Does the US Navy paint anymore?

pmclaine

pmclaine

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    • Nov 6, 2011
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    #1
    Okay if you were the seamen Apprentice or what ever the lowest rate is I thought a good deal of your time was spent wire brushing rust and coating with Haze Gray paint.

    Guessing if your in 24 hour combat ops there are more pressing priorities but for representing the USA at an event celebrating the Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of Denmark/Belgium couldnt you at least krylon my boat?

    Guessing ship maintenance is now contracted out.

    Take care of the little details and you wont have SEALs/Marines killing Green Berets.

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    #6
    When Bush and Gorbachev were going to have an at sea meeting in Malta back 1989 or so I visited the Belknap which was going to be the US meeting ship. The Soviets were going to use a similar sized warship I think it was the "Slava". I remember in Cyrillic the name on the stern "CLAbA" had us calling it the "Slobber".

    The Soviet ship absolutely glistened with fresh paint.

    I was kind of shocked by the state of the Belknap in its exhibited rust.

    I had come from an infantry unit where we painted the interior of urinals with krylon to hide the rust stains from 30 years or so of accepting Marine cock.

    Granted my experience was a bit extreme, first flush all the paint came off and the toilet looked like shit but it kept the Top happy on Friday mornings until he could fuck with us on libo call. How the fuck did a Top get into a Weapons Co anyway? Shouldnt he be in a shop some where and let the First Sgt run shit?

    Anyway regards the Belknap.....Malta got hit by some sort of hellacious Mediterranean Hurricane and the meetings were held in some big ass Soviet cruise ship.

    No one saw the warships and Im guessing the puke was rolling freely in the scuppers during that storm.
     
    #7
    EM92wx said:
    The crew is Manning The Rails. Probably coming back from a deployment. Not a lot of time to be on the weather deck for chipping and painting. That's how someone goes over the side.
    Click to expand...


    They are manning the rails for the ceremony being held by the Dane/Walloons observing a 75th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis.

    Even more reason to put on the dog and pony.

    Granted they probably just spent 6 months someplace hot floating around dancing with each other and really long to get home rather than entertaining ungreatful Euro weenies but you need to represent when dealing with trash.
     
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    #8
    It’s rare you send guys over the side underway. My guess is that it’s returning from deployment and many days at sea. That’s what a long deployment looks like. Metal and saltwater is a bad combo, and paint only slightly delays the inevitable. There’s HP air and needle guns, which are a lot faster than a wire brush.

    Contractors usually only paint when the ship’s in the yards.

    Don’t trouble yourselves. I’m sure there’ll be bosun chairs over the side and the paint punt will be launched as soon as they secure from sea and anchor detail. ;)
     
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    #9
    candyx said:
    All that work goes to a subcontractor for big dollars , just another way to get money out of the government legally.
    Click to expand...


    Yes all this contracting shit out is BS.

    We now look at war (well probably always have) as a jobs creation project.

    I guess similar existed at start of WWII.

    All those civilian contractors working in places like Wake, the PI and Guam found out real quick POW status and imprisonment wasnt worth the contract.

    The mil had to learn real quick again how to issue 782 gear and do their own cooking.
     
    #10
    Fig said:
    There’s HP air and needle guns, which are a lot faster than a wire brush.
    Click to expand...

    I spent a brief stint TAD to a SPRUCE barge in Groton. Needle guns are great, but the BOSS - bicarbonate of sodium stripper - was the $hizzle. Basically a big gas powered pressure washer with a hopper for baking soda media. It'd peel paint like nobodies business. The safety brief we had to give involved cutting a 2x4 in half, in just a few seconds. "Now imagine that was the toe of your boot..." usually had the desired effect on the crews ?
     
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    #12
    Palmetto-Pride said:
    I am surprised our ships still fly our flag.....I mean we don't want to offend anyone....... :unsure:
    Click to expand...


    Im surprised, and fully endorse, that they usually fly a "First Navy Jack" with the "Dont Tread on Me" snake.

    I think that started under the last admin and I hope it was done for reason.

    We need more of that "originalist" thinking.
     
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    #13
    milanuk said:
    I spent a brief stint TAD to a SPRUCE barge in Groton. Needle guns are great, but the BOSS - bicarbonate of sodium stripper - was the $hizzle. Basically a big gas powered pressure washer with a hopper for baking soda media. It'd peel paint like nobodies business. The safety brief we had to give involved cutting a 2x4 in half, in just a few seconds. "Now imagine that was the toe of your boot..." usually had the desired effect on the crews ?
    Click to expand...


    Heard a horrible story about a young woman that was mesmerized, hypnotized, listened to the sirens song, while watching high pressure water cut steel.

