Popeye's Sea Stories

Jeff Head · Mar 4, 2013

bd popeye said:
When I served on the Kennedy in '72 & '73 it was the latest and greatest. Now the USN has zero oil burner CVs. But has 11 nuclear CVNs..Amazing..And in the whole rest of the Worlds navies there's only one CVN...ONE!

Sometime ago I realized that nearly every command I was stationed at in the USN is decommissioned. Except Great Lakes and the Nimitz..

All these commands are decommissioned..Kennedy, Midway, Hancock, America...

The US Navy has numerous large flat tops sitting around in "reserve," and storage awaiting final disposition. Now they include one nulcear powered CVN (Enterprise) which I believe truly is in reserve for a while, at least probably until the Ford is commissioned.

Nonetheless, there are many hundreds of thousands of tons of strong aircraft carriers out there, almost any of which if refurbished and re-commissioned would be far better than any other carrier afloat right now, with the possible exception of the French de Gualle and to some extent the two new building UK carriers, though I would personally argue against them.

Why?

Because, despite their size and modern electronics, the new Queen Elizabeth carrier's cability to perform the very most basic and foremost mission of an aircraft crrier, to sortie lots and lots of military aircraft that can do lots of harm to an enemy, is far, far below that of the capability of even the oldest, decommissioned super carriers the US has "sitting around."

Like any one of these for example (CVs 61, USS Ranger, CV 62 USS Independence, and CV 64 USS Constellation):

All of those "oil burners" were very strong full sized carriers capable of operating well over 80 aircraft off of their decks and with the facilities to maintain and keep them all. If someone wanted to and had the dollars and experience...and the US was willing...they could be again.

There just not a nation willing, or capable financially of refurbishing, operating and maintiaing such a carrier IMHO...or that the US feels comfortable allowing to do so. Even those old carriers contain too much valuable, hard fought and won carrier technology and information for the US to consider letting them go.

Equation · Mar 5, 2013

Are there any standard environmental requirements that the US Navy has to meet when keeping these older flat tops in reserve? Just curious as to condition or any do they have to meet.

Jeff Head · Mar 5, 2013

Equation said:
Are there any standard environmental requirements that the US Navy has to meet when keeping these older flat tops in reserve? Just curious as to condition or any do they have to meet.

Oh yes. There are OSHA and Environmental standards that have to maintained. They can't just let them rust away into the estuaries they are located in and create an environmental or shipping hazard.

There are currently eight US Super Carriers in various states of deactivation. Here's the list and their location:

Bremerton, WA Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilty (NISMF) has four carriers:
USS Ranger - Striken, awaiting disposition, available for museum
USS Independence - Striken, to be disposed of
USS Constellation - Striken, to be disposed of
USS Kitty Hawk - Inactive Reserve

Philadelphia Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilty (NISMF) has two carriers:
USS John F Kennedy - Not determined, possible museum ship
USS Forrestal - Striken, to be disposed of

Newport, RI, Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilty (NISMF) has a single carrier:
USS Saratoga - Striken, to be disposed of

Newport News, VA - Shipbuilding has the Enterprise:
USS Enterprise - Undergoing deactivation and Defueling

The US Navy maintains reserve and mothball vessels of all types of ships (numbering over 125 vessels), at various Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilties (NISMF) and actual reserve fleet sites (James River and Suisan Bay facilities) around the country from the Northeast, down to Texas, to California, Washington and Hawaii. Everything from many, many logistical vessels, to frigates, destroyers, cruisers, Aircraft Carriers, LSTs, LPDs, LHAs, and submarines. Just google "US Navy Reserve and mothball fleets," or "US Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facilties," and you can see all of the locations.

bd popeye · Mar 10, 2013

All of those "oil burners" were very strong full sized carriers capable of operating well over 80 aircraft off of their decks and with the facilities to maintain and keep them all. If someone wanted to and had the dollars and experience...and the US was willing...they could be again.

It would be very difficult to re-commission one of the oil-burners. Many pieces of gear gave been removed.I wrote this in the old forum on August 8th 2005

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The USN has 5 CV's decommissioned. Forrestal,Saratoga,Ranger,Independence and Constellation. All have been stripped of shafts,propellers,anchors & anchor chains.. The Constellation has had all the catapults removed. The rest have had various other items{including catapults} removed..Useless? You bet. It would cost the USN probably $1.5 billion or more to re-activate these ships. But would some nation want one of these oil burning leviathans?..I doubt it. I mean who could really afford it?

