Slightly Off Topic But Fun

Sailor Steve · 10-13-07, 02:55 PM

I've been reading The Black Sheep, by Bruce Gamble, described as "The difinitive account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II".

One of the early chapters describes the transit from Hawaii to Espiritu Santo Island, aboard the "baby flattop" USS Nassau (ACV-16). Nassau was a Bogue class escort carrier, built on a C-3 cargo hull.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nassau_(CVE-16)

At this time VMF-214 was flying F4F-3 Wildcats. Their only escort was the USS Sterret (DD-407).

There are several funny stories (there always are) about the squadron and about the voyage, including the inevitable "crossing the line" ceremonies when they crossed the equator into the South Pacific; but the relevant one involved the "phantom submarine".

February 24, 1943, 1136 hours: Sterret picked up a sonar signal and immediately radioed the contact to Nassau. The carrier accelerated to her maximum 18 knots, while Sterret snooped around, and finally dropped three depth charges. Inside the carrier, some of the pilots, who had never been on a ship, thought that they had been torpedoed.

Feb 27, 1050 hours: Sterret once again picks up a sonar contact, and Nassau again goes to top speed and begins zig-zagging.

Feb 28, 1127 hours: It happens once again. Again, no submarine is found, and life returns to normal. Contact was regained twice that afternoon, and Sterret dropped four depth charges at 1520.

Another contact scare occured in the afternoon of March 1, but finally on March 3 the carrier was close enough for the pilots to take off and fly to their destination.

The aftermath of the story came when Nassau docked at Espiritu Santo. The Aerology Officer (studying wind conditions) also had a bathythermograph aboard, to check on water temperatures at different depths. He went to the XO and lodged a complaint: the tests were important, and every time he tried to conduct one the ship went to General Quarters, forcing him to hurriedly reel in the cable, stow the gear, put on his combat helmet and rush to his battle station. The Exec checked the logs, and sure enough, every time the young lieutenant made his tests, Sterret reported a sonar contact, causing both ships to go into action. Apparently the poor lieutenant didn't make the obvious connection that his bathythermograph was Sterret's "submarine".

Digital_Trucker · 10-13-07, 06:02 PM

:rotfl: Who's on first, military style?:rotfl:

seafarer · 10-13-07, 08:22 PM

Once on a research cruise in the Pacific north east, we had some folks from the Office of Naval Research (US Navy - ONR) using air drop sonobouys as potential listening devices for submarine earth quakes (we just basically busted the sonobouys out of their deployment tubes and I'd pitch them over the side for them as they signaled, then the bouys deployed normally).

Every night for several weeks we did this (the submersible, ALVIN was down during the day, so these quake ops were done at night). But, there was nothing coming up on the sonobouy traces.

So, I was tasked with making something happen. I took a net bag and filled it with some light bulbs, empty ketchup bottles and other odd empty but sealed glass containers, then weighted it with some scrap chain, and surreptisiouly dropped the whole thing over the side.

The ONR officer ran all over the ship telling everyone of the data "hit" of a small swarm of micro-earthquakes (the bursting glass apparently did make a trace just like a bunch of small micro-quakes would). Of course, the last person she came to was me (I was in the lab, extracting DNA from tube worms), and I made some comment about my, how fortunate it was they finally had some real data, on the last night with the last batch of sonobouys and all. WoW, what a unbelievable break. She went real quiet for a minute as she processed this, and then started cussing me out like, well, a navy person.

In terms of execution and effect, that was one of the best practical jokes we ever pulled on a cruise.

hawk2495 · 10-14-07, 12:43 AM

nice one searfarer.... good thing they dont keel haul people any more....lol:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Sailor Steve · 10-14-07, 03:37 PM

Good one, seafarer!:rotfl:

Oh, I mean, you should be ashamed, you *&%^#$*@&!

10-13-07, 02:55 PM	#1
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	Slightly Off Topic But Fun I've been reading The Black Sheep, by Bruce Gamble, described as "The difinitive account of Marine Fighting Squadron 214 in World War II". One of the early chapters describes the transit from Hawaii to Espiritu Santo Island, aboard the "baby flattop" USS Nassau (ACV-16). Nassau was a Bogue class escort carrier, built on a C-3 cargo hull. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nassau_(CVE-16) At this time VMF-214 was flying F4F-3 Wildcats. Their only escort was the USS Sterret (DD-407). There are several funny stories (there always are) about the squadron and about the voyage, including the inevitable "crossing the line" ceremonies when they crossed the equator into the South Pacific; but the relevant one involved the "phantom submarine". February 24, 1943, 1136 hours: Sterret picked up a sonar signal and immediately radioed the contact to Nassau. The carrier accelerated to her maximum 18 knots, while Sterret snooped around, and finally dropped three depth charges. Inside the carrier, some of the pilots, who had never been on a ship, thought that they had been torpedoed. Feb 27, 1050 hours: Sterret once again picks up a sonar contact, and Nassau again goes to top speed and begins zig-zagging. Feb 28, 1127 hours: It happens once again. Again, no submarine is found, and life returns to normal. Contact was regained twice that afternoon, and Sterret dropped four depth charges at 1520. Another contact scare occured in the afternoon of March 1, but finally on March 3 the carrier was close enough for the pilots to take off and fly to their destination. The aftermath of the story came when Nassau docked at Espiritu Santo. The Aerology Officer (studying wind conditions) also had a bathythermograph aboard, to check on water temperatures at different depths. He went to the XO and lodged a complaint: the tests were important, and every time he tried to conduct one the ship went to General Quarters, forcing him to hurriedly reel in the cable, stow the gear, put on his combat helmet and rush to his battle station. The Exec checked the logs, and sure enough, every time the young lieutenant made his tests, Sterret reported a sonar contact, causing both ships to go into action. Apparently the poor lieutenant didn't make the obvious connection that his bathythermograph was Sterret's "submarine". __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

10-13-07, 06:02 PM	#2
Digital_Trucker Silent Hunter Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The Peach State Posts: 4,171 Downloads: 141 Uploads: 10	:rotfl: Who's on first, military style?:rotfl: __________________ RSM-GIEP-Killflags-LV Tribute-Playable Elco __Peace be with you, Dave.

10-13-07, 08:22 PM	#3
seafarer Commodore Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 622 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Once on a research cruise in the Pacific north east, we had some folks from the Office of Naval Research (US Navy - ONR) using air drop sonobouys as potential listening devices for submarine earth quakes (we just basically busted the sonobouys out of their deployment tubes and I'd pitch them over the side for them as they signaled, then the bouys deployed normally). Every night for several weeks we did this (the submersible, ALVIN was down during the day, so these quake ops were done at night). But, there was nothing coming up on the sonobouy traces. So, I was tasked with making something happen. I took a net bag and filled it with some light bulbs, empty ketchup bottles and other odd empty but sealed glass containers, then weighted it with some scrap chain, and surreptisiouly dropped the whole thing over the side. The ONR officer ran all over the ship telling everyone of the data "hit" of a small swarm of micro-earthquakes (the bursting glass apparently did make a trace just like a bunch of small micro-quakes would). Of course, the last person she came to was me (I was in the lab, extracting DNA from tube worms), and I made some comment about my, how fortunate it was they finally had some real data, on the last night with the last batch of sonobouys and all. WoW, what a unbelievable break. She went real quiet for a minute as she processed this, and then started cussing me out like, well, a navy person. In terms of execution and effect, that was one of the best practical jokes we ever pulled on a cruise. __________________ My Father's ship, HMCS Waskesiu (K330), sank U257 on 02/24/1944 running SHIII-1.4 with GWX2.1 and SHIV-1.5 with TMO/RSRDC/PE3.3 under MS Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP1 ACER AMD Athlon 64x2 4800+, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 400GB SATA HD Antec TruePower Trio 650watt PSU BFG GeForce 8800GT/OC 512MB VRAM, Samsung 216BW widescreen (1680x1050) LCD

10-14-07, 03:37 PM	#5
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	Good one, seafarer!:rotfl: Oh, I mean, you should be ashamed, you &%^#$@&! __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

10-14-07, 12:43 AM	#4
hawk2495 Sparky Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: SierraVista, AZ Posts: 155 Downloads: 196 Uploads: 0	nice one searfarer.... good thing they dont keel haul people any more....lol:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: