So yesterday I was at my sister's house lounging in the pool and my BIL is there and I said, so Jack, you were in the Navy right? Yes, four years... the Viet Nam era? yes....what kind of ship?....refrigerator ship, we took food around to all the ships in the area....so did you have guns on the ship or an escort?....we had guns....we didn't worry about the Vietnamese Navy....

One night though we were steaming along and there was a blip on the radar screen...another ship...so our radioman radioed out ....this is the SS Regulus (sp?), please identify yourself...no response....this is the SS regulus, please identify yourself.....they're getting a little perturbed now......THIS IS THE SS REGULUS, IF YOU DO NOT IDENTIFY YOURSELF WE WILL FIRE ON YOU.......after a little while this came over the radio....This is the SS Enterprise, fire when ready....

OK, after thinking about it I suspect this might be a Navy story....

but a good one.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

lmao.. like the enterprise would be taken out by a fridge that floats

yeah......

that's why it is funny.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

It doesn't take much in the wrong place.

A fire aboard Enterprise on 14 January 1969, resulting from detonation of a MK-32 Zuni rocket warhead overheated by exhaust from an aircraft starting unit, took 27 lives, injured 314 and destroyed 15 aircraft.

That would be USS. Sounds like the dumb joke about a ship telling another to change course and it was a lighthouse.

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MB-less

Emmer is correct. Every USN ship is prefixed USS. USS = "United States Ship".
"SS" is a term used in to designate commercial vessels as "Steam Ship"
"MV" designates Motor Vessel. (combustion power plant)
Then there was the Savannah. The only nuclear powered commercial ship ever built AFAIK. She was designated "NS"

Fleets don't go far without their support vessels, whether fuel, food or ammuntion. And the sailors on the receiving end of the transfers are sure glad to get fresh food, fuel, etc.

The Enterprise fire was one of several carrier flight deck fires during combat operations in Vietnam. A couple of others come to mind: The Oriskany fire and of course, the USS Forrestal fire, in which 134 men died fighting to save their ship and shipmates in July 1967.

Which goes to prove the point that flight decks of carriers are VERY dangerous places in peacetime and in war.

Comment on survivability:
The Navy is building a new class of carriers. CVN 78 (USS Gerald R. Ford) will be the first of its class. ( Just think: the "Ford Class").
In May 2005, the Navy conducted a live fire "sinkex" on the USS America. They were testing the survivability of today's carriers and then incorporate findings in the new class hull design.
They towed it out 200 miles and blasted it for three or four days with who knows what and it didn't sink. They finally set off charges and sank it. I hope they used everything we have in our missle and torpedo arsenal and whatever foreign weapons they could buy or steal in this exercise. Anything less is a waste of time.

Three cheers for insensative ordnance!

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-livin' in the terminally flippant zone

"Ford Class", man what do they have, special head cutouts on each bulkhead so you don't whack your forehead on it!?

Aw, God rest his soul. I think he was a very good Commander-in-Chief. SNL made a bumbling, head butting boob out of him.

Please forgive the gaaf on the USS thing....

and tough crowd!

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Well, I heard they will do away with all "ladders" and replace them with escalators. Don't want anyone tripping going down the ladder steps.

Speaking of CinC, didn't Ford invade Cambodia or Laos to retrieve the SS Mayageuz and its crew., which IIRC was seized by one of them.
His own active military career was non-descript however.

A fairy tale begins, "Once upon a time...".

A sea story begins, "This is no *****...".

Did the guy on the radar just miss the whole battle group?

I know someone who was on a frigate in the med in the 70's. He has some good stories. It seems the CIA guys liked to use his ship so they were always buzzing Russian stuff to get pictures. Sometimes the Russians got pissed, and well rammed them.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

We nearly rammed a Greek freighter in the Med. It was at night and she had no lights. Can you say, "smuggler"?

I'd just gotten off the midwatch and was about to take a shower when the collision alarm sounded. That's scared me because the bosun's mate didn't say, "This is a drill". And I wuz nekkid as a jaybird. Ran back to the birthing cmpt, grabbed my clothes and boondockers and dove for #2 engineroom. By then it was all over with, of course. But ol' Bot was pumped full of adrenalin & fear-of-god so couldn't sleep.

Most of my time in the Navy I watched a needles quiver on a gaugeboard. Hours, days and months. Then 2 minutes of "Oh poopie!" excitement, then another six months of gauges quivering.

B

Some times its only the context that changes.