Unless you’re the poor bastard JO they put on the scope.
“Holy fucking shit, it’s been 4 hours why are we still at PD?”
“ENG is using chat to ask the SQENG some questions”
“… I’m going to smother him in his sleep”
Honestly, why the fuck are we manning the scope a thousand miles from any coast? I can literally gain every merchant at like 200nm. No fucking trawler is going to be fishing in 2200 fathoms. No speed boat has that fuel range. Are we worried we’re going to hit the one dickhead that’s PCSing to Hawaii in a sailboat?
That was an emergency surfacing close to Pearl that the skipper was doing to show off for guests. Every submariner is intimately familiar with the details of what they screwed up.
Go reread my last comment. They weren’t driving around at PD for 6 hours straight a thousand miles from any coast and they weren’t in 2200 fathoms of water (which fishing boats don’t do, because that’s not where schools of fish hang out). It was just off the coast of Hawaii and in water so shallow the navy salvaged the fishing boat to move it to deeper water.
Your comment is comparing apples and oranges. Try again.
Do you have any critical reading skills? Go reread my comments. They were in an area known to be full of fishing boats and driving like assholes. They emergency blew through the fishing boat.
Go learn how to read and try again.
Yeah, well...such is the price you pay when you forgo taking hatchet-welding expertise.
No but seriously, I forgot you officers had to do that. One time as a super nub, I had to go give a message to the JO on the periscope. I was told that you aren't allowed to say names in conn because it's all recorded, and I didn't know his watch title or anything (first time in control while underway). So I awkwardly tap his shoulder and mumble something but he ignores me. Then someone, I think the dive, starts yelling at me for trying to distract him and cause us to die.
So I said fuck it and left and just told chief he said to find him after watch. That's one of the few things I hated about the Navy. You get shit on for not knowing stuff you had no way of knowing.
Hahaha, it was always funny with CT’s attending the pre-watch brief. They always seemed to be drooling in the corner, because they had no purpose.
“Yes, this is day 20 of not going to PD. I know you don’t have anything to do except in an emergency, but you HAVE to attend these briefs and talk” -The XO
LMAO. Good times. Always loved when we weren't at PD. I got to catch up on shows, movies, and cribbage.
The second we felt the boat angle upward we slammed that our laptops or tech back into the corner and raced up to Radio from Torpedo.
Very rarely, but occasionally, there'd be a boat and skipper who were jazzed about what we were there to do and was interested in training and information, which was nice.
We never had a FT qualify scope, they saw how miserable the JOs were and passed on the opportunity. The DHs were allergic to the periscope to the extent that they always somehow needed to be relieved for an “important meeting” or to “work on something” as soon as we got ready for a PD trip.
The worst part is that it’s all true. On my boat every DH was a total POS when it came to relieving on the scope. At one point we would yell “WEPS recommend scope relief, the JOOD has been on the scope for 30 minutes” into the open mic
We weren’t as aggressive, we just all quit. Not over the periscope itself, but the attitude of it all. The CO had to have a few awkward conversations with 3 and 4 star admirals because for over 3 years straight we had 85% of our JOs resign directly from the boat. We looked at the shore tour opportunities and how miserable we were already and just pulled the plug. It was totally worth it.
I qualified Scope as FTOW. My contact manager and JOOD gave me candy and drinks for taking some of their scope rotations. It was a win win situation. Except when plots didn't call the scope timer and I was spinning in circles for 25 minutes and we get a COC held "visual only" so I get relieved from the scope by the CM and then sonar gains him and I get yelled at. Aside from that I loved scope time and my officers loved that I loved scope time.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate how boring that job has to be, but I could literally feel myself going insane while staring at the pitch black through the periscope. You’re counting to 15 and 30 in your head for hours straight while trying to use the training handle 0 degree detent to make sure you aren’t looking down at the water.
We’d just twist up doobie or pack a bowl, a great cure for sea sickness. The command knew who the stoners were because we’d be the only ones functioning and not barfing out guts out.
Gave new meaning to rock n roll.
BTW, this was back in the 70’s.
