Memories Popeye's Sea Stories

[bdpopeye]

Years ago I posted a similar thread at mp.net. With so many mp.net & TAARB members joing mi.net..It's time to post some sea stories. What I'm posting here is about 80% truth and 20% embellishment!..Here I go!

Gather around mates! I'm here to astound you with sea stories from yesteryear. I wus in da' real Navy. From AUG 1971- AUG 1991. No women on board ships. No NWU(BDUs)..We had white hats,dungrees, crap games, smokers(boxing), beards, SOS for breakfast..aarrvvv you hadda be a real man to eat that nasty crap. And we gottta a square needle in our left nut in boot camp. Just kiddin'..We worked, fought and played hard.

The first 11 years of my service I was an Avaition Ordananceman(AO). I was then forced to change my rate to Aircrew Survival Equipmentman(PR) because my eyesight was no longer acceptable to be an AO.

I'm going to be posting some sea stories from my on itty bitty brain. The stories are as accurate as I can remember them. Some are somewhat.. shall I say embellished.

All members feel free to make comments....

I posted this sea story below a few(!!?? about 18) years back in a yahoo group.

I was in "Big Lots" looking at this cheap scanner they have. When I saw that they had Pabst Blue Ribbon beer(PBR) on sale that brought me back to 1972-73 when I was on the JFK CVA-67. I worked with a guy we called SKYBOY. He was of Polish descent. He looked EXACTLY like Rob Riener on "All in the family". You know"Meat head". They could have been twins.

Skyboy liked beer. Actually he loved beer. Skyboy loved PBR. Not because of the taste but the price.It was only .76¢ a friggin' six pack in the Navy exchange...that was in 1972...

Well old Skyboy loved beer so much that he would sneak PBR on the ship when we were in Norfolk in preparation for at sea periods. This was no small task because you could not bring any food or drink on the JFK in those days. All packages were usually checked. He probably used the side cleaners or mess cooks to get the brew on the
ship.

Anyway every morning Skyboy would enjoy a beer in his rack.When he was finished he would go up to #1 elevator well and throw the empty over board. No I don't know all of the details ..I just know he did it and never got caught in his short two year stint on the JFK..

One more Skyboy story. The cruise the JFK made in '71 & '72 started on 1 December 1971 It ended 6 October 1972. That's right. 10 months and six days. I made 6½ months of the cruise. Anyway when we got back to Norfolk Skyboy went to the long term parking got his car out. Drank some PBR, got the munchies, started to rummage through his car for leftover snacks..lo and behold he found some year old Twinkies. Yep..he ate 'em!

 

[bdpopeye]

Back in '72 when I wuz on the JFK I was a mess cook (KP) aka mess cranks for the first 3+ months I was on board. We mess cranks were an assortment of sailors. I worked cargo or breakout crew. We gathered all the food for the entire crew and delivered it to the various messes on board. Enywho I worked with this kid I'll call "Parmalou" He was a big tall goofy lookin' sailor. And man-o-man was he ugly. He was so ugly you could take his face and smash it in cookie dough and make "Monster cookies". The man was seriously ugly. In fact the back of his head was a ugly as his face..it too was full of nasty zits. If ya' connected the dots eerr zits you could draw a map of the US. No foolin'!

One day before pulling into port, Palma Spain, we had a whites inspection. We were in the berthing getting a spiffed up then headed to the forward mess decks for inspection. The inspecting officer was inspecting. Everyone seemed to be passing the inspection fine..until he got to Parmalou. He looked Parmalou up and down around and back. Then told the sailor recording the proceeding something. That means Parmalou got "hit". After the inspection it seems everyone got an outstanding..except one man. Parmalou. We asked Parmalou what the inspecting officer "hit" him for. He said he got a "sat" on the inspection but he was hit because..he was ugly. I ain't lyin'...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If I remember correctly back in '72 an E-1 & E-2 got the same pay. Dunno why. I remember that once I got out of boot camp in November 1971 I made a cool $124 bucks a payday. It went along way. When I finally got to the JFK in March of '72 one payday I got $124 and the other payday I got $127. The extra $3 bucks was sea-pay for an E-2 back in '72.

 

[bdpopeye]

Back in '81 I was with VS-33, We were assigned to CVW-11 aboard the USS America CV-66. We had a west coast airwing and an east coast ship. Back then the east coast and west coast navy did not operate the same. Very similar but not the same.

