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  • Originally posted by 85 gt kid View Post
    Random question: What's the deck footage of an Iowa?
    An equally random question back your way: "What do you mean by 'deck footage?'" I mean, if you really stop and think about it, your question, without some sort of contextual framework, is awfully open-ended.

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    • I apologize to one and all, but most especially to Rusty, for not logging on and saying something about my trip to the USS Iowa museum, but my computer started performing all sorts of unnatural acts the minute I stepped through the front door of my little home away from home out in San Diego. We've been messing around with it since Saturday afternoon, and finally had to do something I really didn't want to do, and that's a complete wipe of the hard drive because the Trojan I apparently picked up wasn't in anyway helpful. So it's gone . . . with about eight years of other stuff that wasn't backed up. I ought to know better, but there you go.

      Anyway, it was great to meet Rusty and put a face to a name, and obviously to take a leisurely stroll about "Broadway." My mission for the visit besides meeting Rusty was to take a look at number three shaft stern tube seal. Sadly, the gentleman who is responsible for all of the maintenance and repair work in Iowa was not available, and didn't want anyone else but he leading me around for reasons of liability. I understand that, and were I in his shoes, I'd probably feel the same way. Regardless, the head of Operations for the Museum was available, so he, as well as one of the senior hole snipes who volunteer their time to the museum, and Rusty of course, sat down with me in the operations office, and we discussed the nature of the leak involved, and some of the attempts at repair.

      They also had some ship's drawings and DC Plates available for me to take a look at, which I did while on the "walk about." I neglected to mention that my son Joe, who will be 17 in May, was along for the ride, and when we descended into Number Two Engine Room, his eyes got kind of big. I don't think he was quite ready for the dimensions of everything. Likewise when we entered Number Four Fire Room. Joe didn't come around until my career was nearly over, so he didn't have a real clue about what I used to do for a living. I think it is safe to say that I grew a few inches in terms of respect. For that alone I am eternally grateful to Rusty and the entire Iowa gang.

      I could go on, but am not quite ready to just yet. I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know I survived . . . if only I could convince my left knee of that fact. :insane:

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      • Pictures ..... any Pictures ....?

        Anyway, it was great to meet Rusty and put a face to a name, and obviously to take a leisurely stroll about "Broadway." :pop::whome:

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        • Originally posted by blidgepump View Post
          Anyway, it was great to meet Rusty and put a face to a name, and obviously to take a leisurely stroll about "Broadway." :pop::whome:
          Dude, I don't wish my problems on anyone. Had we just staid on the main or DC decks, that would have been fine, but noooooooooooooooooooo, I had to drag Joe down to that fire room and engine room:slap:. Should have taken him up to the bridge, CIC and gun plot, but my body just wasn't having it this time around. I really wanted him to get a flavor for what his old man once did to put bread on the table and to advance up the next rung on the ladder. Of course, I wasn't an enlisted watch stander, and wouldn't ever claim to have suffered, and no, that isn't a term I use lightly, the same sort of pain that environment begets; because being a steam propulsion engineer is not for the feint of heart. However, I still want to get down to that shaft alley to see what's shakin'.

          I will tell you one thing though; I hadn't thought that I missed the smell of "ship." US Navy ships, and all warships of Western navies have a certain odor associated with them. It's a combination of petroleum products in the form of lube oils, greases, and fuel oil; cooking odors that don't ever quite go away; various industrial cleaners (my personal favorite being eau de pine oil); and in the vicinity of berthing spaces (which aboard a BB is just about everywhere 3rd Deck and above), a funk reminiscent of a high school locker room. It's not bad . . . it just IS. I'm sure all the Navy vets and those fans who donate their time to work with museum ships know exactly what I mean. The second I crossed inside the skin of Iowa, there it was. I was home. No other way to put it, but being "home." I hadn't experienced that for a long, long time, and I thank Rusty for that if nothing else.

          I can't for the life of me remember the name of the gentleman who was leading us around, but he had been a Boiler Technician (BT) for a few years as a much younger man, and he did a good job of explaining the "facts of life" a la the steam engineering watch stander for Joe's edification. Like the fact that once we are "Zebra'd in" for General Quarters, chances are we aren't getting out if the ship takes major battle damage. It's not something we spend a lot of time thinking about, but it's there in the back of your mind nonetheless. When he explained that to Joe, Joe looked at me for the high sign that he knows all too well that crosses my face when there is a whole lot of horse feces present, but thus far no pony sighted. When he didn't see that coming from me, his eyes kind of grew big. Like I said, it's not for the feint of heart; much like being a member of a tank crew on the ground pounder side of the house. Everyone in the military has some fact of their professional lives they can point to and say, "This really sucks, because . . ."

