Welp, I'm all done with that.

[Camaero]

Hey folks,


Many years ago I became excited about submarines through Silent Hunter III. I inevitable began searching for some guides when I couldn't sink anything, which led me to these forums, which set me on a path of countless hours playing every subsim I could get my hands on. I eventually joined the Navy and ended up becoming a radioman on a Virginia class submarine, which still sounds wild to me. I actually did that? Dang. Now five years later my contract is up and I'm officially living on dry land once more.



I just wanted to say hi! It has been quite a ride. I really want to play something with some Virginia's in it now for comparison haha. Any recommendations? Anything new upcoming? The last modern subsim I tried was Dangerous Waters.



Also, I'd be happy to answer any submarine life questions anyone might have. Obviously I'm not going to comment on any technical details, but boy can I tell you about some of the ups and downs (quite literally).



Cheers all.

[Aktungbby]

Camaero!:Kaleun_Salute:

[Onkel Neal]

Nice, you did what most of us only dream of!

Cold Waters is fun.

Look fwd to hearing any stories you want to tell. Which sub were you on?

[Commander Wallace]

Welcome back after a long Silent run, Camaero. :sunny: It goes without saying but thank you for your service. :Kaleun_Salute: With regards to simulations with Virginia Class Submarines, I think you may be out of luck for the time being considering how relatively new they are.


I have Sub Command which had the Los Angeles Class and also I believe, the Akula Class Russian Submarines. I remember the sonar used a waterfall display for tonals. I haven't played it literally in years so it's hard to remember how well it worked but I liked it.

[CJMars]

I don’t remember if a Virgina class is an option, but Janes I-688 is pretty good.

[Jimbuna]

Welcome back to the surface Camaero :Kaleun_Salute:

[3catcircus]

Hey folks,


Many years ago I became excited about submarines through Silent Hunter III. I inevitable began searching for some guides when I couldn't sink anything, which led me to these forums, which set me on a path of countless hours playing every subsim I could get my hands on. I eventually joined the Navy and ended up becoming a radioman on a Virginia class submarine, which still sounds wild to me. I actually did that? Dang. Now five years later my contract is up and I'm officially living on dry land once more.



I just wanted to say hi! It has been quite a ride. I really want to play something with some Virginia's in it now for comparison haha. Any recommendations? Anything new upcoming? The last modern subsim I tried was Dangerous Waters.



Also, I'd be happy to answer any submarine life questions anyone might have. Obviously I'm not going to comment on any technical details, but boy can I tell you about some of the ups and downs (quite literally).



Cheers all.

I thought they did away with RM and IC rates and they're all just IT now.

I hope they've improved the bodies-to-racks ratio than in my time where we got to hot-rack as junior enlisted(I was on 594 and 688 class boats when I was in).

[ET2SN]

Your best bet for a Virginia class would still be DW.
The RA mod(s) might flip you out a bit when you see where they came from but the work is first-rate.

:Kaleun_Cheers:

RM's are always welcome, I used to work with youse guys. (SS-580 and SSN-698 NAVOPS) :D

[Mr Quatro]

Welcome back Camaero :Kaleun_Salute:

So do you still have a Camaro or did you sell it?

https://media.ed.edmunds-media.com/chevrolet/camaro/2020/oem/2020_chevrolet_camaro_coupe_zl1_fq_oem_1_815.jpg

Share an image of you with your dolphins or else it didn't happen :yep:

[Camaero]

Nice, you did what most of us only dream of!

Cold Waters is fun.

Look fwd to hearing any stories you want to tell. Which sub were you on?


Cheers Neal! I still have my rigged for dive mug you sent me years ago for being the first to reply to a post, as well as my 2007 Submarine Almanac. Any plans on making more of those?


I'd rather not say which boat it was exactly just for privacy reasons.


I thought they did away with RM and IC rates and they're all just IT now.

I hope they've improved the bodies-to-racks ratio than in my time where we got to hot-rack as junior enlisted(I was on 594 and 688 class boats when I was in).


When I first joined, NAV OPS was a mixture of Electronics Technicians where you were an ETR (Radio/ESM), an ETV (QMs), or you were an IT if you liked to go home early and work as little as possible. Right before I left they merged us radio types with the ITs. It was quite a time teaching those nerds how to radio after having no background in it.


