f13.net

I did my time in it for 8 years, so for those of you working retail?

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(http://www.chromaluna.com/hotlinks/Thanksgiving6.gif)

I never did my time, so for those of you that have ever worked during it?

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So NBC just rickrolled the nation with a fucking float.

Yar, it sucks.  Not retail, but libraries are open so I gotta be there.  One thing is for certain:  The amount of times I'm threatened of being stabbed will either be greater or lesser than a normal day.   :oh_i_see:

Your library is open?

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To be a bit more serious, I'm so amazingly thankful for the life I've built from the ashes of my old one. This year has brought me a new house, a new cat and a new truck, along with another great year with my fiancee. My family on my dad's side is finally getting together for the first time in decades. It's been an utterly unbelievably great year...except for the budget cuts that might take it all away next year. But for now I'm enjoying it.

Also thankful once again for a silly and sometimes informative place like f13 to talk about silliness, recipes, music and every now and again games. Thanks, schild and company for keeping this place fairly stable over the years.

PS: Did three years in retail, but I was unloading, so I went home at 6:30 am, just after the craziness started.

Got out of work at 4am last night setting up and I have to be back at 4am again tomorrow. I'm about to set off on my 1.5hr drive to see family for 6 hours then come back. Fuck Thanksgiving, seriously.

Don't worry, I'l do it to myself...

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I have work tomorrow, at both my jobs. Un-Fun. :ye_gods:

Oh right, I'm thankful I moved to Austin and got away from the Desert Wasteland of the West.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWw46X-83xs&e

Let's see how many threads that gets posted in today.

I am thankful that 95% of our customers are American, thus I have a four day weekend, and will be going to watch Quantum of Solace in two hours in what should be a pleasantly empty matinee.

It's a shame Black Friday deals all seem to be complete shit this year.

I saw Rick Astley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I was so star struck.

Is he with you now?  Can he see us?

You can thank "Manufacturer's Minimum Pricing" for a lot of that.  It's only going to get worse as the fad expands.  Some stores wiggle their way around it by giving you a gift card when you purchase an item, but it's still a bullshit methodology to maintain product image.

I MADE JELL-O!

That's partly true.  The other reason behind the gift cards of course to is to ensure the customer returns to that store.  Regardless, this is pretty much the worst Black Friday in recent memory.

I dunno. Newegg has a 24" LCD for $199.

Went out to my uncle's mansion, ate food, drank, shot guns, stayed too long.

Now I'm back home with the reality of a huge report I haven't finished yet, that's due on Monday.

That's funny, because I (and the rest of the family) went out to my uncles mansion for thanksgiving as well.  The only difference was no guns, but food and alcohol were there in abundance (my uncle also owns a winery.  Did I mention his mansion is in Sonoma?).  Good times.

Having said that, I work in IT, and I drew the short straw this year, and get to be the emergency tech for tommorrow.  Which means I get to be the only person who comes into the office to work the entire workday tommorrow taking retarded customers calls.  Joy.  (but at least I get overtime pay for it all).

Your uncle has a tough life.

Kudos man :)

My life gets shittier by the minute... But I'm thankful for the lessons.  :oh_i_see:

Jesus Christ, that sounds emo. Was supposed to be funny. Funny sad. Yeah.


I have fucking pies up the ass in my fridge.

My uncles are all assholes who would stab you in the back if it would make them a buck.

MY FAMILY SUCKS!

Also, my grandmother died on Tuesday, but she is the reason all her children are such assholes.

I'm thankful I still have a job in Manufacturing with this econommy.  I'm thankful I use the same laptop as John Connor.  I'm thankful for my family and friends and my cat Squirtle.  I'm damn thankful Obama won.  I'm also thankful for the Tennessee Titans, WoTLK, my health, and to America (fuck yeah!).

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/2/1697795_1c7405350d_o.gif)

So on wednesday I'm told I need surgery because my back problems are so severe (the worst case the rheumatology consultant had seen in her career apparently) and that I am at risk of permanent incontinence and impotence unless this gets fixed soon. We can't afford the £5-10000 cost of private surgery so we're in a minimum 6 week waiting list before I even get a surgical consultation.

And today we find out that my girlfriend is at high risk of redundancy before Christmas.

Kinda glad we don't celebrate thanksgiving here, it would be a somewhat downbeat celebration.