VS-33 was home ported at NAS North Island in San Diego. Our cruise(deployment) actually lasted from January the 14th..I think..until November the 11th. Actually the first part of our cruise was about 6 weeks of carrier quals ref-tra (refersher training) and ORE(Operational readiness inspection). We did get to go home to San Diego for two weeks after this pain.

We left NASNI to fly to Norfolk Via USN C-9 on a nice January day. When we arrived at Norfolk we were promptly placed on buses and driven to CV-66. My first impression of CV-66 was that it was very dirty. Filthy in fact. We found out how much a little later. So we wound or way to the berthing and then proceeded to the mess decks for a "special meal" for the air wing..Those fine, fine cooks on the America had prepared in their haste some chili mac, soup hot dogs and such.

Enywho myself and two other shipmates from VS-33 sat down to eat all the while discussing if we had liberty that evening. As we were eating a cockroach fell out of the overhead on to AO2 JC tray of food. He was hungry mind you..he just flicked the cockroach out of the way and continued to grub down..yikes and gadzooks!

Turned out the ship had cockroaches everywhere. Why? Because those lazy messcranks use to store garbage in an empty berthing compartment instead of depositing the garbage in the dumpsters on the pier when the ship was in the Portsmouth shipyard. Disgusting. Needless to state ..The America was not my favorite ship.

 

[bdpopeye]

...Back to the America. During our deployment on CV-66 in '81 we had only 40 days liberty in those 10 months. At least two weeks before the 7 month real deployment we (VS-33) got to stay at home in San Diego with our families.

The cruise was a real drag simply because of a lack of liberty. Oh we got to go to Palma Spain..twice and Singapore also Perth Australia. During our initial work ups we got to go to St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. But between those times we spent many, many a day at sea. Out longest at sea period was about 70 days. I could be wrong. I know we had three beer days. Back then in '81 the USN experiment with having beer on ship after you went 45 consecutive days at sea. Everyone was allotted two beers. Some of us got more than two. I know the last beer day before we arrived in Palma the second time I had 7 beers.

Bottom line is that drudgery of being at sea day after day in the Indian Ocean leads to boredom. And boredom leaves to mischief.

I worked in VS-33 WC 230 as night check supervisor. One night I was in the G Division Bomb Elevator shop and one of the airmen in that shop told me that the aft lower stage bomb elevators were in bad shape and only one was working. And the ship had sent out a request to Subic Bay to send out some shipyard workers to repair those elevators. Really? I says. I'm thinking too bad we just don't go to Subic to get those elevators fixed. I got back to my shop and was shooting the breeze about this and we then came up with the idea to change the story around and start a rumor that the ship had to go to Subic Bay to get "some" elevators fixed. Just above our shop which was on the 02 level was a workcenter full of grapes. Aviation Boatswain mates fuel. They fuel aircraft and smelled like fuel. Them fellas bust ass..We kinda sorta told them in a casual way. Next our airmen were on the mess decks spreading rumors through casual conversation about going to Subic. The Mess Decks is a great place to start a rumor on any ship. MDI (Mess Deck Intelligence) will spread any rumor good or bad. In a few short hours the rumor was all over the ship. Some how or another bomb elevators had changed to aircraft elevators..Anyway that evening in the 8 o'clock reports the word was past that the ship was not going to Subic for any sort of repairs. Trust me rumors good or bad travel fast at sea..

 

[bdpopeye]

Back on the America we had a kid in VS-33 we called "buffer face" because of his Nordic blond beard. He had a very attractive wife. He was always showing pics of her telling everyone how great she was. One day he got a dear John letter from her. Dude went berserk. I got a phone call in my shop to go over to the avionics shop on the port side of the 03 level. I trotted over there this guy had run out of the shop and was out on the gallery deck right under the flight deck and was threatening to jump off the ship in the dead of night. He then jumped upon the life rafts which hang off the gallery deck railing... and was screaming his guts out. Another first class grabbed his leg and wrestled him down as wee distracted him.. By then medical was up there with a Stokes litter. Then stuffed him in that thing. Took his nutty butt down to sick bay. We saw him again about a week later down in the berthing compartment(coup). He was no longer permitted to go on the flight deck or work on aircraft. So he was stuck with coup cleaning. The Chaplin sent out a message and his wife was contacted. And his wife really dumped him. He calmed down after that..

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I was also stationed on Diego Garcia,,British Indian Ocean Territory in the Indian Ocean. Dodge as we called it was a very close knit group of folks when I was there from July '85 til July '86. Great sailors.

