Posted on 01/24/2003 5:41:05 AM PST by SAMWolf
Thanks Sam J
Good music to celebrate yet another successful fundraiser J
Lots of memories rekindled for this old Bubblehead. If time permits, I'll try to include a story or two... Photos by request.
Thanks for the kind words, Spooky.
Post em if you got em, please.
Thanks for the compliment DD.
Donna M. Tobias was the first woman to become a US Navy Deep Sea (hard hat) Diver in 1975. She worked on search and salvage operations, underwater repairs of surface ships and submarines, and on the conversion of two YFN (barges) into diving and salvage liftcraft. She also served as a submarine escape instructor, hyperbaric chamber operator and a SCUBA instructor at a Navy SCUBA diving school . In the late 1970's she participated in leading-edge hyperbaric treatments for medical purposes and the evaluation of one-person portable recompression chambers.
Navy divers secure hatch on Apollo 11
The WHITEHURST hit a whale off the coast of California resulting in a bent prop. The damage to the screw caused extreme vibrations and had the prop not been changed, more damage to the shaft and bearings would have been the result.
Utilizing the crane and rigging crews and we divers from the tender, the screw change operation was completed in about 12 hours.
The WHITEHURST pulled alongside the tender mid afternoon. We hit the water and began removing dunce cap and related nuts and bolts. Using the tender's crane, we broke the boss nut loose and ceased operations for the day.
The following morning, we were in the water at 5:30 am. We applied three turns of primer cord to the forward side of the prop. At 6:00 am, the Boatswains Mate piped reveille and at 6:00:15 we yelled "Fire in the hole," cranked the hell box and set off the explosive charge. The charge "broke the seal" of the hub to the shaft. A chocker was attached to the padeye inserted into the screw's hub and hooked to the balance beam holding the other prop.
The boss nut was removed, the damaged screw was pushed free of the shaft. The balance bar, now holding two screws was rotated, the new screw inserted onto the shaft and the boss nut re-installed.
You can probably imagine the surprised sailors when that explosion took place. They came topside in their skivees to check out what all the noise was about.
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Today's classic warship, USS Rockford (PF-48)
Tacoma class frigate
Displacement. 2415
Lenght. 303'l1"
Beam. 37'6"
Draft. 13'8"
Speed. 20k.
Complement. 190
Armament. 3 3", 4 40mm., 9 20mm., 2 dct., 8 dcp., 1 hedgehog
USS Rockford, projected as PG-156, was laid down 28 August 1943 as PF-48 by Consolidated Steel, Los Angeles, Calif.; launched 27 September 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Harry L. Crotzer; and commissioned 6 March 1944, Comdr. D. H. Bartlett, USCG, in command.
Following shakedown off Los Angeles, she reported to the Pacific Fleet and got underway 25 June 1944 for the southwest Pacific, On 2 July she attacked an enemy submarine with depth charges, doing some damage. She made a second antisubmarine attack with "hedgehogs" on 7 July and proceeded via Espiritu Santo to Australia arriving Cairns 23 July.
On 2 August Rockford moored in Mime Bay and operated on convoy escort duty and antisubmarine patrol off the New Guinea coast until 23 September when she made a brief run to Manus Island, Admiralties.
She then returned to New Guinea until 15 October when she steamed via Manus Island and Pearl Harbor. En route she attacked a Japanese submarine 13 November with hedgehogs, resulting in possible damage. She arrived San Francisco 17 November for scheduled repairs.
Rockford then reported to Commander, Alaskan Sea Frontier for duty, 4 January 1945, and operated until August at Dutch Harbor, Cold Bay, and Adak as pilot vessel for the AM-222 group.
Rockford was leased to the Soviet Union 27 August 1945, and returned to the United States at Yokosuka, Japan, 1 November 1949. She was then loaned to Korea 23 October 1950 to enforce the blockade against North Korea and harass the enemy. She served the Korean Navy as Apnokkang (62) until returned to the U.S. Navy 3 September 1952 and assigned a status of inactive out of commission in reserve. Rockford was struck from the Navy list 26 May 1953 and sunk as a torpedo target 30 September 1953.
Rockford earned two battle stars for World War II service.
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