7/4/05

KP Note: Thanks Mike for some great scans.

Dear King Paul, More to follow. 

1. Class 70-3. I will send you as many names as I have. This might be a test for the senior citizens. look at our non-regulation hair, and beards, and side burns. 

(Clicko a enlariamento)

2. Not good if detached: The pay scales are from 1970, and 1971. I joined for the $125 a month, I needed the money. Later in 1970 after "A" school we were all automatically promoted to MM3 and got $235 a month. In 1973 when I went over four and collected my reenlistment bonus for the added two years I got $4,860.00 which was 10 times my monthly base pay. The Navy handed out 60% that year and 40% the following year. I kept it in twenty dollar bills in my steaming locker in 3 RAR, the safest place on the ship. 

(&c.)

Best Regards, Mike Gunn

Here are names for Pic 1:

7/6/05

Seeing the pay scales for the early 70s had me thinking.... what did we make in the late 80s? I think as an E-5, with sea pay and pro-pay, we earned somewhere in the upper $500s per month (or was that every two weeks?)  Who remembers what they earned as a swabbie?  I'm also curious as to what today's sailors earn.  

KP

7/6/05

KP Note: Wow, my contemporaries still in (assuming over 20, and at least E7) are doing pretty well. As was the case in our time, sea pay was/is the kicker. I still remember the "big" raise I got when I went over 3 in Sea Pay.  It made more of an impact on my drunken wanderings than going from E4 to E5 or even E5 to E6.  But, like I said, I forget all the details. 

Actually the gumby was Jerry Petro. Unless I'm mistaken. I'd swear it was him though. Maybe he was still in RT at that time. I doubt it though, unless he had gone to MAA too.

Louie Wingo

7/7/05

KP Note: He might have been but I can't remember for sure.  I can picture that RC nub though.  He was this real smartass kid, but, maybe it was Petro.  Jerry---you read this site---was it you?

Dan Swidrak dswidrak@insituform.com

RM-22 1995 - 1999

7/7/05

KP Note: I'm confused by the test but I figure anyone named Mike currently serving in three plant has a pretty good chance of winning this relic. Good luck!

I was in RM-23 from 1992-1996 and I think that your site is great. Please add my e-mail strangefamily@peoplepc.com to the roster. The stories have been a great reminder of the shit that happened long ago.

Jeff Strange (Formally MM1 Jeff Strange)

7/8/05

Who was Gumby?

William (??)Overton was an MM assigned to 3MMR (EM23). He got the name "Gumby" but I don't know how he got the name.

There was a long running thread in the EM23 "knub book" (steamside "dopey book") about the adventures of "Gumby" who was always being beaten down by none other than "Ole King Paul" his-self.

It started when a certain KP made an entry advising Gumby that if gumby didn't watch himself, Kp was gonna "Bust his hub" ( hence the term "Hubbuster").

I don't think anyone in 3MMR ever figured out who "King Paul" really was. After KP's initial entry, I began drawing full color (pencil) cartoons depicting King Paul busting Gumby's "hub."

The cartoons caused a lot of discussion, investigation and finger pointing into the true identity of "King Paul." Every once in a while KP would come back and make another hit and run entry (in his own hand writing) which really added to the confusion.

Nitro

7/8/05

KP Note: Yez indeed 'ol King Paul did give poor "gumby" Overton a hard time.  There were actually several guys nicknamed Gumby in those latter 80s.  Many in 2 plant will remember that certain RM22 person called Gumby (Quiz--Quick, name him!).  I remember living in fear that the 3-plant steam side guys would find me messing with their "knub book" and beat me senseless because not only was I an RE----, I was a lowly nub!  There was no bigger taboo in them days than reading and/or writing in a dopeybook if you were a nub.  I can't remember why Nitro and I decided to zero in on Overton for abuse.  I think we were all in RT together.   

I was in EM14 from 1993 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2001.

email address is kennethhayes@eastman.com

7/9/05

KP,

Here's the final photo of my Shit River series. I got this photo off the "Subic Bay Revisited" website. (Your readers might want to check it out.) Since this is an aerial photo it gives an interesting new perspective to the Main gate area.

