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Switch to Forum Live View A little navy history
5 years ago  ::  Jul 30, 2008 - 9:00PM #1
MMCSFOX
Posts: 1,409
How To Simulate Life aboard a Navy ship
1. Buy a dumpster, paint it gray and live in it for 6 months straight.

2. Run all of the piping and wires inside your house on the outside of the walls.

5. Perform a weekly disassembly and inspection of your lawnmower.

6. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays turn your water temperature up to 200 degrees, then on Tuesday and Thursday turn it down to 10 degrees. On Saturdays, and Sundays declare to your entire family that they used too much water during the week, so all showering is secured.

7. Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling.

8. Have your next door neighbor come over each day at 5am, and blow a whistle so loud that Helen Keller could hear it and shout "Reveille, Reveille, all hands heave out and trice up".

9. Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in the back yard at 6am and read it to you.

11. Submit a request form to your father-in-law, asking if it's ok for you to leave your house before 3pm.

12. Invite 200 of your not-so-closest friends to come over, then board up all the windows and doors to your house for 6 months. After the 6 months is up, take down the boards, wave at your friends and family through the front window of your home...you can't leave until the next day you have duty.

13. Shower with above-mentioned friends.

14. Make your family qualify to operate all the appliances in your home (i.e. Dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc.).

15. Walk around your car every hour for 4 hours checking the tire pressure each time.

16. Sit in your car and let it run for 4 hours before going anywhere. This is to ensure your engine is properly "lighted off and warmed up."

17. Empty all the garbage bins in your house, and sweep your driveway 3 times a day, whether they need it or not. (Now sweepers, start your brooms, clean sweep down fore and aft.)

18. Repaint your entire house once a month.

20.Use eighteen scoops of budget coffee grounds per pot, and allow each pot to sit 5 hours before drinking.

21. Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item.

23. Avoid watching TV with the exception of movies which are played in the middle of the night. Have the family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

24. Have your 5-year-old cousin give you a haircut.

25. Sew back pockets to the front of your pants.

30. When your children are in bed, run into their room with a megaphone, and shout at the top of your lungs that your home is under attack, and order them to man their battle stations. ("General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations")

31. Make your family menu a week ahead of time and do so without checking the pantry and refrigerator.

33.When baking a cake, prop up one side of the pan while it is in the oven. Spread icing on real thick to level it off.

34. In the middle of January, place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have you family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4-hour intervals.

35. Lock yourself and your family in your house for 6 weeks. Then tell them that at the end of the 6th week you're going to take them to Disneyland for "weekend liberty." When the end of the 6th week rolls around, inform them that Disneyland has been canceled due to the fact that they need to get ready for Engineering-certification, and that it will be another week before they can leave the house.

36. In your grim, gray dumpster (refer to #1), with 200 of your not-so-closest friend (cite para. 12) regardless of gender, suffer through PMS! (Preventive maintenance system)

37. Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have you wife whip open the curtain about 3 hours after you go to sleep. She should then shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble "Sorry, wrong rack."

39. When there is a thunderstorm in your area, find a wobbly rocking chair and rock as hard as you can until you become nauseous. have a supply of stale crackers in your shirt pocket.

40. Put lube oil in your humidifier and set it on high.

41. For ex-engineering types: leave the lawn mower running in your living room eight hours a day.

43.Once a week, blow compressed air up your chimney, making sure the wind carries the soot onto your neighbor’s house. Ignore his complaints.

45. Lock wire the lug nuts on your car.

47. Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread.

48. Set your alarm clock to go off at random during the night, jump up and get dressed as fast as you can making sure you button up the top button on your shirt, stuff you pants into your socks. Run out into the backyard and uncoil the garden hose.

49. Once a month, take every major appliance apart and put them back together again.

50. Install a fluorescent lamp under the coffee table and then get under it and read books.

51. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through one of them.

52. Every so often, throw the cat in the pool and shout "Man overboard, starboard side" Then run into the house and sweep all the pots and dishes off the counter. Yell at the wife and kids for not having the kitchen "stowed for sea."

53. Put on the headphones from your stereo set, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck with string. Go stand in front of your stove. Say ... to no one in particular "Stove manned and ready" Stand there for three or four hours. And say again to no one in particular "stove secured." Roll up your headphones and paper cup and place them in a box.

Jesse F.
*
There is no relationship between fame and significance.
- Dennis Prager
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 30, 2008 - 9:03PM #2
MMCSFOX
Posts: 1,409
USS Slater, last of her kind.

The USS Slater DE 766 was built in 1944 and served in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. She was one of 563 destroyer escorts built to protect convoys from both submarines and air attack. She was thin skinned but maneuverable. After the war she was placed in reserve until 1951 when she was transferred to the Hellenic Navy in Greece under the Truman Doctrine. She served as a training ship there for 40 years.

In 1993 the devoted members of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA) raised $300,000.00 to save her from the scrap yard and had her towed to New York where these same old salts have been engaged in a continuing program of repair and maintaince to bring her back to what she once was. The DESA members continue to give of their time and energy to keep her in good condition.

She is now the only WW 11 Destroyer Escort remaining afloat and is chartered by the New York Historical Museum. She is recognized by the US Department of the interior as a place of national historic significance.

If you are ever in that area don’t forget to visit her and learn more about these small but proud ships.

Jesse F.
*
It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels but that they do not expect holiness from one another but from god alone
-William Blake
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 30, 2008 - 9:00PM #3
MMCSFOX
Posts: 1,409
How To Simulate Life aboard a Navy ship
1. Buy a dumpster, paint it gray and live in it for 6 months straight.

2. Run all of the piping and wires inside your house on the outside of the walls.

5. Perform a weekly disassembly and inspection of your lawnmower.

6. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays turn your water temperature up to 200 degrees, then on Tuesday and Thursday turn it down to 10 degrees. On Saturdays, and Sundays declare to your entire family that they used too much water during the week, so all showering is secured.

7. Raise your bed to within 6 inches of the ceiling.

8. Have your next door neighbor come over each day at 5am, and blow a whistle so loud that Helen Keller could hear it and shout "Reveille, Reveille, all hands heave out and trice up".

9. Have your mother-in-law write down everything she's going to do the following day, then have her make you stand in the back yard at 6am and read it to you.

11. Submit a request form to your father-in-law, asking if it's ok for you to leave your house before 3pm.

12. Invite 200 of your not-so-closest friends to come over, then board up all the windows and doors to your house for 6 months. After the 6 months is up, take down the boards, wave at your friends and family through the front window of your home...you can't leave until the next day you have duty.

13. Shower with above-mentioned friends.

14. Make your family qualify to operate all the appliances in your home (i.e. Dishwasher operator, blender technician, etc.).

15. Walk around your car every hour for 4 hours checking the tire pressure each time.

16. Sit in your car and let it run for 4 hours before going anywhere. This is to ensure your engine is properly "lighted off and warmed up."

17. Empty all the garbage bins in your house, and sweep your driveway 3 times a day, whether they need it or not. (Now sweepers, start your brooms, clean sweep down fore and aft.)

18. Repaint your entire house once a month.

20.Use eighteen scoops of budget coffee grounds per pot, and allow each pot to sit 5 hours before drinking.

21. Have your neighbor collect all your mail for a month, read your magazines, and randomly lose every 5th item.

23. Avoid watching TV with the exception of movies which are played in the middle of the night. Have the family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

24. Have your 5-year-old cousin give you a haircut.

25. Sew back pockets to the front of your pants.

30. When your children are in bed, run into their room with a megaphone, and shout at the top of your lungs that your home is under attack, and order them to man their battle stations. ("General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations")

31. Make your family menu a week ahead of time and do so without checking the pantry and refrigerator.

33.When baking a cake, prop up one side of the pan while it is in the oven. Spread icing on real thick to level it off.

34. In the middle of January, place a podium at the end of your driveway. Have you family stand watches at the podium, rotating at 4-hour intervals.

35. Lock yourself and your family in your house for 6 weeks. Then tell them that at the end of the 6th week you're going to take them to Disneyland for "weekend liberty." When the end of the 6th week rolls around, inform them that Disneyland has been canceled due to the fact that they need to get ready for Engineering-certification, and that it will be another week before they can leave the house.

36. In your grim, gray dumpster (refer to #1), with 200 of your not-so-closest friend (cite para. 12) regardless of gender, suffer through PMS! (Preventive maintenance system)

37. Sleep on the shelf in your closet. Replace the closet door with a curtain. Have you wife whip open the curtain about 3 hours after you go to sleep. She should then shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble "Sorry, wrong rack."

39. When there is a thunderstorm in your area, find a wobbly rocking chair and rock as hard as you can until you become nauseous. have a supply of stale crackers in your shirt pocket.

40. Put lube oil in your humidifier and set it on high.

41. For ex-engineering types: leave the lawn mower running in your living room eight hours a day.

43.Once a week, blow compressed air up your chimney, making sure the wind carries the soot onto your neighbor’s house. Ignore his complaints.

45. Lock wire the lug nuts on your car.

47. Get up every night around midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on stale bread.

48. Set your alarm clock to go off at random during the night, jump up and get dressed as fast as you can making sure you button up the top button on your shirt, stuff you pants into your socks. Run out into the backyard and uncoil the garden hose.

49. Once a month, take every major appliance apart and put them back together again.

50. Install a fluorescent lamp under the coffee table and then get under it and read books.

51. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip or bang your head every time you pass through one of them.

52. Every so often, throw the cat in the pool and shout "Man overboard, starboard side" Then run into the house and sweep all the pots and dishes off the counter. Yell at the wife and kids for not having the kitchen "stowed for sea."

