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I was in the engineroom when I heard the announcement on the 1MC, “DCA lay to the CO's stateroom.”My first thought was, “that's weird, we don't usually hear announcements like that.” I thought maybe I just daydreamed it. We were 7 weeks into an 8 week patrol, and the sensory deprivation was real.Then the Engineroom Middle Level watch came over and asked me what I did wrong. “So, you heard it, too?” “Yes, I heard it. But why are you still here? The Old Man is going to chew your ass.” It was our first patrol with this new Captain, and we had learned not to cross him.So I dropped my clipboard with my weekly zone inspection checklist and headed forward, fast. That is a long trip on a Trident. As I passed through Control (hoping to get some kind of idea what this was all about) everybody got silent, and the OOD mouthed “I'm sorry.” Now I was really worried.When I got there, his door was open, he was sitting in his chair, reading his Old West novel. He turned to me and said “Does this stateroom look like a CO's stateroom would look on a target?”I said, “It looks nice to me. It's bigger than the 3 man that I live in, but there is only 1 bunk. And it does have an attached bathroom.”He got up out of his chair, came right up to my face, swore a little, and said “does this stateroom look worthy of a Captain of my stature?”When he had gotten orders to PENNSYLVANIA (a Major Command at the time) the Nav had looked up his lineal number and told us that all but about ten Navy Ships would technically have to render honors to us (“technically” because we had never seen a surface ship dip its flag to any boat, except the one time that we had Rickover's replacement on board when we were headed out to sea trials.)“Well, sir, it is a little spartan, but we are a non-deviation boat, and we live a spartan life.” (The old nuke boats, in the 60’s, had all kinds of “deployment mods” - paneling in the wardroom, fancy tile in the engineroom, stuff that the Tender workers could do, and would do when “properly motivated.” But on a Trident, you had to submit a request all the way up to NAVSEA if you wanted to change anything.)“Yeah, we do. But I'm tired of it. When we pull in next week, you are going to get me carpet.”“But Sir, I don't think…”“I'm not paying you to think, DCA. I told you to get me carpet for my stateroom. Now I'm ordering you to get some God damned carpet for my stateroom.”“Get some carpet for your stateroom, aye sir.”“That's not what I said. Repeat back my order.”We were at an impasse, because I cussed plenty, but I never said that word. I looked him in the eye and said, “Captain, I will get you carpet for our next patrol, but Squadron will never allow it in port.”“Then we have an understanding.”Where was I going to get carpet for the CO's stateroom? I couldn't order it, because there is no such part number. I had about decided that I was going to have to just buy a piece of carpet on my own dime - how much could a 10′x10′ piece of carpet cost?But when we pulled in, the answer literally appeared before my eyes the next day. Squadron was getting new carpet, and they had piles of their old, worn out, 1970’s brown (or was it black? it was awful, whatever it was) carpet just laying there, waiting to be hauled off.I cut a big piece, rolled it up, and took it home. We had a nice off-crew while the Gold Crew did their patrol, then they came home, did turnover and we did the refit. On the last night of refit, I hauled that carpet down to the boat and told the duty section they were going to install carpet in the CO's stateroom. They didn't mind, the only thing they had really planned to do was to take off and hide the XO's door.I want to tell you, they did a fantastic job. That carpet was cut perfectly, laid perfectly flat, and they had even taken the rivets out of the coaming (think stainless steel molding) and fitted the carpet under it and then re-riveted it back in place.It was like a beautiful brown turd stretching across the deck of the CO's stateroom.We heard “Pennsylvania, arriving” that morning, and waited for a response. There was none. The mess attendant, who was waiting by his stateroom with his coffee told us that he opened the door, saw the carpet, took a minute to look it over, then said “hunh” and walked in and sat down at his desk.And we put that carpet in for every Blue Crew patrol. The Gold Crew CO (who would later become an Admiral) hated it, and gave our Captain a hard time about it. But our Captain was proud that he was the only Trident CO that had a carpeted stateroom.And the new Captain treated me in a way that told me that I had earned his respect. And I want to tell you, after that, I really enjoyed working for him. And he enjoyed that old Squadron carpet.