At some point the vacant lot on the Olangapo side of the bridge had some sort of carnival. I believe this was on the '74 cruise but I could be mistaken about the time. (This could be a brain fart on my part. It wouldn't be my first.) If your objective was to get your pocket picked, this was THE place to go.

The centerpiece of the carnival was a small Ferris wheel. This was a rickety and unsafe contraption and if OSHA ever inspected it I'm sure that they would have found at least a hundred reasons to shut it down. It was evidently sized for children or small Filipinos. It definitely was not built with American adults in mind. With all that going against the machine, once alcohol entered the equation, a number of squids just had to brave a ride, usually on a dare. What idiots! (I still remember the first time I rode the damn thing. After one creaky, jerky revolution I sobered up and was scared shitless. I began begging the operator to let me the f**k off.)

Ex- squids I've talked to over the years may have forgotten a lot about their time in the Nav, but NOBODY ever forgets that walk across the bridge!

PP

7/13/05

Some of us have already shared this, but those of you who need a reason to kick up some memory buds, how about answering this week's question:  When was your first time across the Shirt River, and what did you remember most about it? I think I've already shared my adventure in my Mooj writings (it was during the lockdown of '86; and my time across the river was short as my steamin' mates and I were too afraid to stay in town with all the trouble brewing.  It seemed too quiet.)

KP

7/13/05

I remember Overton but I don't remember what he looks like. I went back to page 15 to see the EM-23 crew from just before I left. Is he the guy in the upper right? 

Chester

7/13/05

KP Note: I think he was but Nitro will have to say for sure.  This may be a sensitive topic, but was Overton the guy who became seriously ill (meningitis?) during the latter half of the '86 cruise?  I'm not sure what happened to him.

7/14/05 

(Click to enlarge)

This story comes from the psycho 70's- the daze before all the wimmens and pc crud got hold o' me navy...Well now one of the questions asked of you when you (joined/got drafted/got hauled out of your jail cell) was : are you a homosexual or have you ever engaged in homosexual activity? The canoe club was pretty uptight about being infiltrated by butt pirates at that time. I remember being parked, as a company, beside the entrance to the chow hall at Great Lakes. We were waiting our turn to go chow down and as we were relatively new, the older companies went ahead of us. A couple of senior companies show up as we are waiting and our CC decides to show off his parking prowess by sticking 80 guys in a 12 foot square. Naturally he had parked us on top of the grates which covered the grease pits (which i thought was the nastiest odor i ever encountered till i hit the PI), and proceeds to bellow the dreaded order "NUT TO BUTT GODDAMMIT...CLOSE IT UP...NUT TO BUTT AND I MEAN TIGHT!" " Holy shit these guys stink " I thought to myself as groans and grumbles filled the air. CC says "We're gonna find out if we have any queers in this outfit! If anybody feels a boner, SING OUT!" He's at the back of the company pushing with all his might to cram us all in there. I thought to myself "Well these navy fellows sure have no time for homos."

Fast forward about 8 months. Somewhere in the south china sea, standing a midwatch on the signalbridge with my new crazy fuckin friend whom i'll call Harry. We were both bored to tears; no ships around, the lifer section leader won't let us in the shack. So there we was laddies, looking for some goddamn thing to pass the time till morning. Well on the same level as our signal bridge was an outcropping on the island called PRIMARY FLIGHT. Basically it was the aircraft control tower for the ship. Now the guys who worked in there were a prissy bunch at best and never acknowledged our presence one way or the other. They went in, locked the doors behind 'em and you never saw them till the watch changed. Harry and I had noticed that on a night like this; no flight ops, it was strange to hear music thumping out of PRI-FLI. We also heard some stranger sounds; I shall not elaborate. The windows of PRI-FLI were the thickass bulletproof type that were also on the bridge and had blackout curtains that were pulled all the way down. Our curiosity got the better of us and we both shinnied out on the little window washers catwalk to a spot where the curtain had pulled away from the window just a tad , and peeked in.

