Great Lakes Mint Question

JapanJohn

Somebody posted a photo of a 1973, 1 oz. Silver ingot in another thread that had "Great Lakes Mint" on it. Never heard of the Great Lakes Mint and a cursory internet search shows not much. eBay has a bunch of stuff though.

Any chance these Silver Ingots have a 1982 date? Would love one from the year I was in Boot Camp.

John

llafoe

I was at Great Lakes in 1982 too! I wouldn't want to eat a mint from any of the Great Lakes!

JamesMurray

I don't know the mint but i learned something. I was wondering who held boot camp at Gt Lakes , i had no idea it was the Navys only boot camp. When i did mine it was sunny Orlando and there was San diego , i went to A school at Gt lakes after the tropical climes of Florida..a vicious winter that was.Thanks JJ , i learned something i probably should have known.

llafoe

<< <i>I don't know the mint but i learned something. I was wondering who held boot camp at Gt Lakes , i had no idea it was the Navys only boot camp. When i did mine it was sunny Orlando and there was San diego , i went to A school at Gt lakes after the tropical climes of Florida..a vicious winter that was.Thanks JJ , i learned something i probably should have known. >>



I went to Orlando in 1981 and Great Lakes in 1981-1982 and again in 1985.

CaptHenway

<< <i>Somebody posted a photo of a 1973, 1 oz. Silver ingot in another thread that had "Great Lakes Mint" on it. Never heard of the Great Lakes Mint and a cursory internet search shows not much. eBay has a bunch of stuff though.

Any chance these Silver Ingots have a 1982 date? Would love one from the year I was in Boot Camp.

John >>



Their bars are not rare, but I don't pay much attention to the dates on them.
TD

JamesMurray

I should be able to remember our training camp number ...but i don't lol , it's in the book they gave us at graduation though.I finished boot camp in December 1977 pretty much straight from school , best thing i ever did.I enlisted at the embassy in london , there was 5 of us , they split us up at boot camp though,different units and i never seen the others again.I had a great time , the only bummer was after school my first post was to Holy Loch , i'd just enlisted to get away from the UK.Subsequent postings were better.Diego Garcia memorable.

JapanJohn

I was in Great Lakes in June - July '82. Company 123 in the 17th Division.

I LOVE Diego Garcia.

John

JamesMurray

Hey JJ , was the legend of Hector the great white in the lagoon still doing the rounds ?

llafoe

I dove inside the horseshoe at Dodge... yes, I think he got "two" while we were there in 1983.

JapanJohn

It's been a few years since I went to Dodge but they still talk of Hector and in fact at the time I was there they had "I Survived Hector" T shirts at the exchange there.

Hector is deeply engrained in DG history.

John

JamesMurray

I wonder if there ever was a token issued for BIOT , it was plantations at one time , or any USN coins , i don't remember anything other than t shirts. The only thing i didn't like about Diego Garcia was being on the beach at sundown...scary stuff when every inch of sand erupts with those wee crabs and the coconut crabs didn't look overly friendly either.
Weird in retrospect we didn't bbq them as well : ) The preservatives in the beer there was ghastly

JamesMurray

<< <i>I dove inside the horseshoe at Dodge... yes, I think he got "two" while we were there in 1983. >>



Much black coral ? I still have mine , natural , i never did carve it. I wasn't a diver but my buddies were , that's how i got mine.

JamesMurray

<< <i>It's been a few years since I went to Dodge but they still talk of Hector and in fact at the time I was there they had "I Survived Hector" T shirts at the exchange there.

Hector is deeply engrained in DG history.

John >>



I gotta get one of those T's : )

JapanJohn

We didn't boil the crabs because there was a law against killing any of the species on the island. Hence all the wild cats and massive coconut crabs. More than once I saw them and thought they looked unusually tasty.

When I was there it was for like 8 weeks and they gave me a GOV vehicle. At the time there were A and B vehicles and whichever one I had you cannot drive past the donkey gate to the Plantation. I went anyway.

Got a ticket from the most beautiful blond UK policewoman you ever saw. Went to their Police detachment and the fine..........$1.

So I made it a point to literally get a ticket from this woman everyday.

After a couple weeks I finally just went into the police station and said "Look, I'm going to be here another month or so and I intend to go to the plantation everyday and asked if I could just pay a dollar a day for my remaining time there. They said "Sure" and left me alone after that. Upon hindsight it was stupid. I should have kept getting tickets from the blond.

John

pursuitofliberty

You guys talking about Dodge ... LOL ... I was on Dodge from October 1988 to November 1989

ahh, yes ... Hector ... and the Coconut Crabs

fun times!!

llafoe

So you paid a blonde a $1 a day to visit the donkeys? You ARE a coin collector!

JamesMurray

This is the first time i ever heard it called Dodge , we didn't have installations ashore but we were allowed liberty boats ashore to drink beer , there was nothing to do but drink or bbq.I guess i know now why all those seabees were there.The Airbase was there , a landing strip anyway , we were never allowed near it.I'd forgotten about the cats , i'll never forget those walks through the jungle though to reach the far shore where swimming was a little safer.The big british WW2 guns still in place pointed skywards.It would be 79 when i was there.I don't remember a law against eating the wildlife , we certainly fished a lot.