How many real world submariners frequent this site?

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

I apologize if this is a repeat topic but I am curious to know how many here have served on a submarine in real life.

I was a sonar tech aboard the USS Grayling (SSN 646) from 1989 to 1994.

Some of you may be familiar with the infamous "Grayling" from the collision with the Russian Delta IV (most reports say Delta III) in the Barents, just north of the Kola Peninsula back in March of 93.

That was the day that I decided against reenlisting!:hmm: :down:

Much safer to command my own boat in SHIII!:up:

[XabbaRus]

Quite a few here.

You weren't the sonar tech on duty at the time of collision? :doh:

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Quite a few here.

You weren't the sonar tech on duty at the time of collision? :doh:

Just got off watch and was manning the CEP headset.

[XabbaRus]

You allowed to be telling this?

Glad I wasn't you. I have read the Barents isn't the most sonar friendly waters.

[sonar732]

This actually surprises me that he's posting this.

Where's the smily for looking around for Big Brother???

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

You allowed to be telling this?

Glad I wasn't you. I have read the Barents isn't the most sonar friendly waters.

The incident was actually reported in the media shortly after it happened. You can read about it on a lot of different websites that list nuclear incidents/close calls.

As far as being sonar friendly, well I think we can assume it wasn't very friendly that day!

So were you in the Navy and if so, what did you do?

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Just to be on the safe side, I deleted most of that post. I don't think any of that would cause a problem, but if that's the perception, then its better to err on the side of caution.

Funny thing is... I am constantly amazed at the amount of information the Navy allows access to on Discovery Channel and TLC. When I was in, they would never consider letting a camera crew inside the sonar shack.

[Ishmael]

Tin-can Ping jockey here. 6 years on destroyers from 72-78. Found 7 confirmed Russian subs, 2 Foxtrot Diesels, 2 Echo II SSGNs, 2 November SSNs and 1 Yankee SSBN. Best one was on ops aboard USS Elmer Montgomery(DE-1082) off Charleston in '78 with the Forrestal and a Boomer. We were 10 miles from the main body prosecuting a contact another 10 miles out when a green flare pops to the surface behind the carrier. The boomer comes shallow and signals over Gertrude,"We got you".

We came back,"If that's you there, who's this guy over here?"

They came back and said,"We don't know, but goodbye."

When our helos dropped a sonobuoy pattern, the noise signature of an Echo II came up. We found the Russian shadowing the boomer.

I have been one of the few skimmers to hoist a few at the old Horse & Cow bar in Vallejo, Ca. made famous in Blind Man's Bluff. I also had a crewmember from the Foxtrot that shadowed us in the Med in '76 tow my car home from Burbank to Pasadena in 1998.
I asked him if he ever visited the one they have tied up nest to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. His answer was, "Hey, I lived that for 3 years. Why would I want to pay money to visit it again."

[PeriscopeDepth]

Great thread. Thanks for your service guys. :)

PD

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Ahhh the Horse and Cow...I have a lot of great memories from that little establishment...even more "non-memories".

When I was first assigned to the Grayling, she was still in the yards after a refit at Mare Island.

We supplied the bar with several "artifacts" from the Grayling...the funniest I think was the CO/XO's ****ter seat. Some guys "borrowed" it one night right before sea trials.

The XO was a jerk, threatened to prosecute everyone...the CO was cool though. Before we left Vallejo for good, he showed up at the H&C one night and signed the missing seat in GOLD marker.

[Ishmael]

Ahhh the Horse and Cow...I have a lot of great memories from that little establishment...even more "non-memories".

When I was first assigned to the Grayling, she was still in the yards after a refit at Mare Island.

We supplied the bar with several "artifacts" from the Grayling...the funniest I think was the CO/XO's ****ter seat. Some guys "borrowed" it one night right before sea trials.

The XO was a jerk, threatened to prosecute everyone...the CO was cool though. Before we left Vallejo for good, he showed up at the H&C one night and signed the missing seat in GOLD marker.

In my travels I picked up a medal from the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet. The last time I was at the H&C, right before they closed & passed on the medal to the owner who was moving lock,stock & barrel to Pearl. For five years from 90-95 I lived on Sandy Beach at the end of the Napa River on those houses on the piers, literally on the Dock of the Bay. Since the ex-wife was working at Mare Island, whenver an LA-class boat pulled in or out, I used to hoist the Soviet Flag, break out the camera with the telephoto lens and snap,snap,wink,wink. If I had been a real schmuck, I'd have dropped a hydrophone into the water and turned on my electric shaver. It sounds just like a torpedo. During the 1st gulf war, I watched a Japanese Self-defense force destroyer come steaming up the San Pablo Bay heading to Port Chicago toload war shots. Since I was curious about it, I broke out the binocs to have a closer look. Sure enough, fluttering from the masthead was the Rising Sun flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

I grew up in Benicia, about 7 miles up the Carquinez Straits from Vallejo and lived there and in Vallejo for about 25 years man & boy. As a boy, I used to sell the local Benicia paper in the same bar that Jack London used to frequent in his days on the Fish Patrol. In fact, he was rescued off Sandy Beach by a poacher he had chased down the straits from Benicia when his sloop tore her bottom out near the present day jetty. His partner was waiting at the dock and had to arrest the man for poaching but when the trial date came up, Jack & his partner paid the poachers fine for him in gratitude. Jack wrote a series of short stories about his experiences there entitled,"Tales of the Fish Patrol".
If you do a title search online, they are available and are a great read and an interesting documentation of the area around 1900.

[Sailor Steve]

Most folks here already know I served in a FRAM-updated WWII Gearing class DD; Brinkley Bass-DD887. They should, they've heard me say it often enough. I was a third-class RM when I got out in December '70.

Funniest story I have is the chain-of-command. It was a regular hobby for someone to break into the baker's locker at least once a month and steal a box of doughnuts. One day we were enjoying a box in the radio shack when RM1 Brown came in, took one and warned us that the Chief RM was on the prowl. Sure enough, our Chief walked in, but instead of raking us over the coals he took a doughnut and warned us the Lt. Adell, the Com Officer, was out and about. Of course our next visitor was Mr. Adell, who took one and warned us that Lt. Anderson, the Ops Officer, was looking for the doughnuts. I swear it's true; Mr. Anderson came in, took one and said the Captain was around, so be careful. Sure enough, the next man through the door was the Skipper. Being very leery of taking gifts from enlisted men he ASKED if he could have one of OUR doughnuts. When he left he thought it best to warn us our Chief was snooping around; he didn't like these sort of shennanigans from his boys.

We just said we'd be careful.

Closest I ever got to a sub was taking some pictures in Guam.

[timmyg00]

ET1/SS, ESM/Radio/Nav, USS Annapolis, SSN-760, 1993-1997 (plus the requisite ~2yr of SAEF schools ;) ).

I really enjoyed my time, and miss it greatly.

@ Sailor Steve, that was a great story :rotfl:

TG

[Neptunus Rex]

IC2/SS, USS Pintado (SSN-672) '82-'84, USS Tunny (SSN-682) '84-'87. Both gone now.:(

[Linton]

I have been away for a few days,can anybody pm me the bits I missed?:up:

[Kapitan]

Shallow waters, heavy swells and currents, pack ice in some areas.

and you were about 100nm off the coast of the kola penisular colliding with a Delta IV class submarine commanded by Captain 1st rank Sergi Bulgarkov.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Shallow waters, heavy swells and currents, pack ice in some areas.

and you were about 100nm off the coast of the kola penisular colliding with a Delta IV class submarine commanded by Captain 1st rank Sergi Bulgarkov.

This is true, although I didn't know the Captain's name...

We didn't exactly stop and exchange insurance info... if you know what I mean!:D

After we confirmed that the Delta was underway on her power, we left the area.

From which website did you get your info? I usually see it reported as a Delta III, but Delta IV is correct.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Good one Sailor Steve!

The XO onboard Grayling was despised by the enlisted and officers both.

He was fairly tall, especially for submarine duty. On the 637 class the weapons shipping hatch is just outside the XO's stateroom. When in port, the interior hatch would swing in and you cranked up into the overhead with a large handwheel.

In the confined space, if you're tall, you quickly get a feel for where all the low hanging objects are and you learn to duck in all the right places or else get a big knot on your head.

When the XO would come out of his stateroom, he would duck just enough to miss the weapons shipping hatch.

Only one day, after the XO had apparently ticked someone off just enough, someone caught the XO in his stateroom right before a casualty drill, and that someone turned the handwheel about a turn, just enough to lower the hatch about an inch.

When the alarm sounded, the XO comes running out of his stateroom, ducks the same amount as he does everytime in that situation and WHAM!:damn: He catches the hatch in the top of the head.

Now, normally I am not the kind of person that wants anything bad to happen to anyone, but I have to admit, this guy had it coming.

