Any vets among the Audiophiles here?

government run amuck??? i didn't know there had been a coup d'etat or do you mean the one the american people elected?

I think that the Coup D'etat is the one that Coltranel, and Macrojack are proposing. Of course with them conveniently in charge, instead of that interfering Constitutional Mandate! I will take a Constitutional Mandate any day over a Coltranel/Macrojack Mandate, perhaps I might have just a little bit more Freedom that way. You guys want to rule over people, perhaps I can recommend you overthrowing a Caribbean Island somewhere! Just leave me with my Constitutional Rights that I served 20 years to protect! I think that I have EARNED it!

Actually I was referring to the gov't the people didn't elect, but what's it matter, it's now history...as am I. Best to all!

Don't be a stranger, Contranel. We can live with your Politics, to each his own. We are just more curious about what kind of Stereo System you have, at the risk of souding a little materialistic. I counter that it is more about the Music, than the material. I don't think that is a bad character flaw. I suggest that we stop looking for character flaws, and converts, and just appreciate the Music we have. Its getting tougher in an aggressively Politically split Society, but we definitely need a Music Vacation from all of the noise.

January '74 the USS Ponchatoula A0-148, home ported out of Pearl, and its crew enters drydock for a 6 month restoration in Guam.

We're not too jazzed about being on Guam, an island 26 miles long and 8 miles wide located in the deepest waters of the Pacific, aka the Mariana trench, but the ships crew is jazzed and motivated to get this restoration project started and completed because everyone knows that a WestPac cruise is on the horizon upon completion of all dry dock repair.

6 months of barrack lodging, with open air cubicles two to a cubicle. You'd enter that barracks each evening and hear every type of music imaginable being played via the latest Sansui's, Pioneer's, Technique's, just to name a few. RR, Jazz, R&B, even Country before Country was kewl. All blending into this seamless sound of feel good energy. Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, all shoulder to shoulder and cohabitating side by side in a close environment. I can still sense the smell of empty kegs, and a very vivid memory of hours upon endless hours of playin' SPADES. Trump that!

Those were the good ol' days. And I left out the best part. Bertha Butt, as some of my cohorts named her, a small framed Guamanian gal I dated who'd pick me up outside the barracks in her shiny new '73 Datsun 240 Z. I was 18, and the envy of a barracks full of cats who I left behind listening to their gear because I was one of a few that actually had landed a date with a local. Well, life was good on Guam for some of us. And following drydocks, PI, Bangkok, Singapore, Yokuska, Sydney, Wellington...Ahhhh WestPac...how sweet it was. And made even better every knot of the way by the sounds of Pioneer and Sansui state of the art sound acquired on an E3's salary. $320 a month!

Enjoy