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    Navy Sea Stories
    Navy Sea Stories
    Navy Sea Stories
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    Navy Sea Stories

    By Vince Stead

    ()

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    About this ebook

    1.  What is was like to have sea duty aboard a submarine tender.
    2.  What U.S. Navy Boot camp Was Like for Me As an Enlisted Serviceman.
    3.  How to Have Fun in the Navy and What It Is Like Up in Flag Country on an Aircraft Carrier.
    4.  What Is Was Like to Be Aboard an Aircraft Carrier.
    5.  What the Food Is Like On A Navy Ship.
    6.  How I Learned To Type In The Navy From Watching The Movie.
    7.  What It Was Like to Be Stationed on a U.S. Navy Destroyer Out to Sea.
    8.  What Is Was Like to Be Stationed in Guam on a Submarine Tender in the United States Navy.
    9.  What Is Was Like to Visit the Philippines While on a Navy Warship and Take a Port of Call.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVince Stead
    Release dateJan 27, 2011
    ISBN9781516365371
    Navy Sea Stories

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      Book preview

      Navy Sea Stories - Vince Stead

      By Vince Stead

      Navy Sea Stories:

      Please Do Not Read if You Can Not Swim!

      Copyright © 2011 by Vince Stead

      All rights reserved.  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      ISBN:  978-1456558666

      www.vincestead.com

      CHAPTER 1

      ––––––––

      WHAT IS WAS LIKE TO HAVE SEA DUTY ABOARD A SUBMARINE TENDER.

      The first thing I learned about being in the Navy is that if your duty station is a ship, and it happens to be moving across the ocean, sometimes it takes you a long long time to catch up to it! 

      That was the deal with this ship I was just assigned to, a destroyer that was underway and out to sea.  It took me almost a month to catch up to the destroyer I was to be stationed on. The ship was on its way to Subic Bay, in the Philippines.  I was going to meet it at the pier when I got their finally.

      After arriving in Manila, me and some other guys that were headed to the ship stayed the night in Manila for the first night. That was the first night I had ever spent in another country in my life.  There were several of us that flew into Manila that same day.  We needed to take a taxi about 2 hours south of the country to meet the ship.

      We got a nice hotel room in Manila that was overlooking the streets below.  There were all kinds of vendors and jeepneys, which is their main line of taxis, and they were everywhere!  They were honking their horns non stop!  We did not know what to do so we all stayed in the hotel lounge and drank. 

      That first night, we all drank right there in the lounge, and just stayed their and got hammered.  We had been traveling for a while, and we were told not to go out and party, but we did party a little bit, but just in the hotel lounge.

      The next morning a white little van with air conditioning came and picked us all up.  It drove us to the town where the ship was waiting.  Along the way you could see many different types of taxis, and tons of fields that we all guessed, were rice fields maybe, were were not sure.

      The taxi drivers seemed to drive more crazy than in the United States.  They swerved at stuff, and hardly slowed down to let anyone cross the street.  They had tons of decorations glued all over the hoods, and all of the jeepneys had things attached to their hoods, and must of them looked like shrines.

      They would honk their horns constantly, and sometimes if you are watching the driver, he is just honking the horn to honk the horn!  There were 3 wheeled motorcycle taxis that they called trikes, all over the place also!  They were the cheapest way to get around.

      I consider myself to be a good motorcycle rider, since I grew up with dirt bikes and motorcycles, and I had them all the time. 

      One day I asked one of the trike drivers if I could drive his 3 wheeled taxi motorcycle.  He said I would have a hard time since I never did it before.  I told him I rode motorcycles all my life, and I bet I can ride his trike!  He bet me 50 pesos, which is about $1, that I could not ride it from one spot to another.  Boy, I drove it just a little bit and I could not get it to turn around for me.  He was right, you have to practice riding on of those things to figure it out!

      I was the fresh meat guy again on the ship.  This was finally going to be the real Navy.  A ship with over 1,300 people on it.  Our office was almost at the very top of the ship.  All the admin offices, legal, public affairs, recreation, the CO, XO, and Command Master Chief offices were connected together.

      The offices are connected together so we can all use some of the same spaces.  You had to do the standard duties anyone aboard a ship would have to do.  Fire fighter training, drills, man overboard, abandon ship, nuclear spill, and other type of drills.

      Everyone does special training, and you have to learn other things about the ship also.  One of my first duties besides being a yeoman, was you had to stand a watch or serve on a flight crew or salvage crew, or something like that.  Even thou you are working in an office, and at any moment, and even at 3:00 am, they might decide to do a drill or the real thing, and you have to get up and go!

      One of my jobs as a seaman in the navy and working in the admin department was during special sea procedures.  We might be getting supplies from another ship that is traveling threw the water, at say for example, 20 knots, and we are traveling threw the water, at the same speed also.  We can transfer fuel, supplies, food, mail, people, you just name it!

      They might use a helicopter to bring supplies over from one ship to another.  During all this time, the Captain is up on the bridge standing out on the wings with usually a junior officer he is training.  He will be directing the ship at what speed it should be at, what course it should be on and so forth.  During all this time, he always has a young naval officer at his side, since he is always training officers at any given time.

      The captain, who I must of saw train 50 different officers with the same training over and over again.  Here we are, the ship traveling at high speeds, two ships not more than 100 feet from each other." 

      There will be a young ensign or lieutenant junior grade standing out on the bridge wings trying to give the speed and course, to the quartermaster and helmsman.  Also at the same time, he has the junior officer right behind him, putting a little pressure on him, telling him what to do, and asking him lots of test questions, and always testing them and training them.

      My job was to keep track of what speed and what course we were on at all times.  The young officers would get confused and could not remember what course or what speed we were on.  You usually just have to fine tune your course and speed every so often, back and forth just a little bit, but always back and forth and the ships will be fine.

      It looks really impressive, awesome and powerful to be out to sea, and thousands of guys working. It would be nice bright sunshine, and crystal blue waters, and your cruising across the ocean at pretty fast speeds!  You can see cargo and other items being transferred from one ship to the other ship, and you just think, wow, how cool looking is this!

      One day the captain was up on the bridge and he was a pretty nice guy, he said, Petty Officer Stead," even

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