I am here to report that there is still plenty of hot-racking going on during local ops and significant hot-racking during deployments! That was not the most enjoyable part of my job. I didn't mind the racks themselves though. I thought it cozy to be in that tiny space and be pleasantly rocked to sleep. I even slept through a (planned) EMBT blow and had a good time gently becoming weightless as we lurched out of the water.


Your best bet for a Virginia class would still be DW.
The RA mod(s) might flip you out a bit when you see where they came from but the work is first-rate.

:Kaleun_Cheers:

RM's are always welcome, I used to work with youse guys. (SS-580 and SSN-698 NAVOPS) :D


I don't know how it normally is, but NAVOPS was easily the best department on my boat. Fewest problems and best of guys.


And the Camaro is safe and waiting for me in storage!

[ET2SN]

I don't know how it normally is, but NAVOPS was easily the best department on my boat. Fewest problems and best of guys.




Any department or division can become a septic tank but I was really lucky. :yep:

My first LPO was a bit of a Richard, he got short-timer's syndrome when he still had 7 months to go. :roll: That was back when we were tied with the YN's for the boat's Most Lonely division at three but we had a cool RMC watching our backs. After that, I got to work for some first rate ET1s and ETCs. The kind of guys you just shut up and watch (and take notes). Both the ET1's were frocked for ETC and both wound up with the same love/hate relationship with their khakis (no more getting their hands in the gear).

I got out in '93 after a six year hitch. Actually, six years and one month (C.O.G.) because the Bremerton and SQDN 7 were trying to force the Navy into letting me stick around. :haha:
I kinda knew the jig was up when I scored pretty high on my ET1 exam and had spare bullets in my service jacket but still got a memo saying "passed, not advanced". :doh:

[3catcircus]

Any department or division can become a septic tank but I was really lucky. :yep:

My first LPO was a bit of a Richard, he got short-timer's syndrome when he still had 7 months to go. :roll: That was back when we were tied with the YN's for the boat's Most Lonely division at three but we had a cool RMC watching our backs. After that, I got to work for some first rate ET1s and ETCs. The kind of guys you just shut up and watch (and take notes). Both the ET1's were frocked for ETC and both wound up with the same love/hate relationship with their khakis (no more getting their hands in the gear).

I got out in '93 after a six year hitch. Actually, six years and one month (C.O.G.) because the Bremerton and SQDN 7 were trying to force the Navy into letting me stick around. :haha:
I kinda knew the jig was up when I scored pretty high on my ET1 exam and had spare bullets in my service jacket but still got a memo saying "passed, not advanced". :doh:

Did they give you the "what if you get out and get a job you don't like?" spiel to try to get you to re-up?

I got that speech and my "I have that job right now" response shut that conversation down quick.

My detailer was ,"you can go to A school and teach. Or Power School and teach. Or prototype and teach."

I said "when we pulled into Brisbane, there was an EM2 on the pier who said 'here's your shore power. If you have issues here's my number or this other number for ET2 xxx, who'll be on call later this week.' I want that job." No shore duty in Australia? No re-enlistment.

If you were on the Bremelo in 93, we were probably in the same squadron. I can't recall if she was in SUBRON 1 or 7 at the time.

[ET2SN]

Did they give you the "what if you get out and get a job you don't like?" spiel to try to get you to re-up?



Noooo. The last thing they wanted me to do was re-up. :har:

The boat and Squadron were really cool about it and it meant a lot that they were trying, but talking with my detailer painted a different picture. They had guys still in the training pipeline with no where to go.

By '92 the diesel boats were long gone, the 594s were history, and the 637s were all on the way to decom. The cold war was over (mostly) the same as Desert Storm. Attack boats don't do well when peace breaks out. :k_confused:

Its like hanging around a party late at night when the keg starts to pump foam. Sometimes its just better to split and hear about all of the horror shows that went down, later. :yeah:

After I got out, I heard from some of the guys who had re-enlisted early and things went down about the way I imagined. How you did your job was no where near as important as how good you looked while you did it. A guy in his 30's could get rung up based on body fat % and kicked out. If they had re-enlisted with a bonus ($$$) and got the heave ho, the Navy wanted that bonus money back- RIGHT NOW. :yep:

I'm pretty sure some of the guys in the training pipeline were offered an early out after they finished A school, but don't quote me on that.

