For all you guys who DIDN'T join the NAVY, you can experience it in your own home

[Buckshot]

These are just a few of the things you can do, to get a taste of Navy life. For those of you never in the service, or those unlucky enough to have been in some other branch, this is your chance. You need to alter your home somewhat to get the full measure of the experience.

To make it more lifelike, you might also want to hire some people to perform certain duties for you at certain times and places. Your neighbors may also help out. This simulation should last about 6 months.

1) Fix all your doors so the threshholds are 16" above the floor and lower the headers to 6'. Weight them up to about 90 lbs, remove the knob and replace with a long lever.

2) Board up all the windows.

3) Remove all your comfortable furniture to some other place. Rip up all the carpeting and replace with green and gray linoleum. To replace these items you will need to vist various dumpsters and sleazy thrift stores. Obtain a 3" thick twin mattress and cut it in half. Weave 1/2" rope around a lawn chaise lounge frame and place your mattress on it. Elevate this to 18" from the ceiling (overhead). If you like, you may hang a thin blue curtain around it.

4) the remainder of your furniture should consist of one broken secretary's chair with no armrests, 2 steel framed upolstered chairs with the stuffing removed, and a steel table in the kitchen with a chair welded to it so close you can loose buttons.

5) Have all the houses' wiring, plumbing and sewage pipeing moved to the interior side of the walls (bulkheads). In 5 to 6 places about the house, install 8" tall by 3' wide and 4' long metal boxes on the floor (deck) to simulate hatch combings. Also install a similar number of cut down 35 gallon drums to simulate scuttles. A few of these should be placed in the hallway. Possibly one in the bathroom (head).

6) Paint all interior surfaces with haze gray paint. Stencil numbers on everything with black paint. Every 8' or wall space should contain: A firehose, bulletin board, and a speaker. Every 10" should be a wire litter, an axe and three 4x4x8' timbers.

7) To start, fill your garage with cases of toilet paper. Take 2 rolls and lock it up, giving the key to a neighbor who is off to Patagonia on vacation.

8 ) Invite a biker club to come in and use your bathroom every morning while you are trying to use it.

9) At random times during the night have a gang of people wearing suits of armor march through your bedroom, and on occasion shine a flashlight in your face and say, "Sorry, wrong bunk".

10) Have someone collect your mail and then deliver 4 of 5 pieces to you every 2 weeks. Magazines should be 3 months old, and all Playboys should have all the pictures cut out.

11) Your meals should be prepared blindfolded and approximately 3 hours before eating, and should be on bent metal trays. If the tray is inverted and the food falls off, it's not real Navy food. At no time should your menu exceed 1 gram of fiber for 10 lbs of food. Coffee is to be 6-8 scoops in a 1 gallon container boiled for about 4-5 hours before consumption. For added authenticity add 1 scoop of boiler de-scaler.

12) Once a week re-paint all interior walls.

13) Study the owner's manuals for all your household appliances. If you are missing any, have someone without a clue write one of not less then 25 pages. For no real reason, once a week completely dis-assemble, clean and re-assemble your lawn mower.

14) For 4 hours each day put on your stereo headphones and hang a paper cup from a string around your neck. Stand in front of the water heater and say "Water heater, manned and ready." At the end of the 4 hours say, "Water heater secured".

15) At random times have someone come in and lock your bathroom door, and hang a sign saying: "Secured until 1800".

16) Three times a day mop your entire house.

17) Once a month you get liberty. Iron your clothes on a towel on the deck. Take a cab to the sleaziest bar possible on the far side of town. Drink until you're hammered and at 0300 walk home in the rain. Have someone wake you up at 0600. Stand at attention while your mother in law reads you the newspaper.

18 ) Monitor all hosehold appliances hourly, recording all vital functions ie: Light works, door opens, etc. If not operating, log every 4 hours as secured. Once a day disassemble, reassemble and then test to the limits of it's endurance one of these appliances.

19) At odd times have someone remove your blanket and pillow, to simulate the special camaraderie of shipboard life. Be sure you have a dead animal in the closet to simulate berthing compartment oders.

20) Every so often at night, remove the muffler from your lawnmower and fire that puppy up in the room next to your bedroom.

21) For every 18 waking hours you get to sleep 4.

22) Fill a humidifier with used crankcase oil, and set on high to operate continuosly. This will ensure that true shipboard ambiance.

23) Buy a gas mask and smear the seal with rancid animal fat. Scrub the lenses with steel wool. Once a week at some ungodly hour, have your neighbor kill the master breaker and wake you up with a compressed air horn. You should don the gas mask and run as fast as you can and touch every wall of your house.

24) Just for fun, every couple of weeks attempt to flush an old tennis shoe, sack of cement or bowling ball down the commode. Ignore the mess.

25) Walk around your car and recored the tire pressure every 15 minutes. Do this for 4 hours everyday.

That should about do it.

.................Buckshot

[wills]

Having a nostalgia attack?

[Ed Barrett]

In my experience you left out sleep next to a Nuclear Reactor for a couple of years and wear a dosiometer thats always broke.

[StarMetal]

26 Mad giant Italian tears the whole Machinist Mates berthing compartment apart at 0600 because he finds one of his sock is crustly stuck together and he vows to kill the SOB that did it, while the half the ship's personel abandons ship for safety of the dock.

27 Having to stop the movie shortly after it had just begun at 2000 because the mess deck was filled with so much cigarette smoke that nobody could see the screen.

28 Hiding in a place where none of the flourescent light fixtures, vent ducts, paint chips, fans, and wadding plus flame fall on you from the gunnersmates having 5 inch cannon practice.

29 Enjoying your dinner while watching the weekend warriors puke all over the place because not use to rolling seas.

30 Wife gets on PA system and announces: "Sweepers sweepers, man your brooms, give the house a clean sweepdown, sweeping all hallways (passageways) all stairs (ladders) and emptying all garbage cans (trash recepticals) on the curbside (pier) sweepers"

31 Periodically have a firedrill where everyone in the house mans their firestation while some drag out the garden hose and other's start a two stroke lawnmower engine simulating that it's a P-250 water pump.


Ah those were the days mate.

Joe
U.S.N. Retired

[flhroy]

This kind of goes with #8
How about a G__ D____ courtesy flush I'm brushing my teeth over here.

#32 For the Bird Farmers. Put a ladder on both sides of your roof. Put on a blindfold then climb the first ladder walk across the roof find the other ladder and climb down. Kind of simulates crossing a flightdeck at night but without the tiedown chains and towbars in the way to trip you.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Two more observations from sleeping in a compatment with 40 stinking ******** and 80 smelly feet:

(1) Having your dirty socks stolen out of your shoes in the middle of the night. (A buddy of mine saw the thief steal his socks, but couldn't think of anything to say.)

(2) Being awakened by a roaring drunk, just back from liberty at 0330, bearing a huge sack of doughnuts, and shouting, "Here have one of these mother*******."

And one from the gathering of the duty section in the crew's mess for a movie. As a love scene starts, somebody is sure to call out, "He's gonna **** her!"

