My brother just sent me this pic.... Iowa during speed trials. Looking aft. Look at that wake!
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Now That's a Turn .... USS Gerald Ford Sea Trials
- Thread starter Centuriator
- Start date
Here's a dry dock shot of the Iowa stern / hull and screws.
What carrier steamed over the Russian sub near Japan?
I flew with a pilot at my job who flew EP3 back in his military days. He told me the Russians were rather pissed and sent their fleet steaming to assist the damaged sub.
They flew the EP3 near the Soviet ships and gathered shit load of electronic intelligence (peeps and squeaks).
Also said the sub lost a propeller when it was rolled by the carrier. The frogmen found the subs screw embedded in the carrier hull!
It was this reason the USA learned the Russian subs had newer quieter screws installed.
Thanks to Clinton selling technology to China? Can't blame Clinton..lol
edit... occurred back in the ‘80s
I flew with a pilot at my job who flew EP3 back in his military days. He told me the Russians were rather pissed and sent their fleet steaming to assist the damaged sub.
They flew the EP3 near the Soviet ships and gathered shit load of electronic intelligence (peeps and squeaks).
Also said the sub lost a propeller when it was rolled by the carrier. The frogmen found the subs screw embedded in the carrier hull!
It was this reason the USA learned the Russian subs had newer quieter screws installed.
edit... occurred back in the ‘80s
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Found this today...
Naval History Magazine
Bringing the history of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard to life.
USS Kitty Hawk’s (CV 63) fourteenth deployment in early 1984 found her at the center of a great deal of activity. During the joint United States/Republic of Korea Exercise Team Spirit 84-1, Kitty Hawk’s Battle Group Bravo encountered numerous Soviet forces during the eight-day event. Reconnaissance aircraft overflew the group 43 times while six Soviet surface units and one submarine made an appearance.
It was the submarine, however, that had a lasting impact on the ship and its cruise. At 2207 on 21 March the submarine surfaced and collided with the carrier. The captain and starboard lookout both saw the silhouette of a sub without navigation lights moving away from the ship. Two SH-3H helicopters inspected the sub without noting any apparent damage, but a large piece of the submarine’s screw had broken off in Kitty Hawk’s hull.
The submarine was believed to be a Victor-I class attack boat, tentatively identified as K-314 (610). During the exercise it had been tracked and “killed” more than fifteen times after it was spotted on the surface fifty miles in front of the battle group.
The collision occurred despite the Incidents at Sea agreement that SECNAV John Warner and Admiral Sergei Gorshkov had signed in 1972. This agreement, designed to uphold the United States’ long cherished belief in freedom of the seas and prevent dangerous and hostile collisions at sea, was ignored in this instance. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James Watkins reflected, “The reason behind the Soviet submarine captain’s slip in judgment is the only mystery here. He showed uncharacteristically poor seamanship in not staying clear of Kitty Hawk. That should cause concern in Moscow.”
Admiral Snyder, C/O of the USS New Jersey during the Vietnam War, was a long time customer at the VW dealership I worked at for many years. I remembering asking him if the ship moved when a full broadside was fired. The answer, No! A couple of tons of powder going off at the same time will not move a ship weighing what the Iowa class BB's weighed, not including the recoil system. He said most of that hype came from the pics taken from above during firing and the blast on the water is what made people think the ship moved.
Adm. Snyder was a Gentleman, always enjoyed his company until he passed away.
Adm. Snyder was a Gentleman, always enjoyed his company until he passed away.
Funny you should mention a VW. A 16" AP shell weighs about 2700 pounds, 1,000 more pounds than the original VW Beetle. Now imagine, it being able to shoot that round 27 miles!
I love watching stuff like this. I wish we had more stuff about our military’s equipment and working on tv. I think it would give more people a better understanding and respect of our military and it’s purpose.
I was watching a show on the building of the Ford and laughed when they brought up some people believing that aircraft carriers are “obsolete” in today’s world.
I was watching a show on the building of the Ford and laughed when they brought up some people believing that aircraft carriers are “obsolete” in today’s world.
The other end of the shaft is connected to a set of reduction gears.
The turbine connected to those gears is pretty impressive though. The ones we had were rated and right around 54,000 horsepower. My first day in there, I thought the main condenser inlet valve was the actual condenser...
It did suck taking logs on every single bearing every hour when it's 140F in the main machinery room haha.
