It’s Monday morning, 1988. Location: Charleston Naval Station. Assignment: Underway to support USS JOHN F KENNEDY (CV-67) exercises in the JAX OPAREAS.

Before the sun is up, the crew is busy taking care of the multitude of things required to get a ship away from a pier, down a narrow channel, past the sea buoy near Ft Sumter, and to a rendezvous with an aircraft carrier off the Georgia/Florida border. The Operations Officer, LT Franz Ritt has tow major areas of concern: Operations and also deck seamanship. While his title has been changed from “Ship Control Officer,” the original billet title for the FFG-7 OLIVER HAZARD PERRY Class FFGs, to Operations Officer, he retains the responsibility for the Deck Force and all that comes with it. He makes sure the tugs and pilots are on track, that LTJG Scott Brown has the communications up and operating in accordance with the COMM PLAN for the exercise, that LTJG John Jenkins and OSC(SW) Mike Bennett have the Combat Information Center (CIC) online, ready to provide support tot he CO and the bridge by collecting, analyzing, evaluating and disseminating information. That’s fancy words to say they are the center of the plan and make sure everyone keeps on task.

LT Robert “Bob” Threlkeld and his engineering team have the gas turbine powered plant, and the supporting diesel powered electrical generators on line, with shore power disconnected. The “Snipes” have been laboring for a few days now, making sure all services they provide, from electricity of two types to chilled water and conditioned air, to fresh water and sewage removal are working, not only for the comfort of the crew, but more importantly for the support of the ship’s combat systems equipment.

LT Robert “Bob” Powers, as the Combat Systems Officer makes sure the MK 92 Fire Control System, and the Mk 75 gun and MK 13 missile launcher are ready, along with the SQS-56 Sonar, which will used in the exercises to help locate the submarine. STGC(SW) Hatherly and his division officer are in charge of this.

LCDR Thomas “Tom” Brown, the Executive Officer, has made his rounds of the ship, as a second set of eyes, and takes his station on the bridge to receive the readiness reports for getting underway and to keep the Captain, CDR Wade C. Johnson, advised of the status of getting to sea. In addition to being the XO and thereby second in command, Tom Brown is also assigned duties as Ship’s Navigator, in accordance with a COMNAVSURFLANT directive all ships will have at least a LCDR assigned as XO, and if there is not a LCDR in the billet, then the XO of the ship will be assigned those duties. This requirement was the fallout of a few too many groundings occurring aboard SURFLANT ships. The Admiral decreed the assignment of XOs to this duty to get greater experience behind this important job on the vessels. So Tom was monitoring the laying out of the charts on the bridge and, at some point prior to this morning, had also checked the work of CIC to make sure their charts were updated and had the exact same planned track for departing the harbor laid out and understood. As Navigator, all navigational responsibilities in other parts of the ship where part of his purview.

The Officer of the Deck would directly manage the Getting Underway Checklist, which he would have received from the Quarterdeck Officer of the Deck. The Junior Officer of the Deck (JOOD) would be on station, focusing on the tides, currents, prospective track away from the pier, then down the channel, as well as stepping to the bridge wing periodically and looking for and aft to survey the state of the mooring lines. Affixed to the pier by six standard mooring lines, doubled up, all twelve lines would have to be removed from the pier’s bollards and hauled aboard the ship at some point.

The Captain, the XO, and the Officer of the Deck make frequent trips to the outboard bridge wing, checking for other ship movements in the vicinity, looking for the tugs, and scanning for any thing in the water next to the ship that may pose a hazard in leaving the pier.

Are the APU (auxiliary power units) deployed? Is the CHT line disconnected from the pier? Are the phone lines disconnected? Have the Bridge-to-Bridge radio comm check been run? Is the pilot on his way? How many tugs are coming? What’s the state of the current and tides?