To fellow shipmates, please forgive any errors, I served on surface ships in the mid- to late- ‘70s, and I’m digging deep into my memories.I spent my first years in the Navy aboard a couple of Knox-class frigates home-ported in Japan during the Carter years (When I enlisted, I didn't think an ex-submarine officer would screw-up the military, Boy, was I wrong!). When I joined, I volunteered for submarine duty, and I was guaranteed one of five electronic ratings (job specialties). They asked me my preferences (three were submarine and two were surface ship). Of course, I listed the submarine jobs first. The Navy, in it’s infinite wisdom, made me a surface ship Sonar Technician. I converted to Submarines after a few years of Frigate service.In those years, military funding was so short, and pay was so low, that the Navy didn't have enough personnel to fully crew all of the ships. So, every ship ported stateside would borrow crew from other ships in the squadron to deploy to the Western Pacific or Indian Ocean. Being under-crewed, there was never more than three shifts underway (4 hours on, 8 hours off, with two 2 hour split shifts to rotate everyone through the shift times. Otherwise, some would have the worst shifts, such as midight to four, and others the best, such as noon to four.)Also, because of low funding, most ships couldn't get enough parts to fix everything. Many couldn't even safely go to sea. The country was recovering from the Vietnam War, and being in the military was not pleasant.For the ships that were home-ported overseas, thing were a bit different. We were what you would call the “first responders.” If anything critical happened in the world, we were sent to handle it, either alone, or as part of a carrier task force. Our motto was “Two burnin’, one turnin’, our screw never stops!” (Frigates have two boilers and one screw, or propeller. The word “screw” has many definitions. LOL!) In Yokosuka, we had one carrier (Midway), two cruisers, two destroyers and four frigates. You never made a long deployment with all of the escorts, because there was always one going through refit or mini-overhaul, and one in the vicinity for emergency response or “showing the flag.” “Showing the flag” means you make many port visits to our allies in the area (South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, etc.) to prove we cared about them. We mad so many trips to South Korea, we considered Chinhae to be our “other” home port. Many crew-members supported the local orphanage. We had full crews and first priority on repair parts, and were the first ships to receive the latest equipment upgrades and the latest new equipment (such as the latest Anti-Submarine sonar equipment). Even so, we had some equipment that was CASREPed (Casualty Report, for equipment that was totally inoperative and needed rare repair parts). On my first ship, or stabilizers were also CASREPed.My first six months on my first ship included an Indian Ocean deployment with the Midway. When I first arrived, the ship was at sea, so I had to wait for them to arrive. I was assigned to a barracks we called “waits and skates.” You’re assigned to do meaningless small jobs on the base, like cleaning and painting the grounds and buildings. Since there are way too many men to do the jobs, you’re basically “skating.” Young men have to be kept busy, or they get into trouble.One evening, with no warning, I was told to pack my sea-bag and to report to the pier at 2:00 AM. They put me and another four guys on a tug, and off we went, to meet the ship, which was coming in to drop-off an officer going to the State on emergency leave (some kind of family tragedy). After a three hour boat ride, we saw the ship coming at Full speed. She did a u-turn to bleed off the speed, we met, and climbed a Jacobs Ladder (a temporary ladder made of chain) up tp the ship, and we hauled off to go to Chinhae.Life on board? We apparently had better cooks than many other ships. Enlisting after years of poverty, to me, the food was great! My recruiter told me that he figured I was always hungry, so the first place I would go on ship would be the mess decks (like a cafeteria). He was right! We arrived just after breakfast was over, and they saved some for us, and made us eat before starting the reporting-in routine.Berthing for Sonar was in the foc’sle (front), just behind/below the main 5″ gun mount. In heavy seas, this is the worst riding place to try to sleep. The bunk straps that have been mentioned are pretty-much useless. The only real hope is to lie on your stomach with your legs and arms spread for stability. Even so, you often get thrown out of your rack (bunk). In heavy seas, the front goes up and down, side to side, and tilts left and right. My rack was an top bunk on the starboard (right) side of the ship. So, if the bow goes up, the ships lists to the left, then the bow goes down and to the right, you suddenly find yourself in mid-air above the deck, and now the deck is rushing back up to smack you in the face! After that, I took a blanket and went back to the towed-array space at the stern (rear) end of the ship to sleep on the deck. In the stern, the bottom of the ship is very close to the draft line (the water level of the ocean outside), because the screw and rudder are there. So, instead of going up and down a lot, the deck goes mostly side-to-side and shudders a lot when the tips of the screw reaches the surface and cavitates (spews bubbles). To help you visualize this, look at a teeter-totter. The bow is at the end of the board, and the stern is in the middle where it pivots. That’s why the bow goes up-and-down, and the stern side-to-side. In a heavy sea with huge swells (waves), the only time the ship doesn't twist and yaw is if you’re driving directly into, or away from the swells. When I say huge, I’m talking about swells that are 20–40 ft high.I’m fortunate that I have a cast-iron stomach. When other guys get sea-sick, I just get indigestion and belch a lot. Solved that by eating a more. During a long period of heavy seas, a third of the crew, or more, get so sick, they can’t work at all. When that happens, the healthier guys are put into a “port-and-starboard” (two shifts) watch rotation (four hours on watch, four hours off, to eat, sleep, and tend to our sick shipmates). We allowed them to only use the forward crew’s head (bathroom/shower). Normal ship’s routine (doing maintenance work and cleaning the ship) was suspended. Once the bad weather passed, the main job for the sick crew was to clean-up their mess.The AS (Anti-Submarine) Division was part of the Deck Department (Responsible for the outside of the ship and all line handling, like mooring lines, and refueling and supply replenishment at sea, instead of Operations Department (the Radar guys) or Weapons Department (Missile and Gun guys), even though we also had Anti-Submarine Torpedoes and Rockets). I suppose it’s because that many of the first sonar systems were lowered into the water with winches, and Boatswain Mates are winch experts. As a result, two of our non-sonar duties were handling the after mooring lines (the lines that hold the rear of the ship to the pier) and the phone-and-distance line during underway refueling (this is the line strung between the bridges of the two ships, containing a telephone line (between the Captains) and various small flags at various distances, so the Conning Officer can tell the distance between the two ships. They are very close (less than 100 feet). If you get too close, you have a collision, and if too far apart, you lose the refueling hoses and replenishment lines (they’re not very long).Daily routine (at sea). Like most ships (except submarines), in addition to standing watch (shift-work) at all hours of the day and night, you had a normal work-day, Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, you have Church Call (voluntary) and goofing off.It starts with reveille at 6:00 AM (If you had mid-watch or a “late sleeper” chit, you could stay in bed for an extra half hour). “Reveille, Reveille! Up All Bunks! All Hands Heave Out And Trice UP! The Smoking Lamp Is Lighted Throughout The Ship! Now, Reveille!” on the 1MC (ship-wide PA system). Heave out means get out of bed. Trice up is what you do to your bunk if it’s a lower bunk. When sleeping, the bunk sits flat on the deck. It has a hinge on one side, so when you’re not in it, you tilt it up and secure (connect) it to the middle bunk just above. This increases floor space to reduce tripping hazards. When the “smoking lamp” is lighted, it means you can smoke. When it is out, either in specific areas or throughout the ship, it means you cannot. Between taps and reveille, when you should be sleeping, nobody is allowed to smoke in berthing spaces. That was then. I've heard that smoking is either restricted or eliminated these days, but I don’t know, for sure.The mess decks are open for breakfast, with a long line. They open it up a little earlier for on-coming watch-standers to eat before going on watch. If a non-watch-stander tries to cut in front, there’s hell to pay! Chow is important!