Edit: OK, just found out that one of my GF's team has taken voluntary redundancy thus freeing the others from the threat. My doom'n'gloom'o'meter just dropped back down below 11  :awesome_for_real:

I'm guessing that this statement has an entirely different meaning on the other side of the Atlantic.

That is for Christmas not Thanksgiving!  You thought the Americans wouldn't notice!  Well, we did and we're watching you.

Holy fuck it's a madhouse out there.

Okay so I only went to one place and it happens to be Nerd Nirvana for the San Francisco Bay Area (the flagship Fry's store) but wow. I wasn't expecting so many people given the doom and gloom in the press about this year's Black Friday. I got there at 5:15 am just after it opened and the humongous parking lot was almost totally full and apparently there had been people waiting outside before it opened. Then inside there were two huge lines for the cameras/camcorders and TVs. I just managed to snag one of the last Canon digital cameras on sale for my parents after waiting in that line for over an hour. And then I had to wait in a line that literally started from the front of store, snaked all the way through to the back and then back to the front to the checkouts. Total time was over 2 hours.

Yea, I just hit up Fry's - scariest place on earth. And I got the 4 $8.99 Blu-Rays that mattered and then I GOT THE FUCK OUT.

With how many people they had in white shirts, they should've renamed them the nerdherd.

Sorry, it's what we call being laid off here.

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/11/28/2008-11-28_worker_trampled_to_death_at_long_island_.html

 Yea, just heard about that. Walmart shoppers man.

:ye_gods:

This was by far the mildest Black Friday I've ever been apart of today. By 8 it had died down a shitload and we started sending people home at 9. We had only sold out of 2 things by the time I left at 3.

I did see Tim Allen shopping followed by a small group of people though. I didn't know he was that big of a celebrity for people to stalk.

You're not kidding.  We needed kitty litter and a few things at Wegmans and it wasn't even as busy as it is on a normal weekday afternoon.  There was hardly any traffic, either. 

Linens and Things has some pretty nice Roomba discounts going on. (http://www.lnt.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=3004431&cp=2585776) 

Picked up a 530 for $130 under msrp for xmas.

I predict prices will get better and better as more people don't go out to shop.

Signe: Economist of the FUTURE.

I hope they use credit card transactions to get names and cameras to get faces on the trampling case.  Prosecute every one of those fuckwits involved.  Send 100+ people to court for manslaughter, I say. 

100 walmart shoppers go to jail? That would be the best christmas gift ever.

Well yeah. But I figured it would do for Generic Turkey Gobbling Occasion #26713.



I'll probably roll it out again for Christmas too! :P

Surely the culpability for this, if someone wanted to try and actually legally assign some, would lie with the store for not anticipating or managing the crowds? Not saying that I don't think the people involved were fuckwits, I do, but I could see that being an impossible legal battle since any one of the actual tramplers could claim they were simply swept up in the crush.

That family could probably not only sue the store, but every shopper in there for criminal negligence or whatever it's called when you stand by and watch someone get murdered, even if it's accidental.

I'm on day 4 of 5, I think I should remember to take this fucking weekend off each year and get drunk and hide from humanity.

Wed--pre holiday stuff, psychiatric patients going wild, only 1 got violent.

Thursday--chest pain and abdominal pain city!  Eat too much and get sick, so come see the ER and bitch about the wait, but then remind them that the little old lady or man that looks okay to you, is really having "the big one" so please be patient and we will get to you eventually.  Oh yeah bunch of out of shape 40 year olds trying to play sports with the grand kids leads to injuries.

Friday-- IT FUCKING SUCKED.  I had more cops than a donut shop in my ED.  Plus every family doctor and all the urgent care clinics shut down, so any kid with a cough or sniffle and the parents can't wait showed up.  Weird stuff, like a guy who could barely walk from an irregular heart beat showed up, we get him beating half way decent, so he leaves AMA (against medical advice), wonder if when the drugs wear off that night he doesn't end up coming in coding and needing a pacemaker.  Oh and the same with a crazy ass COPD pt (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), he came in sucking mud and smoking...we tuned him up and he need admission, but left AMA too.  As to why the cops, well I saved some baby girls life, probably got the mom to realize she needs to get away from her husband, and sent the father of the baby girl to jail.  What brought that on is a little 10 month old baby girl, the parents brought her in for an arm injury that happened last week (and gave me some bullshit story), plus a 2nd degree burn on her leg that looked suspicious (and another bullshit story), and she was dressed for summer (it was 24-F out and windy).  She was so adorable and such a small little girl.  Me and the FNP immediately called the cops, told them we probably have a bad abuse case and we were right.  The poor girl had 9 fractures in various stages of healing, 2 burns in various stages of healing, bruises in various stages of healing, so Child Protective Services took the child from the mom and dad.  She ended up going to the big children's hospital out of town, she was so sweet, she ate like 3 bottles, and fell asleep on our secretary, we had to separate mom and dad and thank god they didn't act up.  Mom confessed to being beaten and more or less letting her husband rule her.  That little girl at least made me remember I'm human, I get accused of being to cold on some procedures since I can block most stuff out and move on quickly, and can talk rational to the family even when there is a zoo of activity on a patient.