Boy was that a mistake. What befell our young eyeballs was a pile of squidly homos all wrapped up like fishing worms in a can. Harry and I nearly knocked each other off that catwalk scrambling back to the 0-12 level. Shocked as we were, we could not articulate to each other what we had just witnessed , but each knew that the other had seen exactly what he had seen. Not knowing what the hell to do , we bumped into each other for a while, all the while laughing our fool asses off. Finally , Harry, being the senior man, made the right call. He called the dreaded MAA's , the piggy boys of the boat, and told them of the fudge packers partying like hell in PRI-FLI. Now normally it would take an MAA fatass about three days to get up to the sigs bridge, but on this mission I think they made in about 4 minutes, all huffin and puffin with their fat red faces- man it was a hoot ! You would have thought they had Dillinger cornered or some such. Well I tell you -they had that rats nest cleared out in 3 minutes flat-hauled all their asses down to the flight deck, fired up a chopper and they were gone in about 15 minutes. So I guess the nav could move pretty fast when it came to stuff like that.

SKATERATE

7/14/05

I don't think it was a 3 planter who got the meningitis. I also think the picture on pg 15 was taken after 86 cruise. I do remember taking the pills they gave out and I believe that guy was medically discharged because of hearing loss due to meningitis. I wish I could remember his name. He went to sickbay on the weekend and they sent him to bed with a cold and to come back Monday if still not feeling well. He probably would not of been too bad if they had caught it then.

Chester

7/15/05

KP Note: From what I recall the guy went to sick bay with a 106-degree temp and was told to come back the next morning for sick call.  He went back to his rack and almost died.  The corpsman was written up for dereliction of duty.  This was a big event on the ship so I'm sure someone remembers who it was.  I know the guy was an M-D'ver from aft group.  

KP/Lads, M-Div. berthing, aka "the Coop", was quite an active place between the hours of 1600-2200, with numerous and various goings on. Starting at 1600, there would be the influx of guys getting off watch and hanging out until chow, shooting the sh*t, playing cards, writing letters, etc. Once chow started, the place would empty out for about an hour, then most people would return to get choice seats for the evening movie, which usually started at 2000. Like most berthing areas, there was a permanent stench of dirty laundary and cigarette smoke which one got used to after a while. The "lounge" had seats for about 25 guys, and if you left your seat without asking someone to save it for you, you lost your seat-that was the rule. On one occasion, a non-nuke who was 6'6". and about 260lbs, left his seat and wandered off into the berthing area, so l took the seat. A few minutes later, Goliath comes back and wants his seat back. Not wanting to pull rank for something as miniscule as this, l grudgingly gave up the seat as a fight was out of the question-one of the few times l backed away from an altercation, pissed off to the max! Once the movie started and you didn't have a seat, you were either in your rack or participating in the other activities throughout the berthing area. l recall one guy from my ER who was dubbed BFMA (pronounced "biff-muh=boy face, man arms; as he had a boyish look and really hairy arms) would always watch the movie with his mouth totally agape-would have provided a safe haven for flies! Then there were the usual shoot the sh*ts here and there; then there would be some folks getting high (usually two asses hanging out of a middle rack, a smell of cologne in the area: and the clicking of a bic lighter); in another area you could hear magazine pages being turned, and if you were unfortunate enough to walk by, you might have looked up to see this clown "spanking his fish" with his light on and curtain agape while holding his girlie magazine (aka f**kbook)! Jesus, man, have some couth!!

But the most hilarious thing l ever observed down there were the tickle fights between Paulie Stock (aka the "Stork") and Stu Page (aka "Burt Reynolds" Page, or "BRP"). These fights consisted of trying to poke your fingers through the other persons ribs. These two characters would have crazed looks on their faces with bulging eyes as they bad-mouthed each other (in a joking manner, of course), and they would chase each other around the berthing area for hours! l spoke with PP on this and he recalled one episode where they were "fighting" as PP went down on watch; 4 hours later when PP returned, they were still going at it! l decided l wanted to get involved one night, so l confronted the Stork (who used to be a high school shop teacher and had incredibly strong fingers!) who made short work of me-a few stabs of his steel-like fingers and l knew l was out of my league! And BRP was a body builder so he was no slouch either. Of course, you would have had to have been there to appreciate the humor in this, but, seeing the looks on their faces and the things they were saying to each other still makes me chuckle to this day.

4MMR Willy

7/19/05

Some remembrances… and questions… from 74 WestPac…

by Jules J. LaMontagne, ET1 RPO/RT, 3 Plant

How about the young black guys jumping overboard in the Straights of Malacca? Every time through, in either direction, we would have a man overboard drill and the associated headcount. Do you guys remember? It was a different time then regarding racial relations.

