tbm3fan
Old Man with a Hat
Those in the military have always had good stories. A forum I frequent has a thread of them that had been dormant for awhile and I forgot about it. It just recently came back up as a new story was added. Thread is long but well worth it if you like great stories.
This one is from a Navy Captain I knew. Went to my cross town rival Catholic high school in San Diego and married a girl from my high school. His Dad was career Navy starting in 1938. He was also career Navy for 21 years as a Surface Warfare Officer. Reading the new story made me go back in time some as he passed away suddenly at the age of 59 awhile back. He had great stories but never got them all up.
Stories!
Here is one:
OK, I haven't told a story in a while, and since reading something the other day about ex-USS Constellation (CV 64) being towed down to Texas to be cut up for scrap, I feel moved to relate one of those "Ah shits" that might ruin a career if one is not among the chosen few who have been predetermined for four stars.
Anyway, the second of the three COs I worked for in Constellation was this gentleman, then Captain Leon A. "Bud" Edney.
You can read the bio at the link. For me, he was one of the finest men I ever knew or worked for. Not necessarily the easiest guy to work for, but usually for a reason. I will tell you one thing. I am a retired Captain because he took an interest in my career as an Ensign, and never failed to have his Flag Aid or Chief of Staff contact me whenever a promotion or administrative board was coming due, in case I wanted him to write a letter for me. I did that once, when in the midst of the post-Desert Storm draw down and administrative boards for selection to XO and CO were getting really dicey. He took care of me.
So anyway, back in the deployment from hell during the Iran Hostage Crisis, we were cutting donuts in the Northern Arabian Sea. I was standing watch on the bridge as the OOD, as an Ensign (the only one on board who had scored that achievement), and we were doing our regular launching and recovering of aircraft all bleeding day long. It was the afternoon watch and we'd been underway for like 70 days straight by then and the flight deck and hangar deck were getting really slick, making it very important that the aircraft handlers hold their moves while we were in a turn, lest an F-14 start sliding.
One of the tricks I learned from a cagey SWO Commander who was the Communications Officer, was that if we had a bit of a list on, and we had to make a turn to bring the ship into the wind to launch or recover, to always turn into the list, even if it was the long way around the gyrocompass. Why? Because you could use more rudder and speed. Why? Because a ship heels away from the direction of turn. So, if, as in this situation, we had a two degree list to port, and we had to go from 000 to 140, I would kick the ship in the ***, and turn to port, because that would not only cancel the list to port, but allow me to use more rudder and speed. One of the really cool things about ship driving is that it's all very mathematical. For instance, in a supercarrier, whether nuclear or conventionally powered, we were admonished never to create a heel of more than three degrees in a turn. More than that, and the aircraft handlers start having problems moving airplanes. The nifty little secret though is that any additive combination of nautical miles per hour, and rudder angle, that is equal or less than the number 35, will not exceed three degrees of heel. It just won't, no matter how hard you try. E.g. 20 degrees of rudder and turns for 15 knots, I'm good to go. Get it?
So, if I've already got a two degree list to port, but I turn to port, I can actually exceed that number 35, cancel the two degrees of list, and still have three degrees of heel to play with, and get around quicker, even if it is the longer way around.
And this is what I did that fateful afternoon. We had to bring her into the wind, and there was plenty of wind to go around, so we only needed to make five knots while launching and recovering, but to get on that course, I ordered a turn to port, and went from all ahead slow, turns for five knots, to all ahead full, turns for 20, and used 15 degrees of rudder. All is working as planned, until Captain Edney, who had been discussing something or other with the Air Boss, and was distracted, suddenly looked up as I was about 1/3 of the way through the maneuver, and said, "What's going on?" Then, thinking I was dicked up, he yells, "This is the Captain and I have the conn, shift your rudder!" as is his prerogative. Then he finally clicked to what I had been doing, and ordered the rudder shifted back again to my original orders. The thing he hadn't figured on though was the speed we were doing, and the heel that his shifting of the rudder the first time had created. So just after he ordered the second shift, the 10JG telephone by his chair rings and he answers it, and after 20 seconds, I hear, "Ah ****!" from his lips. I looked at him quizzically as only a lowly Ensign too smart for his own good sometimes can, and he looks back at me with this sheepish grin and says, "I just put a six ton forklift over the side!"
It seems that guys moving supplies on pallets on the hangar deck had parked the forklift positioned athwartships, and didn't chock and chain it, and when we heeled to port on his orders, the combination of heel, no chocks, and slick deck sent it right out the door for number four elevator.