I think one of the greatest days I had in there was the first time I got to answer an all back emergency bell from the PAOB inside the machinery room... there's just alarms going off and pumps starting everywhere and everything is shaking. Just realizing how much power was being controlled by that astern throttle was amazing.
As far as the high speed turns go... you never realize how much water can be in the bilge until you get that much list. Really helped when we had the bilge eductors running though.
Sometimes I miss it... then I remember how much the rest of it sucked. Glad to be back on land!
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They're mostly think tank blowhards and wonks who either have never served or their service was in some completely unrelated branch, and are most certainly not aware of the details of our capabilities.
They don't matter.
IIRC from my days the total HP of a Nimitz class main engine (HP and LP turbine combined output) is quite a bit more than 54K, with the torque capability being six figures per shaft.The other end of the shaft is connected to a set of reduction gears.
The turbine connected to those gears is pretty impressive though. The ones we had were rated and right around 54,000 horsepower. My first day in there, I thought the main condenser inlet valve was the actual condenser...
And yeah, there's a gearbox in between it and the shaft.
+1
True.. all combined was right over 250,00HP not accounting for losses. We (CVN76) actually ran at full power wayyyyyy too much and basically doubled our expected fuel use. Pushing 97,000 tons around the globe at 32kts takes its toll haha.
Am I not remembering right? For some reason 100K hp per shaft sticks in my mind
I stood PPWO watches on Nimitz from mid 92 to October of 94.
OK, Old Salts how good/bad was the chow on board the Carriers? My very limited experience was dining in the Officers Mess as a little kid and all I remember is getting all the soft serve ice cream I could eat. My son-in-law is on a Fast Attack sub out of Pearl and his tales of the food are so-so. After he qualified it seemed to get better.
OK, Old Salts how good/bad was the chow on board the Carriers? My very limited experience was dining in the Officers Mess as a little kid and all I remember is getting all the soft serve ice cream I could eat. My son-in-law is on a Fast Attack sub out of Pearl and his tales of the food are so-so. After he qualified it seemed to get better.
We had great food in the Officer's Wardroom on the Indy. And, yes... soft serve always available! We called it "dog," because it looked like a dog taking a dump coming out. "Hey, you gonna put some dog on that cake?? Ya gotta put some dog on it!"
LOVE it. I was of such an age that I remember barely able to reach the lever to dispense it. My father was fully engaged in conversation with his Navy officer friends, and i had no idea what was going on. I do also recall the wonderful red bug jucice and I drank o.
Amazing what a 10 year old remember from dining on the wonderful Lady Lex back in the day.
I also remember everything was very shiny and I remember going out to Easter Sunrise services on the flight deck.
I miss my father, very, very, much.
Nice memory!
I got to take my dad on a "Tiger Cruise" from Hawaii back to homeport, San Diego. I think it's the coolest gift I could have ever given to my dad. He LOVED it. (He served as an officer on the USS North Hampton back in the early 60s.) He saw more of the ship in 8 days than I saw in two years! LOL!
Speaking of good food... my dad raved about it and claims he gained 5 pounds in that one week! LOL
AH SHIT officer on deck!
Although it would have been cool to skim across the water at 40+ kts with that kind of power, we weren't there. I was a nuke MM and spent countless hours staring at the Westinghouse data plates on the turbines. Pretty sure the exact number on the HP was 54,235. There's no way the LP was an additional 50k.
I'll check with one of my friends that are still in, but yeah I'm fairly certain we weren't close to 400k.
Did you go to training in South Carolina or Florida?
AH SHIT officer on deck!
Although it would have been cool to skim across the water at 40+ kts with that kind of power, we weren't there. I was a nuke MM and spent countless hours staring at the Westinghouse data plates on the turbines. Pretty sure the exact number on the HP was 54,235. There's no way the LP was an additional 50k.
I'll check with one of my friends that are still in, but yeah I'm fairly certain we weren't close to 400k.
Did you go to training in South Carolina or Florida?
LOL I'm old. Memory sucks.
Nuke school in Orlando. D1G prototype in Ballston Spa NY
OK, Old Salts how good/bad was the chow on board the Carriers? My very limited experience was dining in the Officers Mess as a little kid and all I remember is getting all the soft serve ice cream I could eat. My son-in-law is on a Fast Attack sub out of Pearl and his tales of the food are so-so. After he qualified it seemed to get better.
I was on the Reagan (CVN76) from 2005-2010...
