PCU Texas Back From Alpha Trials...
...and they're flying the damn broom! What the hell is it with newcon and conversion submarines nowadays? I'm sure they did a great job on her Alpha sea trials, but it was two days at sea -- not exactly sinking every enemy ship you saw on a war patrol, hence, "sweeping" the seas clean of your enemy. The way things are going, it looks like my boat USS Connecticut will be the last newcon boat not to symbolically equate finishing Alpha Trials with a successful wartime patrol. I will apologize, of course, if it turns out that Texas sank an Al Qaeda freighter when she was out.Still, she does look pretty good -- even with the broom:
posted by Bubblehead at 6:00 AM
10 Comments:
I really dislike the broom, and I think that most of the submariners that I speak to feel the same, even those on the ships that are flying them. I'm not sure who's idiot idea it is to fly the damn thing, but I think it is disrespectful to the wartime patrols who flew it out of pride for their accomplishments. To me, its the same as wearing medals that you didn't earn. My boat did it following a NATO exercise in which we admittedly did well, but not perfect, and we were only out for about 8 weeks. What a crock.
I'd like to know if this trend is coming from the chiefs for the O's because the blueshirts (to my knowledge) think its stupid.
RM1/SS
5/18/2006 7:52 AM
Man...saw a documetary on the NGEO channel last night about her...I was extremely impressed. Remember guys...the last boat I was on had 4 Fairbanks Morris Diesel engines on it and a snorkel....Cookie....
5/18/2006 9:16 AM
I think we did that after "A" sea trials on Jeff City (seems about a million years ago), but I am a little foggy on it. If we did, then I don't think I agreed with it (nor do I now), but as a young JO, I had lots of other things that were a tad more important to worry about.
I also seem to remember flying a broom after a 6-month northern run in '98 on my second boat. It was very appropriate that time...
5/18/2006 8:09 PM
There has been a continuous decline in standards for most awards. Just think, students in most High Schools can graduate without passing minimum standards.
Sadly this is being passed on up the age chain, so that now people expect rewards for doing an average job.
I'm kind of sick that sailors get medals for the ship they were on getting an E. Or the fact there is a surface equivalent of dolfins. It was expected of us to have these skills. It was part of being a SW sailor.
5/18/2006 8:52 PM
My favorite example of this was when the Bremerton flew the broom for shooting an ADCAP at half of a merchant(and missing).
5/18/2006 9:07 PM
given how hard the crew worked to get that ship to sea, more power to them. however, I believe the builder is technically flying the broom, so blame it on them. And oh, since there's actually no functioning torpedo tubes and no tile on the decks (ship in excess one year overdue and out of $$, horrible performance by NGNN), flying the broom probably is a bit presumptious)
5/18/2006 10:04 PM
I was on Texas A Trials (am an EM2), we actually did really well. As for the broom who ever said that it the Blueshirts thought it was stupid is right. Any way, it went well and we _do_ have tile on the decks, nice and waxed (they are supposed to be wax-less tiles, bwa ha ha)!
5/19/2006 10:33 AM
It's kind of hard to see, but it looks like the guys are wearing a red or orange strap contraption around their waists.
Is that some kind of safety harness or something?
5/19/2006 11:22 AM
a broom for "a" trials? what, your co bragged about keeping it off the beach?
in nine patrols on uss nathan hale ssbn 623 gold, only time we flew the broom was after autec where we potted 8 out of 8 for torpedo quals (ho ho).
personally, i feel if you can't come back with something equal to or better than that, you should keep your broom in the closet.
5/25/2006 9:54 PM
Where did they find a broom? On the Ustafish, we always had to get on our hands and knees with a foxtail. We didn't have any stinkin' brooms!
7/06/2007 10:56 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home