First Flight

By Hal Lotman

 As I remember, it was a sunny day in July 1966. I was stationed at Fort Jackson SC, and assigned to C Company, US Army Garrison. My duty station was Owens Army Airfield, about a 30 minute drive from Fort Jackson. We had two Bell OH-13B helicopters and two Canadian-built de Havilland U-6A Beavers, a High winged utility airplane with a radial engine. [And a two-bladed propeller. Ed.] Strangely we had only one pilot for each type of aircraft.

De Havilland U-6A Beaver

After four months assigned to the Army Aviation Detachment, Owens Army Airfield, I became the Crew Chief to one of the OH- 13B helicopters. A few weeks later, to my surprise, the U-6A Beavers pilot fired one of his crew chiefs during a 25 hour maintenance inspection. He then appointed me his new crew chief. Me? A guy who had never even been inside a U6A! The Beaver was built in 1954 but the engine was originally built in 1939. The previous crew chief completed the 25 hour maintenance inspection and showed me around the plane. After lunch, the pilot walked me around the plane showing me what trouble spots he wanted me to double check. Then he told me I would fly with him during the test flight. I wasn’t happy to do so because I didn’t do the inspection. But a Warrant Officer 2 out ranks a PFC, so I climbed into the the copilot’s seat. 

After he started the engine, he showed me what I needed to watch during the flight. Just as the plane unstuck from the runway, the windshield went black! I didn’t know what I should do and looked at the pilot. We were about 100 feet up and had already flown past the runway. The pilot, my pilot, told me he was shutting down the engine to save what he could! 

Oh great! No power! No runway! And only about 100 feet up! Suddenly I felt closer to heaven than the ground. 

Shutting down the engine, he banked hard left trying to reach the other runway, all the while shouting at the mic alerting the tower of our crash. 

Crash! A word I wished never to hear while flying. He opened his door to see where we were because the windshield & door windows were black with oil. I was close to soiling my pants. 

We lined up on the runway’s painted center line and 

… landed! 

The fire truck was there alongside of us as we coasted to a stop. Just about everyone, soldier, civilian, whatever was running toward us. I climbed out of my Beaver, dropped to my hands and knees and kissed the runway. Thankful that I hadn’t soiled my pants. We sent the Beaver, my Beaver to Fort Bragg for the incident investigation and repairs. We soon found out the engine oil sump plug had backed out causing the engine oil to drain out. Apparently it was not properly torqued down nor was it safety-wired. The mechanics who inspected the Beaver were amazed there wasn’t evidence of a hard landing and all seven cylinders were still attached to the oil-less engine! 

Well we had a skillful pilot and some luck. We got the plane back after about 3 months with a newer rebuilt engine. The only one hurt was the previous crew chief. He was exiled from the airfield to the tinder mercies of the Commander, C Company, USAG, Fort Jackson, SC.

Navy Coffee

 

By Dennis Largeess

The other day I saw a dinosaur. It was an old style coffee percolator for about 100 cups. Before drip coffee makers, like Mr. Coffee, these percolators were all over the place. 

Sailors are great drinkers of coffee. Long hours with little sleep makes a little shot of caffeine a boon. When the German cruiser, Prinz Eugen, was turned over to the USN, some of the German crew were kept on. They were surprised by two things the Americans did. First, they installed bunks for sleeping. The Germans thought hammocks were much better. Second, every work space had a coffee percolator installed. This was an incredible extravagance. No one had seen that much real coffee in five years. 

The German engineers were really surprised that the boiler spaces got them. Why would you drink a hot beverage in a space that regularly had a 100 degree temperature? 

Boiler Techs (BT) had a very rough time. They worked in hot, humid, oily spaces. The 1200 pound steam system that was developed after the kamikaze experience had great response, but was also very dangerous. If there was a pinhole leak in the steam system, you tried to find it by passing a broomstick over the steam lines. A steam leak with that much pressure would slice your fingers off. 

If you know of an old BT, and want to see him jump, yell "High Water Low Water;" He'll jump but then run or he'll beat you to a pulp. 

That kind of steam needed constant attention. On the old Goldsborough, there was a boiler explosion. Most of the watch got to the escape trunk (you had about three minutes), but two kids got confused. They took a wrong turn and couldn't hold their breath any longer. Breathing in super-saturated super-heated steam is a very painful death. One instructor compared it to being parboiled from the inside out. 

