Shipmates Memories.

POSTED BELOW ARE THOUGHTS, STORIES, POEMS FROM THE BIRMINGHAM SHIPMATES. ANYONE CAN SUBMIT. SO PLEASE DO!

Last update 08/12/98

Don Wards Seawolf Visit

 

On July 2nd I was invited to tour the USS Seawolf (SSN 21), the Navy's latest attack submarine, homeported here in Groton, Connecticut. Well, tour the front half, anyway. Only ship's company are allowed in engineering spaces, as with all nuclear submarines. Even decommissioned subs, like the Nautilus. My USS Boston shipmate Jim got me the tour. He's a lieutenant now and just retired. He was working for PMT/SMMS at the submarine base - the guys who keep track of boat maintenance and help fix things - and one night he just called up the Seawolf duty officer and asked if he could escort me and another friend on a tour. Sure, come on down.

When we arrived, we were shocked to find our old boat - the USS Boston (SSN 703) - tied up at the pier right next to the Seawolf. "Figure the odds", as my friend Steve Shambaugh is fond of saying. Neither Jim or I had any thought of touring it since we've seen it already - in detail, thank you very much.

The Seawolf was longer and seemed a lot wider than the Boston. Not Trident-longer, but about four feet. Walking on her deck is like walking on a high school wrestling mat - it feels really funny to me, being used to rock hard deck surfaces. The entire hull is coated with some weird stuff like rubber or space shuttle tiles - and this is not secret stuff. Jim said we got the unclas tour.

Or was that the "no class" tour because I was there?

Anyway, the hatch we used to get below was weird - it was designed for loading torpedoes at a 45 degree angle but had a ladder going down it - at 45 degrees. It was weird climbing down it.

First thing that hit me was that submarine smell. Jim says, "Don, they ALL smell like that". A combination of diesel fuel and oil and grease and machinery and bodies and electrical smells that greets you immediately upon touching down at the bottom of the ladder. We won't even mention the claustrophobia part, but if you suffer from it, don't go on subs.

The Control Room was fairly Star Wars-like. Touch screens all over the place for every conceivable application. Lots and lots of electronics and L.E.D.'s and toys. And a serious lack of head room for 75 inch tall humans. Or maybe I just forgot I have to duck a lot on subs.

On the USS Boston, when you were in control of the ship's diving surfaces, you had to watch a depth gage and a course indicator and pray you could keep it somewhere in the vicinity. On Seawolf, you keep a dot inside a circle on a video screen for six hours on watch - keep the little white dot in the little white circle and you're right on course and depth.

And who's driving the boat these days? Young men who've been playing video games their entire lives with the hand/eye coordination of gods. Keeping course and depth is no problem for these boys. Let me say that, two weeks later, I am still reeling from the torpedo room. Having been a torpedoman from 1975 to 1985, I witnessed the decline of my job as the purpose of submarines was less weapons and more everything else - data gathering, Fleet support, training, etc. The Navy even went so far as to do away with the job code "torpedoman" and made them all wear Machinist Mate's insignia - which has since been thankfully rescinded. After all, the torpedomen were ALWAYS the most colorful rate in the Navy.

Well, at least when I was in.

The torpedo room on the Seawolf is the reason the Seawolf exists. It is huge - three decks. Takes up most of the front end of the boat. We're walking in the middle level looking at the somewhat similar arrangement to a 688 Class boat - two tubes on each side of the room, canted out at about a 6 degree angle. Lots of hydraulics all over. Lots of bunks all over, and a ton of canned flour, sugar, and coffee that used to be stored in Engineering spaces. I'm standing by the tube doors admiring the shiny new breech doors, and I look down and see what looks like another breech door ring below the two I'm looking at. Jim, the ball buster, sets me up and says, "Gee, that looks like another tube down there". Smartass. He'd been aboard three other times and knew damned well that there were four more damned tubes in the lower level! Eight torpedo tubes! Wow.

I was so impressed with that. These guys can pump out some serious weapons - and keep 'em coming for a while. Torpedoes, Tomahawk missiles, and Harpoon cruise missiles. As I'm walking along the port side I see an old Mark 37 torpedo sitting in the stow.

Huh? Mark 37? No way! They pulled all of them out of service years ago! And then I remembered a story I'd heard in Keyport, Washington about using the propulsion section of the old Mark 37's and making them into these nasty little mines that wait at the bottom of rivers and oceans for the right sound signature to come by - then they turn themselves on, turn to, and destroy it. And here was one of them sitting on the Seawolf. Again, I was majorly impressed.

