Navy. It's not just a job, it's an adventure

[Wolskis]

How many remember these commercials?

 

[Wolskis]

@Andy B. got me to thinking maybe others here would like to know more about the navy life as an enlisted. Why I joined? Why I choose the gas turbine field? What I enjoyed and didn’t enjoy. I know there are other current and ex-military on RDP from all the branches. Your more than welcome to post the good, the bad and the ugly and the “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you” stories.

So I’ll answer the question asked by @Andy B. in the COVID VACCINE PERSONAL INFO thread. I’ll be using Navy lingo along the way as well since it was ingrained during my Navy tenure. Along with that I’ve been employed in the power plant industry since my discharge and it is has a large contingent of ex-military, mostly navy.

What you see here are two watch standers, the large console is PACC and the other is the EPCC. These along with the DCC, FOCC and EOOW are situated in CCS.

PACC = Propulsion and auxiliary control console

EPCC = Electric plant control console

DCC = Damage control console

FOCC = Fuel oil control console (not sure if the O belongs but sounds correct)

EOOW = Engineering officer of the watch

CCS = Central control station

I have found 3 decent pictures of PACC and 1 of EPCC. I will go into further detail later on as to my watch standing on both of these consoles along with standing watch in general from the control room side of things as I spent my entire hitch on the boat in this space.

 

[rrrr]

I've been a US Navy fan most of my life. A lot of it comes from reading history books about actions in the Pacific during WWII. Being a GMG on an Iowa or South Dakota Class battleship must have been a real experience, along with working in the engineering spaces of those monsters.

 

[lavey jr]

A couple of my favorite pictures I took while deployed on U.S. Navy ships.

I worked nights 95% of my time in the Navy.
This picture perfectly describes what I saw every day while deployed working 16hr days 7 days a week.
Night time going down on the right and daytime up on the left.

Here’s a good one of one of the helicopters I maintained. Off the coast of Hawaii you can see the sun setting and the rain in the clouds.

 

[outboard_256]

Thanks for your service. I don't know if I could live for months/years on a ship. After 7-10 days on a cruise ship I am ready to go home.

 

[Christopher Lucero]

So, is that dual lever the throttle for the engine room there in your hands, or is that the throttle to generate electricity in sufficient quantity to allow the bridge to throttle up? If its the propeller throttle, when you mashed it, did it feel like the boat accelerated?
You and I have an oblique connection, you know... I was working for a small company in SFV (Chatsworth) that was under subcontract to the largest employer in Glendale at the time, Singer Librascope.

In the work space photo, the double breadbox sized device with all the binders stacked on it was an electrostatic printer that was provided by Librascope to USN.

I don't know if your duty got hazardous...my worst hazard ever was when the Librascope Program VP, Hank Pinczower, got involved in trying to troubleshoot a recurrent printing problem that Librascope could not replicate in their lab stateside. Eventually we found a RS422 protocol error that was traced to crossstalk in the Singer mains console...a teeny 2 msec transient. I say hazardous because during one lab session he started violently flexing the cabling in a rage. I guess he was feeling alot of pressure from the LC in charge of the program.

 

[cakemoto]

So, is that dual lever the throttle for the engine room there in your hands, or is that the throttle to generate electricity in sufficient quantity to allow the bridge to throttle up? If its the propeller throttle, when you mashed it, did it feel like the boat accelerated?
You and I have an oblique connection, you know... I was working for a small company in SFV (Chatsworth) that was under subcontract to the largest employer in Glendale at the time, Singer Librascope.

In the work space photo, the double breadbox sized device with all the binders stacked on it was an electrostatic printer that was provided by Librascope to USN.

I don't know if your duty got hazardous...my worst hazard ever was when the Librascope Program VP, Hank Pinczower, got involved in trying to troubleshoot a recurrent printing problem that Librascope could not replicate in their lab stateside. Eventually we found a RS422 protocol error that was traced to crossstalk in the Singer mains console...a teeny 2 msec transient. I say hazardous because during one lab session he started violently flexing the cabling in a rage. I guess he was feeling alot of pressure from the LC in charge of the program.

