Ships

[WODon]

I was on the USS Constellation for 28 days for carrier quals with VMFAT-101. There is nothing like being on the deck of a carrier, standing in between two F/A-18's as they are launched off the deck, especially at night.

[vance]

I remember during the monsoon rains of November 1966 we sent 1 man per squad out to one of the ships off the coast of Vietnam. They really treated those youngsters well . Laundered their clothes , fed them good Navy chow until they were ready to bust . Really bucked them up .

[LongShot]

Several LST's ( Little Shi**y Tubs )
A couple LHA's
An LSD
Jumped between 4 MPS Military Cargo Ships from Diego Garcia to Singapore to Thailand. Damn things are larger than Oil Tankers.


MillRatUSMC, I know about storms all too well. Fall of '89 we left from Okinowa as part of a Carrier Group on the first war game simulation to be held on Iwo Jima. We were stuck on an LST. On the was back we ran into a monsoon and the storm surge it created. That damn flat bottomed LST hit 28 degree rolls and pitched almost verticle on down slopes. Couldn't get to the chow hall without strapping into support lines. Took a hell of a beating before we cleared to storms edge. We beat the rest of the storm back to Oki by about 12 hours, spent the next 3 days in the barracks while the storm tore the island apart. One wild ride.

[mrbsox]

LST, LPD, LSD, LPH, LHA, ,,,

ALL them LANDING ships.... brings back the memories....

Next to playing "ARMY", I thought playing "NAVY" was as good as it got

Terry

[USMC-FO]

4 years pehaps 5 or 6 navy tubs. APA, LST's, LSD and one very large USNS ship. General Mann I think, along with what seemed like thousands of barfing Marines. 21 days from San Diego, Pearl, Yakuska and ended up in Naha Okinawa. Spend three days with one Marine who was so sick they posted a two man babysitting team to follow him around topside just make sure he did not jump or fall as he spent so much time hung out over the rail blowing chow. OIC was convinced he was going to do a dixie into the Pacific just stop being sick. That was fun !! UCK

Brings back memories for sure

Semper Fi !!

[MillRatUSMC]

Vancouver LPD-2
Commissioned 10 May 1963
Decommissioned 31 Mar 1992

http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/amphib/lpd2.htm
History of LPD-2 Vancouver

March of 1965 we spend a couple of days or close to a week on the LPD-2 .
It took us close to Hue, South Vietnam.
We were taken up the Perfume River to a police headquarters.
From there we were trucked to the Phu Bai airstrip to provide security for an Army Communication Center.
I was then in India Co 3rd Bn 4th Marines, the subject of my story;"Our First Night Vietnam" which is located on my homepage.
It's sad to note that other veteran has been laid to rest.
She was old before her time, much like a many of us.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

[SHOOTER1]

Dont remind me, 27 days from Stateside to Nam, with a 24 hour stopover in Oki, damm lucky i didnt git Hemmoroids from sitting on that damm steel deck.

[firstsgtmike]

Shooter1,

You don't sit on the steel deck. You stand in line for breakfast, gedunk, lunch, gedunk, dinner, gedunk, and learn how to play "liars poker".l

[Amtracs]

On the MSTS Gen. Hugh M. Gaffey: The troop head crapper's were steel troffs with 2x4's across them to sit on. There was a steady stream of sea water flowing. There was room for 3 or 4 people to sit on them, gravity would remove the waste as the ship lists right or left. This was mar 1959.

[mardet65]

As my username implies, I was aboard USS Enterprise CVAN-65 with the Marine Detachment during two west-pac cruises to Vietnam 1965-1967. At times we went through some heavy seas ( a couple of typhoons) and at least once when waves were washing over the flightdeck. Remember, at the time Enterprise was our largest and newest carrier so we're talking about some tremendous wave action. I also spent about a week or so aboard USS Sandoval enroute to Gitmo with 2/8 in December of '67. That was the only time I ever experienced any slight feeling of sea sickness. That APA really bounced around even in fairly calm seas.

[firstsgtmike]

Amtracs;

I was on the Gaffey, arrived in Okinawa May 1960. Troops were in the holds, army & af dependents in the cabins. We hit the tail end of a typhoon, almost everyone was seasick.

Puke barrels in the hold were filled every morning. Put your boots on before getting out of your bunk, then slip and slide to the head.

Chow was eaten from steel trays while standing up at a long table. Scrambled powdered eggs, fill your fork, watch the tray slide away and return with the listing of the ship. Get the rhythm and you had no problem.

I was 'enjoying' breakfast until my tray slid away and returned with someone's barf all over it.

I came close. Second time was when I was going up a ladderway to the top deck. Someone on his way down shouted "gangway". I couldn't move fast enough and he barfed all over me.

It's interesting how a word like Gaffey can bring back a flood of memories.

Thank you.

[leroy8541]

Did 2 West-pacs 1 on the tarawa one on the okinawa did alot of mini trip from place to place on others can't remember the names of them all. went thru a typhoon of the coast of korea on the tripoli while on a training ex. from Oki found that the middle of the hangar bay was verrrry comforting for me. Did my share of sea bat watch morgue duty and all the fun stuff including gettin wogged on the tripoli in 87' the bad thing about duty aboard an LPH was that the helicopter crews had a thing for stealing our Jungle Boots very irritating.
sea life can be very boring but wouldn't trade a minute of it for an hour in NYC
hooooyaa WOG DOG!!!!