Sat--Let's see if it gets any better!  Off to make a difference.

I'm thankful I'm healthy, that I get to work in one of the best areas of health care, my son is growing up great, and my friends and family are doing all right.

Funny, I'm sick. I'm didn't go to the hospital. Humans have the tendency to be pussies.

Actually I'd like to apologise for my negative post in this thread earlier. I actually have a lot to be thankful for, particularly my girlfriend who has been so awesomely supportive over the last 4 months that I honestly don't know what I would have done without her.

 :heart:

This weekend sucked, as I spent it in the hospital watching my Dad slowly degenerate.  Infection from his IV port that's been in 2 years too long spread to his heart and then to his brain.  He got in an accident Tuesday night that proceeded to set off a stroke and sent him to Vietnam Flashback land.  He proceeded to threaten to kill everyone in the hospital if they didn't let him go, and had to be sedated.  They don't know if the current regimen of antibiotics will clear anything up, and he's completly out of it and hasn't responded to any of us since Thursday.. partly because they have to keep him sedated due to seizures that keep happening.

Yeah, happy fucking thanksgiving.   :cry:

I'm sorry, Merusk.   :heartbreak:  I hope things get better for you and your family.  I know how you're feeling.  My dad died just a few weeks ago.  He was also extremely insane - but he's been that way for ages.  Luckily, we don't actually do anything for Thanksgiving or it would have been pretty lonely! 

Sorry to hear.  I can't do much but you know where I am.

Sorry to hear that, Merusk. I can't even imagine that. Hang in there.

That sucks Merusk. Sympathies from a total internet stranger, for what it's worth.

Merusk, sorry to hear that man.

Jimbo - awesome story, and good on you, dude.

Thanks all.  I waited until Monday to spew all that out so I didn't ruin the Thanksgiving thread.. and that's only half of my problem.  Talking with doctors when a loved one is very sick reminds you that, yes, they are people too.  Unfortunatly so, because it means that it's luck of the draw on their ability to perform their profession as a whole.  There are no "Dr. House" they're all "Dr. Dorian."

Also, much to my chagrin I've discovered you folks are the closest things I have to friends and it's depressed the hell out of me. (Not as an indictment on any of you...) Where the fuck do you even find "real life" friends at 34 when you take care of kids in the evenings? Beats me!

Heh, this sounds familiar.  I'm in a similar boat (though mine has pirates).

At work.

Hence why people who have kids can chose to a) have very superficial friendships, or b) neglect their children. The clever ones took heed of their parent's lifestyle and refrained from having kids in the first place, or simply decided to play genetic roulette/adopt after their 60's.

This is why dogs are better than children.

That's how I see it mostly, you either have a kid or you have meaningful relationships. You don't get both. Unless you do the online thing, and then at best, really, I'd sell some of you fuckers out for a case of beer.

I kid, I kid.

OR DO I.

Seriously though, I consider some of the people on here great friends. But then, my definition of friend is totally fucked up since i drop people like they're going out of style. I have the tendency to be a terrible person sometimes.

*hugs Merusk*

At least make it a decent hard liquor.  It would cheapen the online friendship otherwise.

Getting into politics has been the best thing for giving me a social life.  Other interest groups would work, too.  I don't have kids though.  Since I never see my friends who do have children, I know how it is anyways.

In the case of my good friends, mid 30s couple, first child is just over a year: they make it work. Friday nights that kind of alternate, she goes out to a scapbooking club, hubby stays home and invites his buddies over. (Believe it or not, a group of men can hang out and watch a child at the same time.) When she doesn't go out, he gets to out those evenings.

Saturday morning he curls with us - quite often, she brings the kid along to watch.

