refueling aircraft. liked alaska, but got tired of eating king crab. been inside a german ww2 sub, a bit cramped, don't think i'd like being under water for months.

Burton Island AG-88 / AGB-1 / WAGB-283
Builder: Western Pipe & Steel Co., Los Angeles , CA
Displacement: 6,515 tons (1945)
Cost: $9.880,037
Commissioned: 28 December 1946 (USN)
Commissioned: 15 December 1966 (USCG)
She was decommissioned on 9 May 1978


USCGC Confidence (WMEC 619)
Reliance class vessel
Builder: United States Coast Guard Yard, Curtis Bay, Maryland
Displacement: 1127.2 tons (full load)
Commissioned: in 1966
Still in service

Those are some amazing ships you were on sir. Especially the search and rescue, law enforcement, and alien migrant interdiction operations of the Confidence. My submarine did some great things too but I can't talk about it . If you were the Executive Officer or the Engineering Officer of a sub you would be under more pressure and I don't mean sea pressure. I was enlisted and saw the usually young inexperienced commissioned officers eaten up by my captain and the preciseness of command of a submarine.

I understand why you wouldn't want to be in a metal tube for months but today's subs are much, much bigger than that WWII sub. They are more like 747s without wings in size. And after reading "we drunk a few bars dry in Alaska" it sounds like you have the "right stuff" and would fit right in.

Above: Skipper of the USN Virginia class nuclear submarine "North Carolina"
What I didn't like while on my sub was "hot bunking". This is when you share your bed with one or two other crewmen (or women nowadays). So when you start you watch they jump into your bed as they get off and vice versa. What if you share a bunk with a person who has bad acne or doesn't shower! That's why I didn't like hot bunking.

Lastly, the food up here is plentiful, so fresh and delicious, red salmon, king salmon, halibut, king crab, reindeer, sourdough bread, micro brewery beer, etc. and much of it cheap. They say, "too much of a good thing is a bad thing". Oh, I'm suffering real bad .

 

[kronckew]

i was a direct commisioned merchant marine officer (3rd asst. engr, steam and motor vessels, unlimited horsepower). the CG technically enlisted me, gave me a warrant, and commissioned me thru the warrant officer to lieutentant legislation all on the same day, tho i only got to be an ensign initially. i had a warrant officer's serial number till they started using ssan. technically i'm a mustang.

luckily as an ossifer i had my own bunk, in a room which i shared with 3 others on the icebreaker. we didn't hot bunk, but were a mix of brown and black shoes, and on different watches, so it's difficult to sleep when you aren't on watch or collateral duties, or doing paperwork. not to mention the patrol we did at point barrow where we had a seismic survey crew setting off explosions every 15 sec or so. i also won't mention a summer patrol near big and little diomede where the cia came on board as we arrived at home in LA where they confiscated all our film. we got a medal for that one. also can't talk about the details.

one of the smaller islands we stopped at on one of the patrols had 20 inhabitants, one bar. i got the news i'd been promoted to full lieutenant, so we had a wetting down party at the bar and did drink ALL their beer, and the locals were a tad upset as there was about 2 weeks before the next shipment. they felt better when i got wetted by being thrown in the bay. i had to buy all that beer of course.

the connie did mostly fisheries patrols (that's where i mostly ate king crab, breakfast, lunch and dinner - we traded with the jap fishermen we boarded for king crab. playboy mags and any porn mags were worth their weight in gold, or the equivalent in crab, sake. as an officer, i paid for my food, so supplimenting the menu with essentially free crabs were a necessity. at least as EO i had my own room/office (and didn't have to stand watches as i was technically on call 24/7). funny you mentioned metal tube. i got stuck in the connie's turbine exhaust tube while inspecting it at dockside in seattle. claustrophobia was more than just a word that day. they've since removed the gas turbines & given her a vertical exhaust and stack (the original exhausts were horizontal out the transom about 2 ft. above the waterline). shame, they gave a good power boost to the main diesels. the turbines had a bad habit of blowing up and throwing blades. a sister ship had one fail in texas, took them 3 months to tear it out and replace it. they had to go into drydock & cut a hole in the hull to get it out & back in. we had one let loose in kodiak. me and my chief, with help managed to disassemble it to small enough chunks to go out the existing hatches. we disassembled the new one similarly and re-assembled it on board. took us three days. we took glee in reminding our sister ship on every occasion we could. guess they were too much trouble in the end. guzzled fuel mercilessly too. they've also replaced the 3"50 popgun we had, with an automatic 25mm chain gun mount.

i'll throw in my kris just to get us sort of back on track,

 

[selanne8]

heheh, when I read "barong", I was thinking of one of these instead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barong_Tagalog

 

[mbscs4]

Hey, sweetcostarica are you in Costa Rica? I am and drove here from South Carolina. My M43 HI khukri was confiscated at the Mexico border when we went through it in November. I'm still not over it. I am wondering if there is any way to get a decent knife in this country. The run of the mill machete here is just that... run of the mill. I can open pipas (young coconuts) and do basic brush clearing, but there are many more tasks here that require different equipment. If you or anybody here has any insight as to how to get a decent knife here, I would appreciate it.