[Buckshot]

.............But I like you guys'es additions to the list. I'm sure we could get the number up to a hunnert or so[smilie=l:.

35) Have a buddy stand behind you while you stand, steel tray in hand waiting to bang it lustily into a trash can before sticking it through a hot steamy hole in the wall. He should read the following:

G** D***, that F****** S*** would have gagged a F****** maggot. F*** me if those G** D*** F****** A**holes F****** didn't F****** put too much F****** G** D*** F****** salt in again. Hey, what the F*** you doing before the F****** movie, we've F****** probably seen six F****** times all F****** already? F*** all the F****** time it's the same old F****** F***ed up F****** movies.

He should follow you around or trade off with others who follow the same routine, regarding the weather, their last liberty, their next liberty, thier parents, their wife or girlfriend, their car, the ship, the captain, the division chief, etc etc until you go into a coma.

...............Buckshot

[Buckshot]

In my experience you left out sleep next to a Nuclear Reactor for a couple of years and wear a dosiometer thats always broke.

........Uh, my ole can used JP5. Not very nuclear, but real aromatic. Try sleeping on deck on those warm sultry nights. A big guessing game as to where to flop. Guessing which direction the breeze will be moving (port or starboard) when the firemen blow tubes is always fun. At least it wasn't bunker grade 'C'. That's probably what Curmudgeon dealt with, in the Owld Navy!

Joe. "........31 Periodically have a firedrill where everyone in the house mans their firestation while some drag out the garden hose and other's start a two stroke lawnmower engine simulating that it's a P-250 water pump."

HA! They were supposed to RUN!?


.........Buckshot

[NVcurmudgeon]

(36) When you show a shipmate an injured hand, the shipmate should look very concerned and say, "Oh man, you better put some s*** on that right away."
(37) When female guests are knocking on the door, have someone with a very deep and carrying voice announce, "All hands are reminded to watch their language as there are c*** aboard." (Yes, this really has happened.)

[NVcurmudgeon]

(38) To enjoy the full effect of bunker C, paint your front porch and have a friend back his carboned up car up close and gun the engine up. This will simulate snipes blowing tubes all over your days work.

[fourarmed]

J---s f-----g C----t, stop it, you're f-----g killing me. Holy s--t, I can't f-----g stand it.

[StarMetal]

Buckshot Rick,

Yeah, those P 250's run and run good, the ones we had did. Boy those little suckers were amazing, would pump 1000 gal an hour.

Curmudge

I was a "snipe" grrrrrr. Hee hee, I hated to have to blow tubes, but loved showering the officers with soot! Real bitch of a job to do in the hot boiler room.

Speaking of women, we were moored up in Florida somewheres and this motorboat with three bikini clad young beauties were teasing us aboard ship and they pulled up along side and were in the process of tempting one of the sailor to come with them , when an officer appeared, just at the moment the sailor had one leg over the lifeline and said "You leave this ship with them and you'll be court martialed. The sailor smiled and boarded the motorboat and the sped off. We didn't see the sailor for three days. When he came back all he got was KP for a long time.

Next time I'll tell you when we were making steam in port and I was TOP WATCH (in charge) of the boileroom with my best friend as the burnerman and he left to go to the bathroom (head) and the boiler burst into flames and they abandoned not only the whole ship, but the whole pier.

Joe

[Bret4207]

Youse guys forgot to add- Have a detail of Marines on board to keep the swabbies from mutinying and taking the ship and to give stern and arrogant glances to the lesser forms of life. We also came in handy if there was any real fighting to do! Yeah- that was a shot at the NAVY!!!! Semper Fi!

[flhroy]

Marines at sea. Hmmmm I guess we needed someone to show the sea bats to. Just kidding

[fatnhappy]

Youse guys forgot to add- Have a detail of Marines on board to keep the swabbies from mutinying and taking the ship and to give stern and arrogant glances to the lesser forms of life. We also came in handy if there was any real fighting to do! Yeah- that was a shot at the NAVY!!!! Semper Fi!


Why does the navy take Marines to sea? Sheep would be too obvious. :grin:

Don't forget #37 from a grunt
You been in the field so long you've run out of toilet paper and everyone around you lacks socks and pockets

[StarMetal]

The Navy takes Jarheads, ah oops, Marines, to sea because, well, the Marines are part of the Navy. The aren't a stand alone military branch. Bout time the Navy cut em loose don't ya think?

Joe

[Scrounger]

The Navy takes Jarheads, ah oops, Marines, to sea because, well, the Marines are part of the Navy. The aren't a stand alone military branch. Bout time the Navy cut em loose don't ya think?

Joe

That is why they are also called "Sea-going Bellhops". Not taking sides, just supplying the Navy a little information; I figure the Marines can handle this without my help.

[Bret4207]

C'mon guys, you ought to be able to do better than that! If the Navy ever turned the Jarheads loose we'd multiply like rabbits because there'd be no one to hold us back with inadaquet funding and cast off equipment! Semper Fi!

[Buckshot]

C'mon guys, you ought to be able to do better than that! If the Navy ever turned the Jarheads loose we'd multiply like rabbits because there'd be no one to hold us back with inadaquet funding and cast off equipment! Semper Fi!

My buddy Steve who I grew up with, and joined the Navy with was stationed aboard the USS San Bernardino LST-1189. They carried gyrenes. He grew to dislike them heartily. He said they'd run the ship out of fresh water. Then a whole group of'em would just flop down any old where, campanionway, foot of or top of a ladder, passageway, just ANYWHERE and take their M16's apart. Or they'd do the same and have knife sharpening competitions.

Of course being homeported in Long Beach, CA they transported Marines and material to Viet Nam. He said as much as he grew desperately tired of them he never said anything, as it was THEM who got off the ship over there and not him.

His ship was transfered to the Atlantic fleet and it was kinda neat as they took a lot of dependents with them. They rigged a lot of chickenwire up along the lifelines and made some other modificatons. The well deck was packed with personal automobiles for the transit. They had a big party in Norfolk and the ships' crew and Marine detachment got into a fight with cost the ship's welfare and rec fund $3800.

I was stationed in Mayport, FLA and we'd go for 2 week cruises steaming around Cuba doing radar picket duty. Usually we'd carry a bunch of reservists doing their 2 week active duty stint. The cooks would really spend some time fixing up the 1st evenings meal. Milk came in big cardboard boxes with rubber bladders inside. They's use a syringe and inject food coloring, so we' d have green, orange, or blue milk. The meal would invariably be pork chops swimming in grease and mashed potatos. The spuds got food coloring too.

I remember once I was up toward the front of the line. The line was in the midships passageway because it was raining. Usually it went out a door to the weatherdeck right there at the port spray shield (on a can).The line went down a ladder through the serving line and then through a door onto the mess deck. So we're all leaning against the bulkhead and this warm fragrent humid air is wooshing up throught the hatch and the ship is going back and forth, and back and forth, and up and down, and back and forth. Well this shipfitter named Mike (don't recall his last name) from Memphis makes some remark about salty greasy pork chops and that was all it took.