My parents still had plenty of friends when we were kids, they just made a point of having friends that accepted the fact that the kids came along with the package.

In both cases, we had the advantage of still being friends with people we had gone to highschool with. Long term friends like that should be willing to make things work.

Perhaps then my problem is my High School friends are some 400 miles away in Cleveland.  :awesome_for_real:  Lord knows if any of them are even still alive. They sure didn't seem interested in keeping in touch when I tried in college. Meh.  Had a buddy in college I wish I'd kept in touch with, but hey, he's the guy who hurridley hung up and then never called back after I laughed about how one of my ex's tried to say she'd screwed him for the hell of it. Hrm.

Really, though, it was more of a depressing realization than anything that needs to be rectified. If I had a different job, one that required I talk to people, perhaps I'd find things different. Ah well, I'm content with cyber friends.. it's just you all never pitch-in to help a guy move. :grin:

I'm not very useful at helping people move unless they have a lot of ten pound boxes.  Also my telekinetic powers don't function at distances greater than half a nanometer.  You just lived too far away.  :oh_i_see:

Damn Merusk, sorry to hear about your Dad, hope he gets better.  God knows, a port-a-cath is a godsend but can be a cause of problems too.  I'll admit my two favorite types of patients are kids and veterans, I tend to connect with them, hope your doc's and nurses are at least talking and giving you enough info on your dad (communication sucks a lot of time with health care workers and family).

I've had my kid since he was 21 months old, so been doing the single parent thing a while, but I do make it a habit to get one or two nights out a month with friends, plus my friends know I might be bringing him along.  But then again, I'm from the group of "divorced jobs", nurses, EMS, Fire Dept, Police Dept, Military, lots of doc's, we tend to be that group that ends up divorced and having kids, so we all bring our kids at times.

or c) make friends with other parents who have similar lifestyles. Because, funnily enough, they'll be gagging to get some time out and meet new people too. Probably.

Anyway, friends are overrated.  They only end up letting you down or pissing you off.

I just want to thank Jimbo for reminding me why I retreated to the ivory tower that is academia. 

That's my bestest Thanksgiving present EVAR.

No, you're wrong.

First, because you can't find these people, since they stay at home.
Second, because getting together with them would mean bringing the kids along.
Kids + Kids = Cries and broken stuff, and more cries, and slapping of butts, and more cries, and promises of an unmerciful doom if they don't swallow those damn cries right now, and more cries, and oranges being thrown straight at the crybaby's face, and, finally, silence.

You won't have a second gathering.

Unfortunatly, he was pronounced 27 minutes before your post.  (Albeit he expired 9 mins before that.) No, the communication sucked initially, and continued to suck off and on until Sunday morning when there was a different On Call doc and this morning, when we had a fucking stellar nurse.  OSU may have some good doctors, but their bedside is shit.

Again, thanks for the well-wishes all.  I now have to look-up what it'll take to get him into Arlington. (Other than A SS w/ 2 clusters, a Bronze w/ Cluster and a couple of purple hearts.)  :cry:

Been in the identical situation.  Some ideas:

1) Get your kids involved with activities.  You'll meet other parents with similar interests and soon find people to swap babysitting time with.

2) Do volunteer work, particularly at the children's school.  I do a lot of volunteering and often took my daughter with me.  We met civic folks and also got my daughter interested in giving back to the community as well.

3) Go to the library.  Lots to do there and you'll meet interesting people.

4) Find a community open gym.  Meet other parents and playmates for your kids. 

5) Look for community events in your area.  These are a great forum for meeting people for you as well as your kids.

Merusk, very sorry to hear of your loss.

Well hell, I'll just have to tell all the friends that my wife and I have made since our eldest was born that we can't be friends with them anymore and can no longer meet with them down at the (child friendly) pub or go on (family) holidays with them or days out and that they'll have to stop coming around or ringing up for a chat.

I don't know if you've got kids but if you have then you obviously haven't read the manual.  Either that or paint your post green.

On topic: I am thankful for my kids. They are the best thing that ever happened to me.

Merusk - sorry to hear that. Sympathies and well wishes.

Nebu has read the manual.

Shame most of his alternatives are either horribly boring or don't work in the evening.

Have you honestly ever gone on a family holiday with another family? That's not the kind of thing that people pull themselves through more than twice. From my experiences, and from seeing quite a few family holidays in my time, those things tend to be ridiculously superficial.