          All that said, we should have taken more pictures, and I would have had we actually gone to work, but we'll save that for the next time. Regardless, there is me on the burner front of one of the boilers on Number Four Fire Room, me with the business end of one of Number One turret's emplaments of destruction, and then some I had snapped the other day at Naval Station San Diego Pier One, with USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) as a backdrop (Rear Admiral Meyer is considered the father of the AEGIS combat systems suite). There is also one of me looking at the latest ship to bear the name "Gridley," this being DDG-101, moored further down Pier One. I was Chief Engineer in USS Gridley (CG 21).

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          • That smell .........

            I will tell you one thing though; I hadn't thought that I missed the smell of "ship." US Navy ships,....."

            You are so right, everytime I step inside a USN ship that "smell" comes to life ....
            Should my wife be with me, she makes a comment.

            Thank you for the posting pictures. And should more be secured sharing is a wonderful thing, too!

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            • Now that first pic ....... ....... "It wasn't me, Captain! I swear!"

              Dude?????? You've been teaching too much! Your spending too much time in the youngins environs!

              I didn't see any preliminary inspectional observations. What's your opinion of her condition so far? How are they doing?

              It may warm Rusty's little tail bone to see this pic! Our crew knows good reading!
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              • ... and I just logged in to PM you about if and how did your trip go to the Iowa but checked in here first. Well I have my answer. Funny, when I was on the Iowa I didn't notice any smell to be honest, However, that maybe because of all the other mothballed ships I have been on and the Hornet weekly that I just don't notice anymore. Although my wife does when I come home in the work clothes and she says I smell like "ship". Yes, she did say "ship" for those thinking otherwise.

                Now we'll just have to see if you can visit the Hornet...:fish:

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                • Originally posted by SlaterDoc View Post
                  Now that first pic ....... ....... "It wasn't me, Captain! I swear!"

                  Dude?????? You've been teaching too much! Your spending too much time in the youngins environs!

                  I didn't see any preliminary inspectional observations. What's your opinion of her condition so far? How are they doing?

                  It may warm Rusty's little tail bone to see this pic! Our crew knows good reading!
                  [ATTACH]38923[/ATTACH]
                  Rusty gifted me with an autographed copy of his tome. I spent the remainder of the weekend and on into Tuesday going through it, looking for ships and people with which I was familiar. Spotted a few names here and there. I think I mentioned this to Rusty at some point, but when I was on the CINCPACFLT Propulsion Examining Board (PEB), the teams came to very definite conclusions regarding which variety of inspection we preferred being assigned to complete, and where we were to execute them. See, we literally traveled all over the Pacific to do these things. We were part of the CINCPACFLT Staff, but it didn't make any sense to have us work out of Makalapa as most of the "business" was on the West Coast. So we were a detachment that worked out of the southwest corner, third deck of what used to be, and maybe still is, the SERVMART building on Naval Station San Diego. From there we would drive or fly to wherever the ship we were inspecting was located. So we'd fly commercial to Narita International Airport in Japan, and then either caught a local JAL or ANA flight to Fukuoka or Nagasaki, and then were driven to Sasebo to do a ship or ships there, or from Narita, were driven to Yokosuka to do a ship or ships there, or were driven to NAS Atsugi to catch an organic C-2, C-9, or C-12 flight to USS Midway already underway in the case of the C-2, or to either Subic Bay or Guam. Regardless, it was a long trip, and it was one that we had to undertake every three weeks or so. Obviously, we'd also fly commercial to Honolulu. On the West Coast we'd fly up to Seattle to do ships up there, or to Oakland or San Francisco to do ships at Treasure Island or one of the shipyards in the Bay area.

                  Our favorite kind of exam to do was the Light Off Exam of "LOE." An LOE is done on any ship that has been under repair in a shipyard environment, the main engineering plant of which has not been operated for 180 days. What was nice about them is that at the end of the work day, which was whatever we decided it was, we'd go out on the town and have a decent meal, maybe hang around some den of iniquity, or just crash in our nice Holiday Inn room. The VERY BEST exam to do was an LOE in Long Beach. Why? Because it wasn't so far that we had to fly, and yet was just far enough that we were out of Mama's clutches for three or four days, and could have that dinner, drinks, etc., etc., etc. When we did an LOE at Long Beach Naval Shipyard, we always staid at the Ramada Renaissance in Ocean Boulevard (I think it's a boulevard, or it could be a drive or a street, but it was "Ocean" regardless). We had some great times in Long Beach. That was a great job in that it counted as sea duty, and with sea duty comes sea pay. However, we also got per diem, and mileage from and to our homes to the office on the first day of the exam and the last. As shore duty it sucked, but as sea duty, it doesn't get any better than that.