The food was actually really good for us basic enlisted folks. The aft mess served regular hot meals. Steak and chicken were pretty common. There was a salad bar. Breakfast was standard sausage, eggs, bacon. There was a cold cereal/fruit bar up there. The forward mess usually had "fast food" type stuff. Burgers, chicken strips, nachos etc. Forward also served the midrats meal, which was usually a mixture of random stuff but was always edible. Never really had any complaints.
The officer's mess was good also. Not really much of a step up from the enlisted meals.
The chief's mess on the other hand... was a whole different story. That was where the best food was. They had servers that would wait tables. The food was cooked to order. It was like a restaurant. My division usually had a couple people working in the chief's mess that would sneak breakfast burritos and other treats to us.
None of this really included the Filipinos. Those guys had their own secret food society. You'd walk by the mess decks and see them all eating lumpia and pancit that was never on the menu. I guess that was the perk of running the entire supply department though.
You were in the ball!
Just realized that Charleston wasn't even around before 1998 lol. Good stuff though. Ballston Spa has been shut down for a while now. Apparently everything was held together with duct tape and super glue haha. I have a friend that is starting power school right now and she's telling me they're going to be on hold for over a year because there just isn't enough space at the SC prototypes. Would be really shitty stuck on T-track for 1.5 years. That's A LOT of floor waxing!
Forrestal tiger cruise 30yrs ago. First morning - short buffet line w/ standard bacon/eggs/etc fair. I loaded up before sponsor said he usually just got cereal as we went into dining room where, I'll never forget, they had Cap'n Crunch, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, etc, etc! Other meals were steaks and other good stuff. End of trip I commented on how good the food was and was told for show and enlisted generally ate better than officers. But there was a soft-serve machine!
In our wardroom, we had Filipino specialties on the menu regularly, including Lumpia and Chicken Adobo. Yum!
The only meal that was not well-liked was "triangle fish" (fish sticks).
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Same here.
Adobo night was highly anticipated by the Nimitz's ship's company (aft) wardroom. As far as overall food quality, it was about 3 1/2 stars. Menu quality was highly dependent on ingredients. Depending on the time between RAS, it could be really freaking good to meh, same shit different day.
Based on what I would see people eating on the mess decks, not that much difference. Never did go by or to the chief's mess.
Midrats was always a mixed bag since a lot of it was reheated leftovers. Scrambled eggs with Tabasco, country potatoes, and shit on a shingle was my favorite for midrats.
And coffee. Lots of coffee. The Navy doesn't run on JP-5, DFM, and U-235. It runs on Folgers.
I'm hungry now...…...
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I dig D1G.....
Yeah it was an old fucker but still pretty usable in 1989.
I reported to Kesslering in January 1989. It was fucking cold that winter in the Saratoga area.
I hated Friday's underway because I hate fish.
Wednesday was always good.
One of the ships I was on made hamburger buns from scratch.
Everything on the ship was made from scratch, including all baked goods... bread... cookies... cake... etc. I believe even the pasta was made fresh from scratch ingredients. We ate well!
The Navy doesn't run on JP-5, DFM, and U-235. It runs on Folgers.
I'm hungry now...…...
Ha! And, sometimes there was JP-5 IN the water, coffee, etc.!
I don't remember us running out of anything. But, that doesn't mean we didn't. Maybe I was simply unaware. But, I don't remember suffering any bad meals.
Just long periods at sea.... 118 days in the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf without seeing land or a female.MCM - 224 feet of glass reinforced plastic coated wood.Were you on a submarine?
Cause on everything else we have this
Max speed - 14 knots
Did an Unrep coming back from europe.
Very difficult, everything hauled over by hand.
Everything got wet, because everything ended up in the water.
MCM's are very top heavy, with a 15 foot navigational draft, so they roll...a lot.
Astern refueling was tons of fun, the delivery ships had difficulty keeping steerage way at such slow speeds.
Our normal steaming speed was 8 knots. Since it took us four days to get from Texas to Key West, we used to run out of shit all the time.
Only during major exercises or transits did they arrange for unreps and at sea refueling.
Here's the USS Rainier doing one of the first alongside refueling with an MCM, we typically did astern refueling.
Gives you an idea of size difference:
Ok that makes sense. They don't look much bigger than the YP boats we used at the Academy for seamanship and navigation training....LOL
Same here.
