Sea Stories Archives
Early Breakout and Why I Would Have Missed It
By Bull Nav
I think I was back by now.
It’s been a while, but looking at a January 1989 calendar, I believe I got back to barracks after the Christmas Break 19 years ago today.
You see, had Breakout occurred for our Rats the last weekend in January 1989, I would have missed it, thanks to the US Navy and my desire for a commission.
I don’t have very good eyesight, so I was medically ineligible for an ROTC scholarship. Finally, long about the end of our second class year,the Navy folks decided they would try to get me a waiver. This was the same time they put me in for the Nuclear Power interview at Crystal City.
I come back for our first class year and I was in the “College Program” where you don’t get a scholarship, but you get a stipend and it leads to a commission. Went to the interview at NR right around Founder’s Day 1988, and then I had to do a Midshipman cruise.
I had not done one before, so they set me up for a Christmas cruise. I was to fly out of my home in Naples, FL, and go to Hawaii. The mighty USS HONOLULU (SSN718) was the boat, for a short transit to Yokosuka, thence to Chinhae, ROK. Something like 11 days I would be gone, just enough time to make it back for the last semester.
Alas, ‘twas not to be.
Yes, I flew out to Pearl Harbor on Christmas Day 1988 and met the HONOLULU. Great ship, great CO (CDR Enright, became an admiral later). Left the next day thinking that all would be well on an uneventful transit across the Western Pacific.
About two days in, things changed.
If I remember things correctly, we pulled into Yokosuka on 30 January. I flew back home the next day and then drove back to Lexington.
I will never forget arriving back in front of barracks after BRC (but not much after). There was a little fog, but the sun was starting to clear everything off. It was in the 30s, like it should be.
I was back at the “I”, the Rats were in the ratline, and life was good. Only 5 months to go…
Thanksgivings Past
By Bull Nav
We are all thankful today for something.
I am thankful I am home, and that when I was on active duty, although I missed a few Thanksgivings (and one birth), I never missed a Christmas.
One of the Thanksgivings I missed was in 1999. The mighty USS SCRANTON was inport Bahrain, one of 4 port calls to that august center of US Navy operations in the Arabian Gulf.
A couple of other ships were in, too. Our carrier, the USS JOHN F KENNEDY and its shotgun, the USS MONTEREY were both inport. It didn't seem like a carrier was in...
Until the Joan Jett concert.
Beer was cheap and it was Ramadan, so no one was going into town. It was1999, the last century even, and 9/11 was still a couple of years away. We were the tip of the spear, ready to get to it with whoever wanted to make trouble. In port, it was time to party and let loose.
Our Chop (that is supply officer, for you non-Navy types) managed to get the entire band to sign our brow banner, but Joan Jett did not.
Drank a lot of beer and ROCKED OUT!
It was a good time in a foreign port, even though we were far away from our families.
We still had our Navy family.
Sunday we were underway and back at it.
Kinda Like That
By Bull Nav
Driving west-bound along I94 in Michigan tonight it was damn windy. My F150 was getting blown around and buffetted all over the road. It was impossible to tell the direction of the wind because the sun had long since set and the usual points of reference (trees, flags, etc.) were masked by the darkness.
It reminded me of an underway.
Now, when a hurricane is headed for your port, the ships all get to go to sea because they would be severely damaged if/when the hurricane force winds hit. Not to mention the tidal surge. It would be a bad situation, so you sortie the fleet.
I don't remember the names of the storms, but we sortied from Norfolk in 98 and 99 for hurricanes.
They get everyone ready and come up with a schedule, but when it comes down to it, you go based on who is ready first. And based on when the carriers need to go because they suck up all the tugs.
One ship gets out in the channel and the tugs go get the next one.
In this case we were the second unit to go. I think the first was a battle-FFG.
It was an amazing sight when we got to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Looking astern out the scope, there was a ship/submarine/big deck every 500-1000 yards all the way up the channel. You might have thought we were going to war, but for the fact there was a storm coming.
What to do ships do for a hurricane? They try to avoid it. Go to sea and try to drive around it as it goes ashore.
What do submarines do? Head straight for it and submerge.
Imagine you have these nice long rollers coming in on the reciprocal of the ship's head. You are driving straight into the seas, which are intensifying as the night settles in.
