Military BS Stories or the last liar wins.

[actaeon277]

View attachment 305694

Act????

Don

(Sorry for the misspelling, not my meme)

We had a 55 gallon drum cut lengthways if I remember right.

But with the hatches being 29 inches in diameter, it was difficult to get up/down the hatch.
And there was a problem with storage when not in use.
So I think it got dropped over the side, and we used whatever was the cheapest we could get.

And yes, I've been on several steel beaches.
Once, I went topside in civilian clothes and told everyone I thought they said LIBERTY CALL.

 

[actaeon277]

View attachment 305694

Act????

Don

(Sorry for the misspelling, not my meme)

Sometimes, it's too short to pull up a grill, or go swimming.
But, you take'em if you can get'em.


Me on the left
Another RO next to me.
2 DDS (Dry Deck Shelters) in the background.
If I remember right, we just surfaced long enough for a civilian worker to weld something, or replace a sensor for testing we were doing in the Carib.

 

[actaeon277]

Tel Aviv airport

Trying to find if anyone has shekels.
I'm not in photo. (back in the day when you had to be the one to take a pic
After this, a car ride to the port (Haifa)
Then a boat ride to the boat.

 

[actaeon277]

I was being 'expedited', so minimal time on land.
But some of the guys bought be a headdress, cause to them, I looked like I belonged.
I told them, to locals, I looked as American as Opie.

The 'Special Mission Personnel" that we were carrying at the time, did NOT appreciate the humor.

 

[actaeon277]

Newer boats got away from the sail planes, and moved them to the main hull
Which, is where they were in WWII
history is funny


SSN 795 is the second nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine named in honor of the "Father of the Nuclear Navy."




Compared to my boat, in St. Croix
You can see the sail planes
The DDS are still on the back. Though back then they were classified. So we had to lie to visitors.
One topside watch called them refrigerators.






I think this may be one of my best pictures in my life.
Taken in the morning as the sun rose.

 

[actaeon277]

Now that I think about it, I probably posted those pics before.

Everyone, get mad at Nazgul, not me.
He started it.

 

[actaeon277]

Come a long way


in 1900, USS Holland (SS-1) became the U.S. Navy's first modern commissioned submarine. Engineer John Philip Holland also designed the Royal Navy's first sub HMS Holland 1 which was commissioned in 1901.

 

[Nazgul]

Just a young Marine on deck in the Med.

Don

 

[Nazgul]

We used to have "Steel Beach " parties. They would roll out grills, volleyball nets and beach towels when the weather complied and we had nothing going on.

After one long cruise, 6 months without going ashore, they dropped some excess ordinance in the water and had supersonic flyby's. Lots of fun.

They would drop a flare at altitude and an F14 would shoot it down using a heat seeking missile.

Don

 

[Hawkeye]

Regarding hte positioning of the bow planes in the hull versus in the sail.... I read somewhere that putting them back in the hull was to facilitate under-ice operations and allow th boat to surface through an ice pack. I do recall seeing a pick of a boat that had surfaced through ice with its sail-planes vertical. I guess she must have come straight up?

I've never understood why the planes were mounted in the sail to begin with.

 

[actaeon277]

Regarding hte positioning of the bow planes in the hull versus in the sail.... I read somewhere that putting them back in the hull was to facilitate under-ice operations and allow th boat to surface through an ice pack. I do recall seeing a pick of a boat that had surfaced through ice with its sail-planes vertical. I guess she must have come straight up?

I've never understood why the planes were mounted in the sail to begin with.

Possibly to help prevent damage while maneuvering

 

[actaeon277]

Found this pic.
I guess all the S5W subs are gone, still funny (weird) to see what USED TO be classified.


Behold the S5W Maneuvering Area- perhaps the most common version of a nuclear reactor in the world (at least the most seen). To your left, there is the Steam Plant Control Panel where the Throttleman uses his powerful arms to crank the wheels that emit steam to the main propulsion turbines. To your right, there sits the Electric Plant Control Panel- where the Electrical Operator channels the glorious electricity generated by the reactor to the rest of the submarine. Finally, in the center, there is the Reactor Plant Control Panel... where Rickover's gift to the world, the Reactor Operator, controls the entirety of life and death of billions of generations of neutrons. He does it all using a simple joystick in the middle of the console.
Behind them all sits the Engineering Officer of the Watch. Does the EOOW know what they are doing? Probably not. But is he in charge of the plant? Amazingly, yes.

 

[Hawkeye]

Possibly to help prevent damage while maneuvering

Possible, but the old subs seemed to hav e hte bow planes folr up to vertical. And the modern boats seem to ha ve the bow planes foldback into the hull. But I have no information on them and yoiur explanation seems logical.

 

[Hawkeye]

Found this pic.
I guess all the S5W subs are gone, still funny (weird) to see what USED TO be classified.