There was no where to go and nothing to do- besides getting written up over petty BS, and it stayed that way until 9/11.

Almost missed it, I did all of my sea time in "7". I was homeported in Sasebo, Japan and Pearl.

[3catcircus]

Noooo. The last thing they wanted me to do was re-up. :har:

The boat and Squadron were really cool about it and it meant a lot that they were trying, but talking with my detailer painted a different picture. They had guys still in the training pipeline with no where to go.

By '92 the diesel boats were long gone, the 594s were history, and the 637s were all on the way to decom. The cold war was over (mostly) the same as Desert Storm. Attack boats don't do well when peace breaks out. :k_confused:

Its like hanging around a party late at night when the keg starts to pump foam. Sometimes its just better to split and hear about all of the horror shows that went down, later. :yeah:

After I got out, I heard from some of the guys who had re-enlisted early and things went down about the way I imagined. How you did your job was no where near as important as how good you looked while you did it. A guy in his 30's could get rung up based on body fat % and kicked out. If they had re-enlisted with a bonus ($$$) and got the heave ho, the Navy wanted that bonus money back- RIGHT NOW. :yep:

I'm pretty sure some of the guys in the training pipeline were offered an early out after they finished A school, but don't quote me on that.

There was no where to go and nothing to do- besides getting written up over petty BS, and it stayed that way until 9/11.

Almost missed it, I did all of my sea time in "7". I was homeported in Sasebo, Japan and Pearl.

As a nuke, they kept trying to throw money at me to stay but wouldn't give me what I wanted - shore duty in Australia or some type of staff position supporting people doing design/development work on new equipment. It was either teach in the pipeline, ride another boat, or a tour on a tender.

My first duty station was San Diego until we PCSed to Pearl to decomm. Then it was over to a 688 boat in 7 until we PCSed to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to decomm. Did a bunch of local ops and one full Westpac. I got the augment good deal during an Eastpac and spent the entire time in schools, so it could have been worse.

[ET2SN]

Yep, I didn't re-up early because I wanted to have max bargaining power once my hitch was almost up. Oops.. :oops:

To be honest, I wanted to pull another sea tour if I could as an ET1 but would have also taken instructor duty in Pearl or back in Groton if I had to. By then I was also a QAI (masts and antennas) and a referee on the DC team so the only watches I had left to qual was COW or maybe ANAV*. :hmmm:
Like I said, I had some pretty nice bullets in the old personnel file. :D

BTW, if you were on the Pasadena we might know some of the same names. :salute: If you were there when we pulled the Bremerton in with an imploded
sonar dome, there's a great story behind it. :yeah:

*- ANAV is one of those goofy quals that exist but usually no one goes for it. I knew a QMC on the Barbel who did it and as an ET1 I would have had plenty of time to qualify QMOW (I was already qualled Duty QM and Duty RM on my first boat as a back-up) before going for ANAV.

[Camaero]

Yep, I didn't re-up early because I wanted to have max bargaining power once my hitch was almost up. Oops.. :oops:

To be honest, I wanted to pull another sea tour if I could as an ET1 but would have also taken instructor duty in Pearl or back in Groton if I had to. By then I was also a QAI (masts and antennas) and a referee on the DC team so the only watches I had left to qual was COW or maybe ANAV*. :hmmm:
Like I said, I had some pretty nice bullets in the old personnel file. :D

BTW, if you were on the Pasadena we might know some of the same names. :salute: If you were there when we pulled the Bremerton in with an imploded
sonar dome, there's a great story behind it. :yeah:

*- ANAV is one of those goofy quals that exist but usually no one goes for it. I knew a QMC on the Barbel who did it and as an ET1 I would have had plenty of time to qualify QMOW (I was already qualled Duty QM and Duty RM on my first boat as a back-up) before going for ANAV.