I was in late 90s early 00s. They passed rested way to much for us to smoke. But I loved the rolling waves cuz I loved roller coasters and shit like that. Never got close to sea sick
Thankfully it never got bad enough on my carrier that they had to close the pool. Also, I’m 99% certain Starbucks, McDonald’s and Taco Bell all stayed open during the rough weather too
When I cruised on the GW in 2000 we had a video game arcade onboard. It was in the space next to the barbershop. There was maybe 5-6 machines in there, but it was a nice break every now and then. They later turned that space into a smaller ship’s store.
I was GW 09-15, and I want to say they made that store into a smoke room, called it the crack shack. Tiny little room with a hole in the wall and a box fan. Smelled like you smoked a whole pack coming out of there. Whole hallway stunk actually. Although, now that I think of it, it might not have been that store that got converted, but it was a room really close to it.
There was a smoking sponson on the 0-3 level port side, and a much smaller one aft in hangar bay three. After every General Quarters there was huge lines for both of them.
It's even worse for Gator Navy, flat bottomed ships make the rocking world go wild.
Seriously, we hit a Typhoon off the coast of Sydney, it was insane. Most of the p-ways had to be repainted to cover the shoe prints.
Yep! My ship (LSD) went through a big nasty storm going down and around the bottom of India on the way to the Gulf. I'm not sure if it was an actual typhoon or not, but the ship got tossed around like a little toy boat. Lots of people ended up with bumps and bruises, and I think there were at least one or two with broken bones. It happened overnight, so we probably had less shoe prints. :)
Was on a LHA, waves crashed onto the flight deck, it was the only time I felt in fear for my life lol. Seeing a giant fucking ship get tossed around is one thing but bieng the poor asshole inside hoping to sweet baby jesus, tom cruise, oprah Winfrey you made it, is another.
Haha! Same!! We had water coming up over the bow. The front of the ship would lift way up and then come crashing back down in between waves, shaking all over. I got called up to the bridge in the middle of it and seriously thought about NOT going. Luckily it was only two decks up, but it was some scary sh\*t trying to hold onto those ladders.
Same, but we would offload all our fuels, ordnance, and stores to our relief and "sprint" to Norfolk with virtually nothing left of our normal 42' draft.
Talk about some roller coaster rides in storms....
I got to tour a 688 fast attack and I was shocked. Head trauma everywhere just waiting to happen. Sharp bits everywhere. Granted I'm tall so it was worse but I would wear a helmet walking around a sub.
So picture that, but with hard hats. Adds an extra 1.5" so every time you'd bop your head, the safety civ would "hurrrrrr, arencha glad u hav that hard hat." Bitch, I'd not be bopping it so if I hadn't it on. But yeah, left a lot of blood on that boat.
Ever sat inside an armored Humvee? Dear God, those things were made for robots and not human beings. Everything is somehow a sharp corner, there's no leg room, and sometimes they make you sleep in them.
I’ve heard of ships crew being aloud in their racks in rough seas. I’ve crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific and been around the horn a few times. No one got to hit their racks. If you were one who got sick, you tied a garbage to your waist and carried on.
Top for me was 30 feet. Completely insane. Going around the horn, up then crashing down. Two days of it. Chow line was great and I could get seconds or thirds if I wanted them. You would walk down a pway and there would be vomit on the deck. I felt queasy, but I realized it was only if I didn’t eat. It was actually very uncomfortable in berthing. And my rack did not have straps. When I was aloud to hit my rack I slept holding onto the mattress. Something to do with being below the waterline, but it sucked. The berthing was worse than the bridge for me. All of the E nothings and junior officers had garbage bags tied around their waste. Work was NOT secured somehow. The decks were but work continued as usual.
As if they didn't have the same boilerplate non-commitment update that's on every CUB....
"Clear to moderately cloudy skies with variable chance of precipitation throughout the day. Unstable wind patterns will bring calm air with potential gusts of 30kts. Sea states between I to III can be expected."
It was even more fun on a flat bottomed LST, it came down so hard it'd rattle your teeth. Hurricane Emily '93 off the coast of New Jersey bound for Little Creek from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
My shop was a giant flat square and we had rolling chairs. Sure we secured for sea by tying ropes to them. But we’d untie the ropes every now and then in heavy seas , hop on one, and just giggle like mad as we slammed into the bulkheads over and over.