    It called to her "How does this work? Im just water. Go ahead touch me......."

    and she did.

    Like watching a spinning saw blade and thinking you can pinch it between thumb and forefinger to stop it.

    The small voice in your head knows its crazy but the big voice is saying "You can do it! Show them....just a good pinch and I will be still."
     
    #14
    Fig said:
    It’s rare you send guys over the side underway. My guess is that it’s returning from deployment and many days at sea. That’s what a long deployment looks like. Metal and saltwater is a bad combo, and paint only slightly delays the inevitable. There’s HP air and needle guns, which are a lot faster than a wire brush.

    Contractors usually only paint when the ship’s in the yards.

    Don’t trouble yourselves. I’m sure there’ll be bosun chairs over the side and the paint punt will be launched as soon as they secure from sea and anchor detail. ;)
    Click to expand...
    Exactly
     
    #15
    They would have been painting, but after all the exta required courses about trannys and feelings and even if someone scored lower yet is female it doesn't mean they aren't as good, and don't be mean to people that are trying to kill you, they didn't have any time.
     
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    #16
    The Navy still paints. Like others have said, the outer surfaces of the ship isn't painted until they return to port. It would usually start a day or two after we got back to port on CVN76. I worked at a repair company for a couple years after service, and saw plenty of guys hanging over the side painting over rust lol. The inside of the ship is different though. We would paint bilges and bulkheads at least once every deployment. Gotta look fresh for the big inspections!
     
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    #17
    pmclaine said:
    Yes all this contracting shit out is BS.

    We now look at war (well probably always have) as a jobs creation project.

    I guess similar existed at start of WWII.

    All those civilian contractors working in places like Wake, the PI and Guam found out real quick POW status and imprisonment wasnt worth the contract.

    The mil had to learn real quick again how to issue 782 gear and do their own cooking.
    Click to expand...

    They had a report years ago that they subcontracted the food service to foreign companies when our Troops are at war. From the story the food looked good like you would see in a 5 star hotel. Do they still issue K-rations or did they leave with the steel helmets.
     
    #20
    candyx said:
    They had a report years ago that they subcontracted the food service to foreign companies when our Troops are at war. From the story the food looked good like you would see in a 5 star hotel. Do they still issue K-rations or did they leave with the steel helmets.
    Click to expand...

    Some FOBs have contractors.. a lot have Army cooks. I know a lot of the Navy individual augmenters were helping with food service.

    K-rations haven't been used since WWII. MREs are still issued regularly today. They're pretty popular with the "prepper" crowd.
     
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    #21
    candyx said:
    They had a report years ago that they subcontracted the food service to foreign companies when our Troops are at war. From the story the food looked good like you would see in a 5 star hotel. Do they still issue K-rations or did they leave with the steel helmets.
    Click to expand...
    Man, the food in Iraq when I was there was sooooo good weekly surf and turf, pasta bar, ice cream bar, cake bar, pie bar, burger bar, sandwich bar good times. The food in afghanistan was a bitter disappointment.
     
    #22
    Ok, some people here have no clue about shipboard life and some do.

    Here's my take as a former deck division officer on a frigate.
    • Nobody goes over the side in a bos'n chair while underway unless it's an extreme situation like repairing battle damage to keep the ship afloat or get some weapons up.
    • Contractors rarely are hired to do maintenance outside the yards
    • Topside rust can't really be stopped with needle guns and paint. You can only delay it for a while. To do a proper job, milanuk nailed it: BOSS/sandblasting, priming, spray painting in the yard.
    As far as the colors go......
    • The national ensign is flown from the quarterdeck when moored (pier or anchor) and from the main mast while underway
    • The jack (either the blue field with 50 stars or the First Navy jack, don't know which one is required now) is flown from the foc'sle while moored. The jack is never, ever flown underway.
     
    #24
    308pirate said:
    Ok, some people here have no clue about shipboard life and some do.

    Here's my take as a former deck division officer on a frigate.
    • Nobody goes over the side in a bos'n chair while underway unless it's an extreme situation like repairing battle damage to keep the ship afloat or get some weapons up.
    • Contractors rarely are hired to do maintenance outside the yards
    • Topside rust can't really be stopped with needle guns and paint. You can only delay it for a while. To do a proper job, milanuk nailed it: BOSS/sandblasting, priming, spray painting in the yard.
    As far as the colors go......
    • The national ensign is flown from the quarterdeck when moored (pier or anchor) and from the main mast while underway
    • The jack (either the blue field with 50 stars or the First Navy jack, don't know which one is required now) is flown from the foc'sle while moored. The jack is never, ever flown underway.
    Click to expand...


    One thing we are pretty sure of is that the Annapolis guys don't do much painting :)
     
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