At about this location on a Destroyer the deck is starting to really slope up toward the fo'castle so all this puke that hit the deck or the bulkehad and THEN the deck is sliding back down the passageway. Works just like gasoline as it got a bunch more started.

That wasn't too bad. Where it's bad is in the compartment. I mean there you are. Engaged in a friendly game of spades, joking and BSing and lighting farts and stuff, and some guy whoops it up. That smell just clings, I tell ya.

One thing nice about being an Interior Communicaitons Electrician is that I could go to the shop and sleep. It was cooled with circulated chilled water. Same system as CIC. We had 2 racks hooked up on the back of one of the switchboards. You could stick a can of pop in a vent and in 30 minutes it'd be pretty nice. The engineers would get in trouble for using the CO2 extinguishers in the engineering spaces to make cold pop. Everything else was hot enough to remove skin if you touched it.

In our berthing compartment besides us 3 ICmen we had the Electricians Mates, and the Ship Fitters (Damage Contolmen) and the Machinery Repairmen. These last guys were the ones that as part of their gear, took care of the AC units in each berthing space. These were about refrigerator sized units that cooled the space. They were old. They ran at top speed ALL the time. They broke down often. However, as you may expect, since the MR's slept in our compartment, our AC unit worked. Even if they had to steal stuff off some other unit, ours mostly worked!

The IC shop was pretty nice. Directly forward of us was the scullery. To port the galley. Directly starboard was the 'UP' ladder from the messdecks and scullery and outboard of that was the forward emergancy Diesel. So we were kind of in the middle under the main deck. There was an escape scuttle in the forward port corner that opened into the wardroom. You could crack the scuttle and listen to what those loosers were talking about. Sometimes one of the night bakers would give us a freshly baked loaf of bread. We'd retreat to the shop and get our big green can of peanut butter and glom it on! Not much better then that.

The other ICmen Don Stumpf and I wired the XO's sound powered handset closed (in his stateroom, so you could patch it through from the switchboard to an amplifier and hear everything that went on. He eventually began complaining about the fact that when you pressed the button to talk you could still hear surrounding noises and stuff. We had to repair our alterations, but it was educational for awile.

We were in the yards before we went overseas and some of the contractors had portable offices set aboard by crane. We hooked into their phone lines and us and our buddies called all over the place. I guess they eventually got their phone bill and complained to the skipper. He HAD to know who it was but we didn't really get into trouble. Maybe the captain thought it was funny. What happened was that the 'E' division chief who was really a cool guy, came down and gave us the word about unauthorized use of telephone lines. It was kind of a 3rd person deal about what would happen if 'Some Guys' didn't stop:mrgreen:

Amazing how you run a movie in your mind as you write this stuff. Even the smells and sounds.

..................Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Buckshot

Your chow didn't sound too good. On the other hand our ship had the best chow there was, first class New York restuarant grade. We had everything too, from lobster to charcoal grilled steaks. They had 55 gal steel drums cut in half for the grills that were outside on the fantail (rearend of the ship). The steaks, as I remember, were about 1 1/2 inch thick and about 9 inches long and 4-5 inches wide. We had this real light complexed black cook named Peoples, who was one damn fine cook.

Yeah there's alot of crazy stuff that went on in Navy life aboard ship. For instants there was this one Shipfitter named Danny Shine from Bradford, Pa. He went home for a long weekend and when he come back he was bragging up how he met this fine girl and had sex with here and all. Well wasn't a day or so after he was back he come down with the clap. So we sailors began a watch on him. When he had to go pee we would alert a bunch of guys and follow him to the bathroom (Head) and sling that Clap song while clapping our hands and he was taking his agonizing whizz.

The interior passage on a Destroyer, from what I remember, was called the "Inboard Passageway".

We use to do that Cuba radar picket crap too. Cuba is a miserable place to be aboard a ship because it's godawful hot, hotter then Death Valley. If you fell down on the deck you usually got a first to second degree burn. The longest you could walk around on the deck was about 10 minutes then your feet were burning through leather soles!!!!

Yeah the good old days in the Navy aboard a ship.

Joe

[shooter575]

Figured with all the blackshoes here this was fitting.

The old Chief finally retired from the Navy and got that chicken ranch
he always wanted. He took with him his lifelong pet parrot. First
morning at 0430, the parrot squawked and said, "Off yer hocks and don
yer socks. Reveille"

The old chief told the parrot, "we are no longer in the Navy. Go back
to
sleep." The next morning, the parrot did the same thing.

The old Chief told the parrot, "Look, if you keep this up, I will put
you out in the chicken pen."

Again the parrot did it, and true to his word, the Chief put the parrot
in the chicken pen. About 0630, the Chief was awakened by one heck of a
ruckus in the chicken pen. He went out to see what was the matter.

The parrot had about 40 white chickens in formation and on the ground
lay 3 bruised and beaten brown ones. The parrot was saying, "By God,
when I say fall out in dress whites, I don't m! ean Khakis!"

[Buckshot]

............Shooter575, didn't have any chiefs like that parrot! When I first went aboard the Noa the E division chief was a superior acting cretin. He called everyone 'lad'. God I hated that. "Come here a moment, lad" (grinding teeth). He drove an XK120 Jag and there was always talk of fixing his brakes or pouring lube oil in his gastank.

For morning quarters it was pretty easy going. As long as you had on shoes, long pants and your workshirt and whitehat or ball cap you were okay. While underway we could wear cutoffs and T shirts.

There were only 3 ICmen aboard, and I never stood one formal inspection in dress uniform, nor did any of us have any sea and anchor details other then in the shop. Only twice did I put on a dress uniform while aboard. Once in Iran when we had to man the rails because some big mucky muck sheik was coming aboard. The other was just after getting out to sea they had some burials to take care of. I can't remember why I didn't get out of that? Wish I had. The bodies just slid of into the water but the ashes they dumped swirled up in the breeze alongside and swept down the line and then into the engineering spaces blower intakes.

None of us ever did any underway replenishment either. That was mostly 1st and 2nd division. If you stayed down in the shop you were usually safe. They did give us 2 electrican mates strikers who decided they wanted to be IC men. Heck who wouln't? You didn't have to stand any switchboard watchs in the enginerooms and our at sea watches were sleeping watches in the shop. Since we could sleep there was not much sense in swapping out every 4 hours so we had the watch once every 3 nights[smilie=w:

If you wanted to get out of the shop for awile you put on your toolbelt and you had to have an answer if you got stopped. If you were headed aft you were always going to after steering. If you were headed forward you were going to the bridge for something.

...........Joe, I really don't remember anything about our chow. Other then doctoring it up for the reservists. They did have BBQ's every now and then but that was burgers. Mostly just lots of roast beef sticks in my mind, and then hotdogs when they cooked liver, yuck! My favorite meals were breakfast and mid-rats. It was usually coldcuts or burgers for mid-rats.

What you said about them shooting the 5 inchers is so true. We were one deck below and about 40' aft of mount 52. When they'd shoot, all kinds of crap would blow out of the vents and dust and paint flakes would rain down. What a mess.