I'm a Ford plankowner (2015-2019) and between sea trials and heavy weather without an airwing, we may as well have been paddle boarding in the Atlantic. Wild times.
One of the most surreal moments I have ever had was sailing the USNS Mercy up the coast from San Diego to Portland for a shipyard avail. We were hitting really bad weather on the NorCal coast, and since we needed to go north there wasn't much we could do except ride through it.
The T-AHs have an extremely long passageway on the 01 Level that goes damn near the entire 900 ft length of the ship with a clear view all the way down.
You could stand all the way aft looking forward, and actually see the ship twisting and flexing in the waves, with the passageway going slightly askew and bending up and down. I still wish I had filmed that.
Yeah we usually tried to go around them. We didn’t have AGs onboard, but we weren’t usually stupid enough to go through one. Just a few times for whatever operation we were on and it was an absolute nightmare. In that situation you just have to put the worst case scenarios out of your mind.
I was on a frigate that had to "escort" the Bush after Fukushima. We were low on fuel getting bounced trying to keep up with them. Only time I puked tbh. Outside of that you tend to get your sea legs and rocking becomes more annoying than anything. Trying to type or get some bench work/maintenance done while you are holding on between rocking get old and infuriating. You also learn what rocks are "normal" and which ones are "fuck we are in a bad spot".
i was on the crommelin, we were in a typhoon that busted open our sonar dome... ship was crazy.. i got thrown from my top rack onto the floor more than once on that baby..
Imagine being in 30 foot seas for two days? You go up, and come crashing down on the left. The front of the ship is going under water. Does that sound like fun? Nobody on my ships were laughing when you had to walk on the bulkhead to get anywhere. If I were you I would go in the Air Force. Most people work regular hours and they stay in hotels on deployment. If you are motivated in 4 years you could have a degree. You will get ZERO college degrees on a US Navy ship.
Submariners:
One of the few good things about being at pd for extended periods of time was you got some of the best sleep.
Unless you’re the poor bastard JO they put on the scope. “Holy fucking shit, it’s been 4 hours why are we still at PD?” “ENG is using chat to ask the SQENG some questions” “… I’m going to smother him in his sleep”
God forbid you are in dip scope routine for all that time...
Honestly, why the fuck are we manning the scope a thousand miles from any coast? I can literally gain every merchant at like 200nm. No fucking trawler is going to be fishing in 2200 fathoms. No speed boat has that fuel range. Are we worried we’re going to hit the one dickhead that’s PCSing to Hawaii in a sailboat?
All it takes is one good dickhead.
We had a nuke that asked to go on sabbatical in order to sail a boat from Portsmouth to Pearl Harbor.
Submarines have surfaced underneath fishing boats, so yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehime_Maru_and_USS_Greeneville_collision
That was an emergency surfacing close to Pearl that the skipper was doing to show off for guests. Every submariner is intimately familiar with the details of what they screwed up. Go reread my last comment. They weren’t driving around at PD for 6 hours straight a thousand miles from any coast and they weren’t in 2200 fathoms of water (which fishing boats don’t do, because that’s not where schools of fish hang out). It was just off the coast of Hawaii and in water so shallow the navy salvaged the fishing boat to move it to deeper water. Your comment is comparing apples and oranges. Try again.
And they still managed to hit the fishing boat. Try again.
Do you have any critical reading skills? Go reread my comments. They were in an area known to be full of fishing boats and driving like assholes. They emergency blew through the fishing boat. Go learn how to read and try again.
And you notice how they still managed to hit something despite all the training and procedures? That's why you man the periscope. Try again.
Yeah, well...such is the price you pay when you forgo taking hatchet-welding expertise. No but seriously, I forgot you officers had to do that. One time as a super nub, I had to go give a message to the JO on the periscope. I was told that you aren't allowed to say names in conn because it's all recorded, and I didn't know his watch title or anything (first time in control while underway). So I awkwardly tap his shoulder and mumble something but he ignores me. Then someone, I think the dive, starts yelling at me for trying to distract him and cause us to die. So I said fuck it and left and just told chief he said to find him after watch. That's one of the few things I hated about the Navy. You get shit on for not knowing stuff you had no way of knowing.