And coffee. Lots of coffee. The Navy doesn't run on JP-5, DFM, and U-235. It runs on Folgers.
I'm hungry now...…...
All the coffee on the Reagan was Starbucks.. it was actually kinda weird.
This is what a lot of us did.. there was an endless supply of Tazo tea bags. I just had an electric kettle in my office that I would use to make the teas. The "awake" tea has A LOT of caffeine!
Ugh F that
I did bring an small home espresso machine for my cabin. Being based out of Puget Sound made it easy to get good beans to grind. The wifey would send them in care packages when on westpac. Otherwise, I could easily pack enough for a 2 - 4 week underway in the seabag.
Speaking of mainlining caffeine, my wife started buying me these french roast beans covered in dark chocolate. I'd fill up a small ziplock and stick it in a shirt pocket before going on the evening or midwatch, or whenever I was short of sleep and going on watch (often). Shit worked like a charm.
Some of the guys in EOS were like LT what the fuck are you munching on over there? Me: caffeine.
I did too, from Pearl to Bremerton. He was truly besides himself in awe of the size of the ship, the discipline of the crew, the fact that airplanes were flying off and landing on it, that he actually took the helm for a few minutes, and that he got to see the top of the one of the reactors through a viewing port located outside the restricted area (helps when when his son was an engineer and knows those things)
For you naval experts.. what are the exercise mats used for under the gun in these pics?
This is the USS Forrest Sherman and the few pictures of it firing the main gun, it has this mats directly under the barrel.
Edit: I think I see the spent cases in the second pic. The mats are meant to soften impact from the ejected cases?
This is the USS Forrest Sherman and the few pictures of it firing the main gun, it has this mats directly under the barrel.
Edit: I think I see the spent cases in the second pic. The mats are meant to soften impact from the ejected cases?
For you naval experts.. what are the exercise mats used for under the gun in these pics?
This is the USS Forrest Sherman and the few pictures of it firing the main gun, it has this mats directly under the barrel.
Edit: I think I see the spent cases in the second pic. The mats are meant to soften impact from the ejected cases?
You got it right.
The ones in the second pic look pretty sloppy though... someone got lazy haha
Such a cool story I’m jealous.Yep! The S-3 pilots had the Hoover (vacuum cleaner) logo on their flight suits! I flew with VS-37 (Sawbucks). Just got one flight. But, man it was so cool!
I had to qualify to fly back seat. Fortunately, I had a friend who was friends with the director of Aviation Physiology at Miramar. So, I took two days of leave to take that course. I was the only non-pilot there. I managed to pass and get "qual'ed," though I did not know if I'd ever have the opportunity to fly back seat. But, I knew that without the "qual," I would not ever be allowed to fly back seat in an aircraft equipped with ejection seat.
One day, I took care of a pilot "after hours" in the dental clinic. (I was a dental officer.) He told me that if he could ever do anything for me, he would. I said, "I'd love to ride back seat." He asked, "Do you have back seat quals?" YEP! Got the paperwork! A couple days later, I got the call that they had a seat for me. My department head said, "GO! We'll take care of your patients. This is once in a lifetime." And, off I went!
So, after the flight.... after we parked the plane, the door opened. While I was fiddling with my harness (to unlatch it), a flight deck crew came up to me and said, "We saved this for you," and handed me two chunks of metal. I was a bit "loopy" / disoriented / nauseated after all the aerobatic maneuver. They looked like a miniature metal barbell that had been sheared in the middle. It was the "hold back fitting" that keeps the jet from moving when the engines are at full thrust before the catapult is activated. It's traditionally saved for pilots on their first cat shot. Otherwise, they are garbage and pitched overboard after each cat shot.
At that moment, I had no idea what it was. As I fondled it, the razor-sharp edge of the sheared section sliced open my finger! So, now I'm disoriented, nauseated, and BLEEDING!
I staggered down to the ready room and they bandaged me up (and explained what a special memento I had been given). After that, I took the two pieces to the dental clinic lab and polished off the sharp edges on a lathe.
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My best day in the Navy!
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Yes I know this is an old thread. Learned a ton. Saw this today and it reminded me of this thread.
Years ago when an Iowa class battleship was in Bremerton before sailing out to Hawaii, it was dwarfed by the two carriers on either side. The battleship sat low in the water while the carriers towered over it.
Going from the markings on the plane I would say Dwight t Eisenhower. It says so under the vx 23 right at the wing root.
