Thanks to all who served their country (Veterans Day)

[haraldo]

My rating was Electronics Technician (Nuclear) - which entailed qualifications as Instrumentation and Controls supervisor, Reactor Operator and Maintenance Group Supervisor, among others. They had phased out the BT ratings long before I joined, which was late 90's. They have also since phased out many other rates and/or combined them with other more standard rates (for example, the BT's are now grouped under the basic MM rating (non-nuke).

My last deployment over in the Persian Gulf actually, now that you mention it - we did have one developing situation where an Iranian sub was poking around in the vicinity of our ship. It kept everyone on edge for a good couple of days, but our boys on the support ships managed to run it off and 'twas never seen or heard from again. Other than that though - we sat and watched the war unfold on CNN like the everyone else back home. I still give those guys top credit for doing what they do.

Interesting read

 

[haraldo]

I can't really speculate as the degree of difficulty there was or is in monitoring and tracking submarines in the Persian Gulf vs. anywhere else in the world, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I learned enough about ASW to put my surface warfare pin on, but my brain was very rarely unoccupied from my daily tasks down in the power plants to spend a lot of time gathering data on the goings on outside the big gray hull. Much of what I knew came from 1MC announcements from the skipper himself, or maybe the TAO or XO. We knew an Iranian sub was lurking, and we knew the frigates and destroyers in our battle group chased them off.

Of course, as anyone who has been on an aircraft carrier may tell you - an enemy sub is about the one true thing we fear. With four CWIS mounts, sea sparrow missile systems, and an array of fighter jets and support ships, the chances of getting at us on the surface or from the air is kept to a minimum. However all it takes is a single torpedo and it's game over.

Funny story: Following our last shipyard period at drydock in Norfolk, VA - we took the ship out for some test runs at high speed. High speed turns were to be a part of this exercise, just off the coast of N. Carolina. Some friends and I decided that it would be great fun to head up to the island on the carrier and take part in the high speed turns from one of the highest points of the ship (a maneuver, which by the way entails a full 180 degree turn in the water at the ship's max speed... a maneuver in which the ship will actually list in the direction of the turn by an alarming 45 degrees or so, until it rights itself again and continues on). This took place at night no less. We got out on the catwalk on the island about 140 feet above the surface of the ocean, and prepared to grab hold. As soon as the ship went into the turn, we all realized just how foolish we were being, but by then there was no way in hell we were going to let go of those rails!! I remember nearly peeling the paint off the railings from grabbing it so tight as I literally hung suspended 140 feet above the water, looking straight down into pitch black death. We all knew we would have to hang on, but didn't expect it to be as dramatic as it was. Needless to say, as soon as the ship righted itself again, we scrambled back down below decks as fast as we could, and sat there with our hearts pounding for at least a half hour afterwards...

Do I read you right????? Are you really talking about a large aircraft carrier doing so sharp turns it heels by 45 degrees..... bl... he...

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

My rating was Electronics Technician (Nuclear)...

I'm shipping out soon in this rate.

 

[Halon451]

Do I read you right????? Are you really talking about a large aircraft carrier doing so sharp turns it heels by 45 degrees..... bl... he...

Well, maybe not quite 45 degrees, but still pretty impressive for a vessel that size... here:

A picture of one going into a high speed turn:

 

[Halon451]

I'm shipping out soon in this rate.

My condolences..


J/K... so, you're just starting the pipeline then, as in going to school still, or shipping out as in heading out to sea (finished with school)? Interesting, didn't think I would meet another of my kind here on the AH forums. Send me a PM if we don't want to get this thread too far off track.

 

[Matt34]

Do I read you right????? Are you really talking about a large aircraft carrier doing so sharp turns it heels by 45 degrees..... bl... he...

Funny I just saw a picture on the web of an Aircraft carry banking hard.

Here it is, only picture I could find.

 

[haraldo]

Well, maybe not quite 45 degrees, but still pretty impressive for a vessel that size... here:

A picture of one going into a high speed turn:

I would wear lifejacket in a situation like this
Not that it would help anyways......

Funny I just saw a picture on the web of an Aircraft carry banking hard.

Here it is, only picture I could find.

Wohoow, quite amazing picture

 

[unreal.freak]

Thanks to all Veterans and God bless.


Peace,
Tommy

 

[Tarub]

Sea stories...I love it. It reminded of my good and bad old navy days.

One time, we are on the steel beach picnic on the ships fantail in the Indian Ocean and 5 Iranian navy torpedo high speed boats was coming. We had to go in general quarters 5 times in one hour period in short pants and t-tops.

 

[Halon451]

Sea stories...I love it. It reminded of my good and bad old navy days.

One time, we are on the steel beach picnic on the ships fantail in the Indian Ocean and 5 Iranian navy torpedo high speed boats was coming. We had to go in general quarters 5 times in one hour period in short pants and t-tops.

Ha! What did they do with all the burgers and franks?? Those pesky Iranians were always trying to push the limits with the US ships over there weren't they?

 

[Halon451]

Funny I just saw a picture on the web of an Aircraft carry banking hard.

Here it is, only picture I could find.

That's the stuff...

 

[Swerd]

Sea stories...I love it. It reminded of my good and bad old navy days.