After a while, the boat starts pitching with a very slow period because the period of these waves is pretty long. As OOD, you are sitting on the bridge trying to see if there is anything out there. You have no night vision because the submarine ID beacon is flashing right behind you and the masthead light is right above that.
Not that anyone in there right mind is out in this mess.
Soon you start taking waves. The bad part (which is what I was reminded of tonight) was that you can't see the waves coming. One second you are squinting into the darkness, the next you are being thrown around as a wave crashes over you. Maybe one comes from right off the bow and then a few minutes later one comes from the starboard beam.
You never know where or when the next one is going to get you.
After a couple of hours, you get close to the dive point so then you can go below after rigging the bridge for dive.
Cold, wet, and dark.
Yeah, lots of fun.
A Submarine Underway
By Bull Nav
Ladies and Gentlemen: good evening. For your reading pleasure this weekend, I offer you a tale of a submarine getting underway and going to sea. I hope you find it acceptable.
On with the show…
On the 1MC: "Station the Maneuvering Watch."
For a submarine this announcement has the same meaning as, "Station the Special Sea and Anchor Detail" on a surface ship (you know, those big gray things that can submerge only once). Whether the ship is getting underway or is entering port, it means man stations per the approved watchbill. Typically the most experienced and proficient folks are the ones in key positions, and you have extra watches manned due to the unique nature of leaving or entering port. Additionally, a navigation brief has been held by the ship's Navigator for all the key watch standers to fully brief the upcoming evolution. This way you know what to expect in the way of traffic, tides and currents, weather, specific navigation aids, turns and turn bearings, etc.
By the time this announcement is made the Officer of the Deck (OOD) should already be suited up and on the bridge in order to take the watch. If in port, this requires relieving the Ship's Duty Officer (SDO) and assuming the deck and the conn.
In this case, I was ready to go.
Read More »
Gate Guard
By John
So if you couldn’t be overflown, and you couldn’t develop a plan for alert fighters because you couldn’t rely on having the sea space necessary to turn into the wind to launch ‘em, what you could do was launch a gate guard of CAP before entering territorial waters and then tank the hell out of ‘em until the ship entered the harbor.That two ship was us.
At first we were kind of excited, my wingman and I, entrusted as we were with protecting a $5 billion national treasure and the 5,000-odd souls embarked upon her from the Soviet Menace. But while a twenty mile cap leg takes not quite three minutes to run in a fighter moving at 420 knots ground speed, it takes a great deal longer for an 80,000 aircraft carrier picking its ginger way past the shoal waters approaching the outer roads to the harbor. Time has a way of dragging on CAP, especially when the Red Horde chose that particular day to take a sabbatical from harassment.
The ship gave us an S-3 tanker to help us while away the hours and replenish the fuel tanks while he was at it. Those of you who have been lucky enough to fly the War Hoover have no doubt a fuller comprehension of its “performance” envelope, but it was an unwelcome surprise to your correspondent to discover - after a tactical, comm-out trail, rendezvous - that the damn thing flies at a mere 150 knots or so when they are holding at max endurance airspeed.
Now the Hornet flies that fast in the landing configuration with the flaps down full and the rollers in the breeze, so when we snuck up on ‘em unawares, we also ended up by racing right past ‘em, claws scrabbling disgracefully like a pair of great danes trying to stop for supper on waxed linoleum floor. Oh, we had the throttles on the idle stops, speedbrakes out, maneuvering flaps deployed and we were just that close to opening the canopies too since leading a two-ship formation of strike fighters into an under-run - in the plain view of an S-3 crew, the great, gabbling gossips that they were, just plain looks bad.
And - as long time readers know - it is better to die than look bad.
You really should read the whole thing. There's a lot more. There's always alot more. Fighter pilots, y'know?
PS- it feels kind of dirty to categorize this under "sea stories," when it really isn't an OPFOR sea story. But Lex's handle, "Tales of Sea Service," is just so darn obtuse. Oh well.
Fleet Week
By Bull Nav
070524-N-3235P-631 NEW YORK (May 24, 2007) - Sailors assigned to amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) pose for a photograph in Times Square while on liberty. The 20th annual Fleet Week New York is an opportunity for New Yorkers to meet Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen and thank them for their service. Fleet Week honors the service and sacrifice of all Sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, as well as the city of New York, in the global war on terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael W. Pendergrass (RELEASED)
FLEET WEEK: WHOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Man, you have to love it when you pull into a place like New York City for Fleet Week. They roll out the red carpet, have a bunch of parties, and you get to do it in whites.