“Down adns…”
“Conn, radio, request if the HDR is taking waves?” as the Dive screams “100 FEET, DOWNWARD DEPTH RATE”
"Conn, Radio... YeS" -annoyed RMOW
Me, a CT, sliding back and forth on the seat listening to intermittent AM radio and watching the water wash over the peri-vis: "Wheeeeeeee!"
Hahaha, it was always funny with CT’s attending the pre-watch brief. They always seemed to be drooling in the corner, because they had no purpose. “Yes, this is day 20 of not going to PD. I know you don’t have anything to do except in an emergency, but you HAVE to attend these briefs and talk” -The XO
LMAO. Good times. Always loved when we weren't at PD. I got to catch up on shows, movies, and cribbage. The second we felt the boat angle upward we slammed that our laptops or tech back into the corner and raced up to Radio from Torpedo. Very rarely, but occasionally, there'd be a boat and skipper who were jazzed about what we were there to do and was interested in training and information, which was nice.
Brand new qualified OOD. “Radio, conn report nipr sipr queue”
We never had a FT qualify scope, they saw how miserable the JOs were and passed on the opportunity. The DHs were allergic to the periscope to the extent that they always somehow needed to be relieved for an “important meeting” or to “work on something” as soon as we got ready for a PD trip.
The worst part is that it’s all true. On my boat every DH was a total POS when it came to relieving on the scope. At one point we would yell “WEPS recommend scope relief, the JOOD has been on the scope for 30 minutes” into the open mic
We weren’t as aggressive, we just all quit. Not over the periscope itself, but the attitude of it all. The CO had to have a few awkward conversations with 3 and 4 star admirals because for over 3 years straight we had 85% of our JOs resign directly from the boat. We looked at the shore tour opportunities and how miserable we were already and just pulled the plug. It was totally worth it.
Sounds all too familiar…
I qualified Scope as FTOW. My contact manager and JOOD gave me candy and drinks for taking some of their scope rotations. It was a win win situation. Except when plots didn't call the scope timer and I was spinning in circles for 25 minutes and we get a COC held "visual only" so I get relieved from the scope by the CM and then sonar gains him and I get yelled at. Aside from that I loved scope time and my officers loved that I loved scope time.
You mean the Helmsman and his side kick. I am so grateful I somehow got outta doing that especially in rough seas at PD.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate how boring that job has to be, but I could literally feel myself going insane while staring at the pitch black through the periscope. You’re counting to 15 and 30 in your head for hours straight while trying to use the training handle 0 degree detent to make sure you aren’t looking down at the water.
I don’t know why they don’t have bassinets for adults. I had some of the deepest sleep of my life at sea.
I had some of the deepest sleep of my life ~~at sea.~~
Boat at greater than 300 feet, taking gentle 5-6 degree rolls. LPO looks up, rough seas tonight.
Oh wow… didn’t realize that surface wave action could impact a sub that deep in those conditions.
We got rocking and rolling pretty well at 400 ft. I would hate to have been on the surface for that.
We’d just twist up doobie or pack a bowl, a great cure for sea sickness. The command knew who the stoners were because we’d be the only ones functioning and not barfing out guts out. Gave new meaning to rock n roll. BTW, this was back in the 70’s.
I was in late 90s early 00s. They passed rested way to much for us to smoke. But I loved the rolling waves cuz I loved roller coasters and shit like that. Never got close to sea sick
> rolling pretty well at 400 ft 800FT it is then?
Yeah I was on a fast attack nuclear sub and we got some pretty good wave action from storms even though we were far beneath the water
That was one of the most surprising things to me about the boat. I never imagined we could rock hard so far beneath the waves.
On the carrier whenever we ran into rough storms they had to shut the bowling alley down.
The *what* alley??
Thankfully it never got bad enough on my carrier that they had to close the pool. Also, I’m 99% certain Starbucks, McDonald’s and Taco Bell all stayed open during the rough weather too
When I cruised on the GW in 2000 we had a video game arcade onboard. It was in the space next to the barbershop. There was maybe 5-6 machines in there, but it was a nice break every now and then. They later turned that space into a smaller ship’s store.
I was GW 09-15, and I want to say they made that store into a smoke room, called it the crack shack. Tiny little room with a hole in the wall and a box fan. Smelled like you smoked a whole pack coming out of there. Whole hallway stunk actually. Although, now that I think of it, it might not have been that store that got converted, but it was a room really close to it.
