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Posted on 11/17/2018 5:01:07 PM PST by Kathy in Alaska
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From FT1(SS) Bob Rogers
I was a crewman in the SONAR Division. I remember when you rode the USS GROTON on the first I/O run in 1980 and I walked into the Radio Room. I was in training as “Radio Operator of the Watch”. You were sitting there listening to “something” using some headphones. I asked what you were listening to. Your “EXACT” answer was...
“I can’t tell you.... But the score is 4 to 3!!”
From TN(SS) Rick Hedman
I was a plankowner on USS Flasher SSN-613. Rode her until June of 68 when I got out. We use to carry any number of the invisible people with us. One trip was after the USS Pueblo AGER-2 was captured and everyone wore shirts that said, “If Captured, I’m a Cook!”
Today is my Dear old Fathers Birthday, I miss him everyday.
Salute Pops
In 1966 our shop (Groton) was tasked to outfit the Scorpion SSN-589 with the usual package. As was the practice, three of us would do the installation. Two of us would drive the truck with the equipment to Norfolk, and the rider (Matman) from our shop, who was to make the trip, would fly down an meet us there. The installation went pretty much as usual, except for the fact the boats op schedule had been moved up and we were hard pressed for time. We use to install an open microphone in the control room, which we called the “white rat”. As I was taping this thing into the overhead, one of the ship’s company, an ST2 wanted to know if I had an extra microphone, which I did, and gave it to him. He wanted to know how he could return the favor. I said a can of coffee for the shop would be great. End of story. We packed up the mess we always had, and headed back to Groton. We got back on a Saturday, I left the truck in the parking area, and went home. Early Sunday morning I get a call from the AOIC (John Arnold) wanting to know what went wrong on the installation. We had received a “prioity one shipment of classifed material” from Scorpion. I met LTjg. Arnold at the shop and we proceeded to Shiping and Receiveing to retreive our package. A large wooden crate that was almost too big for the pick-up we had. Back at the shop, we opened our mysterious gift, to find two cans of government issue coffee. No note...nothing, just two cans of coffee.
CTM1 Bo Baker
“Cant say, I signed a disclosure agreement.”
I did not know we lost Red Naylor. Curious as to what happened to him? Last time I saw him was at Clark in late 70s. He was in the Skirts Inn having a beer and he was talking to a Zoomie AP who was also having a beer. The zoomie said something about his pendleton shirt. Think the AP asked where he was from and I think he said Oregon. Then the zoomie said there were only queers and lumberjacks from Oregon, and he didn’t think Red was a lumberjack. Then Red was silent for a long time. A few minutes later the AP left and Red followed him. Next thing I heard was the AP screeming and wheezing. They were up against the door so I couldn’t open it. The AP was on top of Red who was on his back squeezing the shit out of the AP. I had to do a “statement”. I said I had heard the AP verbally insult people from Oregon, the Naylor quit talking to him. Then I said Red left just less than 5 minutes after the AP. And immediately after the door closed and they were out of sight, I heard the ruckus and what I could see thru the glass top half of the door was the AP on top of Naylor with his arms flailing. Red got off. He was there at Clark waiting for a trip somewhere, I don’t remember where. He was a colorful character.
Tom Dixon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zIrxYqnleY
When Tommy Cox and I went into the Fleet, we both were involved, immediately, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, along with the others in our class. In my case as a green, just graduated RT type in the first NSA precursor to CTI “A” School training, I was assigned to the USS Wahoo. For those unfamiliar with those days...WWIII was a reality, and just around the corner! The first deployment is the hardest; and in my case, it hooked me for twenty years. The Spooky part? Wahoo was stationed, to stop all units of the enemy, in the exact same spot where its namesake, the WWII Wahoo had been lost to the Japanese! I learned all about Submarine superstition from the greatest Diesel boat crew in the Pac; and learned the value of my training from the best DirSup crew at Kami Seya. Both are worthy of sharing.