Never did NYC, but in March 97, we pulled into Ft. Lauderdale with the USS HARRY S TRUMAN, and a cruiser whose name escapes me. We moored next to Burt and Jack's and what a blast. Even though we were preparing for our Tactical Readiness Exercise (TRE: submarine weapons/warfighting certification due annually), it was a great time.
The Navy League had a reception and then we went into town.
In whites.
Highly recommended.
12 Years Ago Today
By Bull Nav
Yes, the Oklahoma City bombing occurred 12 years ago yesterday, but I did not hear about it until a day later.
At the time I was on the staff of Commander, Destroyer Squadron 22 (CDS 22) as the Staff ASW Officer and the Submarine Operations Officer. Our flagship was USS TICONDEROGA (CG47) which was serving as REDCROWN in the Adriatic Sea as part of Operation Sharp Guard. This included enforcing UN sanctions and the No-fly zone that was in effect. We were only one month into our 6 month Med deployment as part of the Theodore Roosevelt Battle Group (commanded by then RADM Fallon), and we were on our second of 4 weeks straight in the Adriatic. The Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (they had 24MEU on board commanded by COL Marty Berndt) was also out there.
At that point in time, there was much strife and conflict in the countries which used to be Yugoslavia. Lots of other ships around from various countries, but we had the largest contingent. This was back in the good old days when lots of ships deployed with the carrier. In our case, we had two CGs, one CGN, one DDG, and two FFGs. We also had two SSNs attached, although they were for the most part out conducting other missions.
I think Tico and ARLEIGH BURKE were in the Adriatic, while the TR, HUE CITY, and MISSISSIPPI had gone on to the Arabian Gulf. Since my boss was the next senior guy, he became Commander Task Force 60, the Med Battle Force Commander. Since at that time the DESRON staffs were considered "Tactical Destroyer Squadrons" we only had about 12 people on the staff (we were not the ISIC for the ships as that went to CDS2 in Norfolk; the ISIC, Immediate Superior in Command, was responsible for admin, maintenance, manning, etc.) so we were very busy handling upwards of 1000 messages a day, none of which dealt with events outside the Med.
This particular day, I had an uneventful morning watch, and then had lunch in the wardroom. It was a beautiful day outside so I figured I would go hang out on the missle deck by the aft Mk26 launcher after lunch. It was so clear that we could see the mountains, even though we were 50-60 miles from shore. I remember thinking what a wonderful day it was and how much it was going to suck to go back to the space we used for our office to review message traffic and prepare the Commodore's daily intentions message.
Now remember that this was 1995. We did not have email at sea or continuous live TV feeds. We only got news through the broadcast or when you pulled in and got mail. Because we had so much operational traffic to review and act upon, I barely gave the news and sports messages a second glance.
There was a third way to get the news: shortwave radio. One of the other guys on the staff had one of those radios that receives HF. He would go out to the missle deck after lunch every day, smoke a cigarette, and listen to the BBC.
Anyway, as I approached him, he asked me if I had heard the news. I, of course, said no, to which he replied listen to this. The BBC was carrying a story about how the Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City had been blown up by a truck bomb and that over 150 people had been killed.
Stopped me dead in my tracks.
I did not think Islamic jihadist or Al-queda POS. No, I figured it was some pissed-off American with a grudge who figured he would take out some fellow Americans as a means of protest. This was two years after Waco and only 2 ½ after Ruby Ridge. There was still lots of talk about militias here in the US and that is immediately who I thought had done it. It made me extremely angry. Here we are 50 miles off the coast of a country that has committed genocide and God knows what else and some SOB back home has to go kill a bunch of fellow Americans? Women and children? Man, I was pissed. We are trying to prevent the same thing from happening in Yugoslavia and it happens at home because a dumbass has his priorities wrong? Made me wonder how safe my wife was back in Chesapeake.
Anyway, I got over it pretty quick. Too much work.
We only got spotty news on it until we pulled into Genoa a couple of weeks later. Still sucked. That was definitely not the highpoint of the deployment, but it is one which I will never forget.