..................Buckshot

[Bret4207]

I only heard about great Navy chow. The onlyist Navy chow I got was at school in Meridian Miss (HOT!) and it ran heavy on rice. Most Marine type chow was run of the mill to poor. The worst I had was during my 15 otherwise glorious months on Okinawa. We were in the middle of a 2 year drought and water was scarce. We got a 3 minute shower once every 3 days. Laundry was done on the beach pretty much, and the Crash Crew would fill a 55 gallon drum once a week to flush the heads. Needless to say that wasn't NEAR often enough and field day night was a nightmare. Seems I always got the head detail 'cuz I'd make sure the guys got it CLEAN! Wish I had known who the pigs were so I could have made them clean up their mess. Anyway, back to the drought. The mess hall supplies ran heavy on brown lettuce, green tomatoes and lots of RABBIT! Oh yeah, and liver. Lots of liver. They also had something they called "veal" which I'm sure was left over liver. Somehow this was blamed on the drought, don't ask me how or why that line of reasoning came to be. We accepted it as fact, (Marines ain't all that bright, cannon fodder and all that ya' know), and carried on in the best tradition of the Corps. All was well till one day I have to go over to Kadena AFB on the other side of the island. Didn't really think much was different till I saw the 3rd or 4th guy washing a truck. Then after picking up a bunch of parts I hit the head, which the Air Farce types called "the bathroom". First off, it didn't smell like raw sewage. Second, there was no raw sewage running out of the johns. Thirdly everything flushed!!! I even washed my hands. Thought about washing my socks but pride prevented it. It's about chow time so I stops by their mess hall and suprise, suprise! Green lettuce, red tomatoes, pork chops for lunch, with apple sauce. I was ready to dessert and join the USAF till the spirit of Chesty Puller tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me I was one of the chosen few. It was close there for a second. I drowned my sorrows in the arms of this Air Force chicky type I hooked up with there in the mess hall who apparently thought real men were supposed to smell like I did. Cheryl something I think it was. A couple months later the monsoon rains came and ended the drought and Cheryl decided I didn't smell so good when washed and that was that.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I remember being a little envious of the navy guys, everything was so clean and there was no mud anywhere and they didn't have any entrenching tools and didn't have to sit in the mud in the rain to eat. My first real memory of Army life was my first day of school cadets (1962). I wore my new uniform and had my picture taken by mum. As I went out the front door of the house I said a good morning to our neighbour, Mrs Bazbo. She was really excited and said in her husband was in the army in the war and she rushed inside to get a photo. My mum and I had trouble keeping a straight face, because there was Mr Bazbo in a Wermacht uniform. Nice folk though.

I also remember eating a tin of old bully beef (salted, tinned) and some biscuits out in the bush on my first camp that year. The Aussie army didn't have ration packs at that stage, when you were out in the bush you ate hard crackers and tinned (called bully) beef. Anyway, another cadet shouted out that he had maggots in his tin. I was growing like a weed and was always fainting from hunger and I was too hungry to look down, I kept eating.

From my time in the army as an adult, I remember being so tired I was out like a light in my hoochie and I was woken by water running down the hill as it was raining heavily. I was soaked, but too tired to move rolled over and slept on. Wet for a week after that and covered in mud. I'll never forget that shower when we finally got back to the barracks.

They call the infantry 'pongoes' nowadays; where they go the pong goes!
Ended up in a tank.

Mick.

[VP]

17) Once a month you get liberty. Iron your clothes on a towel on the deck. Take a cab to the sleaziest bar possible on the far side of town. Drink until you're hammered and at 0300 walk home in the rain. Have someone wake you up at 0600. Stand at attention while your mother in law reads you the newspaper.

I am amazed at the postings on the Navy experience. Buckshot's number 17 cracked me up most-- I remember at Quantico Marine Corps Base, on the grinder outside the squad bay in formation, called by the candidate company commander, at 0330 instead of 0430 or 0500, "just to be safe." Guys nodding off, standing and hour and a half in darkness, in platoon formation, for no reason-- not even near dawn.

Hearing anybody's mother-in-law read the paper or even the Marine Handbook would have only been an improvement. Gentlemen, I salute all of you. I missed Vietnam but not by much.

[fatnhappy]

funny. I remember making sure I was at the front of the formation for AM PT so I wouldn't have to run through the puke from the drunks at the back of the formation. It never worked cuz there were always a couple old timer NCO's at the front.

[VP]

We were on a landing exercise at Camp Pendleton. I was a 23-year old butter bar, in command of a battalion supply unit, with 1st Marine Div, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Bn. Maybe 1/1/2 by then.

It was an IMAF exercise. What that means I have no idea. On our way to assaulting the beaches of Southern California, 40 of us loaded into a World War II landing craft. It was a wooden crate, with wooden sides. An open box. Not like the Amtraks we were on later. There was one sailor on board, navigating the boat, running a noisy engine, wearning blue, which contrasted even in the dark to our green.

Our supply sergeant, a nervous skinny guy, is sitting across from me. Directly across from me. We are sitting so close together that we are squeezed up against each other side to side, and so close together that our knees are touching the knees of the men across from us, sitting on the other side of this landing craft. What was the name of it? Must have been the last of the leftovers from WWII.

It is still dark. The time is 0-dark:30. Maybe 5 in the morning for you civilian slobs. The boat, or craft, or box, or whatever it is-- LSD- that's it! We were on an LSD! That's a Landing Ship Dock for you Hippie illiterates.

Now this LSD is rocking side to side and back to front (fore to aft?) with the waves. Instead of landing on the beach we are circling. Waiting for it to get light? Who knows. Rocking back and forth, rocking from side to side. Leaning into the men on the left, then on the right ...

So then Sgt. Supply loses his cookies. He starts puking. He does it sort of quietly, if one can puke quietly. He takes a long time to go through it. Not one or two big explusions, but a lot of small pukes. He is sitting directly across from me. He leans forward and pukes down between his knees, about as polite as I suppose it is possible to puke-- in company.

This happened 30 years ago but I can still see, and hear him puking.

So when he is done he raises up and tries to look normal. I would have done the same.

Now it is getting light. I am looking across from me, not trying to look at him, and now the light is showing on his face.

The LSD is still rocking. Now on my left the men are lifting their feet. It is coming towards me, this wave of lifting feet. It is the vomit, sliding downhill as the boat rocks. They are lifting their boots out of the way. I lift my boots. The man to my right lifts his. It goes on.

A moment later, it comes back from the right. Now the wave of lifting feet is moving right to left.

This back and forth foot-lifting goes on and on. It went on for some 20 or 30 minutes before we hit the beach. The whole time, Sgt. Supply joined in with the rest of us, lifting his feet as well. No one made eye contact with anyone else. This was difficult as we were seated touching each other, and it was getting light. Even though there was no top on the boat, the smell wafted up, blew away, wafted up again ...

This is my main memory of the U.S. Navy-- sitting a an obsolete landing craft while vomit ran left to right, then right to left, in near darkness ...