Things are checked and re-checked, eyeballs are used to check other eyeballs. It’s not taken personally, it’s become a practice adopted to prevent failure points based on the failure points that men going down to the sea have learned over centuries. The “I’d rather be told twice than not at all” philosophy is in place. The crew functions as one, sometimes verbally, but the critical items are placed on the checklist, just to make sure.

The pilot arrives, the tugs pull up along side, Code Hotel is hoisted on the signal halyards, the Officer of the deck reports to the XO: “Underway Checklist is complete.” The XO approaches the CO and says ” The underway checklist is complete. Request permission to get underway.” “Very Well” comes as the response.

“OOD, permission to get underway!” are the next words heard, which are followed by “Take in all lines. Boatswain’s Mate of the Watch: Standby the 1MC!”

With several key things happening next, the general announcing system (1MC) blasts out a sharp whistle and the words “UNDERWAY! SHIFT COLORS!”

To be continued…

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Today would have been a Sunday, those many years ago, preceding the even. Holiday Routine is the normal situation on the ship. Revillie is delayed, and only the Duty Section (on coming and off going) is required to muster. Chow is much more relaxed and extended, allowing the duty section to get a little extra sleep.

The day is not without work, and I’m sure there was extra activity, given the short notice of the operational requirement, and the shorthanded status of the crew during stand down. Stores and other supplies, delivered to the pier would have to have been broken down off of pallets and hand carried below to the store rooms, magazines and refrigerators. While there is an ammunition elevator in the center of the ship, most items still require “working parties” to be called away to get the job done.

The Command Duty Officer would be busy making sure the events of the Getting Underway Checklist are on track. Despite having easy to start and operate gas turbine engines, basic machinery still drives the propulsion plant and things like heating up the lube oil for the reduction gears, purifying fuel for the filling the service tanks and such things still require a long lead time. Communications checks would be in the works for the day, and checking the message traffic to ensure the request for tugs and pilots from Port services has been confirmed for the sailing times. walks about the ship, for basic cleanliness and to check that spaces are secured for sea are part of the routine. Making sure all the trash gets off the ship, and doesn’t build up are part of the duty of the CDO and the Duty Department heads, as well as the Divisional Petty Officers on Watch.

The Officer of the Deck and his watchstanders monitor the comings and goings from the ship and are the keepers of the Ship’s main phone line, relegating the Messenger or the Petty Officer of the Watch to receptionist duties. Some calls are easy to handle, some are not.

The Duty Engineer has a more extensive checklist and carries most of the responsibility for the efforts on the day before underway to assure the plant is “online and ready to answer all bells” when the Commanding Officer gives permission to get underway the following morning.

By the end of the day, some of the crew not living aboard and not having duty will arrive, choosing to spend the night aboard, so they are not caught in the traffic the next morning. They have their goodbyes with wives and children and head to their berthing space to stow their gear, and then usually go and check to make sure their spaces or work for the dawn are on track, or maybe even complete a few things early, so the next day is not so much of a rush of activity.

The thoughts of many of the crew are not exactly charitable, regarding the sister ship of the squadron, which has been stateside for several months, is not going to sea, and they will be, 31 short days after doing their forward deployed assignment, but they are professionals and sailors, and we all know a happy sailor is a complaining sailor…

Tomorrow: Underway enroute a meeting with notable history.

Last year, about this time, I put up Operation Forward Pass as a blog with the intent to pass along lessons learned to those about to enter the service. It’s that time of year when the high school and college/university grads are ready to raise their hands and commit to service to the Nation. How valuable would some hard earned wisdom be to them?

I grew up around the military, then did my 20. Just about everywhere I lived since 1962, the “local” community had access to those who wore uniforms. Much of the understanding of what was going to happen when they get off of the bus and put their feet on the yellow footprints isn’t a mystery.

