For all you Ex-Navy guys (& gals)

[tsenecal]

Great story Skip. I grew up far inland, and never physically saw the ocean, until sometime into my 30s. Having never been exposed to any of that, it looks to me to be a frightening place to be. The only time that I've actually been on the water is on a small catamaran, watching whales off the coast of Hawaii. That was far enough out for me, and I have great respect for the sailors that brave the extreme power of the ocean.

[Skip Lackie]

Tom-
Thank you -- it was an interesting experience. As Jim said in post #11 above, operating in rough weather for long periods is truly exhausting. You have to hang on all the time and you seem to be constantly bouncing off bulkheads, equipment, or furniture.

One other thought -- on that same cruise we spent several weeks surveying the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, driving along at 12.1 nautical miles off the coast to remain outside Soviet territorial waters. This in the days before GPS. I don't think anyone thought our unarmed ship was in any danger -- the Soviet Union was a seafaring nation, with a long tradition of strong military command and control and observation of the rules of maritime navigation. As we all learned in 1968, the USS Pueblo found out that the North Koreans were not similarly civilized.

[Skip Lackie]

Charlie D--
Great story. Thanks.

[JimKB1MCV]

Not quite as polished as the first video and a little dated, but except for not getting your feet wet, this is what it can be like.
Its the North Sea c. ~ '80s or 90s.

Bring your Dramamine (sp?) or motion-sickness patches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLae12zoq6kIg5m_1JOQhgJeCNruCuyiiZ&time_continue=35&v=vibLDLgCw9I

Enjoy!

[WinM1895]

Update from one of my email pals:

Update on Sullivan brothers from old

: Sullivan Brothers

I have learned a lot about USS Juneau—a light skinned cruiser which shot to pieces off Guadalcanal in 1942. Torpedoes went right thru the ship. fire oil and sinking. the 5 sullivans were in the burning oil. One survivor said one of the Sullivan boys was going on a life raft with a roll of toilet paper wiping the faces of his shipmates while looking for his brothers. He was crying and screaming, calling their names,going from life raft to life boat and just disappeared. All 5 were gone.Later in my life I worked in Iowa and went to Waterloo-that was where they had lived and gone to school. Their father worked for Raft Packing Company (meat). There were big signs on that building as they were considered heroes in Waterloo.
When the war broke out, four of the boys went to enlist in the Navy. The youngest was married with an itching to go into the Navy with his brothers but the Navy said no to him. They could not be together but somehow they Navy took them all in.
later I was on a cruise ship and we stopped in Juneau. On the deck was a tribute to the five Sullivan boys.
After they were lost at sea, no family members could be on the same ship or in a war together.
Jim

The USS Juneau was an Atlanta class CL-AA (Light Cruiser-Anti-Aircraft) with a main armament of 16 5" guns (8X2), both it and the Atlanta were involved in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and both were sunk. It was said after the battle that neither should have been involved due to their thin skin and 5" main armament, but due to the shortage of ships, both had to be there.

But from what I've read, the sequence of events you describe did not occur. During the battle, one of the Sullivans was injured and was taken to sick bay. After the battle concluded, while the Juneau was limping away, a Japanese sub fired two torpedoes, one hit, the ship exploded, broke in two and sank in less than a minute.

In the film The Sullivans aka The Fighting Sullivans (20th Century-Fox:1944), after the ship was torpedoed, the 4 brothers were shown heading below decks to sickbay to get their sibling. But this is Hollywood fiction, since the ship sank so quickly, they wouldn't have time to go anywhere but in the water...if any survived that is.

I've been on 5 AK cruises, so have been to Juneau 5 times. There is a memorial to the USS Juneau on one of the cruise ship docks, and while the brothers may be mentioned, the memorial is not for them.

[Dwain G.]

I have a funny story about a situation while serving on board USS Jason (AR-8). It was a pretty large repair ship and did pretty well in heavy seas. Charlie D.

I was on USS Delta (AR-9). Jason, Ajax, Hector were all purpose-built Vulcan class ships. Delta and the sub tender I lived on for 2 years were built for Matson Lines as cargo ships for the Hawaiian trade.
On Delta my underway watch station was the bridge. I got to steer the ship at times. When convoying in heavy seas it was fun to watch the destroyers. One minute they would be riding a crest and were way up above us. Next minute all you could see was a mast as they went into a trough.

[Charlie D]

Dwain,

What was your rating. I was a Lithographer (printer) 2nd class petty officer and near the end of my two years; 1st class. I was in charge of the 6 man print shop. My underway general quarters station was the print shop. In case the ship was compromised I was to shred any classified printed material. We seldom had any of that so I would haul out my sleeping bag and rest and relax during the general quarters. After a few general quarters drills I got bored doing that so I assigned another Lithographer to the shop and I would go to DC Central during the drills. The XO hung out down there.

It was explained to me that the CO was in the bridge, the XO was in DC Central and the Engineering Officer was back in the aft part of the ship. That was the sequence of command on board the Jason. The theory being that all three would not be knocked out of action in case the ship was attacked.

Charlie D.

[Dwain G.]

Dwain,

What was your rating.

Charlie D.

I flunked out of ET-A school so was sent to deck div. In port was my least favorite time because that was when most chipping and painting gone done. In Sasebo at anchor buoy I was on boat crews. Ran an LCPL all day long shuttling people back and forth. Liked steering the ship so much that I transferred to Operations and started training for QM. Shortly after that got transferred to shore duty.
By the way, Ajax was at Buoy 1 and was Flag. Delta was at Buoy 2 and nearly every time one of our boats passed Ajax, her signal light would go to work. Seems our boats were always too fast, too noisy, fender over the side, etc.

[StudeDave57]

Been there, done that~ many times on stuff as small as a frigate, and as big as a Nimitz Class carrier.

As impressive as it is to see- or be on- the little grey boats in that sort of stuff....
it's even more "fun" when done on something as big as, oh- I don't know...
an aircraft carrier!!!!

[Dwain G.]

Some of those Destroyer skippers are really good. It amazed me when one came alongside in calm weather. There was no heaving line with a gang hauling in the mooring lines or pushing in with LCMs. They would just motor in close and a line handler on the bow would just reach over and hand you the line, then slowly back out. Now this is about a 375 foot long ship coming alongside a 500 foot long ship. No bow thrusters or winching into position, just impressive seamanship.