Comments on: The next naval war. https://habitablezone.com/2015/09/17/the-next-naval-war/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 18:20:54 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2015/09/17/the-next-naval-war/#comment-32793 ER Mon, 21 Sep 2015 02:09:30 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=50555#comment-32793 Aircraft carriers are so big they are capable of undergoing UNREP operations from four ships at a time; two on the starboard side (one ahead of the other) and two more on the port side. Its not just fuel that is transferred, but diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubricants, as well as solid goods, like pallets of aircraft bombs, missiles, shells, and spare parts. Even people can be transferred from ship to ship, in special chairs!. The carrier not only takes these supplies aboard from other ships, it can also provide fuel and food for its escorts as well. We refueled from carriers as often as we did from oilers, because sometimes it was more convenient for the supplies to be UNREPed to the carrier, when the weather was foul for air ops, and then its escorts could be supplied whenever it was convenient. Even nuke-powered carriers carry bunker fuel so they can supply their escorts when they run low. We spent a lot of time operating with carriers on Yankee Station (just off the DMZ in Vietnam)taking turns doing radar picket duty, anti-submarine or anti-aircraft screening, search and rescue work (we rescued 5 pilots, and our helicopter rescued several others, lifeguard duty (steaming behind the carrier in order to rescue any person or plane that might fall in the water). Carriers cannot suspend flight operations to rescue an overboard sailor or a ditched pilot. We also directed air strikes and traffic into North Vietnam because we were also equipped as a floating control tower. When the Pueblo Crisis broke out in 1968, we steamed to Korea alongside a cruiser, which also supplied us with fuel as we steamed North at top speed. We were a flagship, and 4 older destroyers in our squadron were tasked to provide gunfire support to US troops on land. They, and the carrier's planes did all the fighting. It was all great fun, especially for a 20 year old kid, but I never forgot that we never fired our guns in anger, and no one ever fired at us. I spent the war on an air conditioned ship, with a working laundry, a warm fartsack to crawl into every night, 3 square feeds a day, and a hot shower and shave every morning. We got helo mail delivery from the carriers, we had ice cream and we had movies and rock and roll over the ship's entertainment system, and we cycled back to Japan and the Philippines periodically for R and R. <em>(Hey sailor, I love you no shit, buy me dlink.)</em> I had it easy, I was never really scared or uncomfortable the whole time I was there. At worst, I was homesick. And I still feel guilty about that. It hit home on Thanksgiving, when we were all on the fantail eating our turkey with all the fixin's off paper plates, and my buddy pointed west at Asia, over the horizon, and said <em>"Just think, Charlie's out there, squatting in the bush, eating a bowl of cold rice with his fingers."</em> Aircraft carriers are so big they are capable of undergoing UNREP operations from four ships at a time; two on the starboard side (one ahead of the other) and two more on the port side. Its not just fuel that is transferred, but diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubricants, as well as solid goods, like pallets of aircraft bombs, missiles, shells, and spare parts. Even people can be transferred from ship to ship, in special chairs!. The carrier not only takes these supplies aboard from other ships, it can also provide fuel and food for its escorts as well. We refueled from carriers as often as we did from oilers, because sometimes it was more convenient for the supplies to be UNREPed to the carrier, when the weather was foul for air ops, and then its escorts could be supplied whenever it was convenient. Even nuke-powered carriers carry bunker fuel so they can supply their escorts when they run low. We spent a lot of time operating with carriers on Yankee Station (just off the DMZ in Vietnam)taking turns doing radar picket duty, anti-submarine or anti-aircraft screening, search and rescue work (we rescued 5 pilots, and our helicopter rescued several others, lifeguard duty (steaming behind the carrier in order to rescue any person or plane that might fall in the water). Carriers cannot suspend flight operations to rescue an overboard sailor or a ditched pilot. We also directed air strikes and traffic into North Vietnam because we were also equipped as a floating control tower. When the Pueblo Crisis broke out in 1968, we steamed to Korea alongside a cruiser, which also supplied us with fuel as we steamed North at top speed. We were a flagship, and 4 older destroyers in our squadron were tasked to provide gunfire support to US troops on land. They, and the carrier’s planes did all the fighting.

It was all great fun, especially for a 20 year old kid, but I never forgot that we never fired our guns in anger, and no one ever fired at us. I spent the war on an air conditioned ship, with a working laundry, a warm fartsack to crawl into every night, 3 square feeds a day, and a hot shower and shave every morning. We got helo mail delivery from the carriers, we had ice cream and we had movies and rock and roll over the ship’s entertainment system, and we cycled back to Japan and the Philippines periodically for R and R. (Hey sailor, I love you no shit, buy me dlink.)

I had it easy, I was never really scared or uncomfortable the whole time I was there. At worst, I was homesick. And I still feel guilty about that.

It hit home on Thanksgiving, when we were all on the fantail eating our turkey with all the fixin’s off paper plates, and my buddy pointed west at Asia, over the horizon, and said “Just think, Charlie’s out there, squatting in the bush, eating a bowl of cold rice with his fingers.”