About the Neutron Lifecycle equation, the “Every Little Fuck’in Polack loves…”, didn’t we call those “Horses” - those word games to remember stuff…. Like “Eli the Ice Man”. I remember we had a “horse” to identify the loads/CB’s on the local A/C distribution panel… so we could trip stuff in the dark. I can’t recall the words… maybe the 90/00 guys would know.

Many individuals are not in the 74 Cruisebook, sad to say, mine too. I had to depart somewhere near the Cruise end… my Dad passed away and the USN and Red Cross flew me home… and I missed the picture taking. But there are far too many omissions in the book as I see it. It seems, all the guys transferred off up to post Mauritius return to PI have been missed.

Does anyone know what happened to our 3 Plant Chief Jackie Crawford? He was good to all the new guys and generally very well liked, funny, friendly and low pressure. He personally worked me over when I was a wog at the Equator crossing.

By the way, I have not seen this mentioned yet anywhere, but as we crossed the Equator on 15 Jan 75 and had the requisite festivities, there was a subsequent rash of problem knee infections. I know, it included me and I think Paul Burke. Some sort of bacteria got into or just grew in the food tubes we had to crawl through, and the knees were already scratched up by the non-skid, and then the infection came about. I was hurting for a couple weeks. Some cases were real serious.

What’s the last name of Pete, the ET1 in RT Div late 73… blond, funny, friendly, smiley type? I think he and Al Drennan were friends.

Now Al Drennan was something special. By the way, these guys are not in the Cruisebook, Al and Pete, but Al was on the Cruise for sure. Drennan gave the required course on STD and it’s prevention - he was hilarious. I came across him in 87 or so near Pottstown, PA at the Limerick Plant continuing with the ET stuff and his Corvette!

I also came across 3 Plant ET Richard Glanc, at SCE’s SONGS - an RPO doing AOK in 85. He was still trying to learn Tagalog!

I have been fortunate enough to have returned to the PI for a period of 3 years… came home once… worked as Project Manager on the Malampaya Gas Project and the associated Ilijan Power Project. It was heaven - 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002. Look this Project up on the Internet, keyword “Malampaya” .

Does anyone remember the Oakland Raiders? Of course we all do! For nearly a year, I shared a beach front apartment in Alameda on Shoreline Drive alternately with Mike Peckham, Steve Newton and Richard Privett. Our immediate neighbors were Dave Casper [TE], Mark Van Eaghan [FB], Dave Humm [QB] and other Raiders. No kidding! I was fortunate to get Raider tickets to the Coliseum often. It was a blast.

PP, Steamer, Gunn, and Willy keep up the great work!

More later,

Your Shipmate, Jules

7/19/05

7/20/05

Hi, I just noticed that my old email address is still listed on your site. The new one is russ.e.leese@lmco.com

Thanks, Russ Leese RC-11 1983 - 1986

7/21/05

King Paul,

Great site! This is the site I have been looking for! I want to register my info on the site and have already emailed a bunch of folks listed on the site.

Douglas Ortego Reactor Electrician in 3 Plant 1974-1978 Electrical Instructor in the RT VOID 1978

Have been at Waterford 3 Nuclear Station since July 1978, during its construction. I performed the first control rod startup on Waterford 3! Initial criticality was by boric acid dilution as is normal with new fuel loads in commercial PWR's, for those who "left the business." That was 1985. Got my SRO in 1986. Shift Manager 1990 to 2000. Assistant OPS Manager 2000-2003. Now a Work Week Manager in Planning and Scheduling Dept.

dportego@bellsouth.net dortego@entergy.com

Email welcome from all!

Douglas Ortego

7/21/05

KP Note: Be great to read even more sea stories, as I know them Vinson boys were no slouches.  I wrote back to Mike and shared what I know about websites, however limited that is (I'm vintage 1999 with my technical know-how).  If anyone can think of something to help Mike get started, please do so.

KP,

I know many 60's, 70's, 80's and even 90's "Big E" guys have many 35mm slides that are catching dust.

I found a great low cost place for full service conversion to digital... including individual slide cleaning and post digitizing color corrections if necessary.