Behold the S5W Maneuvering Area- perhaps the most common version of a nuclear reactor in the world (at least the most seen). To your left, there is the Steam Plant Control Panel where the Throttleman uses his powerful arms to crank the wheels that emit steam to the main propulsion turbines. To your right, there sits the Electric Plant Control Panel- where the Electrical Operator channels the glorious electricity generated by the reactor to the rest of the submarine. Finally, in the center, there is the Reactor Plant Control Panel... where Rickover's gift to the world, the Reactor Operator, controls the entirety of life and death of billions of generations of neutrons. He does it all using a simple joystick in the middle of the console.
Behind them all sits the Engineering Officer of the Watch. Does the EOOW know what they are doing? Probably not. But is he in charge of the plant? Amazingly, yes.

View attachment 305852

My son used to be EDOW and I'm pretty sure he would say the enlisted guys ran the plant. He is pretty sharp but said he had a hard time with Nuke School and his Dolphin Quals.

 

[actaeon277]

My son used to be EDOW and I'm pretty sure he would say the enlisted guys ran the plant. He is pretty sharp but said he had a hard time with Nuke School and his Dolphin Quals.

I think MOST people had a hard time with Nuke School.
It's not supposed to be easy.
They want to put people under pressure.

And sub quals are difficult because you have to learn so much of the sub.
AND still do your job.

 

[2A_Tom]

As opposed to Airborne school where you just sit back and let gravity do its job.

 

[Alamo]

As opposed to Airborne school where you just sit back and let gravity do its job.

Well, technically you have to at least walk out the door to let gravity do its job, but yeah. It will get you back to Earth, one way or another.

 

[Alamo]

…
But some of the guys bought be a headdress, cause to them, I looked like I belonged.


View attachment 305730

lol.

For some reason, this reminded me that when I left Saudi Arabia, the traditional unit parting gift was a tie made out of the same material used in the Saudi Arabian ghutrah - the cloth part of the headdress. The black cord is an “egal” (at least in Saudi Arabia). It’s the hobble used to secure your camel when you don’t want it to wander away too far. You store it on your head when you’re not riding your camel, and it keeps your ghutrah from wandering too far away. It is a mark of the man of the desert, a cultural heritage thing, so everybody wears one whether they have a camel or not. It’s like wearing a cowboy hat when you actually don’t own any cows or horses.

The Saudis mostly prefer a red and white ghutrah, I would guess because it distinguishes them from the rest of the Arabs who usually wear the black and white one. I have seen other colors on occasion.

So back to the tie. At my PCS dinner, I was given the traditional red and white checked tie. When I left, I put it on the vehicle seat beside me and drove back to my quarters, which were at Eskan Village, just outside of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Being where we were, we had beaucoup security, which had Saudi controlled outer ring, and then an inner ring of considerably more substantial US security.

As I rolled up to the Saudi RSAF guard, I had forgotten the tie was laying out where he could see it. At the last moment I wondered how this is going to play. He leaned over to check my ID, saw the tie, and burst out laughing. This was pretty unusual, because it was my experience that unless a Saudi had been to the west and lived in it for a while, we had very different senses of humor.

But this guy really haw-hawed. Then he called the other Saudi guards out of the guard shack, so they could see it too, and they all laughed as well. So we all had a big chuckle. Hamidullah!

So here’s the tie, ghutrah, and a Saudi one riyal bank note with a picture of ibn Saud on it. Ibn Saud put the Saudi in Arabia.


I always found it interesting that the Saudis printed one side of their notes in English, I guess so everybody else could read what it said. Immigration to Saudi Arabia is very, very very tightly controlled, but they do import large numbers of foreign workers. The building on the note is the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency, And interestingly, there’s also a DC-10 as well. I had forgotten about that.

 

[2A_Tom]

Well, technically you have to at least walk out the door to let gravity do its job, but yeah. It will get you back to Earth, one way or another.

That would be a C141, 6 up and 36 out from a C130, push off from a UH1B, or walk off the ramp of C17A.

I can't speak to other birds.

We jumped T10's then T10's with antiinversion nets, MC1-1's at 24 FPS.

My grandson just graduated from jump school (I did not recommend he do it) and they are using the T11 with a 19 FPS decent rate.

I would really rather not have the extra hang time on an actual combat jump.

 

[actaeon277]

Found this pic.
I guess all the S5W subs are gone, still funny (weird) to see what USED TO be classified.


Behold the S5W Maneuvering Area- perhaps the most common version of a nuclear reactor in the world (at least the most seen). To your left, there is the Steam Plant Control Panel where the Throttleman uses his powerful arms to crank the wheels that emit steam to the main propulsion turbines. To your right, there sits the Electric Plant Control Panel- where the Electrical Operator channels the glorious electricity generated by the reactor to the rest of the submarine. Finally, in the center, there is the Reactor Plant Control Panel... where Rickover's gift to the world, the Reactor Operator, controls the entirety of life and death of billions of generations of neutrons. He does it all using a simple joystick in the middle of the console.
Behind them all sits the Engineering Officer of the Watch. Does the EOOW know what they are doing? Probably not. But is he in charge of the plant? Amazingly, yes.

View attachment 305852

Is it weird that I am looking at this picture, identifying every switch and gauge?