I got so tired of ridin' those stikin' buses to work every day..yikes...I actually looked forward to having duty so I could have a truck to drive around. I think I was ACOD..Assistant Command Duty Officer. Our main job as ACOD was to joy ride in the truck..oopppss.. Eerr I mean assist the CDO and pick up newbies at the air terminal. A job, that if a person was so inclined, (I was not) had certian advantages.

All those C-5s and C-141s commin' and going everyday reminded me of the beginning of the movie "Casablanca". When you see that old DC-3 taking off. You knew that sooner or later to get off that rock you had to rely on those zoomies of the USAF to go home.

 

[Bombardier]

Back in '81 I was with VS-33, We were assigned to CVW-11 aboard the USS America CV-66. We had a west coast airwing and an east coast ship. Back then the east coast and west coast navy did not operate the same. Very similar but not the same.

VS-33 was home ported at NAS North Island in San Diego. Our cruise(deployment) actually lasted from January the 14th..I think..until November the 11th. Actually the first part of our cruise was about 6 weeks of carrier quals ref-tra (refersher training) and ORE(Operational readiness inspection). We did get to go home to San Diego for two weeks after this pain.

We left NASNI to fly to Norfolk Via USN C-9 on a nice January day. When we arrived at Norfolk we were promptly placed on buses and driven to CV-66. My first impression of CV-66 was that it was very dirty. Filthy in fact. We found out how much a little later. So we wound or way to the berthing and then proceeded to the mess decks for a "special meal" for the air wing..Those fine, fine cooks on the America had prepared in their haste some chili mac, soup hot dogs and such.

Enywho myself and two other shipmates from VS-33 sat down to eat all the while discussing if we had liberty that evening. As we were eating a cockroach fell out of the overhead on to AO2 JC tray of food. He was hungry mind you..he just flicked the cockroach out of the way and continued to grub down..yikes and gadzooks!

Turned out the ship had cockroaches everywhere. Why? Because those lazy messcranks use to store garbage in an empty berthing compartment instead of depositing the garbage in the dumpsters on the pier when the ship was in the Portsmouth shipyard. Disgusting. Needless to state ..The America was not my favorite ship.

Not a cockroach story on a ship but in Ubique Barracks Dortmund, Germany. The barracks were riddled with roaches due to the Squaddies being allowed to have fridges and therefore food in the rooms, We used to wake up at night with roaches crawling all over us. I contracted Dysentery as a result. I hate those little bastards.. Anyway I digress @bdpopeye please continue, interesting reading

 

[bdpopeye]

Now that's nasty...

More stories...

I use to work with this Aviation Ordanceman Chief named believe it or not named Saylor. No foolin'! When ever he saw me step in flight deck ordnance control he'd say.."Petty Officer HXXX. Why don't you just sit right down here and tell us some lies!"..

In another forum someone asked me about shipmates jumping off the ship while at sea...As far as shipmates jumpin' off the ship on purpose..it happens. On the JFK two boneheads jumped off the fantail as we were leaving Athens in August 1972. Turns out their plan was to swim to shore and catch a plane back to the US..Stupid.

On the Hancock a kid had must of had some sort of mental problems because with his seabag over his shoulders and his dress blues on he walked up to the hangar deck during an unrep(refueling) and jumped off one of the refueling sponsons. That poor kid was sucked under the Hanna and turned into mincemeat.

Don't know what an UNREP is? An UNREP is an Underway replenishment. Now a days they call it RAS. Replenishment at SEA. Go to this page below for photos info;

US Navy Entire Photo Gallery

And type in RAS or replenishment at sea in the search box on the upper left side of the page.

 

[bdpopeye]

Hook ups are very useful on the ship. they help eleavate waiting and red tape.

I made my last deployment of my USN career on the Nimitz in '91. One of the first things I did was go down to the galley and see if I knew anyone. Chow hook ups are great. Low and behold as I walked past the bakery I saw this long tall cook in there. I did know him. He was a sailor that reported to the JFK the same day I did some 19 years before. We started shooting the breeze about where we have been etc and he found out I was a parachute rigger (Aircrew survival equipment tech = PR). Trust me when anyone know you are a PR they want something. Usually a flight bag etc. He wanted me to make him a bag. In turn he would provide our shop with cinnamon rolls, deserts and such. Those cinnamon rolls are great fresh out of the oven. But sucked when left standing for a few hours... So I made him a bag and he got us fresh goodies from the bake shop. Nice.