“Officer’s Call” is at 7:15, where the officer’s meet to discuss the planned evolutions of the day. “Quarters” happens at 7:30 “Quarters, Quarters! All Hands To Quarters For Muster, Instruction and Inspection!” When at quarters you fall-in (into formation) at attention. Quarters is important. you muster to see if anyone is missing. If missing, they are either sick, injured, or fell overboard over night. The Chief (Chief Petty Officer, in charge of the Division. An E7, kind of like a platoon sergeant.) inspects everyone, mostly to check appearance and apparent health. The we wait for the Division Officer to come and brief us on the day’s planned evolutions. The work day starts at 8:00. “Turn To, Commence Ship’s Work!” If you’re on watch (staring at sonar screens), the work day consists of maintaining equipment, doing paperwork, “qualifying,” or cleaning. “Qualifying” means studying and completing an interview/test checklist to learn how to do you watch-standing job. For a sonarman, this includes sonar operator, sonar supervisor, in=port Petty Officer of the Watch, Repair Locker Leader, etc. For an non-rated seaman (no specific job assignment) it would include things like Helmsman (steer the ship) and Lee Helmsman (control speed of the ship), etc. Officers would train for things like Officer of the Deck (controls the entire ship, representing the Captain in operational authority). Yes, even Officers have to stand watch, though they don’t have the same rotational schedule. They don’t just do administration. That;s what the Chiefs are for.In the morning, one or m8:00ore junior enlisted are assigned to clean the sleeping quarters and heads. Hygiene is very important. The XO (Executive Officer, second in command) inspects the work and usually finds something minor (like an errant dust-bunny in a far corner that only a flashlight can see) and only Plastic-Man could reach) to complain about. The same cleaning crew do the entire week. At the end of the week, the best cleaner gets front of the line privileges in the lunch time chow line.Halfway through the day you knock off for lunch, then go back to work (There’s an announcement for each,).At the end of the day (4:00) you “knock Off Ship’s Work” and they call “sweepers.” I won’t type it out, it’s a pretty long announcement. That’s where the crew sweeps down the entire ship and empties all wastebaskets. I don’t know what they do today, but back then you eithe threw the trash into the water “clear of the fantail” (off the back of the ship) or, in heavy seas, you would “hold it on station” until the weather cleared.After dinner, the Master-At-Arms (MAA — the police force) would muster the men who were on Restricted Duty (punishment after a Captains Mast, or ‘non-judicial punishment” to do a couple hours of grunt work and/or exercise as punishment. NJP is kind of like a minor misdemeanor in the civilian world, for small misdeeds not warranting a Court Martial. Only the Captain can award these punishments. A common mistake is to do something wrong in-port, like not showing-up for duty on a weekend, or getting into a fight. We don’t want crewmen fighting each other. Save the energy for fighting the enemy!At 8:00 they call for the 8:00 reports to be sent to the bridge. These are the officer’s reports of what the crew did that day, and the material condition of the ship.At sundown, we would “darken ship”, where all external lights are extinguished (except for the running lights, which all ships display, by international treaty), all portholes are covered, all doors going to the weather decks (the outside) have light screens to keep indoor light from escaping, and no smoking is allowed outside. This is to keep the ship from being seen by any possible enemy, like a nefarious submarine. Yes, are running lights are on in peacetime, but in wartime, or battle, they would be extinguished. You turn them on and off with switches on the bridge, so you can go into a battle ready condition very quickly. “Darken Ship” just means you can become visually stealthy on a moments notice. It’s a very extensive evolution, and if you wait until battle to do it, you might be dead before you’re done.At sundown we also “set material condition Yoke.” a Material Condition controls all water-tight doors, hatches and valves throughout the ship. There are three basic conditions: X-Ray, Yoke, and Zebra (X, Y, Z). There are also Whiskey (W) valves, but I won’t go into that. They’re basically to seal the ship’s environment in case of attack by Nuclear, Biological or Chemical weapons. They all have a very large X, Y or Z on each side for identification. X-Ray doors are normally closed at all times, and you need the OOD’s permission to open one. These are commonly things like hatches going into water-tight tanks and such that you don’t normally go into, such as a potable water tank, or compartment forward of the collision bulkhead. A Circle X-Ray door is one that has an X with a circle around it. It is