My perception of the current knowledge of our population is they don’t have many service members around to help the be pre-acclimated to the boot camp/officer training experience. It was exacerbated by the massive downsizing of the military through base closings during the mid-90s. Those heading into the military know what the MSM says, with the overworked recruiters being the first line of defense to help dispel rumors and make sure their charges are mentally prepared, and thereby increase the probability of a “satisfied customer” out on the front line a year from now. Add to that that the MSM isn’t kind in their presentation of the recruiters, trying to cast them as a bunch of people looking to cheat the system and take anyone they can. As we know all to well, that’s no where close to the truth.
Here is my request: Whether you would like to become an author on the blog, or would just like to send in some useful posts, I think we’d help the ones who are coming behind us get off to an accelerated start.

Contact me either via the comments section (here or there).

Thanks in advance. Let’s get the future warriors prepped for the next part of their lives.

While I’m on the subject, don’t forget that Jack Army sez we can help by getting names of sharp young men and women to our local recruiters…

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor, Third World County

The post deployment “stand down” was truncated because the ship with the commitment couldn’t sail.

Getting a vessel to see is not like taking your 26′ boat out for a spin. Yes, the trailering and jockeying for a position at the boat ramp is exasperating, but no where near the level of effort to get out to a multi-ship exercise.

Communications plans are needed, the Engineer has to make sure he has fuel and water and other valuable consumables, such as lube oil. The 1st LT makes sure all the topside equipment is ready for use and loose gear stowed. The Combat Systems Officer makes sure his crew has sufficient munitions for the events scheduled, and any mandated operational loads. The Navigator has to pre-plan the transit from the pier to the sea buoy, and then to the rendezvous point, carefully checking the safe passage planned and setting a time frame to request the tugs and harbor pilot, so you can arrive at the exercise area as planned. Never late. It’s walking the dog back to make sure you’ll make it and not exceed any defined “speed limits” for transits that are in place for overall fuel economy. The quartermasters double check the work of the Navigator and also make sure the latest corrections for the nautical charts have been marked onto the charts to indicate missing navigational aids, dredging operations and other changes worth paying attention to. The Combat Information Center (CIC) gang has lots of work to make sure they know the schedule of events for the transit and exercises, the designated operations areas and the restrictions that may apply to those areas. On top of that, if any shore based services are required, they need to draft and send coordinating messages to other units to make sure what’s needed is there.

The general process when I was in for the post-deployment stand down was for 1/2 of the crew to go on leave the first 15 days and then the second half was off the last 15 days, then you came back and got back into the swing of things.

In this case, the “get back into the swing of things” happened during the time people were on leave, so it was people shouldering the extra work for those gone, or some coming back early or on some days off, in order to be ready.

This was not just any ship. It was one with 6 months of Earnest Will convoy escorting work. As the second senior command in the Persian Gulf at sea, this ship was regularly assigned the duty of Convoy Commander for oil tankers going one direction, while the Destroyer Squadron Commodore, the ranking commander, was Convoy Commander for a group of vessels going the other direction. The ship had all of it’s duty, plus the duty to manage a herd of merchant vessels, keeping them from harm, while keeping in contact with higher authority, and directly managing the other “assets” in the region to assist. The DESRON Commander had his assigned staff, but then the ship they were riding was left to just perform their duties, and not those responsibilities of commanding a convoy.

The net result of this extra effort for the ship will come to factor into their operations later.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor, Third World County

They had returned from their maiden cruise on the 22nd of March, 1998. The first operational deployment now in the past, but they had done the mission the class had been built for: Convoy escort.

Home and enjoying some leave after the 6 months in the Persian Gulf, the tasker arrived in mid April, ordering them to sea on the 31st day after they had returned. The 30 day post-deployment leave and stand down, while by the numbers looked good, was not that, as gearing up to head to sea for fleet operations is not a small undertaking, and not easily handled by half the crew. Some ship, that had been stateside was unable to meet her commitment and this ship was to stand in as the escort for the USS JOHN F KENNEDY (CV-67) as she conducted anti-submarine training off the East Coast.

More to follow, as a tale is to be told of three naval combatants, and the intersection of their crews, is a story sparsely told. I will provide what I can to fill out the details of what happened.

