When I was in the US Navy there was considerable worry about potential conflict with the Soviet Union. The Red Fleet had the largest number of submarines of any power in the world at that time. It’s not surprising to find that the USN devoted a lot of time and training to fighting submarines. One … More A Visit to Norway
While assigned to the service force support group for the Sixth Fleet we had only a few opportunities to work with other supply ships. Usually, our tanker might team up with a stores ship. While we pumped fuel oil to other ships they would send over loads of food and similar items by high line … More A Near Miss
I did not get along well with the Captain of the Nantahala. There were probably a few others who also suffered as I did. But I thought that he reserved his worst for me because I was Jewish. This is an example from when we were assigned to the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. The … More Because I Say So.
When a naval officer is transferred to a new ship or station there is a social protocol for making a formal call on the captain and the next senior officer in the chain of command. It is a formality, but it has roots in a very practical approach to making the newly arrived officer and … More Formal Calls – made and returned
In a previous post I told about being aground because of the captain/ This time there was some damage, but no one was hurt. It was also purely the fault of the captain, and no one else. The story started with our ship being one of two oilers supporting combined exercises between the US Navy … More A Collission!
Having your ship sunk is probably the worst thing that can happen at sea. The next worst things are being in a collision and running aground. I’ve experienced both of those. Here is how one of the incidents occurred. USS Nantahala was in here home port of Newport, Rhode Island. She had been undergoing some … More A Strange Way to Run Aground
The Elokomin wasn’t the happiest of ships. At one time I thought that because of the Vietnam War the best officers were sent to the Pacific fleet and the Atlantic had to make do with what was left. Discipline wasn’t exactly one of the areas where the crew of the Elokomin stood out. Fortunately, my … More Decommissioning
cked the rendezvous locationThe US Navy used to have a stadard career pattern plan for officers. Aviation officers needed a shipboard tour of duty between flight squadron assignments in order to understand how the surface navy worked and qualify as a ship driver. When they reached higher rank and were considered still available for advancement … More Driving under the Influence
ships are organized around functional duties of the crew. Some are seamen and handle mooring lines and anchors. Others deal with propulsion, food, navigation, and so on. The Navy groups these functions into departments. The senior officer in each is the department head. When I was administrative assistant to the executive officer I … More Acting Department Head
I am an observant Jew. I never concealed it. We always kept a Kosher home. But it is not possible to follow all the rules of keeping Kosher on board an American warship. Even so, I did always avoid eating items that are specifically forbidden in the Old Testament. That’s how the following story came … More Keeping Kosher at sea (well, sort of)
Wetherhorn 