View attachment 979909

My grandpa was aboard John w. Thomason in Korea:.. he also work at librascope as a quality control engineer for the guidance systems for 35 years. Albert Saenz

 

[Christopher Lucero]

My grandpa was aboard John w. Thomason in Korea:.. he also work at librascope as a quality control engineer for the guidance systems for 35 years. Albert Saenz

I believe I recall the name, but it has been over 25 years past.

 

[Wolskis]

A couple of my favorite pictures I took while deployed on U.S. Navy ships.

I worked nights 95% of my time in the Navy.
This picture perfectly describes what I saw every day while deployed working 16hr days 7 days a week.
Night time going down on the right and daytime up on the left.
View attachment 979867

Here’s a good one of one of the helicopters I maintained. Off the coast of Hawaii you can see the sun setting and the rain in the clouds.
View attachment 979868

Beautiful pics. So you were helo air detachment? How many years and where were you stationed? West Pac or Med cruise? That's a big flight deck, what ships did you deploy on?

 

[Wolskis]

Thanks for your service. I don't know if I could live for months/years on a ship. After 7-10 days on a cruise ship I am ready to go home.

My longest at sea was 29 days. The carriers would do 90 days or more. You get into a routine, work, watch standing, drills, sleep, watch standing, eat, and start the day again. Unlike a sub, we could go outside.

 

[Wolskis]

So, is that dual lever the throttle for the engine room there in your hands, or is that the throttle to generate electricity in sufficient quantity to allow the bridge to throttle up? If its the propeller throttle, when you mashed it, did it feel like the boat accelerated?
You and I have an oblique connection, you know... I was working for a small company in SFV (Chatsworth) that was under subcontract to the largest employer in Glendale at the time, Singer Librascope.

In the work space photo, the double breadbox sized device with all the binders stacked on it was an electrostatic printer that was provided by Librascope to USN.

I don't know if your duty got hazardous...my worst hazard ever was when the Librascope Program VP, Hank Pinczower, got involved in trying to troubleshoot a recurrent printing problem that Librascope could not replicate in their lab stateside. Eventually we found a RS422 protocol error that was traced to crossstalk in the Singer mains console...a teeny 2 msec transient. I say hazardous because during one lab session he started violently flexing the cabling in a rage. I guess he was feeling alot of pressure from the LC in charge of the program.

View attachment 979909

I'll get into more detail later but the smaller console controlled 3 Allison 501K-17 gas turbines connected to generators and the larger controlled 4 LM2500 gas turbines for main propulsion. The dual lever is the throttle that controls the engines thus shaft speed.
The electrostatic printer could be a pain. I remember it being a special paper as well. Smelled too. What was the singer mains console?

 

[Christopher Lucero]

I'll get into more detail later but the smaller console controlled 3 Allison 501K-17 gas turbines connected to generators and the larger controlled 4 LM2500 gas turbines for main propulsion. The dual lever is the throttle that controls the engines thus shaft speed.
The electrostatic printer could be a pain. I remember it being a special paper as well. Smelled too. What was the singer mains console?

Yeah. The printer was the very first device the president of our company ever designed. It 'sparked' through the paper onto a metal roller, thus 'burning' the image onto paper, or thermally converting the chemically treated paper. I think the chemical was some citric acid compound or something like that.

Since you are an electrical guy, I will share this, too: Because it sparked through the paper, the roller bearings were in the DC conduction path back to DC ground, and were a constant problem for maintenance...did you recall that??? The surging currents would always deplete the lubrication and the currents (~6amps peak) would literally plate the bearings most electronegative elements (Ni, Cr) onto the races. We were constantly refurbishing the roller bearings because Navy Logistics did not go below that LRU level. We and Singer took a lot of heat (nyuk nyuk!) because they had to order about 10% excess maintenance spares in order to keep the fleet supplied with printers. The noise from the grinding bearings became a signal to techs (like yourself, I suppose) to send the unit in before it seized up completely.

I am sorry I don't remember their AN number for the Librascope console and I only interacted with their lab unit, not one shipboard. Do I understand correctly that the ship was electric propulsion or were the turbines routed through a transmission to the shafts?

 

[lavey jr]

Thanks for your service. I don't know if I could live for months/years on a ship. After 7-10 days on a cruise ship I am ready to go home.

You’re welcome. Longest stretch out to sea with no port visit was 49 days for me. It does get long and suck a lot of times but you have no option and you get used to the daily routine.