[Linton]

GraylingSTS,the victim of your fender bender is described here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_submarine_K-407_Novomoskovsk.
or if you can read russian:http://nuclearno.com/textml.asp?7765
Did your captain lose his no-claims discount?

[Kapitan]

I knew about Sergey Bulgarkov because he knows Igor Kurdin who knows Mikhail Motsak who knows my stepfather lol chain but the captains name is over the internet as well, and he has also appeard on TV saying he knew the greyling was there.

Igor Kurdin laid into grayling by saying a few meters to the side he would have hit the missile bay and it would have been a accident worse then chernobyl.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Interesting! I would love to find more information on the incident from the Russian perspective, but it would have to be in English.

I agree that we narrowly escaped a terrible tragedy. It could have been much worse. I thank God every day that neither of the subs ended up on the bottom.

I have the utmost respect for the Delta's crew and anyone else that serves or has served onboard a sub. Especially the ones that experience an incident like this one, because everyone speculates so much, they think someone must not have been doing their job. The scary thing is that accidents such as this still happen, even when EVERYONE is doing their job.

As far as a near-Chernobyl accident, who knows what might have happened. I think I saw pictures of the damage to the Delta, either online or on a Discovery documentary, but I may be mistaken. I was thinking that damage was forward of the sail...I really wish I could figure out where I saw the pics.

Anyway, it's not like we chose the part of the sub we would collide with. It could have just as easily hit the missile compartment, or reactor compartment.

I know that we were like an ant hitting an elephant! I think the Grayling displaced about 5000 tons submerged, compared to the Delta IV displacing over 18000 tons submerged.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Do you think ex U-Boaters have ever been on here? How cool is that thought - Jurgen Oesten reading YOUR posts. :D Its cool to see modern subbers though. You guys rock :up:

[Kapitan]

Well then you best thank god harder because if it had been a typhonn or oscar 2 i could safely say wou wouldnt be chatting right now.

[Kurushio]

I knew about Sergey Bulgarkov because he knows Igor Kurdin who knows Mikhail Motsak who knows my stepfather lol chain but the captains name is over the internet as well, and he has also appeard on TV saying he knew the greyling was there.

Igor Kurdin laid into grayling by saying a few meters to the side he would have hit the missile bay and it would have been a accident worse then chernobyl.
Why an "...accident worse then Chernobyl"? Surely an explosion inside a nuclear power plant with an exposed core is much worse then colliding a sub missile bay? Nukes don't explode on impact...you know?

[Kapitan]

Me and you know that but general joe doesnt know that its whats called upgrading the entire incident.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Well then you best thank god harder because if it had been a typhonn or oscar 2 i could safely say wou wouldnt be chatting right now.

Why would colliding with a typhoon or oscar 2 be more dangerous than a Delta IV? Maybe the sub configuration? Missile compartment forward?

Trust me, if we had hit at a slightly different angle, or our speed had been a little faster, or our depth slightly deeper (more direct hit) we could have easily been on the bottom. A pressure hull breach would have been unrecoverable.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

Do you think ex U-Boaters have ever been on here? How cool is that thought - Jurgen Oesten reading YOUR posts. :D Its cool to see modern subbers though. You guys rock :up:

Most of those guys are at least in their 70s now, don't know how many of them are surfing the web.:hmm:

I think U-Boat crews would think modern submariners are downright spoiled. The sub I was on, all but the most junior crew members had their own rack. The food was good, most of the time. The spaces weren't cramped at all compared to a WWII era sub. We even had movies after watch (although it seemed like it was Road House most of the time). We had fresh water most of the time, unless there was an equipment breakdown. Hell, we could take "Hollywood" showers compared to what the U-boat crews could take.

And if you really want to talk about spoiled...the boomer crews of today, they're the ones that have it made! 1 ship, 2 crews, relatively huge quarters, those guys have it made! (Any boomer sailors reading, sorry to offend, just don't try to deny it!):)

[Ishmael]

I was in Augusta Bay, Sicily in 1976 when they towed in USS Voge after her collision with an Echo II off Kitihira anchorage near Crete. I also knew sonarmen aboard USS Belknap when she collided with USS America. The LPO named Buss, I knew from the Schofield. Two of the other techs I met later. They had gone below to check an equipment fault in the forward eqpt room 20 minutes before the collision. The stack operator they left in sonar control on watch was stuffed into the stack which was pushed 100 ft aft and down 4 decks. When the Montgomery was in Philly in '77 in the yards, they were working on the Belknap refit. That was when a welder cut away part of the wreckage and found the remains of the last missing crewman.