I saw the Pasadena not long before I left Norfolk. One of my RM pals is on it. She is still kickin'. :up:

[ET2SN]

I saw the Pasadena not long before I left Norfolk. One of my RM pals is on it. She is still kickin'. :up:

I wonder if she still has the "tattoo" painted on her dome? :hmmm:

Pasadena in the LANT fleet is a trip to me. :O: It just doesn't seem right. :k_confused:

My favorite player platform in DW is still the Scranton. Best ship's patch of the Flight IIIs. :yeah:

[3catcircus]

Yep, I didn't re-up early because I wanted to have max bargaining power once my hitch was almost up. Oops.. :oops:

To be honest, I wanted to pull another sea tour if I could as an ET1 but would have also taken instructor duty in Pearl or back in Groton if I had to. By then I was also a QAI (masts and antennas) and a referee on the DC team so the only watches I had left to qual was COW or maybe ANAV*. :hmmm:
Like I said, I had some pretty nice bullets in the old personnel file. :D

BTW, if you were on the Pasadena we might know some of the same names. :salute: If you were there when we pulled the Bremerton in with an imploded
sonar dome, there's a great story behind it. :yeah:

*- ANAV is one of those goofy quals that exist but usually no one goes for it. I knew a QMC on the Barbel who did it and as an ET1 I would have had plenty of time to qualify QMOW (I was already qualled Duty QM and Duty RM on my first boat as a back-up) before going for ANAV.

I was on the Omahell. At one point, I had to take a walk down the pier to visit Bremerton to beg for spare parts since we were getting underway the next day and things were broke that would have prevented it.

[ET2SN]

I knew a fair share of her Coners, we weren't parked that far apart. :up:
I might have been there when you were, were we doing the weekend cook-outs at the high-rise on the weekends when you were there?

There was one cook-out I'll always remember. We were chowing down and drinking beers and an ET from another boat said, "I know we're not supposed to talk about it, but are any of you noticing anything odd when you head up north?". We all knew what he meant, but like I said, we didn't talk about it crew-to-crew. Finally, another guy says, "Yeah we're all alone up there".
That was when I knew we had won the cold war and a nagging little voice in my head said that it might not all be good news. Those boats on the pier cost a lot of money to operate. :O:

[3catcircus]

I knew a fair share of her Coners, we weren't parked that far apart. :up:
I might have been there when you were, were we doing the weekend cook-outs at the high-rise on the weekends when you were there?

There was one cook-out I'll always remember. We were chowing down and drinking beers and an ET from another boat said, "I know we're not supposed to talk about it, but are any of you noticing anything odd when you head up north?". We all knew what he meant, but like I said, we didn't talk about it crew-to-crew. Finally, another guy says, "Yeah we're all alone up there".
That was when I knew we had won the cold war and a nagging little voice in my head said that it might not all be good news. Those boats on the pier cost a lot of money to operate. :O:

Most of the time we were in the old barracks up on the hill. At some point we moved into the original barracks that were closest to the dive tower, but I can't remember if it was before or after Westpac 93-94. Only time I spent in the high rise was the 2 weeks before we PCSed to Portsmouth NH for decommissioning. Everyone who lived in the high rise always complained that pizza boxes would jam the trash chutes - that and the rooms were tiny in comparison to the old ones. Only issue with the ones on the hill was the long hangover walk down, stopping at the minimart to buy Gatorade on the way to quarters. The opposite problem for the original barracks was you were way too close if they decided they needed to find off-duty people to do something like an unscheduled stores load.

I found there was always more to do on the weekends away from the barracks. Same when I was in San Diego before that. Portsmouth not so much - we got there in I think January or February and the first weekend was locked in due to a blizzard - but we did have awesome pig roasts that summer that would go all weekend long from Thursday afternoon to late Sunday - one of the perks of decommissioning is you could get down to a minimal duty section in a 5+ rotation (at least until those with time left for orders somewhere else) and most non-duty days were quarters, field day, and then get the hell out of dodge.

Westpac we stopped in Sasebo, Guam, Chinhae, American Samoa, Okinawa and Brisbane.

Sasebo: working port, beer at onbase club served in 6 packs but contained formaldehyde. Headache city. Weps tried to jump straight down fwd escape trunk one night. One of the sonar girls tried to pick a fight with a marine...