 

[bdpopeye]

USS Midway (CVA 41)..I have one short story from CVA-41. Back in '73 & '74 Porn was outlawed in Japan. But not on base. Well actually all we had was Playboy and Penthouse. Those magazines were like gold baby! You could sell them on base to Japanese men for about $40. They loved naked white women. very, very true.

One day on the Midway a Yokosuka shipyard worked purchased a Playboy mag on the ship from some fine shipmate. He was a welder. He was welding some partitions on the aft mess decks. Well he could not wait to his break or until he got home to scan the pages of his prize.. So he was on a ladder on the mess decks welding whatever he was to be welding.(for you fellow squids..yes there was a fire watch)...all the time checking out his porn. Seems his torch got to close to a heat sensor for the sprinkler system of the mess decks. He set that bad boy off. Ruined his Playboy and created quite a mess. Our work center was just off the aft mess decks and fortunately our sprinklers in our shop were clogged up with salt and they only fizzled. But the rest of the mess decks ..was a mess.

 

[bdpopeye]

The heaviest seas I ever encounter were on the JFK while crossing the North Atlantic heading back to Norfolk in early October 1972. Waves were splashing over the bow of the flight deck. the hangar deck doors were closed and you could hear and feel waves crashing off the Hangar bay doors. Shipmates were pukin' all over the place. Not popeye..I gotta an iron gut..As the ship rocked and rolled through the Atlantic the weight of the ship epically in the forward part of the ship really effect walking and going up and down ladders. Sometimes you could not move because of the physics of the ships rocking and rolling. Plus at times the ship would toss you around like a rag doll. This lasted for two days. Seemed much longer..

On the America we encounter some really rough seas in the Bermuda Triangle in March 1981. But not as bad as on the JFK.

 

[bdpopeye]

PBJ(Peanut Butter & Jelly) sandwiches? Yummy..Trouble is that USN peanut butter is like cement mortar. When I worked on the roof on the Midway I lived off PBJs or coleslaw sandwiches..The chow line was to long for an third class. I loved being a PO1 on ship..Ya' did not have to stand in line on the mess decks.

In another thread at mp.net another member stated

The "Air Boss" is God. And he's merciless.
He had an eagle eye on everything and anybody on deck.

On a Nimitz class the Air Boss operates his duties from the very top of the island in Pri-Fly. On Hancock Pri-Fly was more aft on the island but you get the picture.

Heaven help you if the Air Boss summoned you up in "Vultures Row" with your Chief. Going to see the Air Boss could be like seeing Col Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. Except when the below happened that movie was 5 years away from being released.

I got called up to see the Air Boss..once. But I was not in the wrong. The man just wanted to ask me a question..in person.

Here's what happened.

On the Hanna in Jan '75 we were recovering aircraft in the daytime. I had to stand next to the air gunner and keep track of any ordnance that was expended, hung or returned to the deck. This F-8 Crusader came in and made a hard landing. So hard in fact it's nose gear collapsed. The force of the crash caused the F-8 to skid and come to an abrupt halt and caused the starboard(right) missile rack to come loose and fly through the air then smash into the port catwalk. There was a dummy Sidewinder attached to the missile rack. The Air Gunner told me told me to get the serial number off the G & C(Guidance & Control) section and toss the mess overboard. I did so. After this the crane was used to move the crashed F-8. There was no fire or injuries. The Air Gunner then told me the Air Boss wanted to talk to me. Gulp I sez..All the way up there I'm thinkin' what did I do?? As it happened all he wanted was to know who told me to do what I did and was any FOD left in the cat walk? He coulda asked the Air Gunner that or a Yellow shirt..I think he was checking up on the Air Gunner.

 

[bdpopeye]

This a a photo of where Pri-Fly(Primary Flight Deck control) was aboard Hancock. Upper right just below the stack exhaust. The island pictured was aboard Oraskany. Which was a near duplicate of Fightin' Hanna...same Essex class ship with the same SCB 27 modifications.


==============================================================

My son was stationed on board the USS Paul F. Foster DD-964 from April 2000 til April 2003 ..check this out.

Download HiRes

At sea with USS Paul F. Foster (DD 964) Oct. 29, 2002 -- The destroyer USS Paul F. Foster turns away after an attempt to replenish fuel from the Military Sealift Command ship (MSC) USNS Rappahannock (T-AO 204). The seas were too high and conditions too rough to safely execute a scheduled replenishment at sea (RAS). Later in the day, calmer seas allowed the two ships to connect and complete their mission. U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate 3rd Class William H. Ramsey. (RELEASED)

My son also served on board the USS Valley Forge CG-50 stationed in San Diego. In November 2003 he invited me to go to sea with him on a "Friends and Family day cruise" Basically friends and dependent go to sea for a day about 6 hours to experience life aboard a ship. At this time CG-50 was the only ship I ever went to sea aboard other than a carrier.

The first thing I noticed about CG-50 was that the ship was very clean. Immaculate in fact. The crew was well trained and mannered. they were not putting on a show for the public. Even in the times I took my son food when he had duty(because he did not want what was served) That ship was squared away. My ex-wife also made several trips to the ship and had the same opinion.

As for the material condition of the ship. Honestly that was the cleanest ship I was ever on or visited. Period. It was immaculate. According to my son the ship suffered no engineering problems at all. Those ships "hulls" are outstanding. Some of the old Spruance class sailors in some yahoo.com USN groups and other forums be moan the fact that the Spruance's are gone. They all feel that those ships had 15 years of life or more left.

Well we went out to sea and that ship rode very well. I was expecting a lot more rocking and rolling. Of course I don't think we were ever more than 20 miles off the coast of San Diego.

They had a cookout a.k.a. steel beach picnic on the flight deck. The chow was pretty good. No steaks however.....Just pork ribs, hot dogs, hamburgers salad , baked beans..the usual chow for those affairs.

The Gunners mate got to fire the 5 inch gun. All they fired at was the water.

It was an interesting experience even for an old salt like me.

But alas..the Valley Forge was sunk as a target after being decommissioned. The ship was decommissioned 31 August 2004 and sunk as a target during a SINKEX on 2 November 2006.

Yes she was sunk. My son told me that the year he was on board they never has any missiles. They just did drug interdiction missions. Most of the vital equipment was removed prior to sinking. The ship had no VLS cells.

My son son served 11 years with the US Navy. He used his GI Bill and attended San Diego State University and gained a degree in Nutrition and is now the head dietitian with a large facility for the elderly in San Diego....

 

[Chazman]

A shame the Navy sunk all of those Spruances with more than 50% useful life left on them.

 

[bdpopeye]

Gents.. I'm redeemed.. I no longer drink booze..it's been 15 years!! Amen..

A Visit to HIJMS Mikasa in Yokosuka, Japan

I also discovered very friendly citizens-) aarrvv.

Many times while stationed in Japan I decided to go to the Club Alliance which although a USN enlisted men's club was off base.

http://www.graz-web.com/Graz/Japan/Y...a_Pictures.htm

http://www.cfay.navy.mil/mwr/cluballiance.html

The Club Alliance was massive. It had everything. Navy Exchange, movie theater, bar, dance floor, slot machines, restaurants.etc...etc..

If memory serves me correctly they had "happy hour" from 4pm until 7pm. I could be wrong on those times..But not on the price. Mixed drinks were only one thin dime .10 cents. during this time. Mind you I did not know how to order mixed drinks..So I just ordered what ever looked good. And Singapore slings looked real good. So I knocked a lot of them down. I was sitting with some guys from the USS Gurke DD-783. And they were telling sea stories about the PI(Philippines) Well as of this time I'd never been there. The more they talked the more I drank & listened!. I got taksan stinko(very drunk). Even though it was early I decided to go back to the ship and sleep my buzz off. I was going to walk..eerr stagger but in poor judgment I decided to ride my bike. I got on and was toolin' down Thieves Alley or the Honcho(sailors bar district) as we called it and I saw this miniature Japanese fire truck headed right at me. The Street was very narrow. Only about 10 or 12 feet. So in my stupor I tried to avoid an head on collision with this Tonka Truck of a fire engine but crashed into a big plastic bar window and cracked it.

The bars named was "Bar Baron". The owner went by the name of "Johnnie" what else would it be?? . We became sorta friends....later on that. I'm glad this happened in Japan because if this had happened in the Philippines the owner would have trumped up a whole bunch of extra crap and I would been on legal hold and it would have been very expensive..

Well of course the Shore patrol came along gathered me up ,took a statement an deposited me back on the Midway. I was not placed on report or "liberty risk"..that was the real Navy!.. I stored my bike. Changed my clothes and went back on liberty.

Naturally I went to the Bar Baron and talked to Johnnie. He said these signs were quite expensive..but he'd might be inclined to not demand so much money if I got him a couple of bottles of scotch and ..get this toilet paper. Yep toilet paper. The Japanese loved US TP because Japanese TP was like sand paper. Bottom line is that I got him some scotch and some TP. He was happy. We made a deal at the Provost Marshall to pay him only 2,500 Yen..Which he gave back to me. Any time that old drunk got low on scotch or whiskey I'd hook him up..and he paid well for it. American booze was expensive in japan. On base Johnnie Walker Black was $5.75 a quart. Seagrams Seven?? buck .35 cents a quart. Off base price was about 10 times that amount plus a tariff. Needless to say drinkin' was a big problem for the USN in Japan. Still is.

