Roy,
Per your request for a non-technical Corvette story, here it is. This story has little to do about Corvettes but I hope you and others get a chuckle over it.
In 1967 through 1969, I was in the Amphibious Seabees (ACB-2) stationed out of Little Creek, Virginia, near Norfolk. Of the 18 officers in the battalion, at least 4 were Corvette owners at any one time. The Corvettes would be lined up in the best parking spots in front of the battalion headquarters and wardroom (which were a little more then two quonset huts put together) especially for Saturday muster, which occasionally was full dress parade day. The Corvettes were the most popular car with the bachelor JO's. With nearly free room and board, 10 grand a year, and a Navy Credit Union Account, why not.
In 1968, I remember sitting out front: a 63 coupe, a 65 conv, a 67 conv (which I now drive) and a brand new 68 conv. I had a 67 Renault 10 at the time, which I traded for the 67 conv. later in the year to my buddy who needed a "nice family car".
So along comes Ensign Raymond, new to the battalion, and he has a beautiful 65 or 66 GTO convertible, dark green, tan top, gorgeous car. But Ensign Raymond either wanted to one-up the Corvette owners, or always wanted a Porsche, so he sells the GTO, and gets a 1961 white Porsche in need of work, especially a paint job.
In our Seabee section of the base, we had a paint shop which was used for painting the heavy equipment, trucks, and military vehicles. So Ensign Raymond, arranges with the Seabees working in the shop to paint the Porsche (of course during their off hours). He wants to paint the car British Racing Green with some gold flake to make it look real fancy. He has to supervise mixing the paint and they get it done.
He then parks the Porsche in front of the wardroom among the Corvettes, and to the rest of us, the color looked very familiar. He must have mixed two much yellow gold flake in with the British Racing Green, and the color came out--you guessed it--Olive Drab Green, except a lot shinier then our equipment. None of us could really break his heart to tell him that.
So, I got a hold of the two Seabees who painted it and found that then had lots of the paint mix left over for touchups. I had them paint the backgound color on two pieces of light cardboard. Then they applied the Seabee stencil and painted the Seabee seal in yellow on the cardboard. This was the stencil we applied to all our heavy equipment and vehicles, you know the circle with the bee in a sailor's uniform within, holding a machine gun, and a wrench and hammer (We build, We fight).
On our next Saturday muster, which happened to be parade day, we carefully taped the two cardboard seals to the doors of the Porsche. It was perfect, from a distance it looked like the seals were painted on, and the Porsche looked like a some new model military Jeep.
I think we got our point across, it wasn't too long after that, that Ensign Raymond got rid of the Porsche, and I think, if my memory serves me right, got himself a new Corvette.
The moral of this story is: Never mix British Racing Green with Gold Flake!
If anyone knows of a Richard E. Raymond originally from the Seattle or Washington state area, have him get in touch with me. He's probably a Corvette owner, and I'm sure he'll verify this story, even if it's a little embellished.
Jerry Fuccillo
#42179
Per your request for a non-technical Corvette story, here it is. This story has little to do about Corvettes but I hope you and others get a chuckle over it.
In 1967 through 1969, I was in the Amphibious Seabees (ACB-2) stationed out of Little Creek, Virginia, near Norfolk. Of the 18 officers in the battalion, at least 4 were Corvette owners at any one time. The Corvettes would be lined up in the best parking spots in front of the battalion headquarters and wardroom (which were a little more then two quonset huts put together) especially for Saturday muster, which occasionally was full dress parade day. The Corvettes were the most popular car with the bachelor JO's. With nearly free room and board, 10 grand a year, and a Navy Credit Union Account, why not.
In 1968, I remember sitting out front: a 63 coupe, a 65 conv, a 67 conv (which I now drive) and a brand new 68 conv. I had a 67 Renault 10 at the time, which I traded for the 67 conv. later in the year to my buddy who needed a "nice family car".
So along comes Ensign Raymond, new to the battalion, and he has a beautiful 65 or 66 GTO convertible, dark green, tan top, gorgeous car. But Ensign Raymond either wanted to one-up the Corvette owners, or always wanted a Porsche, so he sells the GTO, and gets a 1961 white Porsche in need of work, especially a paint job.
In our Seabee section of the base, we had a paint shop which was used for painting the heavy equipment, trucks, and military vehicles. So Ensign Raymond, arranges with the Seabees working in the shop to paint the Porsche (of course during their off hours). He wants to paint the car British Racing Green with some gold flake to make it look real fancy. He has to supervise mixing the paint and they get it done.
He then parks the Porsche in front of the wardroom among the Corvettes, and to the rest of us, the color looked very familiar. He must have mixed two much yellow gold flake in with the British Racing Green, and the color came out--you guessed it--Olive Drab Green, except a lot shinier then our equipment. None of us could really break his heart to tell him that.
So, I got a hold of the two Seabees who painted it and found that then had lots of the paint mix left over for touchups. I had them paint the backgound color on two pieces of light cardboard. Then they applied the Seabee stencil and painted the Seabee seal in yellow on the cardboard. This was the stencil we applied to all our heavy equipment and vehicles, you know the circle with the bee in a sailor's uniform within, holding a machine gun, and a wrench and hammer (We build, We fight).
On our next Saturday muster, which happened to be parade day, we carefully taped the two cardboard seals to the doors of the Porsche. It was perfect, from a distance it looked like the seals were painted on, and the Porsche looked like a some new model military Jeep.
I think we got our point across, it wasn't too long after that, that Ensign Raymond got rid of the Porsche, and I think, if my memory serves me right, got himself a new Corvette.
The moral of this story is: Never mix British Racing Green with Gold Flake!
If anyone knows of a Richard E. Raymond originally from the Seattle or Washington state area, have him get in touch with me. He's probably a Corvette owner, and I'm sure he'll verify this story, even if it's a little embellished.
Jerry Fuccillo
#42179
Comment