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At random: USS SKATE and USS SEADRAGON, after affecting a historic rendezvous under the ice, surfaced together at the North Pole through an opening in the ice on August 1962. What really happened: We didn't surface together, Skate surfaced first. Then we (Seadragon) fired yellow flares forward and aft so Skate could tell us how we were lined up. Remember, under-ice was primitive in these days. Skate called back down rapidly that one flare surfaced on her starboard side and the other to port. She requested we reposition before vertical surfacing. We did. - Coyote (Owen Carlson)

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dex armstrong

Posted 2007-07-03 10:46 PM (#5007)

COMSUBBBS

Posts: 3202

Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Subject: Anybody remember?

Is there anyone out there who remembers coming alongside and having the Disbursing Officer off your tender come aboard and pay you off in the messdeck...New freshcut bills and sometimes two dollar bills to make it come out right. You had to be covered (wear your raghat). Never understood why...only time you were required to be covered inside the boat. Two officers counted your money twice, then you signed some kind of a pay voucher and wrote your Navy Serial Number next to your name. Then you counted what they gave you, saluted and passed through the watertight door between the After Battery and Control, where the Chief of the Boat had the beat up cigar box, known as the Saltwater Savings and Loan. (That sounded a helluva lot better than Totally Illegal Slush Fund.). The Chief smiled and relieved you of money and interest that would bring you even with the not-so-secret crew supported small loan financial institution. Bluejacket Banking operated outside of both federal regulation and the constraints imposed on more formal financial operations. Dividends resulted in beer ballgames, topside viking feasts ship's parties and the funding of an underground at sea newspaper. The only property owned by the Saltwater Savings and Loan was a spiral notebook containing the chronological transaction records such as, "Wingnut, Palma Spain...$20, Paid $22 10-15-59" and a beat up Hav-a-Tampa box with "Keep your damn hands off the box" written across the lid. Any of this sound familiar? DEX

Ralph Luther

Posted 2007-07-04 7:52 AM (#5016 - in reply to #5007)

COMSUBBBS

Posts: 6180

Location: Summerville, SC

Subject: RE: Anybody remember?

Settling up from the gaming tables in the AB. It took me a while to realize that I'm not and never will be very good at cards.
I would have never believed that I would remember those times with a smile.

Runner485

Posted 2007-07-04 8:12 AM (#5017 - in reply to #5007)

COMSUBBBS

Posts: 2673

Location: New Jersey

Subject: RE: Anybody remember?

We got payed like that once or twice, I think, while Sirago was in the Med in '63. I remember the disbursing ofc coming on board with a (supposedly) loaded .45 on his hip as if he was entering into a den of thieves and cutthroats.....I remain silent after that last remark...

cobber

Posted 2007-07-04 8:57 AM (#5018 - in reply to #5017)

Mess cooking

Posts: 49

Location: Port Orange, Florida

Subject: RE: Anybody remember?

If I remember correctly, we made that Med run while I was on Argonaut...Believe it was Argonaut, Sirago, Cubera and Torsk...Been a while...

cobber

Flapper

Posted 2007-07-04 7:36 PM (#5040 - in reply to #5007)

Master and Commander

Posts: 1107

Location: Tucson AZ

Subject: SOP in the skimmer fleet of that era

Never experienced it on the boats, but payday on the carrier I served on was just about like that. They had 10 or so separate pay-lines (with separate doors to each, leading off the hangar bay) serving by alphabetical last name ... A - C, D - F, etc. .... and inside there would be a disbursing clerk, an O-ganger witness, and an armed MAA. We were paid in dollars stateside, but in Asia it was in MPC script. They even had MPC for small change, to avoid moving hard currency to the natives!

One payday I was in line, and a fire broke out in one of the engine rooms (because of a fuel oil leak, during underway replenishment, that sprayed on one of the boilers) ... and all hell broke loose around the pay rooms. Weapons came out of MAA holsters, we were booted out of the payroll rooms and the water tight doors were dogged and locked from the inside - all so that any wanna-be pirates in the crew wouldn't attempt a robbery during all the confusion.

And the fire? We lost that entire engine room along with 7 shipmates trapped inside, but we continued our Tonkin Gulf tour using the remaining 3 engine rooms.

Yeah, Dex your post brought back some memories for sure.

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