Life at sea
Mar 10, 2017 17:12:02 #
Mar 10, 2017 17:23:25 #
Yes I agree. On Saratoga in the Med. in 60 - 70. On the way back hit a North Atlantic storm, every now and then you could see our destroyer escort. They should have earned sub. pay.
Mar 10, 2017 17:40:36 #
As an X-Navy Boatswains Mate 66-69 (with zero days sea time) I did drive a 52' torpedo retriever while stationed in the Bahamas for 13 months. (67-68 Somebody had to do the jobs I was assigned to) I did get to spend about 8 hours in the tailwinds of Hurricane Beulah (67) in 16-18' seas. Turned us every which way but loose. 4 Sailors including myself each taking 20 minutes at the wheel trying to keep the boat off the reef. It was exhausting work. When we finally got inside the breakwater of the base and could drive the boat straight, the CO and the XO and several other sailors were waiting on the dock to congratulate us for not getting smashed up on the reef. After that celebration, the 4 of us were restricted to the base for 30 days as none of us had a life jacket on. They were up in a hold on the bow and none of us could get to them. (Luckily our XO was a Mustang Officer and he got us off the restriction after 7 days.) Oh the Memories
Mar 10, 2017 17:57:15 #
I was in and on the Saratoga, CV-3 in 2005. It is sitting on the bottom of Bikini Atoll in 180' of water. This was the first Saratoga, and before the one you were on. I have seen a carrier named Saratoga sitting in a shipyard up in Rhode Island, I think, as well. The one on the bottom of Bikini Atoll was one of 246 ships used to test Atomic Bombs on after WWII as the government wanted to see of the Navy might be obsolete after the war.. It sank after the 'Baker Blast' (the second atomic bomb that was tested in July of 46') Check out 'Operation Crossroads' if you want to see the 'Baker Blast' and some history of Atomic Bomb testing after WWII out in the Marshall Islands. For 'first accounts' from Sailors and Marines who were there during the testing (pretty gruesome stuff) check out "Radio Bikini" to see what happened to those poor servicemen.
Mar 10, 2017 18:22:18 #
USS Saratoga CV60 - '79 Med cruise - surprise storm came off the Pyrenees - had green water over the flight deck - quite a ride...
Mar 10, 2017 18:48:25 #
The Army has/had a line in one of the Jody chants that went "Gee I wish I'd joined the Navy"
Well 28 days on the USNS General W. H. Gordon going to Nam in late fall of 66 cured me of that. At least days, 24, 25, 26 & 27 did it. We spent those days doing a holding pattern off Qui Nhon Bay in a typhoon because it was too rough to enter the bay, let alone try to get to the pier to unload. Day 26 was the only time I got sea sick, and then because the blower in my duty compartment stopped working, air got stall, I got sick. Then on day 28 the waves were still too much to try for the pier but the ship was behind schedule so the Coast Guard brought out some Higgens boats (yeah they still had some then) and we went ashore with our bare minimum gear to the same beach the Marines had landed on a year earlier. We borrowed some gear and the rest was unloaded and transhipped from Cam Rahn Bay. So among other things for almost two weeks we only had one or two magazines for our M-14s each and a few cases of backup to reload if we needed it. Thank God we didn't need it.
Well 28 days on the USNS General W. H. Gordon going to Nam in late fall of 66 cured me of that. At least days, 24, 25, 26 & 27 did it. We spent those days doing a holding pattern off Qui Nhon Bay in a typhoon because it was too rough to enter the bay, let alone try to get to the pier to unload. Day 26 was the only time I got sea sick, and then because the blower in my duty compartment stopped working, air got stall, I got sick. Then on day 28 the waves were still too much to try for the pier but the ship was behind schedule so the Coast Guard brought out some Higgens boats (yeah they still had some then) and we went ashore with our bare minimum gear to the same beach the Marines had landed on a year earlier. We borrowed some gear and the rest was unloaded and transhipped from Cam Rahn Bay. So among other things for almost two weeks we only had one or two magazines for our M-14s each and a few cases of backup to reload if we needed it. Thank God we didn't need it.
Mar 10, 2017 20:26:37 #
Looks pretty rough ibgrumpy. As an active duty submarine sailor, I guess I can finally say there is one advantage to being a submariner.
Mar 10, 2017 22:16:51 #
Mar 10, 2017 22:34:11 #
Mar 10, 2017 22:45:21 #
ibgrumpy
Loc: San Diego
Hornet (cva 12), Antietam (cvs36). Midway (41) Kittyhawk (cv63)
1953-54 1955-56 1960-63 1970-1972
Retired 1983
1953-54 1955-56 1960-63 1970-1972
Retired 1983
Mar 11, 2017 00:13:01 #
USS America, CVA-66, 7/72 to 7/74, which included 6-months Yankee Station, Gulf of Tonkin. The America's flight deck is 90-feet above waterline, but on two occasions, we had swells breaking over the bow. I pitied the Destroyers and Escorts flanking us, because they would go over one, then under one.
Mar 11, 2017 05:43:53 #
Mar 11, 2017 06:36:37 #
Mar 11, 2017 08:02:18 #
Coming back from a Med cruise we were 2 days late because the ship's Captain decided to circle a hurricane off the VA coast. At least that's what we were told. We were rolling port to starboard and stem to stern so much that even the ship's crew thought we were going right through the storm.
Mar 11, 2017 08:38:42 #
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