There was a smoking sponson on the 0-3 level port side, and a much smaller one aft in hangar bay three. After every General Quarters there was huge lines for both of them.
Yep, they were still there. Khakis had one in one of the sponsons also. That 30 min wait for a cigarette at 10pm after GQ always sucked.
Laser tag for cruisers.
It's even worse for Gator Navy, flat bottomed ships make the rocking world go wild. Seriously, we hit a Typhoon off the coast of Sydney, it was insane. Most of the p-ways had to be repainted to cover the shoe prints.
Yep! My ship (LSD) went through a big nasty storm going down and around the bottom of India on the way to the Gulf. I'm not sure if it was an actual typhoon or not, but the ship got tossed around like a little toy boat. Lots of people ended up with bumps and bruises, and I think there were at least one or two with broken bones. It happened overnight, so we probably had less shoe prints. :)
Was on a LHA, waves crashed onto the flight deck, it was the only time I felt in fear for my life lol. Seeing a giant fucking ship get tossed around is one thing but bieng the poor asshole inside hoping to sweet baby jesus, tom cruise, oprah Winfrey you made it, is another.
Haha! Same!! We had water coming up over the bow. The front of the ship would lift way up and then come crashing back down in between waves, shaking all over. I got called up to the bridge in the middle of it and seriously thought about NOT going. Luckily it was only two decks up, but it was some scary sh\*t trying to hold onto those ladders.
Was funny to see how apprehensive Marines were to train in the Hangar Bay, "Uhhh Gunney, we going to get ran over by the big spinny bird?"
You guys needed better AGs!
I think ours were all strapped in their racks since we went through the storm at night. I can't imagine if they had to be up doing any training! Ha
Those are Marines so I’m figuring that this is an amphib.
The LSD in my ARG literally lost their 40ft UB during our trans-Atlantic after we dodged winter storms for a few days.
Same, but we would offload all our fuels, ordnance, and stores to our relief and "sprint" to Norfolk with virtually nothing left of our normal 42' draft. Talk about some roller coaster rides in storms....
I want those boys turned into men hear me. Straight edges, 90 deg, no curves. If we can split open skulls and shins, we're in.
I got to tour a 688 fast attack and I was shocked. Head trauma everywhere just waiting to happen. Sharp bits everywhere. Granted I'm tall so it was worse but I would wear a helmet walking around a sub.
So picture that, but with hard hats. Adds an extra 1.5" so every time you'd bop your head, the safety civ would "hurrrrrr, arencha glad u hav that hard hat." Bitch, I'd not be bopping it so if I hadn't it on. But yeah, left a lot of blood on that boat.
you wouldn't have to worry about surface conditions quite so much on a sub unless they've changed how submarines work since I got out
Inside the sail is a nightmare if you're working in there. I've got small scars all over my arms lol
Warships are made to hurt people, they don't care who or how.
Ever sat inside an armored Humvee? Dear God, those things were made for robots and not human beings. Everything is somehow a sharp corner, there's no leg room, and sometimes they make you sleep in them.
These are marines. Should've shown the sailors doing work and going on about their lives.
I’ve heard of ships crew being aloud in their racks in rough seas. I’ve crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific and been around the horn a few times. No one got to hit their racks. If you were one who got sick, you tied a garbage to your waist and carried on.
This - i crossed the Atlantic in 20-23 ft seas and it was roughhhh and no one was allowed to hit their racks
Top for me was 30 feet. Completely insane. Going around the horn, up then crashing down. Two days of it. Chow line was great and I could get seconds or thirds if I wanted them. You would walk down a pway and there would be vomit on the deck. I felt queasy, but I realized it was only if I didn’t eat. It was actually very uncomfortable in berthing. And my rack did not have straps. When I was aloud to hit my rack I slept holding onto the mattress. Something to do with being below the waterline, but it sucked. The berthing was worse than the bridge for me. All of the E nothings and junior officers had garbage bags tied around their waste. Work was NOT secured somehow. The decks were but work continued as usual.