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                  • Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
                    ... and I just logged in to PM you about if and how did your trip go to the Iowa but checked in here first. Well I have my answer. Funny, when I was on the Iowa I didn't notice any smell to be honest, However, that maybe because of all the other mothballed ships I have been on and the Hornet weekly that I just don't notice anymore. Although my wife does when I come home in the work clothes and she says I smell like "ship". Yes, she did say "ship" for those thinking otherwise.

                    Now we'll just have to see if you can visit the Hornet...:fish:
                    One can never tell where one might end up. I wouldn't mind the trip if the body would only cooperate.

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                    • Originally posted by desertswo View Post
                      An equally random question back your way: "What do you mean by 'deck footage?'" I mean, if you really stop and think about it, your question, without some sort of contextual framework, is awfully open-ended.
                      Yea nice catch desert I had it in my head what I meant but didn't clarify it when I typed it (I do it all the time and it frustrates my girlfriend to no end ). Anyways I meant any outside decks that have Teak (well mostly Douglas Fir now). Curious on the cost to redo the ships. I read somewhere it was like half a mill to do the North Carolina but luckily they got alot of that for free (looks good too when I saw her).
                      RIP Charles "Bob" Spence. 1936-2014.

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                      • ^Yep, BB55 got a donation of two semi truck loads of teak from Myanmar, and a big discount on the rest. I think it was maybe 10 loads total.

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                        • Desertswo,

                          Having visited the museum do you feel any smouldering of desire to become a volunteer on say the Iowa or is your military service and playing with big boats all in your past now? I would imagine you would be quite the addition to a museum ship. I get the impression when some career guys get out of the service they do so because they've had enough, where as some others simply want to go back. Take Rusty for example. Played with big boats for his entire career then 'retires' (term used loosely) to do the maintenance on a bloody battleship! Having climbed as high up the chain as you did I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

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                          • Originally posted by Gun Boat View Post
                            Desertswo,

                            Having visited the museum do you feel any smouldering of desire to become a volunteer on say the Iowa or is your military service and playing with big boats all in your past now? I would imagine you would be quite the addition to a museum ship. I get the impression when some career guys get out of the service they do so because they've had enough, where as some others simply want to go back. Take Rusty for example. Played with big boats for his entire career then 'retires' (term used loosely) to do the maintenance on a bloody battleship! Having climbed as high up the chain as you did I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
                            He has mentioned that he has many problems with his knees and back which can preclude him from doing much climbing of ladders. He mentioned as much when on the Iowa and the desire, but not the ability at the time, to take his son up to the Navigation Level.

                            I can tell you that wandering around a large ship when 60-80 is a lot different than when 18-38. There have been times when docents have found me down on the hanger deck when a pair of muscles, called piriformis, have spasm putting me down. I'm well into my 17th year and the last five have been a battle with that group of muscles causing me to flat out fall to the hanger deck or flight deck in pain.

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                            • Originally posted by Gun Boat View Post
                              Desertswo,

                              Having visited the museum do you feel any smouldering of desire to become a volunteer on say the Iowa or is your military service and playing with big boats all in your past now? I would imagine you would be quite the addition to a museum ship. I get the impression when some career guys get out of the service they do so because they've had enough, where as some others simply want to go back. Take Rusty for example. Played with big boats for his entire career then 'retires' (term used loosely) to do the maintenance on a bloody battleship! Having climbed as high up the chain as you did I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
                              Yeah, tbm3fan pretty much clocked it. I don't do ladders very well anymore, and it's only going to get worse. I have thought that if I ever move back to the San Diego area where I'm originally from, I might volunteer with the Midway museum (I would prefer the battleship, but it's a bit of a drive), but I don't know. That brief sojourn aboard Iowa was sort of depressing in terms of my joints. When you don't have any cartilage in knees and hips, and pretty much the same in your back, nothing involving climbing or simple walking is very appealing.

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                              • Originally posted by desertswo View Post
                                Yeah, tbm3fan pretty much clocked it. I don't do ladders very well anymore, and it's only going to get worse. I have thought that if I ever move back to the San Diego area where I'm originally from, I might volunteer with the Midway museum (I would prefer the battleship, but it's a bit of a drive), but I don't know. That brief sojourn aboard Iowa was sort of depressing in terms of my joints. When you don't have any cartilage in knees and hips, and pretty much the same in your back, nothing involving climbing or simple walking is very appealing.
                                That being the case with your joints then typically a person would schedule knee and hip replacement to end the bone on bone pain. Have you considered it? You don't want to put it off too long and then end up using a wheelchair. I have seen enough people in wheelchairs the last two weeks, in nursing homes, to want to end up like that.

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