The Name Game

[Jimbuna]

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

You might want to read a chapter from Blind Man's Bluff titled The Ballad of Whitey Mack. Donald Duck was Whitey's chief A-ganger and parts scrounger on the USS Lapon.

And Donald hid his stash of parts on the boat where only he thought no one knew where they were.


That book was a great read.


Edit : As I remember, one of Commander Chester "Whitey" Mack's Favorite crew members on Lapon was Tommy Cox. Tommy was a crew member not on the official manifest or part of the crew but that didn't stop him from earning his " Dolphins. " Whitey Mack was a big man in more ways than one.

[ET2SN]

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".

[Reece]

@ Jim, keep it clean, no bad language is tolerated on this forum!!

[Eisenwurst]

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

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".

As you already know, the Parche and her commanders were legends and Parche is the most decorated U.S Ship in history. I can understand why you and others would want to keep things to yourselves. The submarine community isn't called the " Silent Service " for nothing. The missions and exploits in the book more than likely would have remained buried were it not for Johnny Walker " Red " and his spy ring. Most in the Navy are still bitter and rightfully so at the outright betrayal committed by the ring. For most Americans, it's unthinkable at any price the ring was paid. Walker died in 2014 and most feel he should have been executed when he was convicted. I agree with that as well. Life in front of a firing squad comes to mind as an acceptable punishment

Along with NSA traitor Ronald Pelton and the Walker ring, the cat was out of the bag, so to speak, with regards to these missions. The book perhaps cleared up some misconceptions and at the same time, honored, and rightfully so, the men who sacrificed so much on those missions. It also gave the readers without military service, especially in the Navy, a chance to understand the monumental risks associated with such service and also understand how special these men are / were who undertook these dangerous missions on a voluntary basis and / or served in the submarine forces.

On that note, it's great having individuals like yourselves on Subsim who are part of that elite group and in other branches of the service and always have the best stories, well, the ones they can tell, anyway.
Thank you for your service and sacrifices.

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

Edit : As I remember, one of Commander Chester "Whitey" Mack's Favorite crew members on Lapon was Tommy Cox. Tommy was a crew member not on the official manifest or part of the crew but that didn't stop him from earning his " Dolphins. " Whitey Mack was a big man in more ways than one.

Just to start off, I'm starting to feel guilty about hijacking some threads, but please bear with me.

Tommy Cox and his sidekick, Jesse James (not making this up) were like the god fathers of what became the more modern ET's. Basically, they wrote the book on how to stand an ESM watch even though they weren't ETs.
Tommy came from a town called Limestone, Me which was across the street from Loring AFB. My folks lived about 50 miles to the south.

When we de-commed the Barbel, I wound up with a small box of junk souvenirs. Mostly old valve nameplates and Plexiglas doo-dads that either wound up in a pocket after a duty day or I rescued before the boat was scrapped. The rumor was that Tommy or Jesse had ridden the Barbel, but they had been assigned to a LOT of fast attacks over the years.
Later, I found out Tommy moved back to northern Maine after he retired and I was really tempted to just knock on his door one day and hand him the box of junk but it didn't work out.

[Jimbuna]

[Eisenwurst]

[Eichhörnchen]

(that gets five harr-de-harrs)

[Reece]

That is gonna be hard to beat so I would say eisenwurst is the winner!!
Now what is her phone number?

[Commander Wallace]

[Eichhörnchen]

Majored in....?

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Majored in....?

Sex education. (hands on experience essential.)

[Jimbuna]