One time, we are on the steel beach picnic on the ships fantail in the Indian Ocean and 5 Iranian navy torpedo high speed boats was coming. We had to go in general quarters 5 times in one hour period in short pants and t-tops.

I see the oldest game afloat, Chicken-of-the-Sea, is still popular .

The best part of telling old sea stories, is that I forgot most of the bad old navy stories real quick. Just the same, CaliHwyPatrol, my condolences too .

 

[haraldo]

My late father was a captain on the Norwegian BDS lines for many many years, he served a long time on international routes across the Atlantic and many places around Europe, so he's seen most of the oceans worth seeing, perhaps not the Pacific.

The last 10 - 15 years of service he was the captain on now what's called "Coastal Express", this now serves as very popular trip for tourists from all over the world, the largest contingent probably from US and Germany...

He told me that once, a winter night North of the Northernmost part of Norway, where you have the Barents sea up North, there was a Hurricane.... even in the worst weather, the route had to go on, and they just had to go out into the hurricane....

The seas were so rough and so demanding that it's hard to even comprehend afterwards, there was one wave so huge that it buried the whole ship, a 350 ft coastal liner being buried in the sea, the wave was so tall that the top was above the chimney.... making thousands of tonnes of steel twist almost to the point of breaking

My father was at the bridge, and he realized when the ship came out of the sea, he was at he port side of the bridge... he could look straight down onto the starboard side, down into the ocean...
The ship was heeling so much that it looked like the ship was at the "zero stability point".... not sure which way to go.... back up or around 180 degrees..... For your information, these ships do have a zero stability point around 60 - 65 degrees, so..... quite rough day

well, he made it back and told us this, like it was just another day at work for him...

He also served his duty in the Shetland Bus,barely twenty years old, along with other mates the same age, trying to protect the country and Europe from the Nazis, they used ordinary fishing vessels... because that's what they had.... fighting the most well equipped war machine at that point in time, and the nazi's were still unable to catch them....
Don't know if it's because the nazi's were very stupid or the Norwegians being very smart, perhaps a combination?

Courage is not even starting to describe what these men did back then...... They tried to sink Tirpitz from an ordinary fishing boat.... and almost succeded, torpedos missing by a small margin....

(Some of you may have heard some of this before, well it's my groundhog day)

 

[jostenmeat]

Thank you to all of you who have served, including Halon, Matt, USMCSGT, Swerd, Gimpy Ric, and all of the other regulars I cannot remember. I believe that also might include MarkW.

Thanks again, and happy Veteran's Day to all.

 

[Nomo]

I can't express in words my gratitude for the veterans and what you guys have done for me in my lifetime and before.

Thank you.

 

[newb]

Another USMC chiming in

Though I didn't see action (hence my still being alive to talk about it), I too served. 1995-2000. Thanks to those people thanking the vets, it's good to know service is appreciated.

 

[speakerman39]

Jamie, this is a great thread my friend! I personally would like to take the time to say Thank You to all of those that have and /or still are serving this great country. Kudos to each and every one of you. This is the very reason why I salute all of you for keeping us safe!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[CaliHwyPatrol]

My condolences..


J/K... so, you're just starting the pipeline then, as in going to school still, or shipping out as in heading out to sea (finished with school)? Interesting, didn't think I would meet another of my kind here on the AH forums. Send me a PM if we don't want to get this thread too far off track.

I enlisted in July and am heading off to basic sometime between Jan 1st and March 11th.

Before anyone asks, I was and still am looking to eventually go into the CHP (my username), I'm really not ready to make a 30 year commitment though, and I'd like to get out of the state for a while before I settle down. I'm only 23 and I'm not married, so it's really a perfect opportunity for me to take advantage of.

I chose Nuke mostly because I qualified for it, but from what I've been learning from reading and talking to people about the rate, I think I'll enjoy it thoroughly. Out of the 40 or so people in the Delayed Entry Program waiting to ship out from my office, I'm 1 of 3 Nukes, so it kind of holds a prestige for me.

 

[Halon451]

I chose Nuke mostly because I qualified for it, but from what I've been learning from reading and talking to people about the rate, I think I'll enjoy it thoroughly. Out of the 40 or so people in the Delayed Entry Program waiting to ship out from my office, I'm 1 of 3 Nukes, so it kind of holds a prestige for me.

Well, I won't deny that, and if you're up for a challenge you definitely picked the right field. Prepare yourself for a tremendous amount of class time though, to the tune of 5 days a week early morning to late afternoon, with an additional 20 hours average study time outside of normal class hours sometimes as much as 30 extra hours, and this doesn't stop for about 2 years. If you're good at all in math, and are already technically inclined, "A" school might not be too much of a problem for you, but Nuke school literally kicked my a$$. When you go through A school and begin the Digital class, you may very well have an instructor named ETC Brown. He's an old buddy of mine, we went through the pipeline together and he's now an instructor up there at NNPTC in Charleston. Good guy and excellent instructor, but be sure to stay on his good side. And best of luck to ya.

 

[Gimpy Ric]

Just want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all the Vets before me, with me, and after me. All branches, all MOS's, from the E-1 cook to the General, everybody's important. Everybody. God Bless and God Speed.

Ric