Return often for the next few days, as the posts will provide the background to the setting.

Part II

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

Today is “Pork Chops” for lunch and Sea Stories. Oh, post your trackbacks here. Not at Yankee Sailor…You guys are overloading his blog.

So, there are “pork chops” and plain ol’ “chops” and sometime just “lamb chops.”I spent 9 months in Newport getting my “PME” (Professional Military Education), courtesy of the Goldwater-Nichols Act, passed in 1986. One of my fellow students was a Supply Officer named Diane. She was pretty bright and we both were headed to Charleston after our school. I promised I’d give her a tour of the frigate, as she was going to the USS SIERRA (AD-18), which was, despite it’s important mission, not very “warlike.”

My two “chops,” LT Wayne Aiken and the “lamb chop,” LTJG Reich, were both excellent officers and the type of chops who knew their only reason for being was to keep us in parts and groceries. They were good at it and also good to the Supply Corps Manuals, so they kept us straight. They lacked one thing to “round them out,” that being the newly approved warfare “pin” for their staff corps community, the Surface Warfare Supply Corps Officer (“SWSCO” – called “swiss-co”).

I regularly asked the two men how far along they were in their completion of their qualifications. The “regularly” given answer was “XO, we’re too busy for that!”

Then, when I had been aboard for the better part of a year, Diane finally called to take me up on my offer of the tour of the ship. I obliged, seeing the opportunity. The day she was to come over and have lunch and then get her tour was when the Captain was on leave. That day at lunch, I sat at the head of the table, with my guest, the LCDR Supply Officer from the destroyer tender, sitting next to me, while the two supply officers sat at the other end of the all too short table for this day, as Diane had completed her qualifications, and was wearing her SWSCO pin on her working uniform. I certainly made a point of complimenting her on her accomplishment and noted how I believed it would be a big plus for her career, while Wayne and Jim sat quietly eating. They did, however, renew their interest in making progress towards getting their SWSCO done after that day.

Well, maybe you had to be there, back in the day of male dominated combatant wardrooms, to fully appreciate the foil I was using that day.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

I posted a few days ago about the Navy Together We Served portal and mentioned there was a Marine version that had led the way.

Since that post, my site meter is full of hits with the search words for TWS, and many of them “modified” to include “Army” or “Air Force,” so I sent an email to the N-TWS admin address saying there seemed to be a lot of activity. The response is that they are working the Air Force Together We Served site now, and there will be an Army Together We Served site following that.

So, be patient! Your time is near, non-sea service personnel!

Update 4/21/2007: The Admin at TWS says the set up for the sites for the USAF and Army will take time to get the databases together. Yep, that sounds right, but says the sites should be up this year. He said they would be getting the addresses to the sites up soon, at least with a banner to welcome you and let you know those other two services will be around.

Keep checking for an airforce.togetherweserved.com and army.togetherweserved.com to arrive on the net!

Note: Welcome to the blog! If you’re here on 5/5/2007, check out the live feed to the MilBlogging Conference in Arlington, VA via this link! Thanks…

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Navy – Together We Served Portal.

Maybe not brand new, but I’ve been there a few months after a shipmates invited me there. The is also a USMC versionI have already been connected with several people I was on ships with and look forward to finding more. The organization of the site lends itself to easily posting your assignments, but dates and ranks for those commands, and then has search tools that allow you to slice and dice the query to see who else is there.Update 4/18/2007: There’s hope for you Air Force and Army vets…Update 4/21/2007: The Admin at TWS says the set up for the sites for the USAF and Army will take time to get the databases together. Yep, that sounds right, but says the sites should be up this year. He said they would be getting the addresses to the sites up soon, at least with a banner to welcome you and let you know those other two services will be around.Keep checking for an airforce.togetherweserved.com and army.togetherweserved.com to arrive on the net!