Guam: hot. Like africa hot. Cheap beer on base, but Tumon beach called. Awkward moments as some wives flew to meet the boat - and saw some of the other married guys with their hookups from the tender... Most days spent trying to hide until the earliest possible minute you could bail - "I'll take the trash out to the dumpsters!!" Once you got across the tender, it was a quick stop at the dumpsters, pulling a clean trash bag hidden inside containing civvies, and a dash to the parking lot to get your rental car and race to the barracks to take an ice cold shower. Every day was a repeat of the one before:. Sweat all day, take a shower at the barracks, start sweating again, freeze inside the rec room at the barracks which had AC so you could pregame, followed by first round on base, and then all night in Tumon. Show up at barracks at 6am, shower again, start sweating again, go to quarters. Rinse and repeat.

Chinhae: take the duty van to front gate or risk getting shot by south korean navy guards. My first experience with a squatter toilet and not having toilet paper - who knew that it needed to be asked for... Let's just say that some cloth napkins gave their all that night...

American Samoa: had to anchor out. So rough it took a day for small boat transfer, involving the bridge hatch and jacob's ladder (and sqdn rider needing to be fished out.). 18 hrs of liberty involving steak, Vailima, and sleeping in a hotel built like a WW2 bunker. Plus the sonar chief visiting his home village.

Okinawa: 4 hours to go get toiletries and eat real food at Kadena. Steaming at the pier.

Brisbane: Freedom and awesomeness. Hotel rooms for everyone. Gratuitous adult activities with locals...

Funny thing is now (other than covid putting a damper on 2020) I've traveled way more for work than I ever did in the navy. Spain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the UK, with a lot of time in the west coast, Hawaii, and DC. And the professional drinking now? Made the drinking I did in the navy look like amateur hour since all of the places I work are heavily drinking cultures... But what I do now has the same type of camaraderie amongst coworkers and customers - it helps that they're either ex-military or reservists - shared misery...

Still, besides most of it sucking, I still had a great time while in the navy and I'm thankful because it helped me in obtaining my current career - resulting in work I enjoy that still is serving our country's defense, a comfortable living, flight status as a Million miler, Global Services for the last 5 years, flying family 1st class for vacations... The look in the wife's face the first time we went to check in for a flight and I had to walk her past economy, business/first, and to the private Global Services check-in lounge...

I'm sure you still can't talk about any expeditionary medal you might have received (I don't) - those who know, know...

[ET2SN]

That's really odd about Sasebo and formaldehyde, are you sure you guys didn't #### someone off? :har: We had "green beer" in Subic and Chinhae/Ginhae but Sasebo had really clean water. A while back I wrote about Asahi beer torpedos from the vending machines and screwed something up, they were 5 liter behemoths of woe in a thin aluminum bottle. :doh:

Anyway, the best deal in Sasebo was the "steak 'n tater" dinner at the (sit down) EM club. That was where I learned how to grill the Japanese way and it was something like $7.50 for a Kobe strip steak, baked tater, and the veggie of the day. Otherwise, there was a really large fish market on the pier just down from the base and we'd set up "day after duty" where one or two guys would bike down to the market to grab some fresh-caught and cleaned squid while the rest of us got the beer on ice and the grill ready. :D

Just outside the main gate there is a park. If you hiked around it, there was this small cinderblock building that was painted green. It was where the IJN planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and the town and USN kept it intact, kinda like a memorial to really bad ideas. :up: One of the coolest things about Sasebo (aside from my almost-fiancée) was that the inner harbor used to be the world's largest dry dock. :o

There's also a really cool Shinto shrine just outside of town at the top of a small mountain. We used to ride up then head back down and see who could melt their brake pads. :D

Back in Pearl, yep, I did my time on the hill back when we decommed the Barbel. The thing about the high rise was that the rooms were limited to one or only two guys to a room and if your room was on the fifth floor or above, there was always a nice breeze.

BTW, if the guy in charge of the high rise was still Master Chief Hale, that was my first COB. :yep: Really great guy to work for, especially if you're an official short timer with diesel boat fish. :yeah: COB had joined the Navy "sometime" in the 1950's and he knew where ALL the bodies were buried in WESTPAC, a really powerful ally if he was on your side.