 

[sweetcostarica]

heheh, when I read "barong", I was thinking of one of these instead - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barong_Tagalog

It is easy to get confused with this word barong. Here are some definitions I found:
1 Barong is a knife resembling a cleaver; used in the Philippines
2 Barong or Barong Tagalog is an embroidered formal garment of the Philippines
3 Barong is a carved, wooden mask that represents the mythical creature known in Bali as Banaspati Raja, meaning “King of the Forest,”

So if someone says to you: "Wait here I want to show you my barong" make sure they like you .

 

[sweetcostarica]

Nice drive :thumbup: but man, man :grumpy:! Your M-43 was taken by the Officials! This is why... they liked it and just took it or they wanted a $20 or $30 USD bribe (which is most likely). In the 3rd world made up difficulties to facilitate a bribe is a way of life and considered normal.

I'm in Alaska now but when I was in Costa Rica I looked for a heavy duty, high quality cutting tool too. In Latin America and many developing countries the machete is king and it is made large and small. The best brands are Tramontina (Brazil) and Imacasa (has 5 sub brands). If you can have a farmer of the area you're in show you how he uses the machete and you'll be surprised. Best place to buy a machete is the farmers market or the local department store.
Randall Adventure Training Machete in use:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEBZgCf6OlY&feature=related
Related video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BO1S0i_jd8s&feature=related
Note: Don't spend too many Costa Rican colóns on any tool in Central or South America because it might get confiscated at the border again.
If you want something different or smaller try a Sickle. The Sickle is a surprisingly versatile tool, which I have seen used cutting grass, reeds, wood, and meat.

When I was in Central America and Mexico (30 years off & on) if I had a 18" or longer machete already then my survival knife for the small tasks was/is a Swiss Army knife (seriously). One thing to remember in Central or South America: all imported merchandise is extremely expensive so they do have better big knives but they are not cheap.

The SAK is all I needed with a machete.

 

[sweetcostarica]

Good to see you brother Wayne!

Hi ferguson, is that salty sea dog kronckew really your brother?

That was a great detailed reply Kronchew concerning your trails and tribulations onboard ship.
Buy the way nice, very nice Kris :thumbup:.

 

[Timelord]

Very nice barong, Sweetcostarica. Any chance of seeing an in use demonstration, like the 3 Kukri test? Maybe pair it up against the parangs.

 

[sweetcostarica]

Thank you very much .

I am thinking about it but the next field test/review is with the parangs only.
Also trying to get the new Village parang machete for the test.

Nice idea about the barong though.

 

[leebrewer]

It's great to hear the adventures of other service men. I wish I could go thru the stories of my service with my daughters. I worked in 23 countries in my 25 years and spent 17 years stationed outside of the US.
SweetCostaRica, I was looking forward to meeting up with you someday and sitting around a fire till you said you were eating Reindeer. I know exactly how Santa and the Elves are feeling. The Khukuris have made you do some monster things.

 

[kronckew]

..., is that salty sea dog kronckew really your brother?
...

yes, but we have different mothers and fathers and grew up separately in different states and sadly share no dna markers (that we know of). we just look a lot alike & both like the same sort of sharp pointy things...

View attachment 270575

steve - left, me -right
or is it visa-versa?

 

[sweetcostarica]

That's amazing! Reminds me of a movie you guys could have starred in.

You both are lucky because few relationships are closer than brotherhood.

 

[nepki]

Just thought I'd share this:

North Borneo Barong
13 inch blade
Borneo Ironwood handle

Cheers!

 

[kronckew]

me like barongs

sharp and deadly.

as i noted before, the US Army documented a moro juramentado swinging a barong cut a trooper in half at the waist in one swing.

this one of mine, with a 19" x 1/4" razor sharp blade, could definitely do that.

 

[Knifekateer]

I recently visited the West Point Museum and saw a Barong on display - it had been used in a conflict with American troops in the Philippines and had a bullet hole in the blade. Apparently the bullet through the blade didn't force the user to drop the Barong, but the next shot went through the handle, and the hand that was holding it.

There was also a Khukuri in the display, and it was labeled as "the world's best slashing knife." However, my kids identified it as "Daddy, that's your camping knife!"

 

[kronckew]

... However, my kids identified it as "Daddy, that's your camping knife!"

we know you are a good parent when they comment like that. shows you are training them correctly.