Blame it on Cabin Fever – A Navy Story
A Brother Nam Vet suggested I post more Navy stuff so, that barely still functioning part of my brain began casting for memories. Then Cabin Fever amplified the effort.
Being underway on a cruiser/destroyer class ship is simply an experience that those Airdales and Bubbleheads in The Navy can only rarely equate to. [grin]
Off to VietNam we go. Getting there was trivial. It was just a cruise. Leaving Long Beach the first time was bad for some though. I was thrilled. It was late ’65 or early ’66 and I was going to war. I worked on them high tech missiles (Terrier/Tartar) and was fresh out of school and ready. I don’t recall the various ports we might have visited on the way. I did visit Hawaii on at least one trip or other… but the dates are jumbled.
Somewhere along the way I first discovered that our wake could glow in the dark, and that I could count the stars. Don’t let that memory of mine disappear as trivia, please, because the night at sea factors heavily into the rest of this post.
Once on station (Gulf of Tonkin) we spent most of our time at what was then known as Condition Three. Some may know it as “Port and Starboard”, basically 12 on and 12 off. I still got to visit the Fantail at might though.
Once there our aft missile house became pretty much useless at night. The Airdales decided to land a helo on the fantail. After that we spent most of our time “up-north”. Got an official piece of paper that says we picked up 18 downed airmen that cruise.
Other cruises on different ships followed and our missions were varied. But one thing was a constant – most nights at sea. Standing on the fantail with a vibration from the screws permeating everything. The critter lit wake fading into the darkness as the disturbed water slowly settled down. We operated frequently under “darken ship” rules so I could only barely see my hand in front of my face. The only light that of the wake and the stars. It is an almost out-of-body experience.
One night WAS different though. Up near the DMZ, as I recall, we were just a few miles off shore and I noticed a flash out of the corner of my eye. My first thought was that a shore battery firing at us… again. Then, before GQ could sound there was another flash and then many more. The flashes expanded into orange fireballs and faded. No sound over the ship noise and vibration, mind you, just the lights ashore. Scuttlebutt was that it was a B-52 ARClight raid. I dunno for certain, but I am glad I wasn’t on the ground there.
I could ramble on with memories, and memories OF memories, but for this sailor those nights at sea were special, and have likely been special to all those sailors who left port and found themselves far from land – at night.
Category: Geezer Alert!
I rode CVNs, DDGs, DDs and FFGs. I also deployed on subs and recce aircraft. There is no doubt in my military mind that tin cans are my absolute favorite. I HATED carriers. All the noise during flight ops and I swear, we had to stand in line to stand in line. And don’t get me started on getting lost on carriers. Hated them. On destroyers, you got to know all your shipmates (that is both good and bad) and there’s nothing like hanging out on the fantail at sunset having a smoke. And there is no darker place on earth than the middle of the ocean. I remember the stars and the fluorescence in the water too. I was probably crazy going out on deck in the middle of the night, but it wouldn’t be the first time I did something very, very stupid. The DDs I was on were Spruance class and they were VERY top heavy. One time, the DESRON Commodore was on board and we needed to get from Hong Kong to one of the first Cobra Gold exercises in the Gulf of Thailand. Problem was there was a typhoon in the South China Sea (by the way, one of the most beautiful bodies of water I’ve ever seen, sapphire blue). That didn’t matter to the Commodore so off we went. We were taking 30 degrees rolls and we had just left Hong Kong. By the time we really hit the storm, we would roll over and then hang to one side for seconds at a time. I thought we were going to capsize. On a Sprucan, there is long passageway on the first deck. I walked most of the way down that p-way ON the bulkhead! I had to go outside the skin of the ship during that same storm. We worked in a van lashed to the deck. I had to go up one deck to get the main deck. I stepped up towards the first step of the ladder and at that very moment the ship dropped into a wave trough. Next thing… Read more »
Two memories you sparked:
One: We had a container sized box dropped on a time or two. Had antennas ‘n stuff.
Two: I’ve written before about the typhoon (Irma) that we tried to outrun twixt Subic and Hong Kong.
The Heads were awash in puke, AND there was an arc of the same outside every hatch.
I think I’ve mentioned this before but I think my uncle was in that same typhoon. He told the same story about the puke. He said a lot of guys gather in the engine room where the motion was the least. Can’t remember what ship he was on, something fairly small like a destroyer or cruiser.