53. Put on the headphones from your stereo set, but don't plug them in. Hang a paper cup around your neck with string. Go stand in front of your stove. Say ... to no one in particular "Stove manned and ready" Stand there for three or four hours. And say again to no one in particular "stove secured." Roll up your headphones and paper cup and place them in a box.

Jesse F.
*
There is no relationship between fame and significance.
- Dennis Prager
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 30, 2008 - 9:03PM #4
MMCSFOX
Posts: 1,409
USS Slater, last of her kind.

The USS Slater DE 766 was built in 1944 and served in both the Pacific and the Atlantic. She was one of 563 destroyer escorts built to protect convoys from both submarines and air attack. She was thin skinned but maneuverable. After the war she was placed in reserve until 1951 when she was transferred to the Hellenic Navy in Greece under the Truman Doctrine. She served as a training ship there for 40 years.

In 1993 the devoted members of the Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA) raised $300,000.00 to save her from the scrap yard and had her towed to New York where these same old salts have been engaged in a continuing program of repair and maintaince to bring her back to what she once was. The DESA members continue to give of their time and energy to keep her in good condition.

She is now the only WW 11 Destroyer Escort remaining afloat and is chartered by the New York Historical Museum. She is recognized by the US Department of the interior as a place of national historic significance.

If you are ever in that area don’t forget to visit her and learn more about these small but proud ships.

Jesse F.
*
It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels but that they do not expect holiness from one another but from god alone
-William Blake
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 31, 2008 - 9:51AM #5
UwishUwereMe
Posts: 2,352
HA HA LOVED IT!  That brought back some GREAT memories.

ONE thing is though, I felt really bad about the lack of respect that I as a LTJG received from enlisted crew like CPOs, MCPOs, and SCPOs.  Many would only use one finger to render a salute?!

I thuroughly enjoyed my experience though, even if I was a "paper pusher."

THANX SHIPMATE.
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 31, 2008 - 3:24PM #6
BillThinks4Himself
Posts: 3,088
That was a great list.  It made me think.
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5 years ago  ::  Jul 31, 2008 - 10:14PM #7
MMCSFOX
Posts: 1,409
“ONE thing is though, I felt really bad about the lack of respect that I as a LTJG received from enlisted crew like CPOs, MCPOs, and SCPOs. Many would only use one finger to render a salute?!”
***
First of all anyone who would give a yeoman, personalman or Officer in charge of them a hard time is stupid. It is really dumb to disrespect someone that can mess up your personal record, which could prevent advancement or even discharge simply by not entering the proper actions. There are enough honest mistakes I found as a division Officer reviewing records to create problems without causing some retaliation.

Sadly that is the attitude of the times. We see the young come into the service with the standard lack of respect they have learned growing up in a promiscuous society where they received minimum correction. Sometimes they get sharp correction and sometimes they don’t. Command prerogative takes charge.

I must add that respect and / or lack of has always been a window on the command.

As the Reserve SCPO of three ship board and one shore command I can attest that where the command REQUIRED respect from all grades that is what it got. Where all things were lax one tended to see a lack of respect and the effect of the “king of the hill syndrome” where a person may be in charge of a very small hill he was still king and tended to treat others with disdain.

Also with more than five years with Fleet Training Group (now afloat training group) San Diego I would go on two Ships a month evaluating their engineering readiness for deployment and running engineering causality and fire fighting drills.   Those with good rapport among Officers and Enlisted got the best scores. Another thing I always noted was where the crew, both Officers and Enlisted, tended to use profanity, they got lower scores. (Note for the civilians here, profanity is a violation of the uniform cod of military justice and is punishable as a court martial may direct.) Where there was good respect and order there was very little profanity.
*
Also #52 the man overboard drill is realistic as are most of the others. Upon the cry of “man overboard” the Helmsman would swing the helm hard either port or starboard to swing the stern with the props away from the man in the water. These sharp turns would tend to lean the ship sharply and dump anything not properly secured to the deck.

Jesse F.
*
Any ship can be a minesweeper... once.
    - Anonymous.
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5 years ago  ::  Aug 08, 2008 - 2:53PM #8
moksha8088
Posts: 4,573
Thought I would add this for Jesse:

Years ago, there was an old tale in the Navy about
a Captain who inspected his swabies and told the Chief
Petty Officer that they smelled bad. The Captain suggested
that they change their underwear.

The CPO responded, 'Aye, aye, sir, I'll see to it
immediately.' He went to their quarters and said,
'The Captain thinks you guys smell bad, and wants
you to change your underwear. Smith, you change with
Jones, McCarthy, you change with Witkowski, Brown,
you change with Shultz - etc.

Get to it.'

The moral: An officer may promise change but don't count on things smelling any better.
Cry Heaven and let loose the Penguins of Peace
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