I raised two children on my own while in medical school.  Time and money were very tight, so I had to be creative.  I took my daughter to plays, to the museum, and to a lot of community events.  Many were in the evenings.  I guess it helps to live in a city with a university. 

Yes. Would you like to see the photos?

I don't know Merusk's situation. I don't know how old his kid(s) are or what the options are around where he lives. I can't say whether anything that Nebu suggested is either viable or the sort of thing that Merusk would enjoy. But I do know that it's entirely possible and I do know it's something I've done.  You change your lifestyle. You reprioritize. You adapt. You evolve.

You, on the other hand, are out of your element. Shut the fuck up.

Yes.  It rocked.

Of course our families were actually friends, as opposed to some superficial group of people to hang with for the sake of hanging with someone.

Very sorry for your loss Merusk. 

True story.

My wife and I went up to Vancouver Island for the break.  On Thanksgiving Day we decided to car camp on Saltspring Island at a Provincial Park since it was warm.  Inside the park is a restored pioneer farm surrounded by some active plots (all organic it seems).  Inside the park, on the road to the campsites, we were swarmed as we slowed down to see what was in the trees by...

Same thing happened to me last Christmas, only it was wild Best Buy gift cards.

Damn Merusk, sorry for you loss, I do hope that getting into Arlington goes easy.  With that kind of service record it should be automatic.

Update on the 10 month old, dad is in jail, now claims he doesn't speak English, so the trial is pushed back, mom got arrested too, founds out she wasn't as innocent as she claimed.  Kudos for the Adult and Child Protective Services, the combination of judges, detectives, social workers, and law enforcement have been great working with us.  The mom and dad would tie the child up (she is 10 months) in a chair and throw stuff @ her to keep her awake, the burn came out that the dad did it by burning the child's leg to show the mom that her cooking pot wasn't hot enough, the more that came out, the more it makes your stomach turn.  I hope mom and dad plead guilty and the child gets a new family.

How many single dad's with kids do we have on board now?  It used to be pretty rare, I know back in 97 the average was like 2 to 100 (father having custody and raising the child vs mother having custody and raising the child), but I'm wondering if the average is shifting.  Speaking of which, we got snow and cold weather! Whoot! Hopefully it sticks around and I can take the littleone skiing again.

For starters, get away from the computer and find some 'outside' hobbies.  I've been lucky that I've still got quite a few close friends from college, and we all make a point to stay in touch.  And I've got alot of friends in the industry I'm in that are at or around the same age.  Some are a bit older, a couple a bit younger, but they're still friends that come to the house every so often for a football party or whatnot.

That said, one of the coolest things I found locally was a mens social club of sorts.  It started up as a way just for people to get help with home projects and whatnot, and evolved to job networking and such.  But it's really kind of cool in that people trade off stuff.  We've got a website that has a calender that you post that you're going to have a party or need help putting up a fence or whatever.  So, if you can do electrical work or plumbing, you post it or if you're available for free lawyer consultation stuff, that sort of thing.  One guy posted he was going to be laying sod and doing some yardwork on <whatever weekend> and 10 guys posted they'd help.  Everybody showed up, drank some beer and grilled some burgers, got his yard done.  Our kids all played together.  Good times.  It's kind of a no particular religion faith based thing, so that might not be everybodies bag.  Quick prayer before and after, nothing serious.

But get involved with stuff.  Get outside.  Go to charity event things like cook offs, auctions, or whatnot.  Strike up a conversation with someone.  I fish, play golf and tennis, and we go to alot of events as a family.  My regular Sunday afternoon foursome at the golf course is composed of guys that didn't know each other until we showed up after a series of Sundays and just made a standing tee time. 

Nebu nailed it, but the key is just getting away from the computer and getting out.

I'll say first off that I'd choose my boy over any friend, past, present or future.  He's awesome, and if anyone doesn't think their kid is awesome then they are Broken.

Finding friends with kids takes work, like anything else, and it helps to lower your standards a bit.  Me, I'm sort of odd.  I don't really fit in with the crowd out here, not a lot of gamers and I don't care for sports.  Still, there are quite a few handyman types, the real-world hackers that end up working on cars or doing woodworking, and I relate to those guys.

