Navy Ships

Did you serve on a ship? Post inspired by player name I saw USSCoralSeaCV3.

Had to get mine in there.

Mine: USS Truxtun CGN 35

8808
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USS Gray FF 1054

We were haze gray and underway as our captain hated liberty. He even volunteered the ship for Engineering Operational Evals with 2/3 of the engine room either tagged out of service or just not working. That was a horrible 72 hours for that bunch, no sleep and trying to scavenge the parts needed to fix the items that were not functioning. The ship spent 48 hours out to see with NO water as the desalination system was off line, the only authorized use was in the Galley for cooking and cleaning using the water we got before we left port. We definitely wanted to get to port by the end of that to get a shower, but the captain struck again and we got sent to San Francisco to be a TOUR Ship, ever try to clean anything with salt water, it does not work. The entire crew spent the time from mooring to the next morning trying to get the ship cleaned for the first tour at 0900 and still be in the Dress Uniform of the Day properly shaved, cleaned, and pressed (150 men using 10 showers with 45 minutes till call to stations for the tour) Dang if that was not a mess that needed to be cleaned quickly before the visitors started walking thru.

 

Hi All,

Well Help you sound like you had fun.

I was a FTM then they change it to FC. My ships were USS Coontz DDG 40 (Served Twice on This ship), USS Preble DDG 46 (sister ship to Coontz) and my last ship USS Nashville LPD 13 all gone. I hated this ship being a weapons tech, and having really no weapons except CIWS (it looks like RD2D with a hard on). It was a bus for Marines and all they did was eat and sleep. Their GQ station was their bed. Haze gray and underway oh yea I remember that. Also on board on duty. Did 20 years saw 47 different countries. Station on the east coast Norfolk, VA. Didn't see Asia at all. I'm a Blue Nose and a Honorable Shellback. Had fun too, but the best time was underway at night going outside being alone and no one telling you what to do and how to do it. I love going outside seeing millions of stars. They were so bright and beautiful. Then looking at the water seeing the phstousant (can't spell, glow in the dark) plankton in the water like stars themselves. Beautiful! It was like you were one with the world and the peace of the night gave you time to think and reflect. I learn to love reading too. I hated reading and wasn't very good at it because I have dyslexia, but I learn to enjoy reading. No one knew if I didn't know a word, how to pronouns it, or not because no one could hear me reading.

I have been to North, Central, and South America, Europe, Africa, and Middle East plus a bunch of Islands.

For those of you who have read my post may have noticed my writing skills. It takes me a very long time writing things because I have to reread over and over again trying to find my errors. I don't see them sometimes because my mind has the changes in it and what it is. Its my eyes that doesn't notice the mistakes. Thank you for spell check, but again sometimes I pick the wrong word because it look right. I have been at his post for over a half hour.

Angus

 

You had the Missiles I had the Guns. They were getting ready to install the R2D2 when I got out in '82 but I see they decommissioned the Gray shortly after I got out also.

 

Truxtun as well is no more. I did get to take my kids on tour of her in Bremerton before she was cut up.

Was out of San Diego in USS Enterprise and USS Longbeach nuke group.

We were all off the coast of Iran during the hostage rescue mission.

Lots of fun Westpac stories, but few of them are suitable for family viewing.

I too enjoyed the night sky at sea. There is nothing like it.

Twotam/8808

 

As a Brit, it was the Royal Navy for me, fourteen years in total. Ships include a Destroyer, HMS Decoy, the Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal, Anti Submarine Frigates HMS Phoebe and HMS Londonderry and an old WW2 Destroyer, converted as a Sonar Trials ship, HMS Verulam. Had some great times ashore, especially in San Juan, Singapore and Bangkok. Don't bother trying to Google these ships, it was all 50 years ago, and they were made into razor blades long ago. And yes, when the ship is dawdling along at 20 knots on a cool clear night, the sky is amazing.
MajorLukeDinnit

 

Hi All,

My first cruse was a NATO. We had a English ship with us (I think her name was) the Airadnee FF year 1979. Made a few friends from Hell Kitchen. We get together and have a few beers then come over to our ship for Mid Rats. One time they gave me New Castle Brown Ale. I was total piss after 3 16oz cans. Well I got sick that night.

Cheers
Angus

 

One thing I envied the Aussies was that they had a beer ration on ship. Did Royal Navy have that too?

Met an RAF guys in a bar in Hong Kong. Introduced me to gin & tonic. Had a great crawl back to the ship.

 

Angus, the ship you're thinking of was HMS Ariadne, an Anti Submarine Frigate and a sister ship to the Phoebe. They were considered to be a good class of ship to be serving on.
Twotam1, yes we had a beer ration in the RN, weren't allowed to touch it during the day but it was very welcome if you were off-watch in the evening and a movie was being shown up on the helo deck. We even had a tot of rum each day at lunchtime until the early 70's and it was a really sad day when a tradition of a couple of hundred years were tossed aside for the sake of sobriety.
I did enjoy my time in the RN and would probably do the same again if my clock was turned back a few years.
MajorLukeDinnit

 

Hi All,

The NATO was one of my best deployment. I was a poor PO3 because most of my money was going home to pay bills. I got 9 dollars a pay day. I stood a lot of other people watches/duty to make a little money. Then I would go out and have fun in town we were visiting.

Thanks Major, I didn't know how to spell it, the name, but it was a nice looking ship. The people I knew were great guys. We went out in different ports together a few times, boy could they put it a way. I was a light weight to them, but we were friends. I miss the good times. I have a Zippo lighter from the ship which I cherish. Yea they got 2 cans of beer a day, but they saved it, well most of it, then import they would start the outing in the mess and then go out so they didn't have to buy too many drinks. haha They had a refer in the berthing too to keep their beer cold.

We were the only ship that was dry. The Canadians ship had a bar we would go to. Any drink was 25 cents bottle of beer or a shot. We would bring quarters over so we didn't have to exchange our dollars. A lot of our shipmates had a hard time crossing the brow. If you didn't cross the brow by yourself you got restricted to Cinderella Liberty. Have to be back on board by mid night.

We had Cross Pol (Pollination) where we transfer to the other ship and they would come to ours. I was sent to a Dutch ship Issicsweres (Sorry Spelling) it was a FF too. First night there they got me very piss. After 14 Heinekens later I milted to bed. Every time I finish a beer or two I got two more. It was all fun.

Cheers
Angus