Quote:
Originally Posted by Llarry
I was on active duty in the Navy from 1970 to 1995 -- the first 12 years as enlisted (10 years as a sailor and 2 years as a Chief Petty Officer) and the last 13 years as an officer.
Due to the nature of my job specialty and duties, in that 25 years I was only on ships for a total of six months and change.
My first two sea assignments were short temporary duties aboard submarines on special operations missions. Can't really talk about that, even 50 years later. The first run was on USS Wahoo (SS 565) which was one of a limited number of post-WW2 Diesel-electric submarines. Life on a Diesel was different -- showers once per week, shared a bunk with another sailor in the torpedo stowage room, etc. That was '72 and later that year I did a run on the nuclear-powered USS Pintado (SSN 672), which was much more civilized: My own bunk, daily showers, etc. Those two short sub trips were the only sea duty I had as an enlisted; I've mentioned in the airplane thread that I also had duty flying aircrew on an EP-3B for 90 days or so -- that was in '73.
It was only as an officer that I experienced life on a surface ship. The first trip was on the USS Peleliu (LHA 5), a huge amphibious assault vessel that carriers 1,000+ Marines, helicopters and landing craft. We went aboard in Long Beach, California, stopped off Camp Pendleton just up the coast to embark the Marines and headed for the Aleutians. In November! The Marines were to do a practice assault under cold conditions on the uninhabited island Amchitka. I stayed on the warm LHA. I suspect those Marines had a pretty rough couple of days. The task force included both USN and Canadian Navy ships, which was kind of cool. Once the exercise had concluded we headed for Vancouver, B.C. for a port call. That was a highlight; I actually detached to return to my permanent duty station in Hawaii the next day, but had one night on the town and it was amazing! No U.S. Navy sailor (or officer) could buy a beer that night -- wherever we went somebody wanted to buy us a beer. Wonderful memory!
That LHA trip in late 1982 was in training to be an officer-in-charge of a team. In 1983 I was tapped to be the OIC of a team (about 10 sailors) on the USS Leahy (CG 16) a missile cruiser attached to the task group centered on the carrier Midway. I flew to Japan to go aboard and once we left port we headed south and mostly operated in the S. China Sea. As a missile shooter, we mostly stayed over the horizon from the carrier. We did a port call in Hong Kong for a few days and several port calls in Subic Bay, Philippines. After about six weeks on Leahy, I was to be relieved by another officer, but suddenly the plan changed as the battleship New Jersey, which had been recommissioned as part of the Reagan defense buildup, had been ordered to Central America. The Leahy was detached from the Midway battle group and we transited the Pacific with the New Jersey. Highlights of that period included getting overflown by Soviet Tu-95 or -142 'Bear' long range patrol aircraft and watching the New Jersey fire her massive 16-inch guns. (The Leahy had two 20mm close-in weapons system guns but was otherwise all-missile.) I ended up getting off the Leahy in Pearl Harbor as she continued on to Central America.
The last time I went to sea was in USS Worden (CG 18), Leahy's sister ship, as part of the carrier Constellation battle group. Connie and Worden were in work-ups for a major deployment and we spent all of our time in the Hawaii/SoCal region. We did take time out to make a port call in San Francisco for Fleet Week. That was a pretty short trip -- about 30 days.
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We've had more than a few of those Bears flying close to our island Llarry, with their faces poking out of those small windows appearing to say 'hi'.