Beautiful pics. So you were helo air detachment? How many years and where were you stationed? West Pac or Med cruise? That's a big flight deck, what ships did you deploy on?

Yes I was part of a helicopter squadron that got deployed on ships. Did 8 years active then transitioned over to the reserves. I deployed on the USS George Washington (carrier), USS Antietam (cruiser), USS America (LHA Amphibious Assault Ship)
Forward deployed out of Japan and also West Pac.
Stationed in San Diego, Japan, San Diego, Hawaii.

 

[Wolskis]

My decision to join the Navy
Reported to Navy boot camp Great Lakes on March 13, 1983. Now let’s back up in time as to the decision. A childhood friend and I decided to move out and share an apartment at the ripe ol’ age of 19. Life was good, typical young man stuff girls and parties. Time rolls on and roomie decides life can get better so he proposes to a great girl. I’m ready for a life altering change as well. It’s somewhere around September of 1982. Way too much time sitting in bars and working in a bread factory sucked. We always had visitors to the apartment and one of them Jeff, was dropping out of collage to join the navy in the sub warfare rate. I spent several hours listening to the recruiter and he handed me the 3-ring binder containing all the jobs with descriptions. I turned page after page until a picture of a gas turbine jumped off the page. The GS rate was still considered new as the Spruance Class was first commissioned in 1975. That’s it, I want that.

So the next step is MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) in down town Milwaukee and take the aptitude test. Not the best score but still able to push forward. I’m now sitting across from someone in khaki’s, can’t recall if he was an enlisted or an officer. He rolled his chair to the computer, ran his fingers across the keyboard, printed out the results and pushed it across the desk. As I scanned the list I failed to see any reference to the GS rate. I mentioned this and the recruiter hap handily stated that’s what you have, pick one. Not so fast mister recruiter. I’m now 23 YO, was a sole business owner for several years prior to the bakery job and not some babe in the woods. I pushed the paper back across the table and told the guy, no GS rate than I’m not joining. The look on his face was WTF. I guess they don’t have people telling them no. He tried again, told him no and I need a ride home.

A week or so later I’m back down town sitting across from an officer and he’s asking the same question, why didn’t you join? Again, give me the GS rate and I’ll sign the papers. He bangs away at the keys, grabs the results from the printer and slides the paper across the desk. Hmmm, this time I see nothing but GS down the sheet. Each line has a start date from the following week out to April of 83. So I sign the paper, raise my right hand and wham-o, I’m in the navy now.

Next up – Boot camp

 

[minijeep]

My longest at sea was 29 days. The carriers would do 90 days or more. You get into a routine, work, watch standing, drills, sleep, watch standing, eat, and start the day again. Unlike a sub, we could go outside.

I’ve done 68 consecutive and the wife did over 120. The crazy part is we love cruise ships and the more days at sea the better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Christopher Lucero]

My decision to join the Navy


A week or so later I’m back down town sitting across from an officer and he’s asking the same question, why didn’t you join? Again, give me the GS rate and I’ll sign the papers. He bangs away at the keys, grabs the results from the printer and slides the paper across the desk. Hmmm, this time I see nothing but GS down the sheet. Each line has a start date from the following week out to April of 83. So I sign the paper, raise my right hand and wham-o, I’m in the navy now.

Next up – Boot camp

Impressive! The only way to get what you want is to stick to your script.

Around that same time frame (Dec'82) I graduated BSEE and went through three positions in four years, doubling what I was making in the process.
Setting a high rate early forces hiring managers to fit you into higher brackets, better titles, and gives your career more upward momentum.

 

[TPC]

Every kid should know if they don't pass the military schools, Navy, CG, Marines Army - then their is a mop with their name on it on a rack next to a 4 year calendar.

 

[Wolskis]

I’ve done 68 consecutive and the wife did over 120. The crazy part is we love cruise ships and the more days at sea the better.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Impressive on the 120 days at sea. Was that a carrier?

 

[3.Slow]

Good to see some fellow Navy vets on here, I joined in 2003 as a Nuclear Machinist Mate. Best decision of my life, hands down, would not be where I am today without it. Longest stretch without port was less than 120 days but long enough to get a beer day, I will have to dig up the pictures. pallets and pallets of beer on the flight deck of a carrier in the middle of the Persian Gulf.