Johnnie in turn hooked me up with a free bottle check. In Japan at that time you could check a bottle of booze in a bar for a price . Usually about 500 to 1000 yen depending on the bar. Plus you hadda buy their mix even water. But Popeye didn't.

In case you were wondering while stationed in Japan I got in no more trouble.. I drank more there in Japan than I'd ever had or have. I really toned down when I left there. Way down.. Glad I was there only a year minus the time spent at sea. I have not had a drink since January 2003 Super Bowl Sunday.

I wuz in da' real US Navy!

 

[Bombardier]

WTF!!!!!! no thank you Mr

 

[bdpopeye]

In a yahoo group some years ago we decided to compare the ships we served on..According to crew, chow, liberty and personnel policies & ships services..you know chow, stores barber shops, laundry gyms etc..Last but not least cleanliness..

Here's my list;

1)Kennedy, very clean, great liberty, great services, great chow. Best big deck flight deck ever. Pretty good crew overall for that time>>early 70's..Always on time.

2)Nimitz, clean, good crew overall, good liberty, great services & Fine chow. Always on time.

3)Midway..Not dirty, ok chow, great liberty, troubled crew because of racial problems. Mediocre stores. Great flight deck crew!!

4)Hancock. GREAT LIBERTY policy when deployed!!!! Can you say Alava pier Subic Bay was our home??!!.Great crew that love that ship. Very clean. Average services. Worse chow. Great flight crew. The smoothest flight deck I ever worked on. Lots of MAJOR engineering problems. We were always on water hours & breaking down. Hanna had a hard time getting underway many, many times.

5)America..Dirtiest ship I ever saw. Millions cockroaches died when they sunk that ship!! The ship was never clean the 10 months I served on her.

Mediocre chow. Good stores and services except for the laundry. It was the worst!. Goofed up crew. Ship was east coast, air wing was west coast, It never really meshed...limited liberty. In 10 months on board we had 40 days liberty. That includes our POM (prepare for Overseas Movement) period of two weeks.

As for shore duty..if I discount Cubi Pt I'd say when I was at HSL-31 at NAS North Island from October '77 until November '80 that was the best shore duty. Why? Because until the last 4-5 months I was there we only worked 4 days a week.

I remember the first day I checked in there it was a Friday. The only shipmates around were the weekend crew. I got my orders signed and was told to comeback on Monday..Sweet!

We were supposed to work 10 hours a day but hardly anyone did. We had to spread ourselves thin but it worked out. It was a great squadron. The hangar is still there but empty. Just an excellent squadron. We never lost an aircraft while I was there. Considering we were an Fleet replacement Squadron..that was outstanding!

The last few months I was there we got a new skipper..he was a Canadian by birth and a asshole by choice. No one liked the man. He was a bachelor..married to the USN! He decided he did not like the 4 day work week. So he changed it..This caused many aircrew that had been rotating from sea to the shore side of the squadron for years to leave the squadron for greener pastures when their tours were up.

HSL-31 was dis-established on 31 July 1992

 

[bdpopeye]

From the Republic of the Philipines..

In May '75 after Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind the USS Hancock CVA-19 arrived in Subic for some inport time..Our first of many Subic port visits in '75.

After the first night of liberty it was time to get to work..We of G Div flight deck ORD hadda paint three adjoining passageways on the 0-2 level. Such fun in that heat!..Well myself and AO3 MH were taping the spaces in preparation for painting.. Some yard workers from Subic were trolling through the ship. Lookin' for odd painting jobs. Three stopped and asked us if were were going to paint those spaces. Yep we were. The head guy said we will spray paint it for you today. Oh yea? Today? we said..What's the price? They wanted cigarettes. How many I forget. About 10 cartons I think.

I said hold on. I went to tell my LPO AO2 HD..he hemmed and hawed a little..but in the end we got the smokes for those boys. They sprayed painted those spaces in perfect fashion during our lunch break!!!...We now had max liberty the rest of the import period.

