Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander Wallace
yep:
That book was a great read.  |
That chapter would be a great basis for a movie.
There were many of us who didn't like Blind Man's Bluff when it was first published. Those stories were
our stories and were not supposed to see the light of day. I finally got around to reading it after I got out and the book answered some questions I had.
When I was on the Barbel, we had a pretty bad accident but managed to save the boat. The Navy had enough with diesel boats by then and we were told to de-commission the boat in Pearl Harbor.
Meanwhile, the Navy wanted to "do us right" after our ordeal and sent detailers out to Japan who told us they would send us to where-ever we wanted to go (within reason).
I wanted to go to a "637 stretch" that specialized in ELINT/COMINT missions. Bad. I thought I was gung-ho enough and had the background and experience to do the job but there was a catch. By this time, the older 594 ("permit" or "thresher" class) and the 637's were due for the scrapyard and the Navy wasn't shy about getting rid of them.
Except for one boat.
The USS Parche had already earned a couple Presidential Unit Citations, and PUCs were extremely rare in the Navy. No one really talked about her or her mission but no really talked about the other 637's.
So, I told my detailer I wanted to go to the Parche.
He gave me a "you gotta be ####ting me" look and said, "OK. I can't send you there but if you're
really interested I can talk to the people who can".
Meanwhile, ET div on the Barbel wasn't big. There were only 3-5 of us at any given time. At some point, we inherit an ET1 named George and George has NO interest in being our LPO. He is, however, a REALLY good ET and I hang around a lot just to learn how to do my job better.
The day after I talked to the detailer, George comes over and says "Let's go up on the pier and have a talk". Great, I screwed something up.
Instead, in very short sentences, George tells me about "special projects" and how most guys
think they know what it is but the reality is a lot different. Those jobs are reserved for guys with a LOT more experience than I've got and the kicker was that once you got into special projects it was VERY tough to get back out.
So, that light bulb suddenly clicked on and George answered a lot of my questions without having to say anything.
The next day the detailer shows up again and I say "OK, tell me what's available on the west coast. I'd like to stay in SQDN 7 if I can".