Have I **Really** Been There?
I was going to add an application to my Facebook page listing the cities I've visited (I took last night off from work, so I'm bored) when I ran across a conundrum - what is the status of cities you've seen through the periscope, but not visited? Can you really say you've "visited" them? (For submariners, of course, we normally couldn't even say if we've "visited" a city or country that way, since we weren't "officially" there -- outside the 12nm limit, of course.)
What do you think? Do you personally count it as being in a country if you've hung out off their coast for a long time?
posted by Bubblehead at 1:45 PM
25 Comments:
Unless you went feet fry, and preferably got the t-shirt, I don't think you've really been there. I recently went to a High School reunion and filled out a questionnaire, I've been to 19 countries, thanks to a West Pac, a Med Run, and 14 Boomer Patrols.
For the record, other than coming home, Singapore was the best place to visit, or it was in 1999.
10/04/2010 2:35 PM
For cities, I think you actually have to be on the ground and within the city boundary for it to count.
For countries, I'd say that if you've been within their internationally recognized maritime boundary, then you've been there.
10/04/2010 3:27 PM
No, I don't usually count it, mainly because our "presence" there is generally classified!
Other things I don't classify as "Been There":
Flying thru on a layover
Driving thru on the way to somewhere else
BSP/BSC where we never left the pier
And a few others.
I started the "Cities I've Visited" on FB but gave it up after about 160 cities in 21 countries...my hair was starting to hurt!
10/04/2010 3:29 PM
Holy Loch. Moored stbd side of tender…….Spent many nights viewing the young ladies in the upstairs rooms of houses along Midge Lane in Kilmun (directly across from Ardnadam) through the periscopes. I preferred the attack scope as its high power setting seemed to define the nipples just a tad bit better.
I took those images to my rack almost nightly, so although I never was really in the room with them, they were in my "room" during countless 12 offs.
Oh yea….since I rode boomers I never really saw anything at sea through the periscope except a few seagulls and some mean looking state six seas.
10/04/2010 3:30 PM
If you get PA then it counts. If you don't know what PA is then you are probably a nuc or aganger and nothing counts for you anyway.
10/04/2010 4:32 PM
Shouldn't be mentioning that, and I disagree.
It doesn't count unless you put your feet down on the soil. If you were on a team riding a boat that might be a different story...
I've done a swim call in the Bahamas but dount count that as a port visit - we never pulled in & nobody spent even a second ashore. It was a good time though.
I agree with RetANAV on BSP's & layovers. Though I would count it if you were driving from PT. A to B and stayed overnight at some I-stop & spent a few hours/beverages out in that town.
10/04/2010 6:32 PM
@STSC...
Agree on PA...Unless you're a boomer fag referring to Port Angeles :)
And I usually DID count overnighters...just not the 15-minute gas-n-poop stops.
10/04/2010 6:50 PM
It only counts if you deposited your man seed into a local receptacle (de-coded for boomer fags: that means it has to be inside a girl or woman via at least 1 of 3 holes).
Rule change: humans only.
10/04/2010 7:45 PM
Are we yet allowed to say we have seen them through the periscope even?
10/04/2010 8:32 PM
I've been to NK. It was ronery, but they have some nice relics; FYI, a Ming class on the surface can be confused for a buoy.
10/04/2010 11:07 PM
Sorry, but "through the scope" doesn't count. Security reasons and all that.
However, setting those aside, 13 countries/territories and 24 cities just on Westpacs alone is a pretty good record.
Most out-of-the-way or place probably NOBODY ever went to: Majuro Atoll--Pacex 1989. Guy dropped a rack pan on his shoulder and separated it, they did a transfer to the Proteus with him. Lucky SOB. Also stopped briefly at Guadalcanal when I was on Proteus.
Most fun--tossup between Sydney and Brisbane. First and only place I ever saw a sailor in uniform get LITERALLY dragged through a windon into a car by 3 hawt blonde Aussie babes. Oh, the stories he told when he got back.
Worst--Guam. Worst part of the worst was being the tender radcon puke. Anyone remember 1992?
Scariest--PI, 1989. Just after PACEX, took a MAC flight there for a couple of weeks, decided I didn't want to wait 3-4 days at Clark AFB or Cubi Point, and bought a ticket from Manila to Honolulu. Got out less than 24 hours before the coup attempt against Aquino by the old Marcos loyalists.
10/05/2010 7:15 AM
I think you shouldn't count it if you haven't seen it with both eyes.
Rackburn
10/05/2010 8:47 AM
I put Adak and Johnston Atoll on there even though I just Prairie Dogged a look through the weapons shipping hatch
PW
10/05/2010 3:07 PM
Don't count unless you stand there. Otherwise, does it count if you fly over?
Besides, Joel, as you say, unless you have stood there you can't talk about it in polite company.
10/05/2010 4:11 PM
Does it count if you're a Navigator and you've run aground there?
After all, many seamounts are named for the navigators of the submarines that ran into them.
10/05/2010 6:16 PM
IMO you need boots on the ground or tires rolling through to have really been there.
However, I'm a bit hypocritical on that as I claim to have been to Panama (having passed through the Canal) and will sometimes cop to having been to Kodiak, AK (which were a Medievac and Humevac respectively).
10/05/2010 6:34 PM
Does anyone know CDR Luis Emilio Molina? He is going to be our new CO next year.
10/05/2010 9:28 PM
could you consider yourself 'being there' if you sent a TLAM?
10/06/2010 9:08 AM
I sort of knew him. He was the XO on the other crew (737B). He seemed like a pretty good guy from what I remember.
10/06/2010 12:12 PM
Have I **really** been there?
Ask yourselves if viewing someone's house on "Google Maps with Street View" means you have really been there.
Most folks might **really** hope not, especially if you should be wearing a police ankle monitor at the time.
Just my 2 cents.
10/06/2010 6:36 PM
Apropos of nothing (and totally off topic), FTN is back. Go check out http://em-log.blogspot.com/
I think that the thing about 'My Buddy John' is a re-post, but other than that, there is some new stuff.
Happy reading!
-DM
10/07/2010 4:18 PM
Luis Molina - one of my SOAC classmates. Later we crossed paths when he was ENG on a newcon VCS boat and I was INSURV MP/RX inspector.
Good Guy.
R,
10/08/2010 10:20 AM
Thanks Mr. Walsh! Just so you know you were a dickhead as an XO.
10/09/2010 6:53 PM
"Thanks Mr. Walsh! Just so you know you were a dickhead as an XO."
Classic!
10/10/2010 9:50 PM
Walsh, as in USS Maine Walsh circa 2001. What a tool...Dickhead dosen't even do him justice.
10/13/2010 12:01 AM
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