required to be closed and dogged (the sealing handles are fully engaged), but you can pass through at will, but must fully dog it after you go through. This would be for compartments that are not normally manned, but need to be accessible for things like equipment maintenanceMaterial Condition Yoke is where Yoke doors are shut and dogged to increase water-tight integrity (the more compartments are sealed, the better you can survive flooding, caused by weapon impact or collision). Yoke is set at all time during war in a battle zone, and at night (collision is more likely at night). Yoke doors are normally shut, but not fully dogged, during the day. Manned equipment spaces are typical Yoke doors.Material Condition Zebra is set at Battle Stations. Zebra doors are between major compartments and levels. This also includes shutters for all ventillation ducts and ventilation fan switches. They are normally open and latched, to allow normal daily crew movement and airflow. At Battle Stations, they are all closed and fully dogged for maximum battle survivability. As long as Zebra is set, you can undog and pass through the door as needed for necessary movement, but you musy shut and dog the door, afterwards. The exception to this is if there has been a casualty, like a fire or flooding. Then, the only people allowed to open a door is the Damage Control Repair Party, and, as I remember, you need the permssion of the Damage Control Assistant (The officer in charge of the Hull Division, who is responsible for Damage Control), in the Damage Control Center (the space where all of the ships plans are available on huge hinged boards, and all damage repair efforts are controlled.Yoke Reports are made to the Bridge. Zebra Reports are made to the DCA.10:00 is Taps, Lights out in the berthing compartment. No smoking in the berthing spaces. The announcement is interesting. “Taps, Taps! Lights Out! All Hands Return To Your Own Bunks! The Smoking Lamp Is Out In All Berthing Spaces! Now, Taps!” Since you often visit with crew-mates in various berthing compartments, this is a directive to go to bed. I don’t think they’re worried about people being in someone else's bunk, but you never know!Material Condition Yoke is secured at sunrise. I don’t remember ever hearing an announcement. It’s just assumed.The crew is fairly close, but there are notable rivalries. Snipes (the Engineering Department) and Twidgets (the rest of us) don’t get along well. At the time, hazing and such was very common. Snipes feel like they work harder and get dirtier than the rest of the crew (actually close to the truth), especially the BTs (Boiler Technician). If a twidget goes into the fire-room, he’s likely to get greased (stripped and assaulted with a grease gun). They did it to each other, too (one of my friends was a BT, and they greased him and hung him up by his ankles between the boilers, to swing with the swaying of the ship. I don;t know why, but he definitely offended someone! It’s a lot like locker-room stunts by the football team in high school.).In the late ‘70s, the Navy started a Surface Warfare qualification, with a special pin to wear on your uniform, based on what submariners do to earn their “dolphins” for their uniforms. I started working on mine, and it required me to learn all about the ship. To avoid problems with the snipes, I got some books and learned about engineering stuff. When I wnet down to the fire-room, and a menacing snipe saw me, I asked him to show me the Steam Smothering System (part of the fire fighting gear). First he was amazed I even knew about it. Then, I started peppering them with all sorts of questions, and he proudly gave me a tour of the place I told him what I was tryoing to do, and he spread the word among all the rest, and told them I was a “special” twidget. It wasn’t long before I qualified as an “in-ort repair locker leader”, one of the hardest parts of the overall process.At the time, submariners derisively called the surface warfare insignia “skimmer’s dolphins,” because the training, study and knowledge requirements weren't nearly as difficult and comprehensive as they were for submariners (this is tue. I’v gone through both). Plus, submariners were the first people to have such a system, and the only other people with insignia like that were Wings for pilots and diving helmets (or whatever they call them) for divers.I understand the attitude. The copying of “submariner” stuff began before WWII. They started with officer working uniforms (khakis). At first, only submariners and pilots wore khakis, because the men got very dirty (Before WWII, submarines and airplanes were pretty greasy), Then during WWII, all officers wore khakis, because the blue and white