Scariest stories are when I was on USS Cobbler, you can read about them at USS Cobbler Harold Garland and Lee Hutchens tells it all. I was aboard for all the accidents and one more scary part that wasn’t mentioned was when we were operating as a target for Task Group Alfa (ASW hunter killer group) I was on the helm at battle stations and the CO was on the scope and all of a sudden he goes balistic screaming down scope down emergency and just as we got down the Carriers screws could be heard going over us. The Skipper said all he could see was solid grey in the scope. I had brown skivvies after that one. I have rec’d some good news from my old boss on Cobbler that the Skipper Frank Clifford has retired from the navy as a Capt and living out his retirement in Melbourne Fla. I also notice that DEX Armstrong has gotten into this site. We served together on Requin and have been to 2 reunions so far, and hope to have many more. DEX has quite a few stories to tell.
Vic “Sparks” Casciola
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fufl3LsbSMM
‘We were in the GOT in April 1975, aboard the Big “E”. It was my first DIRSUP ride. I was taking a “break” on the portside catwalk just outside the SUPRAD spaces. It was way cool watching them brand new F-14 Tomcats taking off!! I could feel the heat of the afterburners as they left the deck. All of a sudden, somebody on the flightdeck grabbed me by the back of my dungaree shirt and lifted my stupid ass up onto the deck and yelled, “YOU!!! Follow ME!!!!”. We double timed to the air bosses chair, where I was told to stand at attention. I did so for about an hour, until the air boss, who was calling the shots on the flight deck, and without finishing one sentence before starting the next, lit right into me and chewed on my ass for another hour. Finally he asked me where was I from. I told him, “OZ Division,SIR!!”. He said, kinda to himself, “What the hell is OZ division?”. Another officer standing nearby leaned over and whispered to him, “He’s a CT, sir”. The air boss looked at me for a minute and said, “Aaaaaah, ok. You’re dismissed.” As I was being escorted by the officer who had done the whispering as to what I was, I tried to encourage the point made by the air boss that I was a damned CT, by God. The officer looked at me and told me that it wasn’t that the air boss thought what an important person I was - rather, he knew I didn’t know jackshit about being aboard a ship - much less an aircraft carrier! So much for impressing the boss!!’
You work for who now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1WIHC2dzLs
LOL
We were on the Snook with as sorry a bunch of Spooks as you would ever want go to sea. There was a cook named Smith that had a bad habit of making little tidbits for the ward room and not for the crew. He did his baking on the mid watch. Naturally we thought that this situation needed some CT engineering and on many occasions designed plans to distract him while one of us removed his sticky buns or cake or whatever. Needless to say he didn’t appreciate our talents. One night Joey Dulin and I were putting the card table back in the rack on the mess deck when we noticed a pan of chocolate cake in the galley. Joey blocked the cooks view with the table and I lifted the cake. We had it cut up and delivered in short order and everyone in the Con was eating chocolate cake, including the Ole Man who had the watch. Well the cook goes crazy seeing as how this was the third night in a row his little goodies had wondered off. Next thing we know he’s up on the second deck beating on our door in radio. He wants our asses. Naturally we don’t know nothin bout no cake. He goes screaming into the Con yelling at the skipper about the “Damn Spooks” and his missing cake. The Skipper talks him down assuring him it couldn’t be the Spooks...
2 pieces of cheesecake here
In March of 2001 I was assisting a gal who ran cooking tours to the south of France. She rented a chateau near Aix en Provence and we drove 15 guests to various sites for cooking lessons (quite a nice little gig for a retired old marine like myself who spent 1958-1971 in the Corps). One class was held in a hotel in Avignon. When the class was finished, we sat down to eat the meal the guests had just participated in preparing. The dining room was in the basement of this old French palace, a place with low vaulted ceilings. I was remarking to the guy across from me at table and his wife that the low ceilings reminded me of when I was on board submarines. He immediately asked “which boats were you on”. I replied “the Wahoo, the Diodon and the Barbel”. He sat bolt upright and asked, “What year were you on the Barbel?”. I said, “1966”. He then asked, “Were you on board during ‘THE INCIDENT’?” I said, “Are you talking about our little accident?”. He said, “I was the ET on board, were you one of the spooks?” I just replied, “You never saw me, I wasn’t there, and I’m not here now”. How’s that for coincidence 35 years and half a world away for two guys out of a total complement of 93 people to run into each other like that?
“Dean by God what are you doing to those Grits Thornton”
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