Naming The Crew's Mess
The Las Cruces Sun-News has an interesting article about the naming of the Crew's Mess on PCU New Mexico (SSN 779), which will be floated for the first time next week. Excerpts:
Master Chief [redacted], chief of boat for the USS New Mexico, said crew members had developed a list of three potential names, including the two restaurants and a name they'd generated themselves, Santa Fe Trail Cafe. They settled on La Posta after a vote.I've always enjoyed seeing the names of the various boats' Crew's Messes; as I've said before, I think the personalization of the Crew's Mess is an important part of developing and maintaining crew esprit de corps. The crew of the New Mexico seems to be taking the naming of spaces to a whole new level, however:
"When asked why they voted for La Posta, the thought was that La Posta was smaller, and its atmosphere was more in line with a submarine crew's ... galley when compared to its competitor that was on a much larger scale," he wrote in an e-mail. "Both restaurants have been wonderful and very supportive to crew and the command intends to keep strong ties to both businesses."
"Having a name for your living area helps promote personal pride and improves sailor sense of ownership," he wrote. "Usually these areas would include the crew's mess, the wardroom and crew living spaces."Have you seen any other boats do something like that? Did you have a "Charles Jones Sonar Shack" or a "Jim Johnson WRSR #3"?
In addition to the mess, five other areas of the vessel will be named after Medal of Honor recipients from New Mexico, [redacted] said. The rooms will be marked with brass plaques.
posted by Bubblehead at 7:14 AM
15 Comments:
On the U.S.S. Louisville (SSN 724) the crews mess was "The Dugout", we had baseball memorabilia donated and the tables were covered with plexiglass with baseball cards underneath. The Louisville slugger given the boat after desert storm was in a case, and the MS's wore baseball jerseys.
1/08/2009 8:43 AM
I resent the trivialization of my name (LOL)
Charlie Jones
1/08/2009 1:59 PM
My fellow JO's presided over the dedication of the LCDR [redacted] Memorial San Tank in honor of our (less than) respected XO.
1/08/2009 2:08 PM
The closest I ever saw to this was a small brass plaque over the Maneuvering door on the JOHN C. CALHOUN with the inscription "CALHOUN POWER & LIGHT", until an XO overly concerned with our image to the NPEB replaced it with a plaque that said "MANEUVERING." The next refit, we repainted our red Diesel Engine gray, and painted over the name and image of her name, "Pebbles". Those events were the beginning of the end of fun on that boat.
1/08/2009 4:40 PM
On USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23) the crews mess was named "The Jimmy Buffet". The CS's and the FSA's all wore T-Shirts with logo's of a cartoon parrot riding atop a Sea Wolf class sail. Jimmy Buffet was even nice enough to provide an autographed picture for some added decoration.
1/08/2009 6:23 PM
I don't know about the entire berthing area, but.. Back in the early 80's on the Barbel, we would occasionally name individual racks. For example; Shark Bait's Shithole.
Ken in Yoko.
1/08/2009 6:58 PM
I think my guys called my rack the "Navigator Book Storage area" because it was always full of pubs and books, and never me.
1/08/2009 7:03 PM
On the Pintado in the mid-late 90's, the crews mess was called "Bossman's Bistro" and we had all kinds of sporte memorabilia all over the walls and under plexi on the tables. The MSC was the best thing that happened to that boat in a long time.
Our diesel also had a name (Miss Behavin'), and at one time had been painted pink, but the CO nixed it and it was eventually painted red, except for the area where the name was, that got to stay pink.
1/08/2009 7:50 PM
USS Montpelier crews mess is the Green Mountain Inn.
1/09/2009 4:08 AM
USS Parche's crews' mess was... the crews' mess. All work, no fun on that boat.
1/09/2009 6:02 AM
On the Pasadena our mess is called the "Rose Bowl Cafe." Needless to say the Pasadena foundation is very good to us. In fact the President of the Rose Bowl and his wife came down a couple of months ago. On my first boat the Maine our mess was called the "Lighthouse Grill"
1/10/2009 12:33 AM
We had our poopy suits embroidered with LA Power and Light while in Subic (that's another blog). The CO did not think of it in the same light as we mere nucs. They were never seen aboard again.
1/10/2009 12:54 AM
The Virginia'a crew's mess is named "The Blue Ridge Cafe." No one on the crew refers to it that way though.
Also, our former COB or XO renamed all the berthing areas after WWII submarines, including brass plaques over the entrances to each. However it was so much easier to refer to a bearthing area as "STBD-3" than remember the sub it was named. So eventually, the names and the plaques went away. However, the CO and XO SR's may still be named Tang and Wahoo, respectively.
1/14/2009 4:49 PM
On the Florida I watched the crew's mess go from Gator Grill to Seminole Station, in respect of two Florida Universities. This also coincided with the shift from SSBN to SSGN and the associated change of the ship seal and colors.
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MM1/SS
1/20/2009 1:14 PM
Back in the early 90s the crew's mess aboard the Florida (SSBN728) was referred to as "The Sunshine Cafe" on the Trays and the cranks' shirts. However, we aboard usually just referred to it as the mess decks or the crew's mess.
1/25/2009 1:52 AM
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