Larry Hardy V-4 Division Flight Deck
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V-4 Division, 1968-69. I had the best HOT refueling crew on the flight deck..Jones and Hindu! Many memories...The Pueblo capture, The burial at sea of LCDR Stebbins, Our MIA's Hubbs, Benson, Nightinggale, Barber at Yankee Station, WestPac, Apollo 8, Tora,Tora,Tora
Petty Officer Second Class, Senior Officer of Operations Department
As the Yorktown was being decommissioned in Boston she was still a ship of the line and still procedures were followed quite strictly as according to Navy regulations. That meant that every night at about 7 o clock the head of each department would stand in line on the hanger deck and report to the captain the status of his department, spaces inspected, men assigned, liberties, leaves, and would hand in written reports. These reports would be gathered from each division and then the Department chief would report to the Captain orally.
As the decommissioning became more advanced senior officers were being transferred to other ships. I was a 20 year old Second Class Petty Officer. It got to the point that I was the most senior officer in Operations Department at 7 pm!
For a couple nights I would have to stand in line with commissioned officers on the noisy hanger bay and report "everything secure in Operations, status is blah blah blah, no integrity breach, blah blah..."
As I was the lowest ranking officer (2nd Class Petty officer) I would have to stand at the very end of the line and the Captain (now a LCDR as the highest ranking officer) would listen to our reports one by one. I soon realized that he couldn’t hear me because I was so far away and the hanger deck was so noisy with machinery and air conditioners running. He would cup his ear and lean forward but he couldn’t hear me.
Being 20 years old, a "short timer" and full of mischief, I decided that there was no reason to really say anything but simply to MOUTH THE WORDS but make no audible sound. The LCDR would still lean forward, cup his ear to hear me and then return my salute whether I really spoke or not. It was great fun, but I think the Ensign who stood next to me knew I was up to something because he turned his head to hear the report I was just mouthing.
Daniel A. Bernath PH2
Paul D. Cannon
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Homepage Title: Rm3/ CR Division
What an honor and a privilege to serve aboard such a great ship with an impeccable record. "The Fighting Lady" says it all!
Sea Story: I went aboard Yorktown while she was in dry-dock in Bremerton, WA, Oct. 1960.
I remember our shakedown cruise and the high winds and mountainous seas in the Straits of Juan De Fuca. Much damage and a few sea sick Radiomen. I remember that RMSN House, lost his supper that night and the funny part of it was that RMC Garcia was trying to comfort him and, well, let's just say Chief Garcia had to put on a clean uniform.... 'nuff said.
God Bless all my old shipmates!
Admiral's Passageway
In the photo lab we were assigned to clean, paint and maintain a passageway next to the lab called "The Admiral's Passageway." The Admiral, on his way to his bridge, would pass through this passageway merely a couple of times a day. But this was not just cleaned. We had to brush down the hatch cover so they shined like a new penny, chip and paint the ropes and chains white, wipe off the salt water spray (as it was on hanger deck level) sweep up the soot from the stacks, wax and buff the white tile floor and do it over again the next day and the next and the next...
Even though we were out to sea and in the combat zone off the coast of North Vietnam, it was just like 'boot camp' and it was a daily ongoing chore. It was viewed by us swabbies as the worst kind of chickenshit. It was a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS.
The photographers were all assigned to clean the Admiral's Passageway on a rotating basis. One night while we were playing poker out to sea, lying about women and bitching about cleaning the Admiral's Passageway and how much we hated it, I pointed over to one big ole' Southern boy and said, "Hey wait a minute. How come you've never been assigned to clean that damn Admiral's Passageway."
Obviously the Chief has simply neglected to put him on the rotating list of cleaners. We all glared at him for getting away with this crime!
He casually glanced over his cards, back at all his shipmate's hostility, squinted and answered in his slow measured Arkansas drawl;
"well you see Dan, Me and the Admiral have never been able to see eye-to-eye."
Daniel A. Bernath PH2 (of course we all laughed heartily and forgave him. I don't remember if HE ever had to clean the "Admiral's Passageway).
H. Teele Manning
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On board 5/54 to 5/55
Sea Story: Korea was over. It was a great feeling! Played on ships basketball team. Biggest thrill of my tour: The team was flown off The Lady. Two players in each AD-Skyraider. We toured Japan and competed against other service teams. Other: While practicing on the hanger deck we would time our lay-ups with the swells of the ocean in order to slam-dunk! H.T.
Crewmen on USS Monterey play basketball in the carrier's Number One (forward) elevator. On the left is Gerald Ford, future president of the United States, jumping for the ball.
Victor Jorgensen, 1944 |
HANDLE LIKE EGGS, PLEASE
Archie 1943-1945
What I remember most about the ordnance/ammo loading parties was stowing the wooden 50 cal. ammo boxes in the magazine. Those boxes must have weighed forty or fifty pounds and only had a shallow cut out on each end for handling. When we entered the magazine and started taking the boxes off the bomb elevator the red deck was spotless. Since the heat was almost unbearable we stripped to our skivvy shorts. After a while we were hardly able to keep our footing because the deck became coated with a slippery substance almost like a thin mud. The particulate matter came from the boxes and every bit of the moisture came from our bodies.
I don’t remember ever having to clean the deck before we went up but the decks were always clean again when we went below. Somebody had to swab up the mess, must have been the photographers.
Boats
Ordnance loading circa 1962
Compared to Willie and Archie's experience, the loading party I was invited to in '62 was rather tame by comparison. We were moored to one of those big white can buoys off the entrance to Los Alamitos Bay, Calif. The ordnance came from the Seal Beach Net & Ammunition Depot. It was brought out on large barges with huge coougated tin shed on them and at each end was the "Baker" flag on a single staff. I was assigned to drive a forklift at the starboard side aft elevator. This is where the crane set the large caliber ammo. There was one incident that remains as clear as crystal in my mind to this day. I had picked up a load of 5"-38 HE shells and was driving forward to the middle hangar bay. The shells were transported in what looked like an over size milk basket back then. It was all steel wire and the shells sat on their bases. It was built so that a forklift's forks could slide under and through like any other pallet. As I was going from #3 hangar to #2 I drove over the raised part between the two. When I hit the bump the basket broke, old age or corrosion of the metal, what ever. The result was a dozen of these shells went sliding over the deck. You never saw those hangar bays clear of personnel so fast before or since. At first they were going to replace me on the forklift, rightly so if it was my fault. However it was determined to be the fault of the basket and lack of inspection on the depot's part and I was re-instated. No further action was taken.
Good thing too, 'cause when we loaded provisions later for WestPac, I got to go onto Pier Echo and drive the fresh fruit loads to the conveyor belt. Man were those peaches good!
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