Chinhae/Ginhae- Yeah, there really were snipers in the hills around the base and they were the good guys. :o
The one thing you had to do in Chinhae was get a haircut on base. A Korea massage is like getting mugged back in CONUS, it feels good after they stop. :up:
Somewhere, I still have a photo of the Chinhae "do not pick your nose" pictograph sign from on base. It was actually meant for Korean bootcamp guys to teach them how to salute while they were walking, but it became an instant classic. :haha:

You know the talk about how few guys it would take to drive a boat? We found out for real on the Barbel and its a very small number. One of our EMs was married to a Korean lady and her Dad owned an egg burger cart in Seoul. Naturally, all the guys who went to Seoul had to stop by Papa-san's cart and grab an egg burger. This one time, everyone who did wound up with a whopping case of food poisoning, officers included. Since I spent that port call hanging out with my buddy who owned a tailor shop and buying leather jackets and "authentic" Air Jordans, I was immune. I also wound up being NAVOPS for the 18 hour run back to Sasebo, although one RM did hang out in Radio- green face and all. I made one trip to the head during that run. Once was enough, it was like that scene in Gone With The Wind with all the dead soldiers around Atlanta, but it smelled a lot worse. :o

The Navy actually classified the number of us it took to drive the boat. :har:

[ET2SN]

Now that I think about it, I know where your "pickled beer" came from. :up:

They had freighters full of beer from Desert Shield/Desert Storm and its not like that stuff goes bad (well, it was born bad but you get the idea..).

Besides the actual formaldehyde beer, there was also pasteurized beer, basically they boiled the snot out of it before it got bottled, which could also be nasty.

[ET2SN]

Brisbane: Freedom and awesomeness. Hotel rooms for everyone. Gratuitous adult activities with locals...



And might I say, F. U. :Kaleun_Cheers:

One of the reasons I stuck around on the Bremerton as long as I did was knowing she was due to make a run down to "OZPAC". As it turned out, she made the run six months after I got out. :k_confused:

That continent owed me. I got roped into being the tour guide for the HMAS Ottoway when I was on the Barbel (and I didn't even wind up in the brig) and a couple of years later, son of a ##### if the COB on the Bremerton doesn't ask me if I know about the Ottoway and that she's due in port again.

"Do you remember those guys?". "No, but my liver does.." :k_confused:

[3catcircus]

And might I say, F. U. :Kaleun_Cheers:

One of the reasons I stuck around on the Bremerton as long as I did was knowing she was due to make a run down to "OZPAC". As it turned out, she made the run six months after I got out. :k_confused:

That continent owed me. I got roped into being the tour guide for the HMAS Ottoway when I was on the Barbel (and I didn't even wind up in the brig) and a couple of years later, son of a ##### if the COB on the Bremerton doesn't ask me if I know about the Ottoway and that she's due in port again.

"Do you remember those guys?". "No, but my liver does.." :k_confused:

Brisbane was a blur. Four-five days of debauchery. I had duty on the first day. Next morning, I'm on watch, while waiting for duty section turnover and relief to happen and topside announces "Fire in the shore diesel!!!"

During turnover, my relief says "we came over the little hill at the entrance of the pier in the duty van and turned towards the boat and saw the black smoke coming from the shore diesel and I thought, that's odd ��. Then I saw the 5 foot column of flame erupt from the exhaust stack and realized today was gonna suck.'"

Needless to say, right after duty section turnover I made myself scarce...

Turned out the air filter in the shore diesel got soaked with fuel or lube oil and caught fire.

Australia was great but it went by way too fast.

One of the FT2s who was a frocked 2nd decided to stay in Australia... He finally met us at the pier when we pulled in at the end of the deployment. He became FTSN within 48 hrs, half a month for 2 months, 90 days restriction, 90 days EMI.

Now compare that to a dependents cruise to the Big Island when one of the sonar techs missed movement, called ahead, and was on the pier to handle lines. At XOI, he indicated that he had met these two girls who *really* wanted to experience him together... Needless to say, the XO let that one slide.