On my first ship, I stood some watches in Main Engineering. I was very aware that there was a main steam line three feet over my head. Decided that Operations or Weapons were a better fit. 

Living with this danger every day, the BTs got a tad drifty. They were always dirty and many took two showers a day to feel normal. Tobacco and coffee were two things that kept them sane. 

On a trip to Roosevelt Roads for a Missile Ex, people started to notice that the BTs from 2B Fire Room were getting more quirky. They were moving faster than other sailors and talked fast, "Hihow- you-doing? We-have-to-blow-tubes-soon.I-got-to-run." 

We'd look at each other, "It has to be drugs." 

To be on the safe side, the Naval Investigation Service sent a team to search for contraband. They found nothing in the berthing spaces, so they took a deep gulp and entered the Fire Room. They were not used to the heat or humidity, but soldiered on. 

They didn't find anything and were about to leave when one agent took a sip of coffee. 

It was horrible. The kind that spoons don't stand in, but run away from. 

They pulled the percolator and took it up to the messdecks. After dumping the vile brew, they found six inches of coffee sludge at the bottom. 

The sailors weren't on amphetamines, they had caffeine poisoning! 

It came out that weeks before a new Fireman came aboard. He did not drink coffee, but as the junior man on watch, he was to take the percolator up to the mess deck, dump the old brew, and scrub the percolator thoroughly. 

Well, the kid just rinsed the pot and skated for half an hour. 

We asked the BTs didn't they realize the coffee was bad? 

No, it tasted so good.

When - To Yarmulke or Not

by Hal Lotman

Back in 1988, the Army proposed a new regulation for Jewish personnel. We could wear a Yarmulke under our headgear (cap, helmet, whatever) when armed or not. We could wear it while indoors too. At the time, I worked at HQ, Sixth US Army, Deputy Chief of Staff, Training (DCST), located at the Presidio of San Francisco. I was the DCST admin Sergeant. The DCST Sergeant Major almost popped a blood vessel when he heard about this new rule. The Assistant DCST was also concerned. So they called me into the ADCST’s office and asked me if I was going to wear my Yarmulke (Yiddish for cap). I told them I would wear my Kippah (Hebrew for dome or skullcap) instead, if they did not want me to wear my Yarmulke. 

The SGM looked very pleased with my response. However, the ADCST knew me better. He asked me what means Kippah? I explained to them Kippah means skullcap. Suddenly the SGM lost his smirk. The ADCST asked me not to wear the Kippah or Yarmulke when in the office, because they were afraid of …? (Don’t remember what they were afraid of.) 

After much discussion, we agreed I could wear my military headgear in the office rather than my Kippah or Yarmulke. Previously there were a lot loud discussions about me wearing my headgear indoors. 

Later the ADCST asked me why I wanted to wear a Yarmulke or my army headgear indoors. I explained that in my family, wearing an everyday hat or cap was the same as wearing a Yarmulke. Covering our head reminds us that there is a Heaven above and we are not Number 1! Furthermore, covering your head is a sign of respect. 

Convoy

By Dennis Largess 

 

In the summer of 1974, NATO in the Mediterranean was having a bit of a morale crisis. On most exercises, there were a limited number of ships, and the Soviet navy, under Sergei Gorshkov, was being applauded as a great force. Sergei even was on the cover of Time magazine as a creator of a new blue water Soviet navy. 

 

The problem was that the USN regularly had no more than two carriers, twelve destroyers, one cruiser, and various support ships in the Sea. This didn't appear to be a particularly large force. When the NATO members provided ships for an exercise it was most often a pair of British DDs, two Italian helicopter cruisers, and maybe a tired, old FRAM DD of the Turkish or Greek navies. Hardly ever any Iberian or even French vessels. 

 

  The Sverdlov class cruiser, Admiral Ushakov

The Soviet Med flotilla only amounted to perhaps two cruisers, six or more destroyers, and support ships including Intel collectors called AGI. They were not often seen because they had no land base to operate
from, so they typically anchored in the shallow waters of Kythera island, Greece. However, they had a massive propaganda program saying how great the force was. When they did appear, it was either a single ship like a SAM Kotlin, or the entire Flotilla, so it appeared large and powerful to the news services. During the Yom Kippur war, an old Sverdlov light cruiser, the Admiral Ushakov, paid a port visit to Naples, and really impressed the Italian news services. The Soviet Captain said NATO was old and not viable in the Cold War, and the newspapers ate it up. 

 

Admiral Fox Turner was appointed to Sixth Fleet and quickly recognized he had to invigorate the navies in the Mediterranean. We heard rumors of how he was in contact with the British Admiralty, the Italian Commando Navigatori, the Spanish Marine command, and pretty much anyone else who was involved in the defense of the Med. 

 

We received orders to assemble west of Sicily, and actually very close to the famous Skerki underwater channel which played a big part in the Malta convoys of WWII, like Operation Pedestal. 

 

The Destroyer Squadron 12 staff was very tight lipped about what was going on, but the Ops officer, Bruce Rosser, said we were going to have a great time. 

 

Not quite sure what this meant, we girded our loins for godknowswhat. As we moved west of Sicily, we screened a carrier task force with five other American destroyers and met another American carrier task force. 

 

Greek Destroyer Leon, D54, née USS Eldridge

We were very surprised when ships from the Royal Navy, the Italian Navy, the Spanish Navy, the FRENCH Navy (Mon Dieu!), the Greek Navy, the Turkish Navy, and one Portuguese ship all checked into the Fleet Common radio net. 

 

Now, you cannot have a boatload of ships just steaming around each other, that is asking for collisions. So the commander assigned every ship to a single formation, no separate task groups. 

 

Turner totally surprised everyone with this. NATO had a pub with hundreds of formations. This included lines, staggered lines, columns, screens around high value vessels, and many more. Included in the pubs were different formations for merchant convoys. It was always a plan that the US would send combat forces across the ocean to Europe if there was a hot war. 

 

Fox designated a merchant convoy formation for forty ships. Eight rows with five columns. These were, I think about 800 yards between each ship in a row, and eight hundred yards in the columns. 

 

What utterly shocked us was he ordered a Vertrep (Vertical Replenishment, a helicopter replenishing for each ship of various supplies), and each warship was assigned a position in the convoy formation that usually was filled with a merchant! 

 

First, eight ships formed the first row. Eight hundred yards was much closer and tighter than we were used to, so it was very hairy. 

 

Then the second row formed up and advanced to 800 yards behind the first. Then this continued for the third, fourth, and fifth row. 

 

I can't really explain how shocking this was to us. We normally operated in a line ahead (called a Form 1) or in a screen three or five thousand yards in a circle around the carrier for anti-air defense. Everyone on the bridge was white knuckling this close formation. It occurred to me it must have been something similar to the Grand Fleet at Jutland, the dreadnoughts in, I think, six separate columns, at a cable's distance (607.5 feet). 

 

And all through this the carriers and supply vessels were trailing the "convoy" while helicopters were zipping all over delivering pallets of goods. It was like a hive of honey bees swarming over everyone. 

 

My ship's Captain was a rather nervous fellow and he looked like he might have a seizure when he realized we were only 800 yards apart from a British destroyer and a FRENCH ship. I could see the wheels turning in his mind, and he was contemplating a court martial from collisions. 

 

Now, usually the crew was pretty blase about sailing in company with other ships. They might come up to take a look, but that was all 

 

This time, practically the whole ship came out on deck to point and stare. This was a once in a lifetime event. Forty NATO ships together in one tight formation. 

 

And on every other ship, the same was happening. The crews were up gawking at this show of force. 

 

I don't know how Turner got everyone to send ships for the Exercise, it must have been a massive effort for this many ships from NATO navies, but to include the FRENCH Navy was unheard of. They never came out to play with us. 

 

And suddenly it was made clear that the NATO Med force was big and potent. It couldn't be denied when we were practically close enough to touch in a force of forty warships. 

 

Everyone was gobsmacked by this, and by the convoy formation. (My dad sailed in the Battle of the Atlantic*, and he said it sounded like the convoy formations of merchant ships from WWII.) 

 

Kotlin Class Destroyer

I think it must have also shocked the Soviet tattletale, a SAM Armed Kotlin. He kept about a mile outside of the formation and never tried to push in. Possibly, it was that carriers were behind the convoy formation and he wanted to keep an eye there. 

 

However, every party has a pooper. Manley was on the left most column, I think third from the front. While we were all working on staying on station and gawking at all the ships, we saw that one ship was approaching from the port quarter.  

 

 

CIC had been tracking this ship and it had a steady bearing with decreasing range - a collision course. We quickly determined that this was a Portuguese corvette that had never taken its position in the center of the formation. With the Big Eyes on the Signal bridge we could see there was some kind of a discussion on their bridge. 

 

She was not trying to get into her assigned position and this quickly got dangerous. When she got to about 1,200 yards the OOD, John J. Kennedy, got on Fleet Common, "Interrogative your intentions?" 

 

We got "Roger -wait - out" 

 

The Secure Red phone was on their bridge and we could see someone screaming into it, presumably at Sixth fleet staff. 

 

They did not change course or speed so they were still on a collision course. At 800 yards John again asked, "Interrogative your intentions? You are maneuvering in an unsafe manner." 

 

Apparently, their Captain was not pleased with what he was told on the Red phone and slammed it to the deck (It was a rather delicate piece of gear). 

 

"Feck this Sh+T". A moment later, the ship belched black smoke, turned hard to port and sped off for the Strait of Gibraltar. 

 

We looked at each other and John quipped, "Was it something I said?" 

 

 * My step father also was a merchant man in the Atlantic.  For more see Requiem of an Inadvertent Cold Warrior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asymmetric Warfare, US verses Iran

The US military is capable of amazing things. It's ability to vector in country destructive force with only a few days notice is unparalleled in the world. But it comes at a price. Last year, that price was $850 billion.

How it is able to force projection is refereed to as the Tooth (guns, planes, ships) to Tail (passing the ammo) ratio. While the teeth are the most deadly ever conceived, without the supplies, training, support forces, forward bases, administration, purchasing, technicians, medical, and intelligence, they are just lumps of medal in the desert. The US Military ratio is 10-1.

Loosely calculated, about $85 billion is dedicated to the planes, ships and guns, and $765 billion in procurement, housing, training and fuel. Western Allies are about 1-2, which they can get away with because they are more regional powers. Russia is about 1-1.1. Barely adequate for defense, and has had disastrous results when tested on the offensive.

None of this is secret. Our opponents in the last 80 years have come to realize that going toe-to-toe with the US military is bad plan. China threw over a million men into Korea, and over 200,000 died. North Vietnam in 1968 sent half a million men into South Vietnam using more standard divisional units and lost 20-1 in the Tet offensive. Iraq had a million man army in 1991 with 6 months to dig in and prepare. They lost 50,000 dead in 4 days of ground combat.

Amateurs talk about the sexy weapons and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics. And on that, the US has no peers. But again, it comes at a price.

So our enemies have learned to fight us in a different way. They already know that they are going to take huge losses, but they are willing to do it because of the economic damage they cause to the US. When you have a tire blown out because you hit a pot hole, you can blame a guerrilla in Afghanistan. Because it cost US $1 million dollars a year per deployed foot soldier there. How many potholes can you fix with a million dollars? The I-35 Bridge collapse in 2007? Could have been avoided if we were not spending $40 billion on homeland security. Our enemies accept casualties knowing that they are eroding away the richest nation on the planet.

And now the Pedophile in the Oval Office has decided, with the full unconditional support of the Republican controlled congress, to go to war with Iran. It was a war reliant on the on that marvelous US military. But it did appear to have none of the forethought and planning associated in those early military actions I mentioned before. China entered the Korean war 6 months in. The US had been deploying troops into Vietnam for years before the North launched the Tet offensive. We had 6 months to build up and PLAN for the Gulf War.

None of that forethought is in evidence with Iran. Sure we pummeled their air and sea assets, while committing a number of atrocities in the process. But other than a few defined targets early on, it seems to be we are bombing targets of opportunity. Meanwhile, Iran was replying with launching thousands of drones into all the countries supporting the US/Israel war of choice. Along with over a thousand ballistic missiles.

The Shahed drone 50kg warhead, 2,500km range.

Economically, this missile exchange has been a big win for Iran. Much print has already been published of $4 million dollar Patriot missiles shooting down $25,000 Shahed drones. Sometimes more than one Patriot. This is 160-1 win for each one intercepted.

The US Navy also has interceptors, SM-2's at 2 million, while the SM-3's and 6's are $10 million and $5 million each. Or the cheaper, but shorter ranged, Sea Sparrow at just $1.7 million.

The US also has numerous point defense systems. The Rolling Air frame Missile, with a range of 9km, and a cost of just under a million. The Phalanx 20mm Gatling gun, with a range of 3km and a cost of around $50 a round, but fires in 75 round bursts. But all this assumes the point defenses are deployed where the targets are.

The real problem with the Shahed drone is that there are no factories to bomb that make these things. They are all made with piece work parts, spread out over a country twice the size of Alaska. That and over the course of the Ukraine Russia war, both it production costs and capabilities have been refined considerably.

The war in Ukraine has reshaped modern warfare forever. And military's around the world have taken note. And are adapting as best as they can. But that process can be slow for countries like the US and Russia, as hysteresis of the R&D and procurement systems are set in stone. The US budgets are dedicated to producing hundreds of very expensive missiles a year. And the Russian politburo politics are slow to adapt to realities in the field.

So Iran was gleefully willing to launch hundreds of drones a night, not really caring if they hit things or not, knowing they were winning the exchange rate. Stories of depleted stocks abounded the news cycle, and projections that it would take a decade to restock interceptors. And US ships having to pull out to ports an ocean away to reload.

And while the US and it's allies were stuck in this death spiral of expense ratios. Other countries were adapting and evolving. 

One of them is Ukraine. Ukraine has been subjected to nearly continuous bombardment by Russian ballistic missiles and drones now for over 4 years. The threats range from hypersonic Iskandar missiles to the above mentioned Shahed drones. And while Russian equipment has only had some incremental advances over the last 4 years, the Ukrainian responses to the threats have been iterating almost weekly.

Starting from next to nothing in resources, the Ukrainian drone industry has grown to over 200,000 monthly. This covers all sorts of drones, from attack models, to interceptors, to wounded recovery. Their drone industry is constantly innovating. What doesn't work is discarded, and what works improved. Sometimes weekly. For years. Whereas in the west, any new ideas are subjected to "the process", which can take years. And sometimes is obsolete long before they can be produced. Too be sure, the US Military does innovate. Our navy is the only one to have deployed lasers on ships. While cheap to fire, the range is greatly limited, and impacted by weather. But this is only as a result of 50 years of development.

Ukraine's drones are evolving weekly. And while those are offering a considerable improvement of their battlefield conditions, they are also developing highly skilled personnel driving those drones. Enough where they can be contracted out to other countries.

Which happened this year, shortly after the realities of the missile exchange's started in the Middle East. While the Israel and the US were bombing the hell out of Iran, the countries of Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE all became targets. Married to US weapons systems, they were now all paying a ruinous exchange rate. And that is assuming targets didn't get hit. They realized that this war was unsustainable, even if they could restock their interceptors, which they can't. And they realize that Iran is actually, playing nice.

Ukraine, seeing an opportunity to earn some money to defend their country from Russia, has offered to send experts at interceptions, and those countries are all rich and willing to pay for that expertise.

After about a month of missile exchanges, a cease fire was announced. Within a day, it was broken. It doesn't matter who broke it first, but part of it involved Iran launching over a hundred missiles and drones at the oil rich countries. And something happened. They didn't get to their targets. A couple ballistic missiles were intercepted by Patriots. But the Shahed swarm that flew as skirmishers for the ballistics did not attract the greatly diminished numbers of Patriots. A new player had entered the market, and it changed everything.

Japan also has looked into the cost ratio death spiral, and came up with the Terra A1 Interceptor drone. Medium range, and 100kmh faster than the Shahed drone, it is designed to run down a Shahed. And it's unit cost is just $2,500. 10 times cheaper than the Shahed. Combined that with the skills of Ukrainian operators, this will actually reverse the dollar ratio out of Iran's favor.

Has Iran noticed this? Probably. After this event, their missile launches have settled into a sustainable numbers of around a hundred a day. Mainly at Israel. Iran is now seriously going to peace talks. Now if only the US was just as serious.

USS Leaky

This is not my normal Cold War Story. Most of them meet a requirement that they either happened to me, or they happened to someone I knew. I was only a witness to the after effects, but many of the events have been corroborated here.

Mid October, 1978, I was onboard the USS Oklahoma City, CG-5, returning to homeport Yokosuka after 6 weeks at sea. One of the unusual sites that greeted us was a "double ender" cruiser in drydock. There was cruiser of that class also homeported in Yokosuka, but the Worden, CG-18 was tied up in her normal berth.

So what was this one? Ships homeported stateside usually have their drydock work done stateside. Their time on WestPac tours are planned out and at a premium.

It was the USS Leahy, CG-16. How she found her way into this unfortunate state is something of a legend.

For the history buffs here. This is the same drydock built to handle the Yamato. There were some times where there were 3 ships abreast in it.

Sept 21, 1978, the Leahy was scheduled to depart for their next port of call in Hong Kong. But due to unforeseen circumstances, her departure was delayed until after dark. The story goes, and this I cannot corroborate, that the Captain had a side piece that he really wanted to get to. Or some other pressing personal business.

As the ship was transiting the out bound lane, they were stuck behind a freighter doing a respectful, and possibly speed limit of 5 knots. Most of the shore line has homes and businesses, and large wakes were would make the port an undesirable neighbor.

Captain Pearlman decided to pass the freighter. He called up 20 knots, and had the ship swing by the freighters starboard side. At about the time they pulled ahead of the freighter, one of the lookouts shouted, "Lighthouse to seaward!"

Meaning, "The ship is closer to the shore than the lighthouse." 

About then the ship ran over the sea wall that connected the shoreline to said lighthouse. 

The ship had the first ninety feet sheared off. And as it rocked to a stop, the screws hit bottom, ruining them as well. Men were injured, some permanently disabled. But no one was killed. Captain Pearlman was removed from command.

The ship thereafter was nicknamed the Leaky. And for months, the most popular drink on the Honch was Leahy on the Rocks.

Going AWOL

About 5 years ago I answered a question on Quora about what would happen "If a Navy sailor is on shore leave overseas and misses the departure of his ship for good reasons or bad, what is he supposed to do?"

The answer is to do your best  to report to the nearest military official, or a US Embassy.  

We didn't use AWOL when I was in, but the term, UA, for Unauthorized Absence.   Also, more technically this would be referred to as Missing Ships Movement.  

In my time, we had one guy miss ships movement. The ship was going from Yokosuka to Korea, so he knew at some point the Okie Boat would have to transit the Kanmon strait. He caught a bullet train south, then a local to Shemonseki, then camped out on a pier. When he saw the ship he hopped onboard a boat, threw a bunch of Yen at the owner, and pointed.

He was sent to Captains mast, and fined the amount he spent on the tickets, which was suspended.  I should add this guy was well respected even if a junior rank, so that was taken into account.

Then we had another guy go AWOL in Australia. He was picked up hitchhiking in uniform, by what turned out to be an Australian Navy officer. Who took him home and gave him the last good meal he was going to get in a while.

The Aussie MP’s picked him up, and flew him to Japan, where he was court-martialed. Reduced in rank to E-1 (the bottom) fined a lot of money, plus he had to pay for the airfare of his Aussie escorts, 6 months prison, then dishonorably discharged.

So there is the answer. It depends.

Other stories supplied to the forum:

1973- NavSta Mayport Florida: aircraft carrier USS Franklin D Roosevelt had just taken in the last line when a sailor appeared pier-side frantically shouting and waving, and fell off the pier.

Now you don’t just sidle a carrier back up to the pier. Cooler heads prevailed. He was fished out of the water…AND, knowing that the harbor pilot would be returned ashore on a ship’s helicopter, he was driven to Air Operations so he could get on it after dropping the harbor pilot ashore. He was so drunk that he could NOT be understood…so he was taken to sickbay. Turns that he had spent the prior evening at the nearby bar so he could say his final, Navy discharge farewell to his shipmates as we departed on deployment! 

By the time he was coherent enough to understandably communicate that to the ship’s medical staff, we were too far at sea to warrant flight quarters to fly him back ashore! He made the transit all the way to our first port call in Barcelona, Spain, where, I suppose, the Navy got him back home. Meanwhile, we’d arrived in the Mediterranean Sea just in time for the Yom Kippur war to start.

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While I was on liberty one time, the ship got an emergency sortie. It was a drill. Unbeknownst to those of us on liberty did not get notified of said movement. I learned that the ship still had over 50% manned and it was sufficient for the drill. The ship was gone for 24 hours. All we could do was sit at the liberty boat landing area with the shore patrol and await the ships return. None of us got into trouble. But it was a scary moment to get back to the dock and no ship in sight.

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1983 in the Navy on a Mediterranean Cruise. My ship had a port visit to Ashdod Israel. With permission of the Captain, 7 of the ship’s officers (myself included) took a private tour of the Holy Land. The tour lasted the entire day and we were returned to the pier that evening. Much to our surprise, the ship had departed and we were stranded in Israel. 

During the day the ship had a general recall of the crew resulting from Omar Kadaffi invading Chad And my ship being tasked to respond to that situation. Our action was to take the cab to Tel Aviv and report to the American Embassy. The ship had already notified the embassy of our situation and were ready for us to check in. We did not have passports or Visas, but our military id card was enough id to stay clear of trouble. 

It took 5 days for the embassy to arrange a flight from Israel. And a total of 10 days to get us returned to our ship. From there we went to Naples Italy and then Sigonilla Sicily. From Sigonilla we were flown to the deployed carrier for two days. Once in range our ship’s helo det transported us back to the ship. There was no punitive proceedings, and when we were safely on board, our Executive Officer greeted us and said “I hope you enjoyed the adventure; It will never happen again!” 

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My ship, USS Scott (DDG995), had tied up at the pier in Haifa Israel and seven sailors had gone on liberty about fifteen minutes later as soon as the gangway was in place.

At that point in time we received an emergency order to breakaway and to pursue the cruise liner, Achille Lauro, which had just been hijacked.

The deck crew cut the lines with axes tying us to the peer and we pulled away with the gangway falling into the water.

We shadowed the Achille Lauro until the hijackers left the the ship in Egypt a couple of days later.

The seven sailors who missed the ship’s movement stayed in a local hotel until we pulled back into Haifa a few days later.

Given the circumstances, there were no consequences for the seven sailors who missed the ship’s movement.

 

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We were tied up at the repair pier in Subic Bay and I’d gone to the Navy Exchange on base for some reason or other. I came back a couple of hours later and my ship was GONE!

I was in a panic, looking all around to see if I’d done something incredibly stupid when one of the guys standing around me asked if I was lost.

I told them I left my ship RIGHT THERE, and somebody TOOK IT!

They laughed and pointed across towards the other side of the harbor where it had been towed to perform some repairs that required a special shop about a mile from NAS Cubi Point.

Took a base taxi and got back aboard.

Was told it was a surprise move, and me and another handful of sailors were off ship when the tugs dragged it across the harbor.

Never felt so distraught in my life!

 My reply:

In my first civie job I was assigned to fix an electrical system on a tug boat assigned to Philadelphia. It was Friday night, and I picked up my girl friend and drove to south Philly. She regarded it as an adventure.

On board, meter out, and being followed by the ships electrician, I felt that unmistakable shutter of ships movement. My girl friend was on the pier reading a book also saw it leave and thought, “Now what do I do, he has the car keys?”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Atlantic City.” was the reply. About 55 miles away.

“I am not going to Atlantic City! My girl friend is at the pier.”

“The Atlantic City, its a barge across the river, its where we have dinner.

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Different navies different rules. In the Indian Navy, a sailor cannot be reduced in rank below the lowest man's rate of Seaman I (or equivalent) which is E-3.

Returning late from shore leave or missing a ship which was under sailing orders when you proceeded on leave is an aggravated offense of leave breaking and there is no limit on the punishment.

Desertion implies “having no intention of returning” and has to be proved though s prolonged absence and/or being arrested and returned to the ship would probably qualify. If a sailor is AWOL for 7 days he is marked “Run” and a notation “R” is placed against his name on the ship's books. His pay and allowances stop from the day of absence. After 3 months unless he is required to answer some other charge, he is struck of the ship's books. If subsequently recovered, the deserter cannot be tried summarily by the Captain but will be tried by Court Martial.

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I nearly missed movement in ’01 in Newcastle, nsw, au. Was brought to chiefs mess where the recommended reduction in rate from e3 to e2. The great part was after they announced sentence the Old Man announced the promotion results over the 1mc. He announced i was to be promoted from e3 to e4. I asked the scpo presiding if the captain just overruled his decision. I've never seen a senior chief look so angry in my life. So, technically, I went through 4 ranks in 30 seconds.

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