Semper Fi
Vern

[Buckshot]

.............Vern, I think that would have been an LC-P (Landing Craft-Personel). A larger version would have been the LCV-P (Landing Craft, Vehicle-Personel).

...........Buckshot

[Frank46]

My ship was based also in mayport. Standing watches in the pump room upper level 170 degrees cause the fans burnt up, cleaning bilges good old bunker c oil, having the naughty airdales on extra duty cleaning said bilges. Waiting on chow line next to 5"x54 mount when it opened up, fire in the incenerator, man overboard while tied up at the dock(he got drunk and decided to go for a swim) Joey Heatherton USO show in the tonkin gulf, being
indoctrinated into the wonderful world of being a shellback, Sleeping in fart sacks and I didn't have no blue curtain. Frank

[StarMetal]

Frank

That don't make sense you're standing in the chowline alongside the 5" gunmount and it opens fire. I don't believe that one. No Navy ship would be that irresponsible. They wouldn't ge having gunning exercises at chow time. Also the gunmount has an alarm system on it that sounds (very loud I might add) when that mount is moving. Guess in your case he was zeroed in shooting a one hole ragged group and not moving hey?

Joe

[VP]

.............Vern, I think that would have been an LC-P (Landing Craft-Personel). A larger version would have been the LCV-P (Landing Craft, Vehicle-Personel).......Buckshot They told us it was an LSD, or Landing Ship, Dock.

[brimic]

I've never had the 'fun' of volunteering for any branch of the service and my hat's off to those that have. Numbers 1-8, 12-16, 18, 22-25 sound very close to my workplace environment at pharmaceutical production plant however, and I only have 30 years until I can consider retiring.

[Frank46]

I was stationed in mayport on board the USS Franklin D Roosevelt. Great times. Waiting in the chow line for over an hour when the air wing was aboard. Standing watches in the upper level of the pump room in 170 degree
heat cause the fan motor burnt up. Cleaning bilges and swimming in good old bunker c oil (remember the steamers??) Occasionall getting some naughty airdales to clean bilges with their pressed and starched uniforms. Standing in the hanger bay when one of the 5" 54 mounts let go. Hearing one guy complaining about someone puking on the deck and finally realizing he's standing in said puddle of puke. Oh yeah, the phantom shitter. Used to leave turds wrapped up in rags in the first aid cabinets. Then in naples the junk boat would come alongside to take scrap metal, some guy dropped a feed pump shaft and darn near went through the whole boat. Lotsa screaming about that one. Joey Heatherton uso show when we went on our westpac cruise.
Breaking one blade off #1 screw three time while on the westpac cruise and coming home on three shafts. Got all our work done prior to arriving in mayport. Marines, no disrespect but the navy takes em along cause they always get lost. And watching marines trying to get through hatchways with their M14's running to a penetration alarm on the nucweapons storage shops.
Regards Frank

[StarMetal]

If you're talking about the old Roosevelt I saw here when she was decommissioned in Norfolk and had been sold for scrap. Supposely someone had bought the deck for a bridge surface. Don't know how true that would be.

Joe

[nighthunter]

One of my fondest memories was when the XO assembled us all on the helicopter landing deck on my LSD when we arrived in Greece. The last thing he told us was not to drink the Ouzo. What the hell did he think we was gonna look for as soon as we got our feet on dry land. Seems the local Ouzo production had something called opium in it but he forgot to tell us that part.

[nighthunter]

Frank46 ..... I think every boat had a phantom shitter. I remember when our CO cancelled a liberty call and the phantom shitter struck. Done it on the ward room table of all places. I thought we were gonna see the naval investigators after that one. WOW ..... you guys are stirring some memories here.
nighthunter

[nvbirdman]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned pouring a few tablespoons of salt on top of the coffee grounds when you're brewing up a five gallon pot of coffee.

[Frank46]

Buckshot, here goes. Uss Franklin D Roosevelt outta Mayport. Cleaning bilges wallowing in bunker c, Having some naughty airdales on extra duty also cleaning the bilges. Some guy screaming in the compartment that someone puked on him then he realizes he's standing in a puddle of puke. Joey Heatherton USO show while on westpac cruise. Standing in chow line when 5" 54 mount went off. Getting hit in the starboard side by french freighter during nato exercises, Wasn't supposed to be in the area. Having flexitallic gasket blow out of main steam stop, cleared the engine room in record time. Also clearing out ships armory during a fire(got to fondle some nice toys)
And thirty years later finally managed to get in touch with some of the guys with whom I served. Frank

[StarMetal]

Nighthunter

Well we didn't have a phantomshitter, but probably cause we weren't a "boat", we were a ship. Only vessels called boats in the Navy are subs and...well boats. Everything else is a ship.

Now we did have the NBI (Naval Bureau of Investigation) aboard once when someone stole the Quarterdeck 45 acp. That one really riled them up. They got it back.

Joe

[nighthunter]

Starmetal .... Hmmmm.. If it has a hull number it must be a ship ....... all others is boats I guess. Rich people call their boat a yacht. we even called the CBM "Boats". He liked it too. I was just a GM2 so what would I know.

[StarMetal]

Nighthunter

Well, we could get technical, I suppose. Among sailing vessels, the distinction between ships and boats is that a ship is a square-rigged craft with at least three masts, and a boat isn't. With regard to motorized craft, a ship is a large vessel intended for oceangoing or at least deep-water transport, and a boat is anything else.

But that's too much to remember. Try this: ships have to be big enough to carry boats, and boats have to be small enough to be carried by ships.

Boats have hull numbers too, like PT109

You're right, what do you know, you were a gunnersmate, basically a deckape that shoots guns. Hey just teasing ya. Shooting those guns I think would be cool.

Joe

[waksupi]

Any of you ever heard the music of Mike Watt? The album I have is "Contemplating the Engine Room". Songs are In the engine Room, Red Bluff, The Bluejacket's Manual, Pedro Bound, The Boilerman, Black Gang Coffee, Topsiders, No one says old man, to the old man, Fireman Hurley, Liberty Calls, In the Bunk room, Crossing the Equator, Breaking the choke hold,Wrapped around the screw, and Shore duty.
This was put out by Columbia records. I believe it is somewhat rare. He's located in San Pedro, and can be contacted at www.wattage.com

[waksupi]

Now we did have the NBI (Naval Bureau of Investigation) aboard once when someone stole the Quarterdeck 45 acp. That one really riled them up. They got it back.

Joe

How did it shoot, Joe?

[Scrounger]

How did it shoot, Joe?

One hole group at 100 yards, whata you think...?

[nighthunter]

Ahhhhh ... I get the feeling that starmetal was a snipe. Heard a lot of stories of what used to happen in "Shaft Alley". All them noxius fumes can really effect people and heard that some of them effect people for the rest of their lives.
Starmetal is right that I was in the deck division. But what good would a 3" or 5" gun mount be in the boiler room of the boat. It had to be on the deck by my thinking.
Kinda wish I had all that gunpowder to play with again. Heard it has long term effects too.