Also this in this forum on March 25th 2007

http://www.sinodefenceforum.com/world-armed-forces/aircraft-carriers-38-2255.html#post59860

Because I know all sorts of important equipment has been removed. Pumps, electrical motors, fire equipment, sensors etc, etc. A lot of that equipment is needed to operate the ship. Holes have been cut between the decks to remove some of this equipment. No offense to you but unless you have ever visited or,like me, served on a CV you have no idea myriad the inner hull of a CV is. It is so vast I guarantee it may well boggle someones mind.

siegecrossbow · Mar 10, 2013

bd popeye said:
Thanks Equation for responding to this thread..

I mentioned that in Spanish ports non-rates (E-3 and below) had to be back on fleet landing by 0000 or turn into a report chit.

For those of you navally challenged Fleet Landing is where the liberty boats arrive/depart to take you to the ship when it is anchored out in port.

Barcelona Espana April 1973. The first night the JFK was in port.. on fleet landing about midnight..several hundred squids were milling about smartly some drunk some sober waiting for the liberty boats to get back to the JFK. Who ever was the Fleet Landing officer decided to make two lines ..one for those in uniform and one for E-4 and above in civvies. Naturally this fool allowed the squids in civvies to load the boats first. They were senior. This led to some pushing and shoving. The Shore Patrol stepped in to try to calm things down. I was already in a liberty launch as I got in the last boat loaded before this zero decided to segregate the lines. Bad move on his part. I saw shipmates hookin' and jabbin' and bobbin' and weaving. A few drunks fell into that nasty water as our boat pulled away. I guess it just took a few more minutes to restore order. I actually heard little about the incident the next day on board ship. Such was life in the USN circa 1973...

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

In Olongopo they use to sell BBQ on a stick. The origin of what type meat it was was probably concocted by sailors. Who were told by Filipinos that the BBQ meat was monkey. As someone who was stationed there for two years and two months I can tell you the BBQ meat was usually pork. Seldom chicken and often dog..That's right..we are talking Rover, Fido, Lassie, Benji, Rin Tin Tin etc..etc.you know woof woof!

I use to know a guy that lived down the street from me named Tom. He was half American (White). He owned a auto repair shop that specialized in VWs and body work. I had him paint my '69 Impala with a Starsky and Hutch stripe and install dual exhaust with glass packs..sweet!. Any way we became friends. One day he invited me to a wedding party for one of his workers.. They had all kinds of great Filipino & American food. I saw something that looked like ribs. So I gathered it up and started to chow down. Tom came up to me and said. "You like those ribs?"
"Yep..They're great"...
"That's aso (dog)" He says.
"Really??!!" I replied.
"It's my guard dogs".."Sarup??" (Taste good?)He ask.
"Yep"
And I continued to chow down

. Oh by the way I had had about 6 or 7 San Miguels (beer) ...

Mas, Mas, mas sarup! (Very,very, very good)

I've got to say that you handled this rather well for a Westerner

.

When I went back to China for the three week vacation I had to go back to visit my grandfather's resting place. There was a small town nearby where they would slaughter livestock like pigs, chickens, ducks, and yes, dogs and hang them on meat hooks outside their houses. I was more disturbed by the facts that the animals were skinned and disemboweled more by the fact that some of them were dogs.

bd popeye · Mar 10, 2013

You meet some real interesting characters while in the service. I had a man work for me in 1981 aboard the America. We shall call him AMS3M. He was a 100% Navajo Native American. the man never got one letter the whole cruise..not one in 7 months. I don't know why. He never murmured or complained. He just did his job. He once told me he like being on the ship..so I had to as AMS3M why is that? He said

1) "It's not far to get to work
2) The mess deck is always open
3) I can eat sliders all day..."

No foolin.

On the Midway I knew a man I'll call AO3G. He loved butane lighters. He had a collection of them. Sometimes you'd walk by his rack and a 6 inch flame would come shooting out. He never did set anything on fire. Close but no cigars.. He just liked to play with butane lighters.