]]> By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2015/09/17/the-next-naval-war/#comment-32792 Jody Mon, 21 Sep 2015 01:34:37 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=50555#comment-32792 Whatever the reason for war, I am in awe of men's bravery. Women are brave in their own right, although I feel we are brave in a natural instinct way. I can't imagine being any other way. Maybe it is natural instinct with men, but I can not assume that. I often felt my Dad used up all he had during the war. Whatever the reason for war, I am in awe of men’s bravery.

Women are brave in their own right, although I feel we are brave in a natural instinct way. I can’t imagine being any other way.

Maybe it is natural instinct with men, but I can not assume that.

I often felt my Dad used up all he had during the war.

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2015/09/17/the-next-naval-war/#comment-32791 ER Sun, 20 Sep 2015 23:46:39 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=50555#comment-32791 Here is my ship, USS Dewey (DLG-14), in the foreground and the carrier John F Kennedy (CVA-67) taking on bunker fuel from the fleet oiler Pawcatuck (AO-108) in the Mediterranean on 13 July, 1969. I was mustered out about 8 months earlier, so I wasn't aboard when this picture was taken, but UNREP was a familiar procedure for me, I must have been in dozens of UNREP OPS in the year I was aboard. Ships are topped off with fuel every few days when operating in a war zone because in the event of enemy action supply lines may be disrupted. My job during UNREP was to write down on a plastic board with grease pencil our course and engine RPMs so that the Captain could issue orders to the helm and engine room to keep us on station with the supply ship. He would make minute changes to our course and speed over a microphone and I would write them down where he could see them. ("Steer 105 point 5, turn count 128!". )The supply ship selected the course and speed which was easiest for her to maintain, and it was the job of the receiving ship to maintain station with her as the lines and cables that carried the big fuel hoses were winched across and the oil pumped aboard. Needless to say, it was an all-hands, all-weather, white-knuckle operation, and quite dangerous. The skipper and I were on the bridge wing, and we could look down on the decks of both ships at hundreds of men running around, all assholes and elbows, everyone doing his job like parts in well oiled machine with a bundle of snakes of wire rope, telephone lines, steel derrick cables and 6" hose strung all over the place.. And between the two ships flowed a cauldron of white water, as the two wakes collided and interfered with each other as the ships rolled and pitched. It involved specialized equipment, communications and training. It is one of the most spectacular things I have ever witnessed, and most of the work was done by teenagers. We could do this in any weather short of a full gale. The Russian destroyers used to follow us and take pictures because they didn't know how! http://navy.memorieshop.com/Neosho/CV-67-Kennedy.jpg <img src="http://navy.memorieshop.com/Neosho/CV-67-Kennedy.jpg" alt="." /> Here is my ship, USS Dewey (DLG-14), in the foreground and the carrier John F Kennedy (CVA-67) taking on bunker fuel from the fleet oiler Pawcatuck (AO-108) in the Mediterranean on 13 July, 1969. I was mustered out about 8 months earlier, so I wasn’t aboard when this picture was taken, but UNREP was a familiar procedure for me, I must have been in dozens of UNREP OPS in the year I was aboard. Ships are topped off with fuel every few days when operating in a war zone because in the event of enemy action supply lines may be disrupted.

My job during UNREP was to write down on a plastic board with grease pencil our course and engine RPMs so that the Captain could issue orders to the helm and engine room to keep us on station with the supply ship. He would make minute changes to our course and speed over a microphone and I would write them down where he could see them. (“Steer 105 point 5, turn count 128!”. )The supply ship selected the course and speed which was easiest for her to maintain, and it was the job of the receiving ship to maintain station with her as the lines and cables that carried the big fuel hoses were winched across and the oil pumped aboard. Needless to say, it was an all-hands, all-weather, white-knuckle operation, and quite dangerous. The skipper and I were on the bridge wing, and we could look down on the decks of both ships at hundreds of men running around, all assholes and elbows, everyone doing his job like parts in well oiled machine with a bundle of snakes of wire rope, telephone lines, steel derrick cables and 6″ hose strung all over the place.. And between the two ships flowed a cauldron of white water, as the two wakes collided and interfered with each other as the ships rolled and pitched. It involved specialized equipment, communications and training. It is one of the most spectacular things I have ever witnessed, and most of the work was done by teenagers.

We could do this in any weather short of a full gale. The Russian destroyers used to follow us and take pictures because they didn’t know how!

http://navy.memorieshop.com/Neosho/CV-67-Kennedy.jpg

.

]]> By: Jody https://habitablezone.com/2015/09/17/the-next-naval-war/#comment-32790 Jody Sun, 20 Sep 2015 20:11:44 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=50555#comment-32790 My father was stationed on Guam during WWII. He was a "Seabee". I have no idea what he saw. Experienced. Thought. That was not a subject he ever brought up. Because I am so like him, I suspect it was buried deep inside, never accessed, but changed him forever. For myself, I see battleships turning into supply ships *after* the *war*. I wonder about the future of tanks also. ...and then...the quote that sends shivers down my spine..."'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones" Albert Einstein. My father was stationed on Guam during WWII. He was a “Seabee”.
I have no idea what he saw. Experienced. Thought. That was not a subject he ever brought up. Because I am so like him, I suspect it was buried deep inside, never accessed, but changed him forever.

For myself, I see battleships turning into supply ships *after* the *war*. I wonder about the future of tanks also.

…and then…the quote that sends shivers down my spine…”‘I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”
Albert Einstein.

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