Of course, everything in the torpedo room looked like it weighed three tons each. Even the newly designed storage straps for the weapons were really rugged and must have weighed a hundred pounds apiece. No more plastisol coatings.

I read in Popular Mechanics that the XO of the Seawolf said the Seawolf at thirty knots is quieter than a 688 Class sub sitting at the pier. High tech hull tiles? No cavitation?

They no longer use an almost-bomb to make oxygen. It's a whole new system, not nearly as dangerous as the old O-2 Generators -affectionately known as "The Bomb".

Jim is giving us the tour himself - he's on the Seawolf access list due to his job - but he was in civvies. We're passing through the galley and this sailor says, "And who are you guys?". Jim showed no ID but explained who he was and who he worked for, which actually worked. On my old boats, unescorted strangers wouldn't get five feet. ("Oh, you're the admiral's nephew? Sure you are! Up against the wall, M.F.!!!")

There appeared to be plenty of wax on the decks - supposedly a no-no because of atmosphere contamination - and all the brightwork was shining like mirrors, indicating the use of other atmosphere contaminants to polish metal. The place looked brand new - like day-before-yesterday brand new.

Jim said that the boat went so fast on initial runs that some of those insulating tiles were just being ripped off the hull. They probably went to a better kind of glue because the hull looked great, and they'd just got back from sea.

Seawolf has two drain pumps and two trim pumps - most boats only have one of each - and they can all be used together to get water out of the People Tank in an emergency. That's moving a grunch of water in a hurry.

Those immense shore power cables no longer clog up the engineering hatch aft in port. They simply plug into the boat itself just forward of the hatch - huge recessed plugs that are covered when the ship gets underway.

The Seawolf does not have a propeller like all other submarines. It has something similar to the Mark 48 torpedo, kind of like a jet airplane engine - using a stator and a rotor under a shroud. Jim said the tolerances are so finite for the blades of that turbine that if the boat is going to be in port longer than three days, they have to cover the entire shroud and circulate fresh water in it - to keep any marine growth from attaching itself to the blades and throwing the tolerances off. The cover is trucked/flown wherever the boat pulls in for any length of time.

This brings me to a couple of criticisms.

Ok, say we're at war with China and the Seawolf needs to reload torpedoes in neutral Australia. All the Chinese have to do is screw up that shipment and the Seawolf's capabilities suffer.

Also, as I looked at all the electronics in the Control Room, I couldn't help but wonder how much of it would survive a nasty depth charging. Touch sensitive screens? Hello? Fortunately, everything electronic seems to be backed up with mechanicals. Submarines and space shuttles - home of the backup system.

A billion dollar submarine, and still a bunch of poor bastards are stuck sleeping with the fish - uh, that's torpedoes, not wearing concrete overshoes in the bottom of the East River. I couldn't believe all the bunks in the torpedo room. I always hated having to disturb all those people to do routine maintenance - or disturb them on the whim of a higher up that could be rescinded not long after everyone's sleep was completely disrupted. The legendary "Oh, by the way.....".

I suppose I'll have to admit it amazes me the ship doesn't have a little stand set up to sell Seawolf memorabilia. Sales of tee shirts, coffee mugs, photographs, and hats alone would make a fortune for the ship's welfare and recreation fund. Think Capitalism, guys!

We used to be able to slide down the rails of a ladder from one deck to another, but Seawolf has breaks in the middle of the rails that can tear chunks of flesh out - as I had the opportunity to discover. Made me wonder who came up with that - some shipyard sadist, obviously.

Questions will be entertained - and maybe even answered.

Don Ward

 

Jeffrey Harris {Xerox Account Manager} Sun Rochester 


Rick & Murph!!

Great story about Kevin and Brewster...how about the time Brewster
became attached to some electrical equipment and could not let go??!! I
think this occurred when he was the "Below Decks Watch".  Fortunately, he did
not get hurt, just shook him up a bit. 

By the way, Penza, I believe that Sanders first name was 'Marc' not
'Mark' or 'Marco'.  He was originally from from NYC (like that will help!!). 
If I recall, he was friends with Leif Dahl and Tom Roberts and was a Fire Control
Technician.
'Francis' was Doherty's first name (IC Tech).  Francis was from the
Corning, NY area and was buddies with David Harry at the time we were on the
B-Ham.
Hope this helps!