[StarMetal]

For my non-armor piercing, you fellows better believe I would be shooting gaschecked cast ammo. Sure would be a bear casting a 48 pound onwards up slug for those 5 inch 38's we had on my ship. Worse yet would be sizing the buggers. Definately wouldn't be a Lee lube situation, more like Felix lube. What should I have sized them at fellows...5.0625 or ya thing 5.125 inches?

Joe

[nighthunter]

Every thing in the military regardless of the branch of service is about weapons. Primarily getting a weapon from point "A" to point "B". Being
that I was the guy that operated the weapon and maintained the weapon
I would like to thank all the rest of you on the boat. Thanks for the ride fellas.
I have a feeling Starmetal is gonna have something to say.
Starmetal .... I'm doing this in fun and hope you take it well. Now get back to sizing them bullets. We have gunnery practice in Gitmo in the A.M.
Nighthunter

[Scrounger]

Every thing in the military regardless of the branch of service is about weapons. Primarily getting a weapon from point "A" to point "B". Being
that I was the guy that operated the weapon and maintained the weapon
I would like to thank all the rest of you on the boat. Thanks for the ride fellas.
I have a feeling Starmetal is gonna have something to say.
Starmetal .... I'm doing this in fun and hope you take it well. Now get back to sizing them bullets. We have gunnery practice in Gitmo in the A.M.
Nighthunter

Doesn't he always??? :grin: Just kidding, Joe.

[StarMetal]

Just that word "Gitmo" makes a sailor sick. God, I hated that freaking place.

Joe

[Shepherd2]

Amen to hating Gitmo. My last ship was homeported in Key West and we were down at Gitmo all too often. What a hellhole!

[Buckshot]

............The main bad thing about Gitmo was that you had to stay lit off as there were no shore facilities. Bad for the engineering snipes, but also bad for us IC men as our gear was also in use, instead of being secured as per usual when tied up.

One time a couple guys had gotten a #10 can of pie cherries and stopped by the package store for some rum. They sat on the hillside amongst the cactus and got pretty well hammered, come to find out later. One of'em was a blond haired electrician's mate in our compartment.

I don't know if he'd puked in his sleep or had woke up and was still too hammered to deal with it, but he'd barfed all in his rack and on the bulkhead. Just so happened there was a sounding tube there and the sounding/security watch was cursing and screaming about it being all covered in puked up cherries. Poor kid was a sight, lemme tell ya :lol: At quarters that AM he was so pale he was almost invisible.

I never did get drunk while I was in the Navy. At least I don't recall any times that I was.

................Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Buckshot

The main bad thing about Gitmo was the HEAT and HUMIDITY!!!!! When I was there it was over 120 in the shade with 99.9999 percent humidity. If you fell on the deck you got a second degree burn!!! Second main thing was there wasn't a damn thing to do, just that base and we weren't allowed off the ship except on the pier to the pop from a pop machine. Most guys just did some fishing as where we were anchored was full of tarpauns.

Joe

[nighthunter]

Hey Buckshot ..... someone said the Village People sang YMCA just for you ....
you do remember them don't ya ???? LMAO

[357tex]

Makes me proud to have been in the ARMY.

[Frank46]

Buckshot, we had a dependents day cruise. They told everyone to stay away from the mount they were going to fire. What happens?, everyone stands as close to it on the flight deck and boom. After the boom there must have been at least ten folks laying on the deck. Then they dropped 500lb bombs into the ocean. We were on watch in #1 enging room and the bombs were maybe 500 feet away when they went off. One guy was sitting on trash can and ended up on the deck plates. But caused the most concern was watching the 600# steam lines swaying back and forth. Did you say you were at Mayport?, or was it someone else. What ship?. Frank

[Frank46]

Take my word for it. Still have two 5"x54 shell casings that I made into ashtrays. Good old asbestos gloves, 30 gal garbage can and ear muffs liberated off the airdales. But yes this did actually happen. Chow line kinda thinned out right quick after the first round went off.

[StarMetal]

Frank

Try laying two depth charges in 52 feet of water at 20 knots. Took the whole backend of the Destroyer out of the water!!!

Someone was very derelict of their duties if those folks weren't kept away from the mounts. I reckon same as us laying those depth charges in not enough dept h of water and not enough speed.

Joe

[nighthunter]

who was responsible for setting the charges? Couldn't have been a deck ape.
... GOD ... what a boat she was ... Let us all shave in piece.

[Frank46]

We used to drain the water from the deairating feed tank sight glass in the engine room to make cups of the instant soup. And would throw some salt pills in the coffee pot. And cook spam on the aluminum clip board used for the log sheet on top of the nozzle blocks on the high pressure turbine. Frank

[StarMetal]

Frank

I don't know what kind of treated water you ran in your boiler system, but in ours if you drank the water (which was triple distilled and treated with boilercompound) you would literally shit your guts out.

Joe

[Frank46]

A buddy used to get a magazine put out by Moran towing. Shows pictures of the roosevelt being towed into the shipbreakers yard at kearny new jersey. God only knows
how long it took to cut up the armored flight deck and it musta been a beach transporting all them huge hunks of metal for a bridge deck. Well one thing is that they
won't have marine pilots landing on that bridge. Navy pilots had more finese. Frank

[Frank46]

Starmetal, yep really drank the water outta the sightglass in instant soup. As far as I can recall we had a steel chest with all sorts of goodies. None of use got the trots. Maybe because we were youngand stupid. When we had the air wing on board you could wait in the chow line for over an hour and still not get to eat. I think them airdales went back for seconds or thirds. They finally opened up the chow line up forward and even though it was just sandwhiches and bug juice it was better than nothing. The bug juice came in quart bottles and had to be mixed with a certain amount of water. If not it would give you acid indejestion like you wouldnot believe. Straight outta the bottle we would use it to clean the deck plates in the engine room.

[StarMetal]

Frank

From what I'm hearing from you, duty aboard a tincan sounds alot better then aboard a carrier. We always got to eat, no waiting, and top notch food. I bet you had alot of inspections with all the Brass around?

Well that must have been one stop in it's journey to N.J., for the Roosevelt that is. She looks deserted and lonely docked their by her lonesome. My ship got mothballed, then sold to some South American country, that ran her for five years then melted her down for cars or something. Such a shame for noble ships...at least they could recycle them into new ships.

Joe

[Buckshot]

............The NOA was sold to Spain several months after we came back from the Indian Ocean. Must have been a lease deal because she came back to the US and was sold for scrap.

Before transiting the Atlantic on our way to the Indian Ocean we'd stopped for a few days in Recife, Brazil. A really cool Portugese colonial city, but at 20 years old some of the attractions a tourist might have spent time at, were lost on me :-).

When we left Recife we excersized with 4 destroyers of the Brazilain Navy. These were all old Fletcher class cans. I thought is was really cool. There was a good swell going and we were all racing around playing anti-air type games and the Brazilians had supplied some jets to make runs at the ships.

