oh the memories

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I was on this ship, forrestal cv59 when this pic was taken. long time ago. this 'boat' is gone now. that's what you call it - you going back to the boat?

I was up in the crows nest. we cleared that bridge by 1 foot. maybe 2.

see that f14 on the landing angle behind the hackeye (or maybe a seaking, heli, right by the tug). my bunk was right under the flight deck there. right under 3 wire. or maybe 2. I was a pump room guy. went over 100 days one time without sun. I walked through the hanging deck no less... and still couldn't see (blind a bit!) for a minute.

the worse part of sleeping there... not the just landing like thunder... it's when they pull that cable back... (machine noises) eeeeeeehhhhhhhhhahahahhhhhhhcccccccccckk. all night long.

4 years I lived on this.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

This is not me... and it's not 3 pump on forrestal. I would know, I painted every inch of it. those are purifiers for JP5 jet fuel. remember, anywhere in the world you need resupplied. and sometimes the fuel was 50% water from the tanker. it was a race everynight to keep up with flight ops.

forrestal could use 500k gals a night. and my two center line tanks each held about that, but not completely.

so you purified side line tanks, hundreds of them (small, but many, in case a torpoedoe hits, only tanks out a few tanks). you purified all night to keep up. and you would for hours after flight ops ended. maybe a few hours. that's JP5. it's sooo clean in the pics.

very nice down there too - these pump rooms are at the bottom of the boat. there was a 'trunk' I has to climb down (50') with cargo nets every 15 feet or so if you fell. SO........ you close the hatch - IF the boss opened the hatch and you're passed out - the air pressure change would wake you up and gve you plenty of time! there you go!

[My Wife Hates CIV]

yes, we were called grapes. every job has a color on the flight deck. most in v4 div worked flight deck, draggin hoses... those puppies are heavy too. to refuel jets, they are purple on the flight deck. I was lucky, had a GOOD job, lots of freedom.

[My Wife Hates CIV]

see the bottle. that's a sample bottom going to QA.

first job - sample bottle runner. go to the filter rooms, pumprooms. and collect samples and take to QA.

pumproom 50' trunk. you lowered a basket with empty clean bottles. not too bad. wait wait... the pumproom loads up the basket with samples.

now, pull that up - don't let go either - what a mess that makes

now take them all to QA which was all the way to top of the boat - pretty much (remember most on my dept worked flight deck) that's where QA was. yikes!

[My Wife Hates CIV]

for a drunkem thread not bad!

trying to hold a higher standersnd... you know MHLC and all.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

[jsorense]

Thank you for your service.
j