Best Regards, Jeff Harris
Jeffrey.Harris@East.Sun.COM

Richard D. Murphy

MURPHY.RD.TALLMADGE@worldnet.att.net 


I remember a funny story about Country Brewster, and no, I
don't know what his first name was.  One nite Kevin was being a typical
Kevin, asking about a shortened version of peoples names.  Like Rick for
Richard, Kev for Kevin, Gene for Eugene, and he says with this perfectly
straight innocent face, "Well Brewster's must be cunt" A bunch of us started
laughing, I don't think he realized what he'd said for like five
minutes, then he got this beet red face, and started laughing with us. 

Typical. 
Rich

Harry Maier 

Chaz:
Please post this to the Sea Stories portion of the Web Page.

     Hello, one and all.  I was an RC Div'er on the B'ham from '83 to '86.  My
Sea Dad was Joseph Fisher, the man who operated RCP switches so quickly that
XO JG Henry once accused him of securing two pumps with his elbows.  Fish was
famous for his weekend benders and death marches.  I recall one drunken day
when he and I threw Crown Royal and soda bottles into a dumpster at Groshong
Hall; from the sixth floor!!

    My main claim to fame while on the B-ham was my nasty habit of renting
cars and  and then bringing them back in various states of disrepair.  Once,
while we were in New London doing resin changeout, I went to the Magic Lantern
in Palmer, Mass. with Mike Schreiner.  We drank for about ten hours and then
started the three hour trip back to New London.  I was driving, and about 30
minutes into the trip, I fell asleep at the wheel.  Of course, I kept on
driving; I had to get us back to base, after all.  Well, when I woke up, we
were in Sturbridge, Mass., Mke said, "Harry, I think you hit that guy," and
the dome light in the car was on.  This was confusing because we were still
moving and the doors were still shut.  It turns out that the car I hit had
knocked the front door back so far off its hinges that the door light button
switch came out.  

     I was also one of the charter members of the owners of the RC sled in
Hawaii.  There were five of us.  Chris Bice, Rick Sipos, Dom Barone, and Craig
Sleeth were the others.  We spent about $500 to buy a 73 Buick Century when we
got to Pearl in March of 85.  Two M-divers, Make Warner and Dave Smith, also
bought a beater.  I think it was a 75 Dodge.  The M div car was painted flat
black with a roller.  It was about a butt ugly vehicle.  We used to play
bumper cars and run into each other in the parking lot behind the barracks.
Ah, the good old days.  

     I will try to post more stories of the old days later.  For now, if
anyone out there wants to get in touch with me, try HarryM695@aol.com.

Best wishes to all of you,

Harry

Leif A. Dahl 


Hey Chaz,
        Here's a short one for ya-

Well, there was the time (sometime in '79?) Benny (QM1 Benavides) broke
out cigars for everyone who smoked in the control room during the
Manuevering Watch on the way out of Norfolk.  Cigar smoke being what it
is, it soon became pretty dense and certain members of the piloting
detail were having difficulty breathing.  You could hardly see from the
attack center to the BCP!  After awhile, the 'roid (LT Kirk Matthews)
declared the smoking lamp out in the control room/attack center during
the manuevering watch and we all kinda chuckled. I think Benny planned
it that way from the beginning. It was fun getting under the 'roid's
skin, he seemed to get under ours pretty often...

I don't know if you have talked to Don Ward or not, but he has all kinds
of good stuff in a journal he kept during his time on board.

        - Leif

Steve Harvey 


This is no shit....  (or is that "once upon a time..."???):

During the Westpac in 1993, the Bham spent about four months in the Persian Gulf (although we learned it's really the Arabian Gulf.)  All of the sea time there was spent at PD,  since the whole gulf averages between 180 and 220 feet deep, there wasn't much you could do.  We were, in fact, only the third US sub ever to go into the gulf, and only the second one to dive there.  (if any one knows otherwise, I'm interested in knowing.  I'm pretty sure the Topeka never dove, and the Louisville dove but didn't do much more than show the flag there.)

Anyway, we spent two weeks in upkeep in Bahrain, tied up to the USS CAPE COD.  That was an interesting experience, filled with conga lines across the CAPE COD quarterdeck, sanding the entire rubber coating of the boat with electric sanders (yes, hanging over the side with electric sanders.), and wondering which little speedboat jamming by was about to lob a grenade at you (good incentive to qualify below decks watch!).

So, one day my little nubly ass was standing the topside watch.  Maneuvering call up to tell me that they are going to be doing steam generator blow downs, starting with the port side, which happened to be the side pointed toward the CAPE COD.  "No problem," I told them.  "The area's clear down that way."  Granted, the steam comes out under the surface of the water, but it can give you quite a surprise if you don't know it's coming.  