I met some real goobers when I coached 3-4 year-old T-ball.  Firstly, I did it for my son.  I dislike baseball.  Secondly, it turned out to be hilarious.  I won't be doing it again, but I'm glad I did it.  I didn't make any real friends out of that, but now I at least know some people in my community and can give them the wave at the IHOP or when they deliver my pizza or come over to see the helicopter parked in my yard.  However, if I want to have a set of local friends, I'm going to have to get out there and do stuff.

So anyway, lacking a place to post it and only having mentioned it here.  Today was the memorial service and I am quite plastered.

The name of the funeral home was Tufts Schildmeyer and I giggled inappropriately the first time I saw the sien.  Here's the obit, I was somewhat wrong on the honors.

http://www.tuftsschildmeyer.com/Obituaries/obit-display.jhtml?DB=obits&DO=display&ID=1228489001_12784

There now you bastards know my name and last name. Phbt.  I'm going to sleep.

Schildmeyer? That's even more jewish than my name!

Nice touch. And the military better honor this guy in Arlington.


Don't they give out purple hearts for wounded in action? Or are there other reasons? If so, your dad got shot up a bit, eh?

Yes, only wounded in action.  He got shot up twice in the same action that got him the silver star, and took some shrapnel when the hospital the Army forced him to go to  was shelled after his 4th wounding.  He'd refused to stay previously, since time in a hospital isn't counted on your mandatory 365 days in-theater.  Plus, he feared he'd chicken-out and not want to go back.  When you're a walking bandage, though, it's not negotiable.  Ah, irony.

My uncle (a military historian) is somewhat skeptical of the story behind the bronze star. Evidently it was the only tank-on-tank engagement of the Vietnam war, and it's not reported on anywhere.  I figure he's got he medal, so the T-<something> they took out must've been real.  Plus, to hear the story 2 volleys isn't much of a tank battle, so nobody would focus on it.

He can be inurned in Arlington no problem.  The thing is, he doesn't want to be in the Columburium "on some shelf."  It's a question of can we get an actual grave, since they prefer to give those to more current wars and those KIA.  Lots of paperwork to be filed to see about that in the future, when things are more calm.

*Ed- T-82 didn't sound right and I looked it up, whoops that's modern.  Maybe it was a T-85 but I dunno for certain, so I leave it blank.  Point being it was Russian and in a place it shouldn't have been.

Actually Merusk, it is pretty famous, I was watching the episode on Battlefield Diaries Tank Battle Vietnam (http://military.discovery.com/tv-schedules/series.html?paid=52.14319.108146.27018.x), if it was that one, it was the only US Tanks vs North Vietnam Tanks battle of the war.  There were 3 other battles where NVA used tanks to engage the US, but that one in 1969 was the big battle on that.  The other one was when they tried to stream across the border in 1972 and the Cobra's and USAF blew the hell out of em.  PT-76's was what the NVA used, it is a light tank that was amphibious.

This one? (http://www.flyarmy.org/panel/battle/69030320.HTM)

More stuff here (http://www.rjsmith.com/ben-het.html)

Hrm, nope not it.  It wasn't a full platoon battle, just single tank on tank.  The only reason I called it the only tank-on-tank was because that was how my uncle related it to me.  Never trust a Civil War/ Ancient Greece fanatic who is secondarily interested in later history to know the details of another war, I guess.

 The story as my Uncle related it to us over the weekend:

 Dad was in the 11th calv. from '66-'68.  Evidently during this time the VC were keeping armor up north, so the only thing for our guys to do was fire HE rounds into the jungle periodically as ordered.   On one such occasion a VC tank that shouldn't have been anywhere around came out of the jungle while they were in the middle of loading a HE round.  The common sequence is 3 steps (and my uncle said them but I don't remember them.  Load, Target, Fire I think it is..) but as soon as he saw the tank Dad was yelling "Fire, Fire, Fire" just to get the useless-against-armor HE round out of the breech.

They fired, then were loading one of the few AP rounds they had  as the VC tank targeted and fired on them.  (No need to carry a lot of AP at the time.  As was mentioned VC armor was kept up north, you just took it as a matter of requirement.)   The shell bounced off the turret by some miracle in what my dad told my uncle was "the longest 3 seconds of my life" as they loaded the AP, targeted and got lucky as fuck by firing and hitting it in the turret on that shot, taking it out.

Since it was a single tank, someplace it shouldn't have been according to intelligence, the supposition (and I have no idea WHOSE supposition this is) was that it was smuggled piece by piece down the Ho Chi Min trail and assembled somewhere in the area it was destroyed.