OT Blind Man's Bluff

"Greg Pavlov" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 22:35:58 -0600, "Bob Patton"
rwpmailatcharterdotnet wrote:

Endless supplies of rabbit meat. ....

Really ? Why rabbit meat ?

On long transits across the Pacific we had nothing at all to do, so it
was a
good time to read, work on correspondence courses, etc. I still have a
water-stained economics textbook and assignments that I typed on the IBM
Selectric we had.


I knew a nukie-poo (spell ?) who did a good part of his
PhD in statistics on a sub.

That was only on one of my trips. I always figured the officer in charge of
the mess must have gotten a real good deal on rabbit, or maybe had a
girlfriend whose family raised rabbits. It didn't taste bad - it was just
surprising how much of it there was. The food was good and there was plenty
of it. And the cook couldn't hide.

Bob

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
//snip//
d;o) It was 44 years ago for me. The first one there were three of us,
so it
was four on and eight off. Ya never really got a good sleep, and hot
bunking
didn't help. I still have my purloined gen-u-wine submarine laundry bag
that
snapped onto the bunk.

January/February and April/May 1971, for me. I had one of those laundry bags
too but lost it in a move, along with my poopie suit.

I too didn't see anyone I recognized. I figured they would surely have
Capt.
Ed. Beach.

Triton? Twin reactors, biggest boat the US ever built. I remember reading
about its round-the-world-submerged cruise in National Geographic when I was
a kid. Probably one of the reasons I volunteered. So it's partly your
fault!!!

Bi-weekly showers? Man, you had it tough. We showered every day. The
thing I
remember best is eating the floor. All the canned goods were stored in
the
passage ways and you could tell how long you'd been at sea by the the
floor
"disappearing". I don't remember the rabbit meat, but our first two or
three
days at sea we ate lobster (east coast sailor d;o) ). I remember getting
hooked on mocha - a bag of cocoa dissolved in a cup of coffee. When we
pulled
into a port in Germany and finally had some fresh vegetables, I can
remember
removing a green worm from my salad just before I began chomping down.
Great
steaks and surprizingly good mashed potatoes. Oatmeal. Lots of oatmeal.
The
meals inbetween meals were called "soup-down" and you had soup,
sandwiches,
cheese, and usually a good movie.

At the end of my first trip in 1971 on the Barb we docked in Yokosuka, and I
still remember looking up through that round hatch at the brownish-blue
Yokosuka sky and thinking how great it was to see it again.

And the smell of your clothes. You didn't realize you smelled until you
went
top-side and breathed fresh air. When we returned to Groton after ops
were
secured, we played games with the Brits, acting as a radar picket. On the
surface for several days in rough weather in the North Atlantic. Nearly
everyone aboard, include Beach, were seasick, many with a size 2 can tied
around their neck to vomit into. But, everyone did their jobs.
Unbelievable.

Yep, we done pretty good, buddy. I sure as hell wouldn't wanna do it for
a
living, though. d;o)


Lots of the people I met in SecGru and on the boats were truly remarkable
people. I think guys like us had the best of both worlds - we could go on
really interesting trips on the boats, but weren't part of the crew, didn't
have to do all the grunt work, and could return to our "normal" lives in
places like Kamiseya (suburb of Tokyo/Yokohama) when the interesting work
was done.

Bob

"Crusty" wrote in message
...
Bob and Dave,

Any more of us in this group?

Crusty

USS Aspro SS309. USS Segundo SS398 (I'm a little older than you.

Holy ****. I can understand why you call yourself "Crusty" :-)
Bob

"Allen Epps" wrote in message
et...


Sorry airborne ESM/ECM type. Lotta respect for the folks below though.
I toured the Dallas (a 688 boat) and while it would be roomy compared
to what you all served on it was a bit tiny by my standards. Also
toured the Georgia (the Trident boat) and have to say the crew had more
room that we did on a Nimitz class carrier, although no windows

Allen
Prowler traps on Kennedy, Indy, Nimitz, Lincoln, TR, Stennis, Kitty
Hawk, America, Saratoga, Truman, Connie and Ike.