[3catcircus]

That's really odd about Sasebo and formaldehyde, are you sure you guys didn't #### someone off? :har: We had "green beer" in Subic and Chinhae/Ginhae but Sasebo had really clean water. A while back I wrote about Asahi beer torpedos from the vending machines and screwed something up, they were 5 liter behemoths of woe in a thin aluminum bottle. :doh:

Anyway, the best deal in Sasebo was the "steak 'n tater" dinner at the (sit down) EM club. That was where I learned how to grill the Japanese way and it was something like $7.50 for a Kobe strip steak, baked tater, and the veggie of the day. Otherwise, there was a really large fish market on the pier just down from the base and we'd set up "day after duty" where one or two guys would bike down to the market to grab some fresh-caught and cleaned squid while the rest of us got the beer on ice and the grill ready. :D

Just outside the main gate there is a park. If you hiked around it, there was this small cinderblock building that was painted green. It was where the IJN planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and the town and USN kept it intact, kinda like a memorial to really bad ideas. :up: One of the coolest things about Sasebo (aside from my almost-fiancée) was that the inner harbor used to be the world's largest dry dock. :o

There's also a really cool Shinto shrine just outside of town at the top of a small mountain. We used to ride up then head back down and see who could melt their brake pads. :D

Back in Pearl, yep, I did my time on the hill back when we decommed the Barbel. The thing about the high rise was that the rooms were limited to one or only two guys to a room and if your room was on the fifth floor or above, there was always a nice breeze.

BTW, if the guy in charge of the high rise was still Master Chief Hale, that was my first COB. :yep: Really great guy to work for, especially if you're an official short timer with diesel boat fish. :yeah: COB had joined the Navy "sometime" in the 1950's and he knew where ALL the bodies were buried in WESTPAC, a really powerful ally if he was on your side.

Chinhae/Ginhae- Yeah, there really were snipers in the hills around the base and they were the good guys. :o
The one thing you had to do in Chinhae was get a haircut on base. A Korea massage is like getting mugged back in CONUS, it feels good after they stop. :up:
Somewhere, I still have a photo of the Chinhae "do not pick your nose" pictograph sign from on base. It was actually meant for Korean bootcamp guys to teach them how to salute while they were walking, but it became an instant classic. :haha:

You know the talk about how few guys it would take to drive a boat? We found out for real on the Barbel and its a very small number. One of our EMs was married to a Korean lady and her Dad owned an egg burger cart in Seoul. Naturally, all the guys who went to Seoul had to stop by Papa-san's cart and grab an egg burger. This one time, everyone who did wound up with a whopping case of food poisoning, officers included. Since I spent that port call hanging out with my buddy who owned a tailor shop and buying leather jackets and "authentic" Air Jordans, I was immune. I also wound up being NAVOPS for the 18 hour run back to Sasebo, although one RM did hang out in Radio- green face and all. I made one trip to the head during that run. Once was enough, it was like that scene in Gone With The Wind with all the dead soldiers around Atlanta, but it smelled a lot worse. :o

The Navy actually classified the number of us it took to drive the boat. :har:

I didn't have an appreciation for Chinhae - it was just dirty and smelly and we weren't allowed to go to Busan because of "there are Russians there." Port briefing was "use a rubber and they are strictly short-time." It wasn't until years later when I spent 6 months working in Korea, with my family there, that I got an appreciation for how friendly the people are and how great the culture and history are. And how politely racist they are (little old korean ladies will just cut in front of you at a shop counter like you aren't even a person - too bad for you...) My wife was not a fan of the food (she's not much for taco bell but became a connoisseur and insisted we drive up to Camp Walker every other weekend...)

Most of my time in Japan nowadays is Tokyo and Yokohama - they have this really cool World Beer Museum beer garden that is in the bottom of this converted dry dock that makes a great pregame before eating yakiniku at Tenzan in the Sky building in Yoko. And the owner of Tenzan is actually local to where I live here on the east coast...

In Tokyo, we're in Andy's Shin-hinomoto or Nanbante every other night, pre-gaming at the hotel first of course...

Maybe I just needed some maturity, but I've had a way better time in travel now then I ever did when I was in the navy. Of course, having an expense account probably helps...

Best place I've ever been overall is still Spain. Extremely laid-back, friendly people, great food (the more marxist the graffiti in the neighborhood, it always seems the better the tapas place), great wine, not bad beer. Most surreal event was a late night (like staggering out of there at 5am) dinner/drinks at a local joint that was technically closed for the night - because several of our team had frequented the place when they lived there previously and we're still friends with many of the staff - most of the night was spent eating, drinking, and talking local politics with the staff - in fluent Spanish...