See web site: http://www.saugus.net/Photos/scanning.shtml#anchor10621

Thanks, Jules.

7/25/05

KP Note: Jules is also looking for Paul Burke's email.  The one listed is out of date.  Anyone keeping tabs on our Paul these days?  Paul, if your out there I have an email from Jules for you.

Please update my email it is mchnoland@insightbb.com

Thanx 

Mike Noland RC14 81-85

7/26/05

7/26/05  

from Jules, re: Locomotion

I remember "Locomotion"! His frontend sandals were cut up tire treads... and man o' man was he dirty. I don't think he was the self-mutilated type street beggar, but rather just a birth deformity. He was bad... and do you remember how low to the ground he was?

I have some great pics coming from 35mm slides of groups of us drinking at the sidewalk cafe of that downtown main street hotel. I'll get them posted soon.

Jules

7/26/05

Regarding the deceased list... Mark C. Schultz, RM Div, passed away 1996

Does anyone know the year Mark was aboard. I recall a blond RM type in RT in mid 74... he was soon transferred. Is this the same guy? Think! Send a comment on Mark.

Thanks, Jules

7/26/05

About Mark Schultz. Yes I remember Mark back in 3 plant and in the RT void. I believe he was from Phoenix. I bet Ron Ogan remembers him well. We all worked on the 1 plant steam generator eddy current testing/tube plugging in 1974. They hauled all us RT students and instructors down there do that project while underway. The mechanics installed the shielding up on the tube sheet and wimps like me got to do the eddy current testing. Paul Burke stood on his own air hose, started gasping for air, and pulled his plastic hood off inside the steam generator. NICE!

If Mark died in 1996 thats just too damn young. For those of you who remember Dan Hoggarth, an ELT, he drowned in a boating accident on the Columbia River several years ago. He was in RP at what used to be WPPS (Whoops!) but is now the more politically correct Columbia Station. His body was never recovered.

More about the Daisy Chaining Homos up on the O-11 level:

I remember that episode clearly and clearly remember one of the guys who got caught. Joe Vierra and I were benchpressing one day. Two guys are using the bench next to us. While on the bench one of the guys next to us tells his buddy to hurry up cuz he's just sitting on the bench. The guys say, "No, I want to watch him." meaning me! I looked over and its a little Hispanic dude and he's wearing eye makeup! WTF!!!!!!!!!!???????????

Joe and I were not the types to let something like that pass but I swear I can't tell you what happened next, just can't remember. Anyway, he was one of the dudes who "vaporized" off the ship soon after.

Doug

7/27/05

I have been at Entergy's Waterford 3 nuclear plant since 1978 when I left the Tuna Boat. I was in Waterford's Operations department for 25 of those years. We have a good mix of ex navy nukes, college boys, and hard knocks petrochemical guys here. We ex nukes dominate of course. So much so that OPS has had their own Dopey Book as far back as I can remember. We call it the VNOB, vindictive night order book. Its kept down in its not-so-secret hiding place in the non-licensed operators office. Its exactly what you would expect it to be. "Cruel but Fair" we like to say. And, as always, "Exploit all weaknesses actual or perceived!" We in OPS management know about it of course because our entries are still in there!!

Its so much a part of our OPS culture that we have an electronic "clean" version of it linked to our official department website! It started as an anonymous way to ask the boss questions, but sometimes degenerated and got a little "unprofessional." So understanding nukes the way we do, we gave them "The Locker Room." Our web master keeps out profanity and vulgarity of course as it is a company website. Otherwise we lettem run! The nuke imagination is a beautiful thing as you know.

We think its a healthy thing and has withstood some real management opposition in the past, but still remains. "They ain't happy if they ain't bitchin Boss."

Big D

7/27/05

7/27/05  

7/28/05

KP/Lads, l recently signed on to Ancestry.com to research my great grandfather's Civil War records and somehow stumbled upon a long lost cousin whom l had neither seen nor spoken to. We have since made contact and it just so happens that her son, my second cousin, one William Isbell, served aboard "E" from 81-83 as an ABE in V-2 division, so he was ship's company, and was on board when Rim -Job Kelly was CO, and when he got "E" stuck in the mud in San Francisco Bay. l can't begin to say how proud l was to find this out. At the same time my cousin Kay had the Civil War records for my grandfather-life is good!!