While you’re visiting, check out my post on the rescue of the USS BONEFISH on 4/24/1988.

Tracked back @: Yankee Sailor

The tensions finally rose to the point of exchanging cannon shot on this day in 1861, when artillery batteries on Morris Island (which is not much more than a sandbar, manned by Cadets from The Citadel, led by Cadets Hainesworth and Pickens, fired on a supply ship, the Star of the West, that was entering Charleston Harbor to bring supplies to the Union troops at Ft Sumter.

The troops had all consolidated into Ft Sumter, having abandoned both Ft Johnson (on the SW entrance of the harbor) and Ft Moultrie (on the NE side). More info on this “opening day” is posted at Eagle Speak.

Star of the West Monument at The CitadelThere is plenty of history in the epic struggle our country faced so many years ago, yet as I checked the Citadel’s for some history, one of the first links came up as the Star of the West Monument, and a listing of the cadets who have won the Star of the West award for the Corps best drilled cadet each academic year.The competition an elimination of hundreds who try out and the winners are truly excellent at drilling with a weapon, in those days, it was the M-14 rifle that was the standard issue weapon for us. To see the concentration and precision of these men was remarkable.Besides my classmate being there, the 1972 award went to “A.D. Griffin.” Who was this man? “Dave” Griffin, ’74, graduated with a commission as an Ensign in the US Navy. He left Charleston and headed to Basic Underwater Demolition School (BUDS), he became a SEAL, later commanding the East Coast Parachute Demonstration Team, the “Chuting Stars,” before transferring to Naval Aviation and becoming an F-14 Tomcat pilot. Dave is no longer with us, as he died in a crash while returning from a night exercise over North Carolina. I understand they thought it was a case of vertigo, and the plane crashed in Back Bay, Virginia Beach, making recovery of the airframe from the boggy area exceptionally difficult.While at The Citadel, Dave was a larger than life character, tough as nails, with an air of terminal seriousness about him. He had been a member of the Junior Sword Drill, the Summerall Guards, and ran from the campus out to the Citadel beach house on Isle of Palms when he was bored (about 20 miles). I heard he was also the first person to max out the score on the pre-BUDS test for any colleges in the South East part of the country.

The Junior Sword Drill team was one that you didn’t get on without 14 nights of running, push ups, sweating out most of the liquid in your body, but having to keep showing you were learning the drill routine and ignoring the sore muscles and sheer exhaustion. That process of qualifying is now long gone, due to a few who took advantage of the trying out the following year by some serious hazing incidents. Like so many other things, the few ruined it for the many. Summerall Guards tryouts were tough, but didn’t approach the level of those who were on the Sword Drill team.

He was on Regimental Staff his senior year and had the reputation of never striking anyone, but if you needed some correction, he PTed you to exhaustion, with him doing it with you most of the time. I don’t recall which company he had come up from, but I believe it was one from 3rd Battalion, which had a reputation for being very military minded companies. 1st and 4th Battalions is where many of the athletes ended up, so there was a distinct difference in philosophies at times on how to do things, but that’s a another long discussion.

So, I thought I’d take a moment and document some history of Dave Griffin, who had a reputation that he could back up. I’ll also say I was disappointed when he got command of the Chuting Stars, with 7 jumps (all static line military) behind him to run a freefall exhibition team. I had over 200 freefalls at the time, but he had a qualification I could not achieve: Special Warfare. He broke his leg on his first jump with his new team, trying out his “square” canopy, and had a cast on for four months of his 12 month assignment

Citadel Cadets have had the history of the opening battle of the Civil War drilled deep within them by using the threat of not getting anything to eat if you didn’t know your “mess facts.” Maybe that’s why it has stuck with me all these years, but I will say I missed few meals for a Cadet dating my sister gave me a few bits of wisdom to chew on the summer before my arrival at the North Sally Port of Padgett-Thomas Barracks.

As far as my knowledge of Dave the upperclassman: I knew to stay out of his field of view, and obviously, he was well known on Campus.

Tracked back @: Eagle Speak

Sea stories? You want “sea stories?”

Once upon a midwatch clear….(to be continued later today). The topic? VERY large formations doing “TIC TACs.”

In the meantime, link your best, current, or currently best posts!

There we were, the leadership of the ship massed on the bridge, late in the evening, on a clear (on the surface), but moonless night. A Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) comprised of us and escorts and the USS SARATOGA (CV-60), if memory serves me well, had “joined up” with the Standing Naval Forces, Atlantic (STANAVFORLANT), consisting of several frigates and destroyers from the Continent, and one of our ships so assigned as her deployment) and their supporting oiler, in this cycle, courtesy of the Royal Navy.

For what ever reason, the British Admiral of STANAVFORLANT was in tactical command of us all and had ordered us into a large circular formation, of three concentric circular ranges. We, being a Fat Ship (USS MILWAUKEE (AOR-2)), in company with one carrier and at least one other oiler (the Brit) were assigned a “point” station (a fixed bearing and range from the guide ship of the formation) and were on our way through traffic to get there.

Shortly before arriving on station, the, as we called it back the, PRITAC (primary tactical) radio crackled to life and a very long coded signal was clearly sounded out in all its phonetic glory from ATP-1, a standard signal book used by we and our allied nations. I can’t tell you what it was, but it had a change of station component, followed by the alteration of the axis of the formation, followed by a course change. The signal was passed as a “delayed executive” type, meaning a separate command would be sent to execute the directions at a future time.

As Officer of the Deck (OOD), I diligently plotted the new changes on a Maneuvering Board, calculated our course and speed to the new station assignment and showed it to the CO. He concurred and I briefed my Junior Officer of the Deck (who was conning the ship, too) on what to do when the signal was executed.

I recall we arrived in our station on that moonless night, nestled among the combatants, who would patrol the seas to keep us and the CV safe from enemy attacks, and we reported “Alfa Station” smartly as we ordered speed reduced to match the guide’s speed. Within moments, PRITAC came to life once more and, spewing forth a fairly long string or letters and numbers, followed by “Standby, EXECUTE!”

The JOOD clearly announced the the Helmsman and Lee Helmsman the rudder and engine orders for us to slip, ever so relatively to our new station, with a new axis on the formation (I think it was almost a 180 degree axis change to match the reversal of the formation’s course. And the 40,000 tons of steel and people and liquid cargo commenced to swing crisply (well, as best we could imitate a destroyer with less HP per ton). Now consider this “M” with new “A” in both the forward speed and the rudder standard (15 degrees) input, while traveling about 15 kts. As we smiled in the dim red glow of the low level illumination of the bridge equipment, several of us, the CO and XO and OPS, as well as I on the bridge wing, noted the relative movement of the running lights of the other ships of the formation would indicate they were not in a bold course change to the right, they were more like, well, to put it plainly essentially still headed the same direction they had been going before the long, but…you guessed it, not wholly ordered signal.

A new voice was heard over PRITAC, with a distinctly English (the Queen’s not American), sending a new communication and, but the “call up” portion of the message, only addressed to our call sign. The “we’re real Surface Warfare experts” aura fading. No, evaporated, as the words sunk in “(MILWAUKEE), Your movements are not understood.” Being the practiced crisis management experts we are resulted in the almost instantaneously blurted out comment by several of us “KEEP THE RUDDER ON!” We then realized of the extensive signal sent, only a portion of it was directed to be carried out, and there were other portions yet to be executed. Those parts are pretty obvious.

The speed increase and right standard remained on, as we cut a 360 degree wake into the black water, before resuming the station we were not supposed to have left yet. The CO said to keep the speed on, but to report “Alfa Station” to the Officer in Tactical Command (OTC), we did and after “Roger,” the remaining portions of the long signal, to include the new course change, so all we had do was put the rudder back on and head for our new station.

At least it was a dark and windy night….