We actually found an awesome Tapas oasis in Adelaide Australia where the chef trained in Spain. And in close proximity to some really awesome bars/hotels. Pregame at hotel, tapas, then debauchery... It always seems that the real business gets done over a drink at 1am no matter which country or customer...

[ET2SN]

Just to be clear (for the rest of the class), we didn't want to get to Australia to watch burning diesel engines. :03:

Australia had/has a very stacked (downright aggressive) ratio of single females to single males and a national obsession with getting pie-eyed wasted. :yep: :D

While it was true that if Walt Disney wanted to build a theme park only for men, all he had to do was build a ticket booth in Subic Bay or Pattaya Beach, Anywhere, Australia was always the number one liberty port destination. :yeah:

[3catcircus]

Just to be clear (for the rest of the class), we didn't want to get to Australia to watch burning diesel engines. :03:

Australia had/has a very stacked (downright aggressive) ratio of single females to single males and a national obsession with getting pie-eyed wasted. :yep: :D

While it was true that if Walt Disney wanted to build a theme park only for men, all he had to do was build a ticket booth in Subic Bay or Pattaya Beach, Anywhere, Australia was always the number one liberty port destination. :yeah:

I'll just say that many guys figured out that if they stayed on the boat an hour or two after their duty day turnover, the phone would start ringing and not stop... Whether a family inviting someone to a home cooked meal, someone inviting you to see cultural things, or the "I have a problem and hope you can help - me and my friends are college students - we're having a barbie and we don't have enough American d&$@." Duty Chief who answered the phone was crying that he had duty that day...

They still have that ratio and a penchant for having a good time. During a business trip (I think 2 years ago), we had some free time since we were there longer than a week and ended up hiring an Uber to drive us to several wineries in Barossa Valley. I ended up bringing home 21-year tawny port that cost me A$60. Price to buy it here in the states? About $3000... I've still got 4 fingers of it left.

[ET2SN]

Now compare that to a dependents cruise to the Big Island when one of the sonar techs missed movement, called ahead, and was on the pier to handle lines. At XOI, he indicated that he had met these two girls who *really* wanted to experience him together... Needless to say, the XO let that one slide.

In some ways, the Bremerton was the Rodney Dangerfield of the 688s. :yep:

We were still in dry dock when we got the ship's anchor and chain back from the shop. My TM buddy says "Look at the chain, something isn't right". He was right, half of the chain links were Canadian (metric). Well, the shipyard would figure it out, wouldn't they?

Flash forward to after sea trials, ORSE, and half-way thru weps certs and the Skipper gets this bright idea, why not do a dependent's cruise to Maui? :yeah:

I could think of at least 40 reasons why we shouldn't, but I wasn't the Skipper. Sure enough, we set off with the crew's mess stacked with wives and kids. Wives who got bored and kids who liked to play with things like valves while the grown-ups weren't looking. :o

If that wasn't enough, our crew's "Baby Huey" brought his wife along (who married him for his good looks :o ) and they figured it would be fun to christen fwd berthing. Right about then I ran out of smokes and went to my bunk to grab a pack...

:o

NO ONE should have to see that, it was like the opposite of porn. If I ever wind up with PTSD, that would be what caused it. :timeout:

Meanwhile, we're running behind schedule so the Skipper decides to dive below caveating depth and crank the bells.

With a load of civilians and kids on board. :yeah:

Yes, Timmy, this was why you couldn't play with your friends before you got debriefed. :haha: :up:

So, we finally make it to Maui where we have to anchor out in the bay. I started this story with the anchor for a reason. It wasn't bad enough we had to anchor out, or we couldn't shut the reactor down. No, we had to drop that flipping anchor which normally went "chunk-a-chunk-a-chunk-a" for about one minute. What we heard was "chunk-a-chunk-a-WHUMP" then silence.

We reeled the anchor back in and tried it again. I looked at my TM buddy and said, "Hey, you don't suppose.." "I do! I most certainly do!" and we knew the chain was getting jammed. Just like we knew we were screwed for the next four days while the wives and kids were taken off by small boat to go ashore and we goofed around in the channel between the islands. :har: