Are you a Pollywog or a Shellback?

[rogueusmc]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, I was sweating inside my gunmount doing my preventive maintenance when a new Ensign poked his head in the back and began railing me about how greasy the gun was
"This gun should be clean enough to eat off of" he told me
"Get out of my gunmount knucklehead" was my answer. (I couldn't see him and didn't have a clue who he was till later)

That's kinda personal isn't it?

[RevRick]

ROFLMAOATPIMP - Now, let's don't get started telling in Sea Stories, though I'm not sure that stores about ensigns qualify for that title.

We had another newbie standing his first bridge watch when I had the eve in the radio shack. We had a marvelous piece of gear called the SRC-21, which when it worked, was wonderful. Getting it to work was another story all together. We had to put one of the UHF circuits up on that because we were becoming overloaded in Combat with their demands. Naturally, we put the secondary bridge circuit up on it. This ensign kept calling radio checks on the thing, and naturally, it didn't work. So I had to keep running up to the shack on the sigbridge to try to fix it. Finally, this young whippersnapper said something about how we should be able to get that transceiver working right. Everybody else on the bridge, including the Old Man knew about it when the guy asked what was wrong that we couldn't keep that circuit up. I told him that it was the weather. The winds kept blowing it off frequency. He said "Oh, well maybe when the weather changes." I ran like, well, back to the shack to keep from laughing myself silly. The Old Man stuck his head in the door a few minutes later, and said "I can always depend on you guys to educate boystown (junior officers quarters)."

[mogami]

Hi, Oh a forum is the wrong place for "Sea Stories" we need to hold a WITP convention so we can drink beer while we tell lies...Sea Stories to one another.

[whippleofd]

ORIGINAL: dereck

ORIGINAL: RevRick

ORIGINAL: mbatch729

Wog, never made it south of Cuba.



You saluted the butterbars?!?!?! We usually just had our senior chief give them a spanking...

Only if we met the on the beach, and nobody saw us. Even then, we washed our hands and our hats afterwards.

We were out catching a few rays on the fantail in the Med, when this newly hatched United States Navy Commissioned Officer came harumphing up and tried to get us all to salute. We were, of course, in shorts and shower shoes basically, with the stereo from the ship's laundery blaring out all over the place. The young man - younger than most of us by that time - and just out of Kiddie School at Newport - glared around and said something like "Don't you men salute an officer when you see him." The Old Man stuck his head up over the hatch coaming. Thought that young'un was gonna break his elbow. The Skipper then said. "Okay, men. Salutings taken care of. Resume SunEx." Crazy Dude. Great shiphandler though. The ensign eventually worked out. They assigned him to the Snipes and that's about the last we saw of him for a while.

Reminds me of the time a fresh Ensign, after an inspection, got all his unit chief's together and said something to the effect that they did good on the inspection but maybe next time they could all have the same color of chevrons instead of some having red and others having gold ... a Master Chief took him in tow and "explained" things to him.

The "ring knocker" O-1's were alot of fun, no doubt about that. Alot of different ways that a CPO can train one. Some without embaressment to the ENS, and others needed the humbleing.

Whipple

[whippleofd]

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, Oh a forum is the wrong place for "Sea Stories" we need to hold a WITP convention so we can drink beer while we tell lies...Sea Stories to one another.

You do know the differance between sea stories and fairy tales right? [:)]

Fairy fairy start with, "Once upon a time..."
Sea stories start with, "No Sh*t, this one time..."

But yea a "convention" is a good thing. [:)]

*breaks out soap-box*
Those of you who are able, hook up with your local VFW post. I've had SO much fun there in the past 6 months since I have joined.
*puts away soap-box*

Whipple

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: Whipple

ORIGINAL: Mogami

Hi, Oh a forum is the wrong place for "Sea Stories" we need to hold a WITP convention so we can drink beer while we tell lies...Sea Stories to one another.

You do know the differance between sea stories and fairy tales right? [:)]

Fairy fairy start with, "Once upon a time..."
Sea stories start with, "No Sh*t, this one time..."

But yea a "convention" is a good thing. [:)]

*breaks out soap-box*
Those of you who are able, hook up with your local VFW post. I've had SO much fun there in the past 6 months since I have joined.
*puts away soap-box*

Whipple

We had one modification. According to Gramps (RD1, RDC, RD1, etc.) who was probably all of 30, a sea story began "Now this ain't no sh*t" A true story then became a "no sh*tter". (Oh, Lord, please forgive me, and don't tell the Bishop)

[Kwik E Mart]

one good "humiliation exercise" in our squadron was to have the nugget pilot on the crew test the MAD gear during preflight (Magnetic Anomoly Detector - long "stinger" extending from rear of P-3 Orion). this consisted of taking the onboard fireaxe and circle the plane about 20 yards away with axe hoisted above the head. the nugget was then told that the gear was acting-up that day, and the axe would have to be submerged in a bucket of water to simulate a submarine - repeat circuit of plane. that's about the time all the cameras came out to capture the moment for posterity... [:D]

ps - no, the MAD gear cannot detect a fireaxe sized piece of metal [;)]

pps - i was a butter bar once, and yes, i did salute a master chief once...i was told "[explicative,explicative] don't salute me, sir...i work for a living"

[Dereck]

ORIGINAL: Kwik E Mart

one good "humiliation exercise" in our squadron was to have the nugget pilot on the crew test the MAD gear during preflight (Magnetic Anomoly Detector - long "stinger" extending from rear of P-3 Orion). this consisted of taking the onboard fireaxe and circle the plane about 20 yards away with axe hoisted above the head. the nugget was then told that the gear was acting-up that day, and the axe would have to be submerged in a bucket of water to simulate a submarine - repeat circuit of plane. that's about the time all the cameras came out to capture the moment for posterity... [:D]

ps - no, the MAD gear cannot detect a fireaxe sized piece of metal [;)]

pps - i was a butter bar once, and yes, i did salute a master chief once...i was told "[explicative,explicative] don't salute me, sir...i work for a living"

Being in the photo lab we'd get a clear plastic bottle and use the rub off letters and make an "official looking" Kodak bottle filled with "Focusing Solution". We'd wait for someone new - this time it was a new intel non-rate from CIC who dropped a roll of film some pilots shot during a mission. Our LPO really wailed and wailed how it was now knocked out of focus and he hoped to god the focusing solution would work. All the time this poor 18 year old kid was scared he'd really screwed up.

Well, of course our LPO called the kid's LPO to let him know the scam that was going on so nobody would betray the joke.

When the film was developed and the pictures printed the joke was kind of on us because the pilot SHOT THE PICTURES OUT OF FOCUS! We actually had a hard time convincing the kid there wasn't such a thing as focusing solution.

At Whidbey Island, Washington we'd used to send "special victims" from squadrons down to Sand Point near Seattle for the focusing solution there. [:D]

[ASLifer]

Unfortunately i'm still a Pollywog. Almost made it in 74 on USS Kittyhawk. But Carrier experienced major difficulty while enroute to PI. Due to that, second half of cruise was cancelled. I was in VQ-1 stationed out of NAS agana Guam, we were on Detachment to Kittyhawk, we had a detachment in Subic Bay, PI. Loved the Barbecued Chicken, didn't touch the Balute.

Maybe in my next life
ASLifer aka LorenSilvrcloak

PS: Mighta been 75, I honestly don't remember now. Gettin' old sucks...

[Dereck]

ORIGINAL: ASLifer

Unfortunately i'm still a Pollywog. Almost made it in 74 on USS Kittyhawk. But Carrier experienced major difficulty while enroute to PI. Due to that, second half of cruise was cancelled. I was in VQ-1 stationed out of NAS agana Guam, we were on Detachment to Kittyhawk, we had a detachment in Subic Bay, PI. Loved the Barbecued Chicken, didn't touch the Balute.

Maybe in my next life
ASLifer aka LorenSilvrcloak

So you've been to Subic Bay ... so if someone asked you where S**t River was, you'd be one of the priviledged few who would know.

I remember going to the Baskin Robbins at Subic Bay and eating my ice cream outside the store overlooking Subic Bay. Very beautiful scenery.

[ASLifer]

LOL, oh my, do I remember S**t River. It used to amaze me to see little Phillipino kids swimming in it. Throw a Peso in the water and they'd dive down to find it. I used to frequent a little Bar called "The Country Inn".

[Dereck]

ORIGINAL: ASLifer

LOL, oh my, do I remember S**t River. It used to amaze me to see little Phillipino kids swimming in it. Throw a Peso in the water and they'd dive down to find it. I used to frequent a little Bar called "The Country Inn".

One of the retired first classes in the Midway photolab married a Phillipino and through her owned a bar in Olongopo called "My Other Place".

Other than special services tours (which I got to go on for free being a ship's photographer and letting my pictures be used for the cruise book) I very seldom left the ship much less the base. I used to take people's duty in exchange for them taking mine in some other port (like Perth, Australia [:D][:D][:D]).

[sprior]

Shellback, HMS Galatea 1980.

May well be a bluenose too but you never know where you are on an SSBN but the water outside was cold...

[ASLifer]

Thats a shame then. You never got to go to "Maryland's" possibly the most popular Bar in the PI. It was actually just outside of Olongapo City. There was a woman named/called "Mumbles" who danced there. The things she could do with Peso's and a bottle of PI San Miguel...... It boggles the mind... I used to have one of the Business Cards from the bar, I might actually still have it around somewhere. I don't wanna get banned from the forums here, so I won't tell you what it said...hehe

Regards:
ASLifer aka LorenSilvrcloak

[Dereck]

ORIGINAL: sprior

Shellback, HMS Galatea 1980.

May well be a bluenose too but you never know where you are on an SSBN but the water outside was cold...

You know, I could never quite figure you submariners out. Who in their right mind would want to get on a ship that PURPOSELY sinks? Simple law of gravity: what goes up has to come down, but what goes down does not necesarilly have to come back up again. [:D]

[sprior]

ORIGINAL: dereck

ORIGINAL: sprior

Shellback, HMS Galatea 1980.

May well be a bluenose too but you never know where you are on an SSBN but the water outside was cold...

You know, I could never quite figure you submariners out. Who in their right mind would want to get on a ship that PURPOSELY sinks? Simple law of gravity: what goes up has to come down, but what goes down does not necesarilly have to come back up again. [:D]

The RN works slightly differently to the USN. When the RN needs volunteers for submarine service they tell you that you volunteered. And you know all that psycometric testing the US does? Well, the RN doesn't.

"I need 3 volunteers, you, you and you"

And then you get kind of stuck there. But still, going to war ar 75 degrees and 75% RH is better that digging a hole and standing in it...

[Feinder]

Sprior,

I was just about to ask into how many of the world's navies have these traditions. I assume that the USN and RN have many of the same or similar.

But I'm curious of anyone knows about the traditions from say the German or Soviet or Japanese navies? Anybody ever done time on a foreign ship, and witnessed or participated in some of those traditions?

-F-

[sprior]

ORIGINAL: Feinder

Sprior,

I was just about to ask into how many of the world's navies have these traditions. I assume that the USN and RN have many of the same or similar.

But I'm curious of anyone knows about the traditions from say the German or Soviet or Japanese navies? Anybody ever done time on a foreign ship, and witnessed or participated in some of those traditions?

-F-

I've seen photos from German warships celebrating crossing-the-line. I will try and track it down at home.

[mogami]

ORIGINAL: sprior

Shellback, HMS Galatea 1980.

May well be a bluenose too but you never know where you are on an SSBN but the water outside was cold...

Hi, well since you must cross the Artic Circle to become a Bluenose most sailors who do this are Bubbleheads.

[Oldsweat]

Our bluenose was during Northern Wedding one year, they took the TF up north of Iceland specifically to give us the opportunity (really wasn't too much of a boondoggle, we were headed in that general direction, anyway) we got flathatted by a pair of Backfires a little later on. I imagine this tradition in the USN derives, like crossing the line many others, from the RN.
It was pretty strange passing through the same waters where the Battle of the Denmark Straights was fought (similar eery feeling anchored in ANZAC Bay in Gallipolli during Display Determination).
The funny names are annual exercises for the non-naval members.