Lots of high speed turns, and with the swells there were lots of submarine time and also screws out of the water. Gun turrets swinging all around and lifelines getting dipped in the water. We had no after turret so we'd have gotten our ass shot off, plus no dedicated anti-air weapons, just the four 5 inchers forward. Possibly the Brazilian cans still had 40mm's? Fat lot of good they'd have done.

Worse yet there was no anti-missile defense. If it'd been real, our only contribution would have been as targets to the pilots.

...........Buckshot

[StarMetal]

Ah ha! My tincan the Willard Keith (alias Willy Boat) was awarded the big "E". That's for battle efficieny in anti-aircraft fire and submarine warfare. We had two twin barrel 3 inch anti-aircraft mounts, plus I think the 5 inchers could fire anti-aircraft rounds, not sure. we had two twin 5 inch mounts forward and one twin astern. In the war she bristled with 50 cal machine guns and more.

Joe

[Frank46]

Starmetal, Funny thing though, after all these years you always remember the good times, the funny times, and unfortunately the bad times. I've posted some of the good times and the funny times. But some of the bad times I'll never forget. We were at sea
doing runs on the vietnamese coast off the tonkin gulf and got a call from the bridge asking if we were having problems. The reply was negative. A short while later we received another call from the bridge telling us that the vibrations that they had felt were the pieces of the body of a pilot who had walked into the prop of the willy fudd
which was ready to taxi onto the catapults. When we went to eat mid rats they brought his body down to sick bay and then to where ever they take the fallen before shipping the body stateside. There were more but this one always stuck with me. Frank

[StarMetal]

Frank

I know what you mean. I think my worse experience, which in no way as horrible as the one you just told, was when we went through an actual hurricane out at sea. I really didn't think we were going to make it back. To boot it was in the middle of the night.....0200. Let's just say when we got back to port we came in bow down, as the chainlocker was flooded and we couldn't pump it out fast enough and eventually lost the pump, we lost all the liferafts aboard ship, and the waves washed off quite a few fire hydrands. The tops was during the storm we took a 56 degree roll, was told we capsize at a 60 degree roll. Not a fun night at all.

Joe

[nighthunter]

Cape Hatteras was always a joy to float around. At least when we knew a big storm was coming and headed for deep water we always expected the Cape to be bad. Even in good weather the currents were really bad and could give a good toss to a round bottomed LSD. I never got seasick though. I remember a few guys that always grabbed a trash can as soon as the whistle was blown when all lines were cast off and "Underway" was announced.
Buckshot ... i was a youngen when I was in also and missed most of the places that a normal tourist would have gone.
I wonder what the new Navy is like. Everything is much more sophisticated and the recruiters seem to be quite picky about who can enlist. One guy I work with, his son enlisted and had to wait something like 14 months to go to boot camp. A lot less men in the military now than 30 some years ago.

[StarMetal]

The Navy and Air Force have their quota of men and they are hard to get into. The Army and Marines on the other hand, being they lose personel in Afghanistan and Iraq don't have their quota filled and easier to get into. That's not saying anything bad about them, just that alot of the young folks don't want to join those two branches and go over there and possibly get killed.

Joe

[Buckshot]

............Nighthunter, The 'New' Navy? Well I know they have females aboard now, but I don't know how small a ship they serve on. Honestly, the only ships the navy has anymore, besides service vessels are Subs, Frigates, Cruisers and carriers. Most of'em are all guided missle and maybe a couple 76mm rapid fire mounts for surface stuff. It's mostly all anti-air or ASW.

Most the Frigates can't really effectively protect themselves from aircraft, and the Cruiser's job now is to hang around the carrier and provide it with anti-air protection. The carrier's planes do surface interdiction and long range anti-air, plus shore bombardment if any of that is ever called for again.

If it weren't for the carriers, we'd have a Navy like everyone else. A Frigate Navy. Well we DO have subs, but they're a limited platform and basicly an offensive weapon.

When I was in, it was the "New" Navy. Adm Elmo Zumwalt was the CNO and there were a lot of changes. Hair restrictions were relaxed as were a lot of other things, plus a lot of the 'Social Awareness' programs came up. I know a lot of the old timers felt that Naval Tradition was being wiped out, and they felt like they were just floundering around. Add to that there was a serious drug and morale problem in the military.

We had one kid who was busted for smoking pot while standing after lookout. That was kind of bad. Pretty remote, but if someone had fallen over the side, the after lookout would most likely have been their only chance at being seen. Imagine yourself out there floating around and the ship serenly slipping away while the after lookout has his eyes closed after a big hit? Other then that I wasn't aware of any drug or morale issues on the ship.

............Frank46, yeah you remember that stuff, the good, the funny and the bad. The bad fades and and becomes not so bad. The good and the funny stuff become even better as you get older.

...............Buckshot

[Frank46]

Starmetal, our carrier was in yokuska japan and we got an emergency recall back to the ship. The SP's were chasing all sailors back to their ships as there was a typhoon coming. Needless to say back we went. Whenit was all over and done. We had about 60' of catwalk near the cat shack completely gone, like it had never been there. Some of the guys on the bridge had said that there were waves going over the flight deck.
Yeah, we got to rocking and rolling and lost a blade off #1 screw so back to yokusuka
for a replacement. We lost three blades three times during the westpac cruise, even came back trailing #1 shaft. Never did find out why. Buckshot, you're so right, the good becomes better, the funny even funnier but even though the bad doesn't seem so bad after the passage of time its still there. But since I was only 17 (Pop had to sign the enlistment papers) it was an experience I'll never forget and I was proud to have served. Frank

[carpetman]

Nighthunter---Don't remember what years my late brother was a Radioman on the Plymouth Rock---50's-60's or 70's????????

[carpetman]

This thread has made mention of how to contact your old buddies. I noticed Ol Scudder here on this board is from Walters,Ok. I was stationed with a guy from there in the early 60's. Last contact I had with him was late 70's. I PM ed Ol Scudder if he knew the guy. He knows of him and provided phone number. I called him and he has 27 year old son--his wife was expecting him last time we talked. Small world sometimes.

[Frank46]

Try doing a web search for your ship. I did that for the roosevelt and by chance mamaged to locate a few of my shipmates. Funny thing, sometimes I cannot remember what went on a few hours ago, but start talking to them and for some reason its like yesterday Frank

[Buckshot]

Try doing a web search for your ship. I did that for the roosevelt and by chance managed to locate a few of my shipmates. Funny thing, sometimes I cannot remember what went on a few hours ago, but start talking to them and for some reason its like yesterday Frank

...........Frank, The Carpetman was in the .......ah Danged Air Fo-warce (do that a'la Andy Griffith (No Time For Sergents).

I hooked up with the Captain of the ship I was on! His reply to my first e-mail:

"Rick,,What a pleasant surprise to hear from you!

I had put my name on several crew lists one day when I came upon that site, and - to be honest - have never really spent any time since looking through it. I am certainly glad to see that you did!

It was fun to hear about our cruise again after so many years. The Country with the Sheik was Dubai - in the news these days as the site of several new GOLF courses for international championship play. Would you believe?? You may recall we also went into Bandar Abbas in Iran...so you can lay claim to be one fo the few folks with time in that place. The Shah came by on his jeep, so we all had to man the rail (all except the lucky ones who got to go on the tour to Shiraz.