Wow, ships that large? There were “boats” (Navy terminology) bigger than the “ships” I was on. As a Reservist, I was put aboard the USS Texas (CGN-39), easily more than three times longer.
I loved how the wake glowed. The first time I ever saw the milky way was at sea.
My Dad, Marine Detachment, served on the USS Minneapolis (CA-36) during WWII. Went to his Ship’s reunion many years ago. I sat in awe of the experiences and memories these guys shared.
My short experience (as a Marine, Naval Gunfire Shorefire control Team) was onboard a flat bottom Troop Transport ship (an LST, I think)from Norfolk to Vieques, PR. It was calm and absolutely beautiful, 60 days later on the way back, in very rough seas I was begging anyone and everyone to put me out of my seasick misery. Today, I’m thankful no live ammunition was issued after the fire exchange at Vieques.
I would love to be able to see that, being a fan of the night and all the beautiful things it brings out
Most people never know how many stars you can see when there is no background lighting. literally millions across the sky. My favorite navy memories are coming down from the midwatch, getting that coffee sludge left over from midrats, standing in the break and inhaling a couple of cowboy killers and then diving into my pit for a couple of hours of rack ops. I also remember the smells coming from the galley ventilation on the rev watch, knowing I was going to get some quality chow in a couple of hours. There’s nothing like being underway on a small boy that’s for sure.
CG17 USS Harry E Yarnell, at the time she was the 2nd oldest cruiser in the USN. The only guns were rail mounted Ma Duce’s and the CIWS. She was one of those McNamara whiz kid designed “we don’t need guns” SM2 missile only ships with an aluminum topside to save money. An M1 could easily blow holes through the superstructure. Though she had a slightly bent prop shaft, she could still churn 30kts. On the fantail, clear night, darken ship, phosphorescent glow of the churning water, the vibration from the “battle speed” propulsion felt awesome. No sailor ever forgets the open sea at 30kts, daytime or nighttime. Once we went on a cruise from Norfolk to Halifax in the winter, through an angry north Atlantic. The swells and the troughs would send us pitching wildly up and down, side to side. We all would put the toes of our boondockers under the edge of sad excuse of a mattress to help keep us in the rack when we atempted to sleep. On my way to CIC for watch, I reached the ladder at the end of the mess deck passageway and put my hands on the rails to take my first step up. Unknown to me at the time, the ship had just crested a monstrous wave and plunged into a deep trough. The wild drop of the bow sent me flying up the ladder to the next deck where I bounced heavily on my feet, standing directly in front of the XO. He said, “know any other cool tricks sailor?” then smartly slid down the ladder rails to the main deck. The XO was an awesome Commander with an oddly spelled, hard to pronounce name. I was walking past him one day when a young seaman asked, “XO, how do you pronounce your last name?” He said,”O”. You can imagine the newbie’s expression. On a cold war era navy ship, the HVAC would freeze the sailors to keep the gear cool. I had strep throat three times in my two year tour. We joked out jailbirds in Federal… Read more »
I was an Airwing guy that deployed aboard three different Carriers. I loved being on deck at night during flight ops. An already dangerous job gets about ten times more dangerous at night….especially on the bow where the only lighting is your blue flashlight or the Yellow Shirt’s wands.
But after flight ops ended and you had a chance to take a breath….looking up at the sky and seeing the trillions of stars is just amazing. More amazing is the phosphorescent glow that sometimes appeared in the wake.
I miss it…My boy goes to Great Lakes today to start Boot Camp, I hope he gets to see those sights too.
Good luck to your son. I’m a little jealous. It’s always better to do than to have done even though sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.
The first ten years that I was in the Navy I should have been paying the USN instead of the reverse. It was that much fun. I guess the next 15 years were payback for those first ten.
Thaks for the memories. I was gator Navy. LPH-9. I used to fish on the aft sponson at night when we were anchored. I used vienna sausages for bait and caught mostly catfish. Sail 12,000 miles and catch the same thing I could catch 10 minutes from home.
Could definitely see…things…moving through the water, though. Some seemed quite large. That bioluminescence was freaky.
I also saw a UFO one night. Well, I thought it was a UFO. Turns out that if you track one pinprick of light, at the expense of the rest, it seems like whichever one you picked out is doing aerobatics. Took GMG2 Fenner to get my head right on that subject!
On one Med cruise we were steaming for Marseilles and had to go through a storm. The waves were breaking over the flight deck. They hit with such force that they took out a couple of CH-46, IIRC.