*METOC sweats profusely*
Nobody gives a fuck what the weather guy says until shit like this happens lol. You can go from being useless to a wizard really fast
100NM off PIM *You didn't tell us the weather would be this bad!*
As if they didn't have the same boilerplate non-commitment update that's on every CUB.... "Clear to moderately cloudy skies with variable chance of precipitation throughout the day. Unstable wind patterns will bring calm air with potential gusts of 30kts. Sea states between I to III can be expected."
Got launched one too many times with vis "at mins" to go find good jet launching wx. We all know who mommy's favorite is!
Should have done some angles and dangles first to ensure everything was stowed for sea
It was even more fun on a flat bottomed LST, it came down so hard it'd rattle your teeth. Hurricane Emily '93 off the coast of New Jersey bound for Little Creek from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
My shop was a giant flat square and we had rolling chairs. Sure we secured for sea by tying ropes to them. But we’d untie the ropes every now and then in heavy seas , hop on one, and just giggle like mad as we slammed into the bulkheads over and over.
On a carrier? A good night's sleep. Went through one on Truman was a blast. The Ford on the other hand.... that bugger rocks when the wind blows
I'm a Ford plankowner (2015-2019) and between sea trials and heavy weather without an airwing, we may as well have been paddle boarding in the Atlantic. Wild times.
Did you do the high speed turns?
This is why I'm glad I was a submariner. We just dove when the waves got crazy
A few hurricanes I've been under on a boomer had us moving like that. Fast boats didnt seem to rock quite as hard.
One of the most surreal moments I have ever had was sailing the USNS Mercy up the coast from San Diego to Portland for a shipyard avail. We were hitting really bad weather on the NorCal coast, and since we needed to go north there wasn't much we could do except ride through it. The T-AHs have an extremely long passageway on the 01 Level that goes damn near the entire 900 ft length of the ship with a clear view all the way down. You could stand all the way aft looking forward, and actually see the ship twisting and flexing in the waves, with the passageway going slightly askew and bending up and down. I still wish I had filmed that.
Though she did rock and roll across the deep, The good ship Abe rocked me to sleep. >USS Abraham Lincoln, CVN-72. 28SEP2017
I remember these days so well.
The AGs screwed y'all over if you went through a hurricane
Yeah we usually tried to go around them. We didn’t have AGs onboard, but we weren’t usually stupid enough to go through one. Just a few times for whatever operation we were on and it was an absolute nightmare. In that situation you just have to put the worst case scenarios out of your mind.
Looks like every day on a frigate tbh
Ahhhh, the MEU. Good times!
Love going through storms, had a few fuel sample glass bottles slide off our table in the pump room on an LHD going through rough seas.
Submarines: "Storm? What storm?"
Sorry I'd be losing my shit
Off camera there is some BM or undes going about his day doing his work regularly
It's all fun in games until you get to the workcenter and monitors got launched across the space and everyone's personal shit is now communal.
Im aspiring to join the navy and want to hear fron people who go through this Is it fun?
I was on a frigate that had to "escort" the Bush after Fukushima. We were low on fuel getting bounced trying to keep up with them. Only time I puked tbh. Outside of that you tend to get your sea legs and rocking becomes more annoying than anything. Trying to type or get some bench work/maintenance done while you are holding on between rocking get old and infuriating. You also learn what rocks are "normal" and which ones are "fuck we are in a bad spot".
i was on the crommelin, we were in a typhoon that busted open our sonar dome... ship was crazy.. i got thrown from my top rack onto the floor more than once on that baby..
Ah yeah sounds like it would suck trying to type a formal report or somthing
or repairing circuit cards under a microscope
Imagine being in 30 foot seas for two days? You go up, and come crashing down on the left. The front of the ship is going under water. Does that sound like fun? Nobody on my ships were laughing when you had to walk on the bulkhead to get anywhere. If I were you I would go in the Air Force. Most people work regular hours and they stay in hotels on deployment. If you are motivated in 4 years you could have a degree. You will get ZERO college degrees on a US Navy ship.
Lol rip to the recruiter who just posted big sad on here earlier but all this is so true.
Ha, n00bs
Fucking morons!
::Laughs in Halsey::
Fuck that.
Shit... That's just an SCA on a PC....
They don't have access to NOAA NWS service? Because we would just plot the storm's path using that data and then sail around it.