4MMR Willy

7/29/05

KP,

Where has the time gone? I'm not referring to my time on the Big E, I'm referring to your awesome site. I just got on your site and started looking through some of the great stories, and the next thing I knew, 3 hours went by. My name is Tim O'Grady. I was in RM11 from 93-97 and then RM23 from 01-04. More than likely I'll end up there for a third tour before I'm done. I've seen a lot of familiar names that have brought back memories and gave me some laughs. Please add my name to the list. And also for the memoriam could you add Preston Crews. I can't remember when he passed away, but it was around 2000.

playbowlin@yahoo.com

7/29/05

7/30/05  

Howdy there- The name's Mike Brockman. I hit my EAOS on 7/6/05 and I'm a happily unemployed CIVLANT (Civilian Atlantic Fleet) transfer living in Oklahoma. Left the Enterprise as the Bull Nuke 3rd, a faithful member of both the Aft Shack and the Radcon Tech office. I just found this site 2 days ago and have been panning through ever since. Finally got to page 39. I think I started taking notes page 8 or 9ish, so my nub-civilian ass can help with any unanswered questions about modern life onboard. Page 39 tripped me out a bit- I'd like to answer the quiz at the top from Mike Gunn first off-

1. No, EAOS 7/6/05. 2. Bull 3rd to be exact, a term cooked up when the Rx Dept MMCM started calling himself the bull nuke a few years back. (He was an Airwing CMC on his next command... Onboard some ship called the USS Enterprise. Not much liked by the Radioactive community prior to that either.) In retaliation for his self-generated sub name, we took it upon our grubby blueshirt selves to each name ourselves bull-something or other. I was awarded the coveted bull 3rd title almost a year ago and loved to refer to myself as such. 6 years of naval service, 5 1/2 as a 3rd class (ELT MM3, as my trusty stencil name states). 3. Yes I was. 4. I was the best 3 Decon owner ever, and stayed a self proclaimed 3 plant ELT until the bitter end. Not a mechanic, though... 5.1 yes (+5) 5.2 yes (+8) 5.3 yes (+15) 5.4 ... close but no cigar... (0 points. But I have stories...) 6. Damn. However I have all the intention of sending off care packages once the Big E goes back out to sea. If you'd like me to pick out a worthy recipient I can do that and send the ship's mailing address for you...

This site is pretty awesome- right now my roommate was a former pipeline buddy off the Stennis. A buddy in the next town over from here was an Aft ELT with me, so lots of story sharing there. I'm going to try and decode my illegible notes now-

E=MC2x40... As it was, the original picture was scheduled to be taken on 9/12/01. Obvious scheduling conflict aside, it was taken once we were on our way back across the Atlantic several months later. REA dep't was supposed to have sent up enough white hats to build a formidable letter in this rare tribute to us. In standard Nuke fashion, though, barely enough nukes showed up to make the X. In fact, a line of Deckhands the 'M' was called over to make our Nuke X a little less skimpy. If not for 9/11 I would be writing this as a certified shellback. As it is the 65 never made it across the equator in either of my med cruises ('01, '03-'04). But I've now been apart of 2 infamous nuke body pictures; this one, and my Power school class was apart of a big huge 100,000 taken in Goose Creek, SC upon the 100,000 nuke pipeline graduate NPTU ceremony. I was the in the 1st '0' with a skull and crossbones painted in sharpie marker on my white hat. Unfortunately I've never been able to show my mom, as this photo has never resurfaced anywhere for me.

Rx Fill initiation- event from the '01 med cruise. Not onboard when the poor RO flipped the wrong switch, however I was able to observe an ELT souvenir from the event. Not many people know that the ELT's soon after took a VCC from the infamous event. Nicknamed R__n's pet, it was stored in the Aft Shack source locker for months before discovery. Pegged out the frisker. Sweet!

Plastic panels and bronze ones alike throughout the plants still retain gobs of porn and interesting sayings. Rich Campbell, from page 30- I'm assuming since you were a 1 planter this wasn't about you, but somebody from the early 80's named Campbell was a Fag. Says so on all kinds of placards all over an aft EOS.