I looked up at the top of the brow leading up to the CAPE COD.  Some ugly navy chick was standing watch up there.  Supposed to keep us on our toes and in practice with that whole 'salute the flag, request permission to board' thing which we never did when officers weren't around.  Hmmm...... this could be a good practical joke!  So I gather a few of my pals around and let them in on my plan.  We get ready to get this girl with a good one.  

Sure enough, about five minutes after maneuvering called me up, port side steam generator does it's thing, making a big ol' cauldron of hot bubbling water, and sounding like all hell's breaking loose.  "Holy shit, it's the reactor!!!" I yelled.  My cohorts all looked aft, started yelling and screaming, some of them running to the foreward escape trunk to go below decks, others running up the brow crossing the quarter deck of the CAPE COD in a hurry mumbling something about "reactor meltdown."  I picked up the JA handset on the topside box and started yelling into it as if I was talking to maneuvering, not pressing the button of course.  

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as this little E-nothing skimmer girl did the same, calling someone to let them know something was wrong with the submarine.  We lost it!!!  With us dying laughing, I think that gave it away that the joke was on her.

That's about it.  Maybe more to come....

Steve Harvey

Eric Tweton 


Heres a couple of  sea stories, I'll send a few more stories in the future.

New A-Ganger

As a Yeomen I handled the crew's mail.  One day after about one week
at sea I found a little package in the ship's office that was for a new
non-qual  A Ganger.  I tracked him down and handed him the package. 
He asked me when it came, and without missing a beat I told him it came
in the morning mail buoy pickup.  Then I asked him if he would like to help
pick up the next one.  All excited, he said yes.  So later I had him put on a
KPOC life jacket and had him wait by the ladder leading up to the bridge
hatch.  The Skipper came by and asked him what he was doing and he
said "just waiting for the mail buoy, sir."  The CO just looked at me and
shook his head.

Deck Div'er from Maine and the CO's air flask

Remember what the CO's air flask is?  In the shipyard during the
scheduled regular overhaul there was a group of us sitting around
control (which was still all ripped apart).  Well there was a non-qual deck
div'er (a good guy from Maine) and there was also some sort of small air
flask just laying on the deck.  Well I don't remember who started it, but
someone asked what the thing was.  Someone said, hey! That's the CO's
air flask that he's been looking for.  Then someone picked it up (I think it
was the below decks watch) and handed it to the deck div'er and said;
bring this down to the Wardroom, the CO's all pissed off that his air flask
is all rusty and wants to inspect it.  With that,  the Deck Div'er took it
down to the Wardroom, knocked on the door and entered (unknown to
us, the CO had started holding the O-Div meetings on the ship instead of
the barge).  He walked up to the CO with the object and all proud, he
reported that he had the CO's air flask for his inspection.  The Deck Div'er
came back to control beet red.  Later on I saw the CO and when he
looked at me, I had a hard time holding back the chuckles.  The CO just
said; What are you up too now?

A-ganger log entries

On one new years eve in the shipyard an A-ganger had the topside
midwatch. When he entered his Midnight entry into the logbook, he
entered: LT Smyers the Stud Dog of SubBase is the Duty Officer.  I don't
remember if it made it to Green Table or not, but he was written up.

Playing pool with the CO

Most sailors should know that at Captains mast there is a green felt table
cloth laid out.  Before they go into one, a lot of guys joke about Captains
mast.  They say that they are going to play pool (or poker) with the
Captain.  They always try to act cool before they enter the wardroom. 
As a Yeomen I've sat in on many.   Most CO's can put the fear of God
into anyone that goes before them at mast.  Many times a Sailor would
start crying when the skipper was talking to them.  After one such event
when the sailor left the wardroom the Skipper, just shook his head,
laughed and said "Good God, I can make a grown  man cry, why can't I
get my kids to listen to me."

Learn to Iron before you see the CO.

We had a seaman onboard who was spending too much time at the strip
clubs downtown and not enough time on quals.  He was forging names
on his qual card to keep off of the dink list.  Well he was caught and
brought up on charges.  This took place on our overhaul barge.  The
morning of the mast the only dress whites he could find were crumpled
up under his bed in the barracks, they were also about four sizes too big
for him.  Well as he was waiting for mast my Senior Chief told him that he
better iron his uniform.  So I found him an iron to use.  I went to the head. 
As I was sitting in the head, I heard a scream, seconds later this seamen
opened up the curtain on the head and showed me the hole that he had
burned through his polyester pants.  I told him to wait in the office until I
was done with my business.  There were only moments to go before the
mast was to start.  The COB told him he had to wear the uniform.  He
was quite the sight wearing a wrinkled oversized uniform with an outline
of an Iron melted through near his rear end.  Needless to say he was
given the boot out of the Navy.  I'll never forget the sight on his face
when was standing before the CO.  I almost bit through my lip trying not
to laugh.