uniforms weren't practical for extended sea duty. Then they put khakis on Chiefs. Now, this decade, EVERYONE is wearing khakis or salt-and-pepper style khakis (E1 through E6}. The Navy now looks like sea-going Marines! Where’s your pride? Plus, it’s an insult to the Marines.Then, they did it with Breast Insignia. First, it was the pilots. Then the divers and SEALs. Then the Surface Warfare officers. Then the Surface and Aviation enlisted. And now, EVERYONE has something, so the one’s with the most difficult requirements and pride in difficult achievements look just like everyone else (Civilians do it too, to their kids. Instead of a trophy for the winners of some competition, now EVERYONE gets a trophy, just for showing up).And now, they've done it with coveralls. At first, only Missile submariners wore coveralls at sea (we called them FBM coveralls. FBM for Fleet Ballistic Missile. And they were black.), and only while on patrol. In port, and when doing sea trials we wore the standard working uniform: Working Khaki for Chiefs and Officers, and Dungarees for junior enlisted. The main reason was to quickly get dressed and fight a casualty, like fire or flooding. Unlike surface ships, submarines have a very small crew, with no Hull Division or Repair Lockers. If there’s a fire, EVERONE fights it. And, due to the compact environment (including sleeping on a mattress on top of a torpedo), the fire or flooding could happen right next to your bunk, so the quicker you can get dressed, the more likely it is that you’ll survive.After a decade or so, the FBM sailors transferred to the Fast-Attack submarines, and brought the idea along. We called them Submariner’s Coveralls, and they were blue. We could only wear them on long deployments, usually two weeks, or more. Otherwise, we wore the standard Navy Working Uniform. And now, EVERYONE wears them at sea, and they’re provided for in the Uniform Regulations. Even the Yeoman who works at a desk all the time and never even breaks a fingernail, let alone trying to fight a fire or repair the damage from a weapon impact. And instead of wearing the age-old dungaree uniform, the in-port uniform is cammies, so they can look just like Marines and Soldiers. At first, they were blue (Whoever came up with THAT brilliant idea?), and now they’re transitioning to green or sand. Why? because if they got dirty, the dungarees LOOKED dirty. Cammies hide the dirt. Oh, my goodness, a dirty work uniform? Heaven forbid! How did we manage? (Pardon the sarcasm. Old salts have strong opinions.) We managed by having a set of stained uniforms to wear when doing dirty work, like painting or greasing, some nice ones for working in the office or equipment spaces, and a really good one for inspections. How hard is that?When in port, we weren't allowed to wear dungarees off the ship, except in the pier area. To go home, we shifted into our “liberty” civvies.The Navy also now says they want sailors to look like the other services. Just out of high school, I had some friends who joined the Air Force. At the time, they wore OD green fatigues (cammies were for people going into combat). They told us that they were envious of us being able to wear bluejeans and chambray shirts (like Leno on TV). They’re all in cammo, so the Navy follows suit. And now, like the other services, the Navy can wear this uniform while commuting off-base.Back to the ship. The locker space for personal effects aboard ship was limited. The middle and lower bunks had a metal pan about 6″ deep below the thin mattress. Upper bunks didn't have that, so we had a metal locker on the bulkhead, barely bigger than a seabag. While I was there, they started installing new lockers along the bulkhead to accomodate the then, new Service Dress uniform (a suit) that Admiral Zumwalt had institutes to replace the age-old blue and white “crackerjacks” we used to wear. This new uniform was exactly like the blue uniforms the officers wore, except they had silver buttons, instead of gold. We wore the same uniforms for winter or summer, with only the weight of the cloth being different for the season. Officers and chiefs had a white uniform for summer with a white tunic and mandarin collar.All of these new uniforms (they eliminated the white dixie-cup sailor’s hat, and replaced it with the same visored hat that officers wore, without the gold, and a blue ball cap to wear with the dungarees.) took up a lot more storage space, to keep them from getting wrinkled. Plus, they had to install a small locker at the foot of every bunk, to hold the combination cap (the visored hat) to keep it from being destroyed. The new uniforms also included white shirts for summer, and black shirts for winter, with black