Waking up female reliefs for late watches. Usually there was somebody up or in the lounge in female berthing, but as a frequent LRPT, on several occasions I did have to do the whole knock and enter and announce 'male on deck'. Usually my knocking and yelling was enough to wake the slumbering she-bagger.

Although the '02-'03 EDSRA was probably the worst in CVN-65 civil rights history (a page full of stories in itself), we did get a new understanding for it bringing out the craziness in us nukes who survived, (if we did). Apart from the all-too-usual suicide attempts and psyche discharges and hospital visits during the shipyard, the nukes preparing to transfer that were sent to mast for putting in their transfer paperwork, and the 1 hour of every day that was dedicated to propulsion plant masts (NO SHIT) on the CO's green sheet- -me takes a deep breath now- the paranoid mindset was all too evident when the first set of workups saw a nuke mechanic throw himself over the side. Kinda puts a damper on carrier quals for the day! Gotta turn back and pick up the kid now! Suffice to say, CDR Sharpe, if you're still alive GO TAKE A FLYING FUCK AT A ROLLING DONUT!

There, I feel better :)

Gremlin Fighters (n): army men which repeatedly fend off gremlins with alarming success, they are often discovered and subsequently removed by various NRRO, MTT and ORSE agents in an effort to 'level the playing field'. This makes other ships' nukes look comparable to ours. (Also see 'chicken bones and voodoo manuals which run LPACs', 'full scale airports ontop of decon rooms' and 'wooden buddhas in the RC, you sick fuck that makes ELT's life hell, whoever you were but I'm sure you meant no harm at the time, but you're still a bastard', etc...) It was rumored that once ORSE had constructed a POW camp for all of the gremlin fighters they would find onboard.

Time trials during '03-'04 med cruise workups. The skipper, much to our dismay, announced the fast speed over the 1MC to all hands (ship's force and civilian shiprider alike), as 3_ knots. I may or may not have read the speed-o-meter a knot or 2 faster on my own excursions, but she isn't going to get much faster than that anymore.

Waterline. As an extremely diligent Tanks and Voids PO in the Radcon office my last year onboard, I was able to discern a rough waterline as anywhere from several feet off the 4th deck to a foot or two below it. All based on the current ship's loading (Air Wing VS no Air Wing) and whichever body of water we happened to be stuck in at the time (Temp and Salinity).

Pneumonics- my favorite was a prototype one I got off an old ELT chief for SG analyses- "Cher's Nice Pink Pussy Tightens During Orgasm". Only works on MARF and a handful of Subs anymore, unfortunately.

Bobby Hood, never met you but heard some stories, most involving baseball games, beer and hawaiian shirts. Yes, MMCS Brane is still with MTT. I missed Wittkopp and Moody as well. I knew 'the informant' fairly well, Donny, as he got out a fellow 3rd class just months prior to me. My old LCPO took him to mast for one-upping him while standing a perfectly diligent SRO. Stood many a LRPT to his RO/SRO.

If you were a 2 plant RM who got more exposure than you thought you should have, then you probably shouldn't have been hanging out at the steps at the bottom of 2RARLL so much. I found a hotspot under the deckplates there. Much >100 mr/hr. So now you know. She's was my baby. Then shipyard came along and took her away. I was heartbroken. I found alot of Hotspots, actually...

Moody, you wanted to know what they fed those S/G's to make them so unhappy? So's I heard through the grapevine, a certain MMCM A would occasionally come off his Aft-shack hating rants long enough to brag about the formidable sleaze in HIS day. Apparently the phosphate specifications at one time were no match for the much easier underground specs dreamed up by the old blueshirts. Not so much 'what' they fed them, as it was 'how much'. Somewhere in there an upper limit of 1000 was mentioned. Unofficial, of course, cause there's no way a guy who hated me as much as he did would leak that in front of me. I heard this through reliable sources after the fact.

By the way, we never had free caustic samples come out of the reboiler. Never. And I don't think it comes as any surprise that nobody ever fed jellybeans or diet pepsi's to the poor bastard boiler ever, either. Craziness.

As it is I like to brag, and let me now state for the record that qualifying ESWS is mandatory for all squids now. I believe I may be one of the last sailors ever on the pig to go a full tour and get off without qualifying ESWS. Had my card signed off my first med and I managed never to get shoved into a board or test. If it weren't mandatory I believe I may have been one of the first of my class of 12 to qualify. Making something mandatory somehow just fucks it all up for everybody.