[GraylingSTS(SS)]

There was a new guy on board Grayling when we did the "CrashEX", he was still a nub, nonqual at the time. His nickname was "scrappy".

I talked to him a couple of years ago, and he has been on 2 other subs, and both of them have had collisions too. They changed his nickname to "Crash". Poor guy.

[kiwi_2005]

Wow this is so cool im actually reading stuff from a real submariner, its been a good read GraylingSTS(SS). :rock:

You guys are lucky ive never ever seen a real sub in my life. Friggin New Zealand and there stupid anti nuke laws :damn: :damn:

[Pingjockey]

STS1(SS) Jefferson City SSN 759 (95-99) Annapolis SSN 760 (00-02) PCU Texas SSN 775 (02-Now)

Been around the block a few times (4 Back to Back Deployments) and thought I would drop by a leave a line.... Sonar is quite a bit different now a days.....

STS1

[Linton]

I saw on the subsim front page a link to a UK newspaper regarding a possible collision in the late 1960s.
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=386249&imageindex=1
Would any of you USSR experts be able to comment from the Russian side,becuase the RN will never say anything.

[bigmac644]

And if you really want to talk about spoiled...the boomer crews of today, they're the ones that have it made! 1 ship, 2 crews, relatively huge quarters, those guys have it made! (Any boomer sailors reading, sorry to offend, just don't try to deny it!):)

:rotfl: The fact of the matter is, you're absolutely correct!

I was on the Lewis and Clark, SSBN 644G (Hence my nic...). I was a nuke ET (ETN1/SS). I was onboard from Jan. '88 thru Oct. 90 (5 patrols). I was stationed in Charleston, SC, but we caught the boat over in Holy Loch, Scotland.

I can vouch for the space. I'm 6'-7" tall (one inch shy of waiver territory). Fortunately, the most cramped section of the boat was the crews quarters below Ops. Fortunate because, as a nuke, I got to spend very little time there.... :huh:

You coners know you had it made... :ping: You guys would be standing by the foreward hatch in your civvies as we would pull in following a patrol. Three months at sea, and it would still be at least 3 days before we got off the boat while tied up to the tender.

The Nuke Electricians had it even worse! Those guys worked their butts off, throughout the sub, not just aft, but forward as well (Our IC men weren't very up on their gear).

Anyway, she made one more patrol after I got out, then made a transit over to Bremerton, where she was cut to pieces. The cool part is that her sail and rudder have been used to create the Cold War Memorial at Patriot's Point Maritime Museum in Charleston, SC....

I didn't really care for the time in service while I was serving, but I'm proud of having the opportunity to have done so. Also, as the time flies by, my memories become more and more mellow. The men were mostly exceptional, the job was cool as sh!t, but the day to day peacetime Navy BS was stifling....:damn: I carry permanent scars on my hands from trying to drive my fists through HY-80 (hull material).

Strange, but on the few occasions where I've been able to see the memorial, I kinda get a tear... must be from the off-shore winds.

I do know one thing, submariners are a special breed. By the end of the three month patrol, you're ready to rip the heads off of each other, but there's not anyone in the crew that any of us wouldn't have died trying to protect had something bad gone down on patrol. I envision the fast boat crew that hit the seamount in the Pacific a few years ago... I just have to wonder what may have happened if that boat wasn't manned by US sub sailors, I don't doubt that it may have turned out far worse. That they only lost one of their crew was absolutely amazing.

Anyway, it's nice to know that there are a few others here.

Personally, I've just started playing SHIII hot and heavy. OUTSTANDING... I'm a long time Sub gamer, with my initial stint being on my Intellivision, playing "Sub Hunt"... :yep: I wasted FAR too much time playing Red Storm Rising on my Commodore 64....:rock:

Since then, I've earned fish in every other sub game that has been released... Recent favorites would be AotD, 688(i) Attack Sub, and Dangerous Waters.... While on-board, the document office has an Apple IIe with a copy of the original 688 (forget the exact name, but I think it was by Epyx). Sometime I would have to sneak in there to play a patrol or two (remember??? Green monochrome monitors that this game was played on??) LOL

I have a special spot in my heart for those hard core gamers that I've read about sailing SHIII patrols REAL TIME!!! :hmm:

Anyway, hope to hear from some other members of the Silent Service.... :sunny:

[Brett]

Got a sonar operator on ANZAC Class Frigates here, changing over to Subs this year. We've only got 6 subs, the Collins Class. Not enough Submariners to man them though so looking forward to lots of sea time!