I know they did a Jag Manual Investigation and all that, but I have no clue what it said. Obviously nothing that important because he still got his fourth star. It's just that sometimes, lessons learned cab be real expensive.
This one is from a Navy Captain I knew. Went to my cross town rival Catholic high school in San Diego and married a girl from my high school. His Dad was career Navy starting in 1938. He was also career Navy for 21 years as a Surface Warfare Officer. Reading the new story made me go back in time some as he passed away suddenly at the age of 59 awhile back. He had great stories but never got them all up.
Stories!
Here is one:
OK, I haven't told a story in a while, and since reading something the other day about ex-USS Constellation (CV 64) being towed down to Texas to be cut up for scrap, I feel moved to relate one of those "Ah shits" that might ruin a career if one is not among the chosen few who have been predetermined for four stars.
Anyway, the second of the three COs I worked for in Constellation was this gentleman, then Captain Leon A. "Bud" Edney.
You can read the bio at the link. For me, he was one of the finest men I ever knew or worked for. Not necessarily the easiest guy to work for, but usually for a reason. I will tell you one thing. I am a retired Captain because he took an interest in my career as an Ensign, and never failed to have his Flag Aid or Chief of Staff contact me whenever a promotion or administrative board was coming due, in case I wanted him to write a letter for me. I did that once, when in the midst of the post-Desert Storm draw down and administrative boards for selection to XO and CO were getting really dicey. He took care of me.
So anyway, back in the deployment from hell during the Iran Hostage Crisis, we were cutting donuts in the Northern Arabian Sea. I was standing watch on the bridge as the OOD, as an Ensign (the only one on board who had scored that achievement), and we were doing our regular launching and recovering of aircraft all bleeding day long. It was the afternoon watch and we'd been underway for like 70 days straight by then and the flight deck and hangar deck were getting really slick, making it very important that the aircraft handlers hold their moves while we were in a turn, lest an F-14 start sliding.
One of the tricks I learned from a cagey SWO Commander who was the Communications Officer, was that if we had a bit of a list on, and we had to make a turn to bring the ship into the wind to launch or recover, to always turn into the list, even if it was the long way around the gyrocompass. Why? Because you could use more rudder and speed. Why? Because a ship heels away from the direction of turn. So, if, as in this situation, we had a two degree list to port, and we had to go from 000 to 140, I would kick the ship in the ***, and turn to port, because that would not only cancel the list to port, but allow me to use more rudder and speed. One of the really cool things about ship driving is that it's all very mathematical. For instance, in a supercarrier, whether nuclear or conventionally powered, we were admonished never to create a heel of more than three degrees in a turn. More than that, and the aircraft handlers start having problems moving airplanes. The nifty little secret though is that any additive combination of nautical miles per hour, and rudder angle, that is equal or less than the number 35, will not exceed three degrees of heel. It just won't, no matter how hard you try. E.g. 20 degrees of rudder and turns for 15 knots, I'm good to go. Get it?
So, if I've already got a two degree list to port, but I turn to port, I can actually exceed that number 35, cancel the two degrees of list, and still have three degrees of heel to play with, and get around quicker, even if it is the longer way around.
And this is what I did that fateful afternoon. We had to bring her into the wind, and there was plenty of wind to go around, so we only needed to make five knots while launching and recovering, but to get on that course, I ordered a turn to port, and went from all ahead slow, turns for five knots, to all ahead full, turns for 20, and used 15 degrees of rudder. All is working as planned, until Captain Edney, who had been discussing something or other with the Air Boss, and was distracted, suddenly looked up as I was about 1/3 of the way through the maneuver, and said, "What's going on?" Then, thinking I was dicked up, he yells, "This is the Captain and I have the conn, shift your rudder!" as is his prerogative. Then he finally clicked to what I had been doing, and ordered the rudder shifted back again to my original orders. The thing he hadn't figured on though was the speed we were doing, and the heel that his shifting of the rudder the first time had created. So just after he ordered the second shift, the 10JG telephone by his chair rings and he answers it, and after 20 seconds, I hear, "Ah ****!" from his lips. I looked at him quizzically as only a lowly Ensign too smart for his own good sometimes can, and he looks back at me with this sheepish grin and says, "I just put a six ton forklift over the side!"
It seems that guys moving supplies on pallets on the hangar deck had parked the forklift positioned athwartships, and didn't chock and chain it, and when we heeled to port on his orders, the combination of heel, no chocks, and slick deck sent it right out the door for number four elevator.
I know they did a Jag Manual Investigation and all that, but I have no clue what it said. Obviously nothing that important because he still got his fourth star. It's just that sometimes, lessons learned cab be real expensive.