Page 35: Throttleman question about the shiny thing under the throttles, yes Mark that is the WD alarm. Although I never qualified throttleman, (the EM's, ET's and non-ELT MM's in REA Dep't are responsible for TH posts throughout their respective plants now), I stood enough LRPT to know that was the Wrong direction alarm, while the EOT Bell was the round shiny thing over to the left a bit more in that picture.

Page 36: There is no #1 pump room, yes, the #2 pump room is the forward one in the front of the ship you have to crawl down 5 sets of ladders to get to. Tanks and Voids PO comes in handy again.

I have a question for anybody in the 90's. What was the excuse for the BITCH badges the nub drill team kids had to wear? I know there was some sort of pneumonic that was drill team related, end result a shit-ton of nubs had to go around a whole MTT serving on the drill team with a badge that read BITCH. On a similar note, P.O. FUBIS was once given a BZ by the drill team for his stellar performance on drills. FUBIS means F**k yoU Bitch I'm Short, once worn on an old pair of coveralls reserved for painting and bilge diving. For short timers, one would assume. Seems like the bilge diver came to the rescue one afternoon...

Too many stories to tell tonight, I hope some of these paragraphs help out with past questions a little. I won't get into females in the Navy too much, but first a statistic: My brother, Dave was a nuke going through NPS back in the early 90's. The attrition rate was ~%75. I went through in 2000, the attrition rate more like %25 now. I believe my recruiter, nuke waste and loving it, would attribute these 2 statistical deviations to NPS Orlando being a helluva better time than NNPTC Goose Creek, SC. Attrition in 2005? what's attrition?! But I digress- Female attrition in 2000: ~%80. Less than half of that was academic, even less behavioral. I would like to sum up my thoughts with a fun little modern colloquialism:

PREGOSAURUS: (n)- the parasitic female form which feeds on all good deals, monetary bonuses and cushy jobs that the Navy would theoroetically afford hard-working and deserving individuals.

Yes my email address is ftn_paperclip@yahoo.com. Figure that one out! (People Against People Ever Reenlisting. Civilian Life Is Preferred.) Well, I hope this makes it onto the page. I'll try and come up with a few new-navy recollections for your page soon. I've got quite a store of them. Until then, keep up the good work- -Brockman

P.S.- pics as follows: 1. View of ship from flight deck during '04 Summer Surge Cruise. 2. Birthday cake I drew up for 3 Plt Rx reaching 10,000 first. 3. Old RL Admin office door sign (removed years ago but kept to this date. Note the yellow Pb beaker and green turbidity. ELT's should understand the significance of these, and it has nothing to do with radioactivity). 4-6. Two pages of the Big Egg, a short run underground newspaper run during the beginning of the '03-'04 med workups/ med cruise. The first was an account of a fire truck we lost when an airdale drove it over the side (nobody was hurt). The second being a special request chit found by the admiral during a space inspection. He bottom lines the chit for "life to get better after ORSE', quite provisionally, of course. But he answered, which was pretty awesome. Admiral Jim Stavridis, so loved by the blueshirts that 1 SSTG has been renamed in honor of him! And lastly an article written about the spoils of sea time for the losers, and an account of the Gibraltar Straits passing, told in the form of a Captain's Log entry. Cute. 7-9. Drawings from my unfinished pass-down log to the next Tanks and Voids PO. I made a power point presentation inlieu of the lengthier Seuss book. 10. Familiar sight, I'm sure for most of you. Liberty boat shot of the fantail, taken in my last port call of Portsmouth, UK. 11. Familiar sight, I'm sure for those of you lucky enough to have been an east coast Enterprise sailor. Blurry shot taken from the sandbox, not sure why it turned out so accurately, but drinking in the sandbox was quite prevalent. In lieu of exotic asian or even european ports, the typical east coast target-sailor hits the port of Jebel Ali (Dubai) many, many times in his/her time onboard (Dubai was still by far my favorite port!)

KP Note: Pics may not be in exactly same order Mike describes, as I basically organized and fit them before reading descriptions. Thanks for photos Mike! 

Note: Big Eggs appear on next page.

Let's Ramble ....

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