trousers for everything, except in the summer you could also wear white trousers. The common complaint was that now we looked like the milkman in the summer, and “Black Bart” or Nazis in the winter. Zumwalt said he did it to bring the Navy into the “jet age” and look like business men instead of clowns.The old uniforms were very easy to store compactly and wrinkle-free. You had four jmpers, two white and two blue (one with piping on the collar, flap and cuffs, and one without, in both colors, and two trousers, one black and one white. Folding them was really easy. You wore the one without the piping at work in office spaces, and the one with piping off the ship or on the quarterdeck (the ceremonial space where the brow ,civilians call it a gang-plank, is at. Very simple and very practical. And a LOT cheaper!In these older classes of ships, all of the berthing was open-bay, like a barracks, with bunks placed together in groups of six *except at the compartments edge, where there was only three). There was nothing else there — just bunks and lockers, with now curtains or screens for privacy. This changed on the newer ships (like the Spruance destroyers), where they had several bunks (nine, I think), in a module, with a small table and curtains. This is all hear-say for me. Ive never been on any of them.We had a small crew’s lounge where we had a small table and a TV set. In Japan, we had an antenna for the TV, but no cable or VCR, so we were stuck with Japanes tv sows. If you don’t speak Japanese, they’re interesting, but also confusing. A bunch of us would watch, and argue over what we thought was happening. Simple pleasures for a simple time.After working hours, you could also hang-out on the mess decks. Just clean-up your mess. Cooks can get pretty mad if you’re messy. Every evening, we watched a movie ( one in the afternoon, too, on Sunday) on a 16mm projector, like what we had in high school. In the Indian Ocean, where it was too hot down below, and the sea was calm, we watched them on the flight deck, with a much larger scree (if we weren't conducting helicopter flight ops, of course).We had many different missions, mostly associated with Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), because that’s what the class was designed for. We also practiced doing shore bombardment with our 5″ gun. Never had to do it, in battle.When we deployed with the Midway, our two assignments were being part of the ASW screen, and being a “plane guard.” When yo’re a plane guard, you follow the carrier during flight ops, about 1,000 behind, and wait. If a pilot has to eject, for whatever reason (like missing a landing and crashing, or has to ditch, our job is to rescue the pilot and crew. It’s fascinating to watch at night time.Another job we had once, was to follow a Soviet task force and gather information. The Soviet Pacific Fleet didn't often go far away from Vladivostok. When they did, we called it a SOAP-op (Soviet Out of Area Patrol). Before we left port, they put a huge box on deck between our mack (a big inverted cone, called a combination Mast and Stack, thus mack, which held all of our RADAR and communication antennas) and the pilot house. We called it the “spook box.” I can’t share any details, but it was apparently filled with all sorts of exotic electronics. The crew wasn’t allowed in, and we were told to not bother the spooks. We followed them everywhere and filmed and photographed everything they did, and recorded everything they transmitted on radio, RADAR and SONAR. Another frigate was with us, so we had them bracketed. They did the same thing to us. Whenever the Midway, deployed, the task force was constantly followed by a Soviet AGI (and intelligence gathering ship that civilians call a “trawler.”). They watched everything we did, but stayed behind far enough to not get in the way. When I was a kid, I remember my dad complaining about the AGIs we saw on TV, watching us recover the Gemini space capsules. The network news people made a big deal about it, but it wasn’t really important, since space flights are hardly secret. They wanted to know what we could do, just like we wanted to know what they could do. They didn't aggravate us, and we didn't aggravate them (Not like the Russians these days. Putin’s trying very hard to aggravate President Trump, the fool.)When we made the Indian Ocean run, we visited Singapore, the Philippines, Western Australia and Iran (Before the Shaw was overthrown, Iran was our friend and ally. We even sold them many F-14 fighter jets, and were building four specially modified Spruance-class Destroyers, with guided missiles, that the Spruance-class didn't have. The Shaw was overthrown, so we kept them, and called the the Kidd class DDG (Guided Missile Destroyer). When we visited Australia, the Midway stopped in Perth, with most of the task force, but they didn’t have enough space for all of the ships, so two of the frigates went to nearby towns. We were lucky enough to be assigned to Bunbury. I say lucky, because when a carrier is in a liberty port with a task force, there are thousands of sailors inundating the place. Plus, a lot of them are arrogant amd cause a lot of trouble. We were by ourselves, so the town only had 270 sailors to deal with, and everybody had a good time. We were all close-knit shipmates, so there were few problems, beside the few gutter rats who couldn’t handle their liquor.On other deployments alone, we visited Taiwan (before Carter started the “one China” policy, and visits to Taiwan were forbidden), Hong Kong (still British, then) and Thailand.When we visited Thailand, we had two interesting things happen.While en route, a typhoon showed up, blocking our way. So we changed course to go around (only a fool wants to drive through a typhoon) . We had a schedule to keep (joint exercises with the Thais) so we sped-up. Every time we changes course, the typhoon altered its path, like it didn’t want us to get there on time on our original course (speaking religiously, I believe that is the actual truth, which I’ll explain in a moment). We were eventually going at Flank speed (the ship’s maximum speed) with both boilers maxed out, and experiencing extremely heavy seas. Our fin stabilizers didn't work (wouldn't have mattered), so it was an exciting ride (for those of us who weren't dying next to the toilet!). One of our sister ships was going there too, on a different course (they started the trip from somewhere else), and the winds were so strong, that they lost their Air Search RADAR antenna. I’m told that the forward lookout (forward, up on the signal bridge) heard a great shreik, and saw it bounce off of the superstructure a couple of times and hit the water. This antenna is very large and weighs several thousand pounds. The damage wasn't too bad, considering.The second thing that happened is that we came across a bunch of Vietnamese refugees (40 men, woman and children on a very small, overloaded boat, with no food or water.) and brought them aboard. We tried many different ways to sink it without using our gun (5″ shells are expensive), because a drifting boat is a hazard to navigation to other ships. I won’t list all of the methods we used. The boat was very well constructed. And didn’t want to sink (If they hadn't been overcrowded, we probably would have given them some supplies and sent them on their way.). So, we used a fire ax to breach the hull, dumped lots of JP-5 jet fuel inti it, and lit it on fire with a flare. It burned and eventually sank. They were coming with us to Thailand.A few hours later, we cam across another refugee boat, with 37 passengers in the same condition. We took them aboard, too. The Captain didn't want to waste a lot of time to sink this one, so he decided to use the main gun. The first shot missed, because the Gunnery Officer didn't want to use the fire-control system (the computers that point and aim the gun). I don’t know why, but he was standing on the deck next to the gun, pointing with his arms and estimating the distance by eye. It was pretty comical. The Captain made him use the fire-control system, and the next shot hit the boat dead center and totally demolished the boat.Beautiful! There was nothing left but scattered wooden debris.When we arrived at Pattaya Beach (a resort popular with German tourists), Thailand didn't want the refugees. They said their border refugee camps were overcrowded and we had to take them with us. They weren't allowed to touch Thai soil.-After several days of negotiations, they allowed the refugees to go ashore, provided that the United States would guarantee their air fare to the U.S. and allow them entry as refugees. Everybody in the crew received a Humanitarian Services Medal for what we did.That’s how Operation Boat People began, with several U.S. ships searching for refugees. I don’t know how many thousands of Boat People were rescued that way. The U.S. built several resettlement camps around the country. One was at Camp Murray, a Washington State National Guard camp near my home town of Tacoma, WA. Once they got their Green Cards, many of them chose to settle in Tacoma, so we now have many Vietnamese businesses in town.This is why I think the typhoon waylayed us. We were meant to rescue those people.I grew up a lot in those days, saw many foreign places and Third World countries, and, in fact, married a Filipina 37 years ago (Anniversary was last month.).Hope I haven’t bored you.