And what have you been up to for the past 30+ years? I stayed in the Navy - went from Noa to comand of McCard (another destroyer) , and later had the good fortune to command a cruiser (USS WAINWRIGHT - CG 28) and DesRon 4 - all of that was in Charleston. I retired from the navy in 1987 and then had several civilian careers (My family and I settled in the Washington DC metro area in Vienna Virginia) - and am now semi-retired, but do part-time work as a Magistrate in the Virginia Court system here in Fairfax County.

My wife and I had two daughters when I was in Noa - we later had another daughter and a son, so we have the eequivalent of two families...all are grown now, and we have 4 grandchildren - same mix - 1boy - 3 girls. The boy is really a man- he is 20; his sisters are 13, 12 and 6. So we have lots of fun - they all live in Charleston.

I look forward to hearing from you, and want to thank you for getting in touch. I do, indeed remember you and the great work you all did in IC keeping those dreaddful movie machines running...we would have gone stir crazy without them...and, of course, the Gyro! My first tour as an Ensign was DCA on a ship just like Noa, and I said then if i was ever reincarnated, I would be an IC3---just watch the gyro, phones and movies!

All the best, and I look forward to hearing from you so I will be up to date on your comings and goings.

Capn Bill

************************************************** ********
Here's the most recent. I included a part of my e-mail to him, as it explains what he is talking about:

.....................BTW, I meant to ask about what went on when the plant shut down that time while underway, and we had to light off the Diesels. I know the ship's landing party was called away. There was also scuttlebutt I heard (and you know IT'S value) that there was some concern over a French frigate? I've wondered about that deal often.

Maybe one of these times if I feel brave and am satisfied the statute of limitations has run out, I'll tell what we did to Lt Cdr Helbigs stateroom. That was a WE sir, and it was not MY idea anymore then it was to hook into the yard dogs' autovon phone line, either :-).............................


Rick,

Sorry for the delay in reply. I was out in LA looking after my aunt - but we did NOT go to the desert...her car's A/C has no freon, and I am not prepared to be par-broiled on the road, and neither is she.

With respect to the problem off Socotra -loss of the load. It all started when we had to ballast (put seawater in the fuel storage tanks) enroute from Diego Garcia to Diego Suarez...while avoiding a typhoon. I'm sure you remember that! When the oil king (some 3/c/BT whose name I forget) didn't pump the tanks completely dry afterwards, and did not have "thief sampler" that would fit down the service tank sounding tubes. We took water into the service tanks...then to the bolier,,,and the rest is history. I was a bit nervous, as were the rest of you , I am sure. But I had a lot of well placed confidence in teh snipes, and they eventually got us running again. Just glad teh A gang kept the diesels on the line, tho, as we would have been in a real fix had they died.

I don't know if you know it, but Al Helbig dies some years ago of a brain tumor. He had retired from the Navy and was living up in upstate New York working for GE. One day he had some sort of seizure while driving and nearly got killed in the car,. but did survive...only to learn (after a lot of tests) that he had a tumor, and of that he died not long thereafter. But I am sure he will look down with a grin n your story, so send it on!

I am off to the beach for the 4th---hope you have a good holiday, and stay in touch,

Capt Bill

************************************************** ********

Al Helbig was the XO. I think I mentioned what we'd done in another post. I haven't e-mailed a reply yet. It may sound funny but after getting the news about Cdr Helbig, the shenanigen we pulled sounds reather cheap and childish. Of course at the time it was different.

...............Buckshot

[Frank46]

Buckshot, yep getting in touchwith your shipmates can really make your day. The one guy I really wanted to contact lived in new york (not too far from me) and since I now live in louisiana that made it kinda hard. My sister in law checked every phone book around. No luck. So I was doing a web search for my ship and found a website devoted to the swanky franky. He went and moved to florida. We stay in touch especially since its now hurricane season down here. Was well worth the effort. Frank

[Shepherd2]

Buckshot- I've been to Bandar Abbas a couple times. The Navy was doing a lot of mapping in the Persian Gulf in the 50s and 60s. I was on the USS Tanner AGS-15 (hydrographic survey ship) during the 1960-61 cruise. We put into Bandar Abbas at least twice to pick up our mail. I never saw the Shah of Iran in a jeep but I saw lots of wealthy Arabs in Mercedes'.

On our return trip thru the Red Sea we stopped in Jidda (The Gateway to Mecca!!!). We were the first US Navy ship to be allowed there in over 25 years. We were underwhelmed. I didn't get to go into the city as I was assigned Shore Patrol on the pier. We passed the time trying to club rats with our night sticks.

Since this thread began I've been searching the net and I've found a couple of my old shipmates from 40 some years ago.

Just wanted to let you know that I too have experienced exotic Bandar Abbas. I'll bet you made it to Bahrain Island but did you get to Abba Musa?

[Buckshot]

.............Chuck, yes we stopped in Bahrain. As soon as we were tied up the ship was flooded with Iranian sailors offering large sums of money for old Playboys. Even with most the pictures cut out! :-). Lots of American and British citizens there as advisors as most the Iranian Navy was ex US or Brit stuff.

Also the first time I ever experienced a traffic circle. Mayhem! Why in all that's holy would they put the bus stop on the island in the middle of the traffic circle? Traffic going around was like a motorized Roman chariot race. Lots of Iranians in western cloths and several driving 'Vettes. Saw several guys holding hands :D Odd to us.

There were a few places that'd copy your eyeglass prescription and make you new glasses for $5. Got a pair of black steel and gold steel aviator types, but they must have used window glass because they were scratched in a week.

They had a British hamburger joint there called Wimpy's and it was kind of expensive. I recall it was like 2 Dinar for a burger, chips (Not fries like ours) and a soda. The food came out and it wasn't a hamburger. It was a freaking meatball on a biscutt! I was hot.

..................Buckshot

[Shepherd2]

Buckshot - From your posts I think you were in the Gulf about 10 years after we were. The Arabs were still pretty traditional. Most of them wore those long white shirts things that came down below their knees. The women mostly had their faces covered.

I remember the Iranian sailors. We surveyed by triangulating 3 radios signals so we had to set up 3 radio towers on the beach to transmit the signals. Today they'd use GPS. Each beach camp, as we called them, had 3 US sailors to man the gear and 2 Iranian sailors as guards, translators, etc. Nobody trusted them. I did a stretch in one of the camps and we kept an eye on the Iranians at all times. Even when we weren't transmitting one of us stayed awake.

When we got on the beach in Bahrain we eventually wound up at the Royal Air Force base. There were usually a couple British navy ships in Bahrain too. We had an open invitation at their enlisted men's club. We had some good times there. That's where I developed a taste for Tiger Brand beer. It's brewed in Singapore. I find a bottle or 2 in the big city once in a while. One night there was a lot of uniform trading going on. Some guys went back to the ship wearing parts of uniforms from 3 services. I've still got that British navy hat somewhere.