Post #2000
After I made my last post on Wednesday, I noticed that it was my 1,999th post. I thought to myself, "I've gotta come up with something spectacular for my 2,000th post, because it's a big round number."
After racking my brains all night Wednesday and all day yesterday, I came to the realization: I've got nothin'. No Great Thoughts on What It's All About, no Sea Story to end all Sea Stories. What I do have is thanks to all my readers and commenters over the last 3 1/2 years. This blog has been a great way for me to keep myself up-to-date with what's happening in the Submarine world I was immersed in for 21 years, as well as a great way to get back in touch with old Shipmates. (Just in the last month, my old Chop from Topeka and my EDMC from Connecticut found me via this blog. I'm still hoping my old friend Jeff Gillette, who used to be Weps on Philadelphia and XO on LaJolla will get in contact with me; if anyone out there knows how to get ahold of him, please drop me a line.)
Oo, wait, I do have some actual content! This story about a hole found in the ballast tank of a laid-up British SSN reminded me of a sea story one of my old Master Chiefs told. So there he was... heading out to sea on the surface in an old 594 after a really long upkeep. He was in the RC tunnel doing something, just happened to look up, and saw what looked like sunlight leaking through a hole in the overhead. It turns out that someone had removed a hull fitting of some sort, covered it with EB Green, and it'd gotten painted over and forgotten. That could've gotten interesting had they dove... but then again, EB Green has been credited with amazing strength.
What strange holes have you found in your submarine(s), or what amazing uses have you seen EB Green put to?
posted by Bubblehead at 5:46 AM
14 Comments:
Just taping up zeroes. Funny how they never thought it could happen to *them*...
4/11/2008 7:07 AM
You could have used your 2000 post for Happy Birthday Sub Force.
just a thought ;-)
4/11/2008 7:14 AM
D'oh! I'd thought about that yesterday, but then figured I'd post something before today.
4/11/2008 7:53 AM
Congrats!
Oh, BTW, I went to SOAC with Jeff Gilette. Don't know how to get in touch with him, though, it's been 12 years...
4/11/2008 7:57 AM
Good to see that P2K didn't crash anything.
When I was RM2, we used EB Green to turn the (then) RM1's coffee mug into a bowling ball sized wad of green. The best part was that we also made a dummy ball so that when he got it untaped enough to realize there was no cup in it, we gave him the real ball to start over again.
RM1/SS
4/11/2008 7:57 AM
Last I heard about Jeff, he'd retired after his XO tour and, rumor has it, went to live in the P.I.
4/11/2008 8:08 AM
I could tell you, but that would be NNPI :)
4/11/2008 10:33 AM
Post number 2000 and nothing to say. Hmmm, you could have let the Double_Standard guy have this post. ; ) Just kidding.
How about asking people to post their scariest momemt in submarines?
4/11/2008 10:57 AM
My senior Sonarman instaled six cables which terminated in the aft torpedo room. The fitting had eight holes. I told thr ST to use two bolts. I also told him to make sure that the bolds were seated with sea pressure and not aganist it.
Our test dive after our yard overhaul was interesting. First we had a leak in Radio. Then as we were approaching our max depth (412feet) both bolts popped loose missing two men by inches.
I got my butt chewed and then stuffed into the TDU by the XO. I earned that ass chewing. I didn't check my man's work. All is well that ends well. Still it was my fault.
DBF
PS- My XO was Pete Bucher
4/11/2008 12:18 PM
We used to make useful things out of it. It was kinda like doing nut house crafts, you know, where the crazies make nauga wallets sewn together with plastic string, or those woven pot holders.
We did, in fact, use EB tape to create wallets. I've seen some guys make new shoes out of it when their shoes fell apart underway, or just use it to hold them together.
Other things have been butt kits (amazingly, EB doesn't get burned by cigarettes), little pooka shelves to hold pens and pencils in by the stacks, ventilation louvres/airflow redirectors, belt extenders for guys who got fat underway, and cup holders (aka zarfs).
After I got to my first boat, I met up with my sub school instructor, Nuke MM1(SS) Jenner. After he finished his tour at BESS, he went to the USS A. Hamilton, which was getting scheduled for decomm, but still making patrols. He told me some of the horror stories there, not just command climate, but of the material readiness of his boat.
He got to the boat during refit; the boat was in drydock. He was chipping and painting in the MSW bay outboards (because they were getting ready to decomm, the detailer had stacked the division up with eight PO1s, and one PO2 - and he was the LPO. That's why he was painting). As he was chipping away the paint in one spot, his scraper hit a soft spot. He poked at it some more, and the scraper went through the hull, and he could see daylight down into the drydock. The hole had been covered with EB, and then painted over several times, judging by the layers of paint he could see. He said that the unpreserved spot under the EB tape had gradually rusted away almost all the way through the hull, unbeknownst to anyone. The only thing holding back sea pressure was the paint and the tape.
Judging by the look of abject fear on his face when MM1 related this story to me tells me it wasn't just a sea story. I never forgot his tale because I was on a boat just like his...
4/11/2008 2:17 PM
screw EB Green... EB Red is where it's at. Especially the nuclear grade stuff. Both times in NNSY, we'd raid the workers for all they had prior to leaving the drydock.
Best thing I ever saw made with EB Red was a full on helmet, sword, and shield one of my M-Div guys made. Exquisite craftsmanship I must say.
4/11/2008 4:21 PM
Gilette was my XO, have no idea what happened to him - although P.I. does make sense since I think that's where his wife is from (holy crap the word sequence "sense since" sounds better in real life than it looks typed out)
4/11/2008 7:42 PM
Jeff Gillette's last job when he retired was as a planner with me at PACOM. He retired about a year ago then continued working in the J5 for about a year as a contractor. Last fall, he finally retired for good and took a "sabbatical."
I think he is still living in Aiea and could probably find his contact info if you needed it (even though I am back in Groton now).
Let me know
4/11/2008 9:09 PM
Keep it going Joel, great thing you're doing! Congrats on 2000!
Gordo
4/13/2008 5:57 PM
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