OT - I Work w/ A Sub Veteran...

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by Barkhorn1x

he told me that he served on the USS Seapaocher - a Balao class sub - in the early 80's.

That must have been quite the surprise indeed!

[AJ!]

Served until 1995?!

Thats insane

[Spaxspore]

now thats what i call a work horse! 51 yrs of service!!

[ReallyDedPoet]

I have said this before in another thread, but this one made me think of it again. A few months ago I had a chane to talk to a retired vet that served on the HMS Haida http://www3.sympatico.ca/hrc/haida/

Although I only spoke to him briefly, some of his stories were amazing. He was a sound operator.

Anyway great thread here

[robbierob2005]

I wonder if she is broken up for scrap. Perhaps she lies in some scrapyard.

[Loaf]

It says in Wikkipedia that the Sea Poacher is now used by Peru for dockside training.

Reallydedpoet's post about the HMCS Haida vet reminded me... Years ago I got talking to a WWII veteran who served on another Canadian destroyer, the Restigouche or "Rusty Guts" as the sailors called her. Anyway, the vet I ran into was also a sound man. He said that they would get exhausted and sleep-deprived during the convoys, and the watches sitting in the asdic (British WWII term for sonar) room were so dull that the guys on watch would doze off occasionally... Of course, when a guy fell asleep on watch he would stop turning the wheel that allowed him to sweep the asdic beam back and forth to look for subs.

Apparently there was a repeater on the bridge that moved to tell them what bearing the asdic was searching... When the asdic guy nodded off, sometimes the officer on the bridge would notice that the needle on the repeater had stopped moving and call down the voice-pipe to see what was up. The snoozing asdic guy would wake with a guilty start, and then they would claim to have been investigating a suspicious noise on that bearing so they wouldn't get in trouble for falling asleep!

I guess if you get tired enough even fear of death won't always keep you awake...

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by Loaf

It says in Wikkipedia that the Sea Poacher is now used by Peru for dockside training.

Reallydedpoet's post about the HMCS Haida vet reminded me... Years ago I got talking to a WWII veteran who served on another Canadian destroyer, the Restigouche or "Rusty Guts" as the sailors called her. Anyway, the vet I ran into was also a sound man. He said that they would get exhausted and sleep-deprived during the convoys, and the watches sitting in the asdic (British WWII term for sonar) room were so dull that the guys on watch would doze off occasionally... Of course, when a guy fell asleep on watch he would stop turning the wheel that allowed him to sweep the asdic beam back and forth to look for subs.

Apparently there was a repeater on the bridge that moved to tell them what bearing the asdic was searching... When the asdic guy nodded off, sometimes the officer on the bridge would notice that the needle on the repeater had stopped moving and call down the voice-pipe to see what was up. The snoozing asdic guy would wake with a guilty start, and then they would claim to have been investigating a suspicious noise on that bearing so they wouldn't get in trouble for falling asleep!

I guess if you get tired enough even fear of death won't always keep you awake...

The vet from the Haida spoke about some of the heavy seas, about the Haida shuddering up some mountainious wave, then going down into the valley of sea below, then doing it all over again, and again, all while trying to do his duty. Remarkable stuff.