We showed our Div officer, Ltjg RS,(he was a mustang, former enlisted) the
spaces and he had one word..Outstanding!...How did those Filipinos get those smokes off the ship??? They put them in paint cans...Cigarettes in the ships store in 1975 cost $1.25 a carton. That's right....They could sell them off base for much more than that. Almost anything extra you need done those fellas from the Subic Ship yard would do it for a very small price and much better and faster that we could. Just a little barter and swap!.

************************************************************************************************
Hook ups get you out of all sorts of jams.

When I was stationed in the Philippines I had all sorts of hook ups..all sorts back in da' day..

I was the transportation PO for my division...I was an ordie mind you. we had about 7 or 8 trucks. And we needed a new Semi to haul loads from our magazines at NAS Cubi Pt to Red Label(weapons loading) or from NAVMAG(Naval Magazine) real bad. I knew that PWC had a shipment in of about 12 new Semi's ..I knew the guy that ran PWC real will. A Filipino civilian named Mr Gloria. He told me to put in my requisition for a new semi and he could back date that request. He just wanted some smokes. Cigarettes were rationed at Subic. I've never smoked so I hooked him up and he hooked me up...many times over. Cigarettes were only $1.25 a carton in the Navy Exchange in 1975-'77 dollars.

************************************************************************************************
Booze was also very big item in da' PI & Japan..It was so cheap on base. But if the booze somehow got off base it could be sold for a huge profit...that's called black marketing..

Certain American items will always sell in the Philippines. Cigarettes, spit tobacco, booze. Any sort of name brand US produced cosmetics/hygiene items..including soap or toothpaste. Soft porn mags such as Playboy, Penthouse were big in Japan.

 

[berkut76]

From the Republic of the Philipines..

In May '75 after Operations Eagle Pull and Frequent Wind the USS Hancock CVA-19 arrived in Subic for some inport time..Our first of many Subic port visits in '75.

After the first night of liberty it was time to get to work..We of G Div flight deck ORD hadda paint three adjoining passageways on the 0-2 level. Such fun in that heat!..Well myself and AO3 MH were taping the spaces in preparation for painting.. Some yard workers from Subic were trolling through the ship. Lookin' for odd painting jobs. Three stopped and asked us if were were going to paint those spaces. Yep we were. The head guy said we will spray paint it for you today. Oh yea? Today? we said..What's the price? They wanted cigarettes. How many I forget. About 10 cartons I think.

I said hold on. I went to tell my LPO AO2 HD..he hemmed and hawed a little..but in the end we got the smokes for those boys. They sprayed painted those spaces in perfect fashion during our lunch break!!!...We now had max liberty the rest of the import period.

We showed our Div officer, Ltjg RS,(he was a mustang, former enlisted) the
spaces and he had one word..Outstanding!...How did those Filipinos get those smokes off the ship??? They put them in paint cans...Cigarettes in the ships store in 1975 cost $1.25 a carton. That's right....They could sell them off base for much more than that. Almost anything extra you need done those fellas from the Subic Ship yard would do it for a very small price and much better and faster that we could. Just a little barter and swap!.

************************************************************************************************
Hook ups get you out of all sorts of jams.

When I was stationed in the Philippines I had all sorts of hook ups..all sorts back in da' day..

I was the transportation PO for my division...I was an ordie mind you. we had about 7 or 8 trucks. And we needed a new Semi to haul loads from our magazines at NAS Cubi Pt to Red Label(weapons loading) or from NAVMAG(Naval Magazine) real bad. I knew that PWC had a shipment in of about 12 new Semi's ..I knew the guy that ran PWC real will. A Filipino civilian named Mr Gloria. He told me to put in my requisition for a new semi and he could back date that request. He just wanted some smokes. Cigarettes were rationed at Subic. I've never smoked so I hooked him up and he hooked me up...many times over. Cigarettes were only $1.25 a carton in the Navy Exchange in 1975-'77 dollars.

************************************************************************************************
Booze was also very big item in da' PI & Japan..It was so cheap on base. But if the booze somehow got off base it could be sold for a huge profit...that's called black marketing..

Certain American items will always sell in the Philippines. Cigarettes, spit tobacco, booze. Any sort of name brand US produced cosmetics/hygiene items..including soap or toothpaste. Soft porn mags such as Playboy, Penthouse were big in Japan.

This reminds of the stories of the Soviet / Russian soldiers still stationed in the East Germany after the break up of the USSR and re-unification of Germany. Fuel (pretty much the only valubale commodity the Soviets / Russian could offer) was trade for all of the above: cigarettes, porn mags and tapes, consumer goods, etc.

 

[bdpopeye]

Things I remember about the '71-'72 MED cruise on the JFK....