No foolin'

While I was aboard the Hancock in 1974 or 75 I was a member of "Repel Boarders force" . We assisted the Marines in by guarding the movement of "special (nuclear) weapons" and also to assist in the case or riot or mutiny.

Well one evening while inport at NAS Alameda Repel Boarders was called away. We hustled up to the armory to get our weapons.. .12 Gauge shotguns. What had happened was this.The USS Coral Sea was moored across the pier from us. There was a riot in the brig aboard the ship and several brig rats had escaped. the fear was that they may try to board old Hanna...yea right. I was assigned to guard the Quarterdeck embarkation bridge.

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I was standing at the foot of the bridge armed and ready. Eventually after about 40 minutes or so we were secured. The escapees had been captured aboard the Coral Sea and one was found dead..where as he had jumped off one of the aircraft elevators and landed on a camel. Ever see Star Trek IV when LT Pavel Chekov falls of the carrier.? that was a camel he hit. It's a big steel buffer between the ship and the pier.

By the way this scene was filmed aboard the USS Ranger (CV 61)..TG_0...Top Gun of the Pacific Fleet..bar NONE!

bd popeye · Mar 10, 2013

I served on two carriers that lost an anchor while of course anchoring..JFK and America. The Kennedy lost it's anchor while anchoring Cannes France in June of 1973. a salvage ship the USS Opportune recovered the anchor.

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On the America no such luck as to recovering the anchor..the diver went down to look for it and discovered it had fallen into a hole in the ocean floor while anchoring at Misarah..this funky no liberty island in the IO...Masirah is an island off the East coast of Oman.

Interestling When the anchor fell off I thought I may be one of the few in the USN that had served on two carriers that lost anchors. Just so happen that very day the anchor feel off I met another PO1 that had been aboard the USS Franklin D Roosevelt when one of it's anchors fell off..go figure.

bd popeye · Mar 11, 2013

This story below was posted in another forum by an active duty sailor serving on a CVN after reading reading my story about the alcoholic airman..

There are many sad stories about drug and alcohol abuse.

The story about the alcoholic Airman was pretty heartbreaking. We're about to lose a once ABH3 from my division and a Seaman on my ship for smoking that synthetic marijuana, a.k.a. spice. The ABH3 was already on restriction for 45 days and about to be processed out for being caught sleeping during his watch in the Conflag station. Because he'd been late to watches several times in the past, the CO made an example out of him. Anyhow, this fool (as he told us later that he thought he had nothing else to lose because he was already getting kicked out, so why not) decides to miss his restricted personnel muster and goes missing for nearly 5 hours. They call for him over the 1MC (loudspeaker) several times and eventually they had to send out a search party. They find him an hour later in a secured space with the female Seaman, who was also on restriction, and both of them were tripping balls on Spice and pills (don't know what the pills were). Captain's Mast comes and goes, and now he's been demoted to E-2, and on top of all that he's getting a less than honorable discharge. The female Seaman got the same punishment. Because they were using drugs on government property, they say that both of them are facing felony charges and fines. In any case, a very stupid way to end a career. Neither one of them have any clue as to how much they've made their civilian lives difficult.

jobjed · Mar 12, 2013

bd popeye said:
This story below was posted in another forum by an active duty sailor serving on a CVN after reading reading my story about the alcoholic airman..

There are many sad stories about drug and alcohol abuse.

I thought the military was supposed to be a disciplined environment and workplace? Soldiers have the most sacred of duties; to protect their nation from aggression, and they dare to act in such a degrading and undignified manner?

bd popeye · Mar 12, 2013

what you have posted is true. The vast majority of service members perform their duties well..but as in any walk of life you have those that cannot handle the pressure of military life. We use to call them "non-hackers". These are folks that could simply not handle military life. You have to realize that in my friends story the persons he is referring to are more than likely very young. Perhaps 18-20 years of age. Perhaps they were too immature to serve in the military. Fortunatley these days it does not take long to to prune away the bad apples.

Popeye's Sea Stories

Jeff Head

General

Equation

Lieutenant General

Jeff Head

General

bd popeye

The Last Jedi

siegecrossbow

General

bd popeye

The Last Jedi

bd popeye

The Last Jedi

bd popeye

The Last Jedi

jobjed

Captain

bd popeye

The Last Jedi