Tales from my Navy days

I have on my wall behind me a certificate of appreciation, signed by Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of the American people, for serving during the Cold War era.  I was a ship’s engineer, a Gas Turbine Systems Engineer (mechanical).  My ship used two LM 2500 gas turbines, made by General Electric, and very similar to the engines on a 747.  The engines’ thrust was used to turn a reduction gear (something like a huge transmission) to turn a controllable pitch propeller that moved our ship through the water at more than 29 knots (close to 35 miles an hour).  Gas turbines have many advantages over the older steam propulsion systems; we could go from "cold iron" (nothing up and running) to full speed in five minutes or less.

My ship was built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, a long time naval ship builder.  I joined the ship before it was commissioned as a Navy ship; as an engineer, it was my job to learn all about the engineering systems that provided ship’s propulsion, the fuel systems (we carried a quarter million gallons of DFM or Diesel Fuel Marine and more than 40,000 gallons of Aviation fuel), and electrical generation.

A frigate is an escort ship; the ship was designed to be a convoy escort in the event of a war.  We were fairly lightly armed; a missle launcher for anti-aircraft missles and anti-ship missles, a 76 mm cannon, and a 20mm anti-aircraft gun.  We carried torpedoes in six tubes, and were set up to find and fight submarines with the two helicopters we carried.

The ship was Commissioned in August, 1983.  Commissioning is where the Navy formally accepts the ship as theirs, and the American flag is unfurled on the flagstaff.  We took the ship down the east coast to Charleston, South Carolina, which became our homeport.

As a new ship with a new crew, we spent months training in the Atlantic and the Carribbean – one of the high points of this life.  We trained out of Guantanamo Bay. Cuba during the winter of 1983, visiting the US Virgin Islands, Florida, Puerto Rico, and The Bahamas.

In Nassau, The Bahamas, we saw this:

This was the Maxim Gorky, from the Soviet Union.  As we pulled into port, we were given very strict instructions to stay away from that ship and to report, immeadiately, anyone who tried to talk to us off that ship.  The gunners mates on my ship took gleeful aim at the Soviet ship with the missle launcher and the 76 mm gun, and my ship’s officers talked about how easy a target it would be.  I personally thought that was ridiculous; it was a cruise ship, after all.  We were told that the Soviets had all their ships rigged to "spy" on the US Navy; whether or not that was true for the Maxim Gorky, I don’t know.

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To my eyes, the few people I saw off that ship looked like tourists, not spys, but I followed orders and didn’t associate with anyone off that ship.  Me and several of the other engineers got off our ship and went shopping. 

Shopping for booze, mostly, but I did also buy a Panama hat too.

The local island run was very low priced, so we bought some of that and hung out on a beach, drinking and having a good time.  The sun was pretty strong; one of our Firemen (lower ranked engineer), a guy from Pennsylania and whiter than white, got sunburned like a lobster when he passed out on the flight deck of the ship.  No one woke him up, poor guy.

The next night, me and some of the other guys went to the casino there (featured in the first James Bond movie, "Casino Royal", with David Niven).  I was low on funds by then, and found that Budwiser, usually a cheap beer, was considered an imported beer there; it cost the same as Heinekin, which is usually a pricy beer.

I remember standing there drinking my Heinekin and watching a blackjack game that had a five hundred dollar limit on the table.  I watched a woman playing cards; she lost what would have been for me more than a month’s pay.  I wanted to tell her "shit, lady, if you’re just gonna throw it away like that, toss some my way!", lol.

There were some things I really liked about the Navy; I felt more than a little pride, walking down the pier, to MY ship.  Cruising in the Carribbean rocked; it is SO beautiful there.  I have been to Cuba; I even rented a horse and went riding along the 20 foot barbed wire fences that separated the US base from Communist Cuba (the "enemy", lol).  Camp X Ray, where supposed terrorists are held in prison is where the riding trails were.  Not an improvement, I don’t think.

That Certificate of Appreciation and my Honorable Discharge are elements of pride for me; I served my country.  I am so glad I did it then;  now would be a different thing, I think.

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