After I'd spent a year in Taiwan and was up for rotation they asked me if I
wanted to fly. Told them I thought it was way the hell too risky. They
offered to send me to SERE school in the PI if I'd fly, but I went to New
London instead. Couldn't see much point in getting involved in something
where they needed to teach me survival, evasion, resistance, and escape
techniques.

Bob
But the contingency orders (as I remember, I had to sign them) before our
trips turned out to be even more, er, "interesting."

Come to think of it, SERE might be a good course for a graduate business
curriculum.

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
Crusty writes:

Any more of us in this group?

Crusty

USS Aspro SS309. USS Segundo SS398 (I'm a little older than you.

Ahh. Guppies. Glad I didn't have to do duty on them or the older fleet
boats.

I am not SS. I was a "passenger" on a few rides - a spook, but I think
Bob was
assigned to one and got his Dolphins.

I don't know of any others in the group.

Sorry, but I never got my dolphins. Like Dave, I was a passenger, but seldom
went aft of the radio room.
Bob

"slenon" wrote in message
...
I'm always impressed when I hear what you guys in the sewer pipes put up
with. Living with explosives, being continually dirty and smelly, bad
food,
and personal risk of injury and death are common to many of us who served.
But to do it in a confined space that never allows you to see the sky or
breath fresh air when you need it most is devotion to duty.

We all had some part in the Cold War but some of us gave more than others
and you guys in the boats were heroes.

The nukes were actually pretty comfortable - I wouldn't call them sewer
pipes. Of course, it's all relative. At least we weren't getting shot at. I
used to worry a little about certain navies, but at least didn't worry about
being wounded and mutilated. Nothing can compare to what guys like you went
through.

If I'd known I was a hero I'd have enjoyed it more. It was just
interesting - especially to somebody like me who's always had in interest in
history.
Bob

"Dave LaCourse" wrote in message
...
Stev writes:

bad food,

NO. Food was excellent (for military food). You just had to hope that
the
Commissary Chief knew how to pack the reefer because you ate your way thru
it.
I remember having steak for dinner four or five nights in a row, which
meant
that somewhere down the line you were going to have pork, or ham, or veal
for
several nights. I lived off of sandwiches and soup during "soup-down" the
meal
served inbetween the normal three meals, and again at 9 pm, midnight, and
3 am.
Dave

Exactly!

Bob Patton writes:

Lots of the people I met in SecGru and on the boats were truly remarkable
people. I think guys like us had the best of both worlds - we could go on
really interesting trips on the boats, but weren't part of the crew, didn't
have to do all the grunt work, and could return to our "normal" lives in
places like Kamiseya (suburb of Tokyo/Yokohama) when the interesting work
was done.

Bob

I was in Kamiseya for two years. The Willie Victor crews flew out of Atsugi
NAS across the rice paddy from our tunnel. Great liberty town, Yokohama.

The only thing I didn't like about the trips was if there was trouble. we would
be the first to go - if'n ya know what I mean. I look back at those days and
have no regrets. Glad I did it. I got on the Trident her first deployments
after the around the world trip. Helluva nice bunch of guys. Crazy as loons.

SecGru has an organization, btw. U.S. Naval Cryptologic Veterans Association.
There is a membership list (around here somewhere), so if you have any names
and wonder where they are, let me know. Their website is
http://www.usncva.org/
They publish a news letter every quarter. It's a great source to find out
who's died. d;o(


Dave

http://hometown.aol.com/davplac/myhomepage/index.html

"slenon" wrote in message
news //snip//
Right, Chief. It was Bob who was bemoaning having to eat rabbit. I'm
still
waiting for the reasoning behind that. I was never fed rabbit in a mess
//snip//

It really tasted pretty good, and it wouldn't have been bad once or twice.
Or maybe once a week. Actually, it was probably like Dave said. It was the
easiest stuff to get out of the freezer, so we had it very frequently for a
while. I haven't eaten rabbit since, and it's been over thirty years.
Bob

Bob Patton writes:

"Crusty" wrote in message
...
Bob and Dave,

Any more of us in this group?

Crusty

USS Aspro SS309. USS Segundo SS398 (I'm a little older than you.

Holy ****. I can understand why you call yourself "Crusty" :-)
Bob

SPLORK Don't mind him, Crusty. He's a young wippersnapper. But he does
have some salt on his collar. d;o)