I got there on March 24th 1972 the ship was in Rhodes Greece. A great port. I did miss port calls at Naples, Thessalonika & Corfu Greece..

We hit a lot of ports in the MED.
Rhodes, Athens (twice), Izmir, Genoa, Cannes, Malaga, Palma(4 times), Barcelona. Some place named La Maddalena in Sardinia. We also anchored with no liberty at Naples, Souda Bay Crete & somewhere in Sicily..

I remember the "gut"(bar/friendly natives district) in Palma was off limits but that never we sailors.

Barcelona had two guts..

Athens had road-runners..

We got extended on our cruise about three times..First time the America was sent to Vietnam. Then the Saratoga was sent to Vietnam. Then there was a major fire on the Forrestal, what else, in port in Norfolk...Finally the Forrestal relieved us in September. Then they sent us on a short stint to the North Atlantic to be a part of Strong Express. We were supposed to stop in Scotland. There was a vote. The skipper said it was a tie and he cast the deciding vote and we headed back to Norfolk.

The ship was super clean. Cleanest I ever served on.

On the aft mess decks the JFK had ice cream parlor. the only one on any ship I servered aboard.

The mess decks were always open. In the lag time when aft was closed the foward mess deck was open and vice versa.

I remember the radio station DJ on night check kept playing Bob Dillion tunes. I could not stand that DJ. Can't stand Dillion. Sings like a cat is being strangled. One night a buch of mates went up to the movie studio and threatened the DJ over his love of Dillion. The Dillion music ceased.

The very first day the ship went to sea when I was on board an H-2 SeaSprite helo crashed and I saw that because I was on vultures row. They called man overboard and I did not know what to do. ..So I headed to my work center..Good move.

Movies were shown in the crews lounge almost nightly.

We had the only shop on the ship with red tile. Ordies ya' know!

Non-rates had to wear uniforms in Spanish ports the first day or two.

In Barcelona there was some big soccer game between Russia and Scotland..I never saw so many drunks in my life.

I took a bus from Malaga to Tormlinias and on the way back the bus nearly crashed..more than once. The bus driver was nutso.

We went to Cannes France and it rained every day.

Liberty was very liberal on the JFK. But many times when when you went on liberty you better have a fresh haircut.

On the JFK you could not wear jeans or t-shirts on liberty. Your shirt had to have a collar.

We had a lot of visitors in port. A lot.

The JFK was the only ship I was ever on that always had fresh milk. I think because we were frequently in port.

The only time the B'sun whistle was blown is if the CO had something to say.

I flew off the ship the day before we got back to Norfolk to go on emergency leave.

The ship finally got back to pier 12 at NOB in Norfolk on October the 6th 1972. I made 6 and a half months of a 10 month and one week MED cruise.

The cruise book sucked. Big time. I still have it in pristine condition. Not a single color picture and it's full of mistakes. I think a blind monkey with a pencil edited it..

Back in the day...in a Navy far far away... On the JFK..the Big John!.

 

[bdpopeye]

This reminds of the stories of the Soviet / Russian soldiers still stationed in the East Germany after the break up of the USSR and re-unification of Germany. Fuel (pretty much the only valubale commodity the Soviets / Russian could offer) was trade for all of the above: cigarettes, porn mags and tapes, consumer goods, etc.

A story about them Russian fellas...

I served during the Cold War. The Russians watched the US..the US watched Russia. This was really true at sea. There was always a Russian ship trailing the JFK, America, Hancock or Midway...By the time I got on the Nimitz that all had ceased.

Usually it was a Russian trawler. Sometimes Soviet aircraft would over fly us always accompanied by F-4s or Tomcats.

The first time I saw some Soviet sailors up close and personal was in Barcelona SP in May 1972. We were anchored out. We hadda take a liberty boat to go on liberty. we went on liberty and after a while we found our way near the port services and low and behold a Soviet trawler and destroyer or frigate was tied up. We decided we would try to take a tour of said vessels but those Russians did not allow visitors in 1972. Those Russian mates were not allowed off the ship. Too bad so sad! So they just sat in port twiddling their thumbs and doing the five knuckle shuffle all the while we Americans were partying our butts off. No foolin'!! As we walked away from the ships some Russian sailors were gesturing to us to get them some kind of booze and marijuana or hashish and of course porn. Shame shame shame... we felt sorry for those mates. but what could we do? I did hear a tale later that some fine JFK sailors tossed them a satchel full of goodies in the still of the night.

no foolin'!