The Orange CO

While the Birmingham was in shipyard, I got to ride another ship on a
North Pacific run.  As all of us submariners know that after a few
months at sea our skin turns quite pale.  The skipper of this ship was
starting to lose his tan and was turning to a nice shade of orange.  It
seems that he was taking some sort of carrot based tanning pills.  When
his tan faded away the orange stayed.  I swear he looked like one of
those orange guys in the movie Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory.

What fun you can have with a glowing watch.

I have about the same build (tall) as my 2nd Skipper Capt. Sullivan.  He
wore a watch that glowed in the dark.  When the control room was
rigged for black you could tell if the Skipper was walking through by the
sight of his watch glowing.  I happened to have a watch that glowed just
like the skippers.  Well I soon discovered that if I walked through the
control room while it was rigged for black, I would be mistaken to the
Skipper.  I sure had some fun with some of the JO's  and Chiefs on
watch.  I would walk in during a rig for black (when the skipper was
elsewhere) and look over my shipmate's shoulders or stand behind the
DOOW. They would just assume it was the CO.   It always amazed me
how quiet and professional the control room would get when they
thought the CO was walking through.

Well I guess I am sending more than a few.  I try to recall a few more
stories for you to post.  I had some great times onboard the Birmingham.

Eric.

Mike Capstraw

Chaz, 

You and Rick have done a great job with the site.

  Last December I was in contact with Carl Boertjens (just prior to his
retirement).  Carl told me about the homepage.  Its great that you have
my name listed, please add my e-mail address.

  My status; Active Duty will be 20 yrs on 4 Sep 97.  I'm an LDO LT now
(somedays, I look in the mirror and wonder too -just kidding). 
Stationed - Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, Orlando.  Married with
two children.  Loving life, shore duty is sweet in Orlando!

  The consideration for a reunion in Orlando would be great for me but
the Base is really shutting fast.  Availability of rooms on base will be
tough.  I spent four month as a geo-bachelor here, I had to stay in town
for over two months.  I will look into it, if there is interest, let me
know.  The Birmingham, AL reunion looks interesting for me.

    Chaz, all these years in the Navy I still remember that crew the
most.  Motivating the young Nukes here, I think of those days mostly. 
Thank you and Rick for the site.
                   
V/R  Mike Capstraw

Steve E. Craver

I have pictures somewhere of the Birmingham taken during the "SINKEX" in the Carribean. Included are the destroyer being split in two, the Birmingham doing a normal blow to the surface, and one shot of her under water. These photos where taken by the F-16 Tomcats (I'm not sure of this part because of my vantage point) that participated in the exercise. Speaking of pictures... there were some pictures that were taken of a shuttle launch in Florida out of #2 scope. They were confiscated for some reason. I think they said the cross-hairs in the scope (and subsequent pictures) made them classified. I will look for my pictures and get them scanned. As soon as I do I will e-mail them to you.

I sent a message to either you or Rick recently where I pondered the question of why MMC(SS) Thomas Vokel wasn't included in the "Plankowner" list. Then it occurred to me. Because he wasn't a "Plankowner." Pretty bright, huh? Anyway though he is a former crew member. My searches to date have not turned up any info on Tom. His wife's name was Debbie. And he was originally from Ohio. Also there was MMC(SS) David Hawk. The last time I spoke to David he was living in Chesapeake [], VA. He, I am sure was a MMCM(SS). I can't seem to re-locate him. Lastly there is MM1(SS) Edward F. "Robbie" Robinson. Ed's Father was a ASCM on a carrier. He called Michigan (and Key West, FL) home. He was a rising star on the ship during his time. We all made the first Med Cruise together.

As my memories return I will forward what I can.

Hope I can see you all soon.

Steve E. Craver

Don Ward

Don Ward I was his best man at his wedding. Which I had to get special permission to attend. He is writing a book on his life and experiences in the Navy. Also if you remember Don played killer guitar all the time underway and at the apartments.

OK here are some of Dons journal entries he had from on the Birmingham.